11th April

Jane’s home! Yippee, I feel like dancing… sort of! Anyway what’s happening is that Jane does need to have more fluid drained but more than that she’s expected by the doctors to have this as an on-going problem, so they are suggesting a more permanent drain to come home with might be the best idea. Of course it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that the department is all booked up for this week and so Jane will have to return next week hopefully simply for daytime visits.

She’s doing really well and certainly whilst at rest she’s going for increasingly long periods without oxygen. The side effects of chemo are fading into a distant memory and yes she’s not had to pay the price of hair loss for an ineffective attempt at chemo. We did though have a quite emotional interview with Jane’s consultant as he explained the end of life care that Jane should expect. This very special health professional came close to sharing in our tears as he explained that Jane has very little time left. He’s a good man and we’ve journeyed with him now for well over two years… however whilst we trust his judgement and the validity of his prognosis completely we also choose to reach out to God for his report on Jane’s future. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Lord still has plans for Jane’s life. A long and fruitful life. And terminal cancer is no hurdle for the creator of the universe.

And in some ways Jane enjoyed her time on the very ward she had such a rough time on two years ago. The patients she’s shared the room with have been really friendly and I suppose there’s something about sharing a common personal tragedy that bonds people together. We were told a delightful story by the lady in the bed next to Jane. A few years ago she had an experience similar to so many stories we’ve heard before. One night as she lay in bed she awoke and had a sense of being pinned down to the bed so she couldn’t move. At the bottom of the bed she saw a bright white light and a man’s voice spoke to her saying ‘It’s not your time yet!’ She felt absolutely no fear and confesses that today she has absolutely no fear of dying. What a special encounter and quite intriguing. Was this the voice of God himself?

Romans 15v33 ‘And now may God, who gives us his peace, be with you all.’ NLT)