7/16/2010 - What a Week!

First, the good news: The bone marrow biopsy came out clean. Thank you, Lord! Thank you for your prayers, too, of course.

Next, the bad-to-good news: The mild fever I had last Saturday afternoon turned ugly that night. My fever shot up to over 39 degrees, and would have stayed there if it weren’t for Tylenol. Every four hours, I would seesaw between shivering because of the high temperature and sweating once Tylenol sets in. By Monday, they figured out that I had strep infection possibly from the catheter on my arm. They removed the catheter and gave me the right antibiotic. My fever slowly came down after that. Whew!

Some bad things happen due to no fault of ours. Unfortunately, I think this is not one of those cases. One of the things I did to entertain myself here is to play games in my Blackberry, specifically Sudoku and Word Mole. Before coming to the hospital, I have always been careful NOT to play any computer games because I know how addicted I can get when I start enjoying a game. In the past, I would play so much that my grades at school would begin to head south or my work would begin to suffer. At that point, I would stop cold turkey to save my future. I would have signed up for “Gamers Anonymous” if there is such a thing. :-)

With so much time on my hands in the hospital, I thought it will be safe to indulge myself with a game or two. Wrong! I ended up spending most days just playing and giving myself eye strain and headaches. Even worse, I think it might have led to a series of other minor but annoying things that went wrong before and during the fever. By Sunday night, with my fever burning, I was so tired that all I could do was stay in bed and do nothing. That was when I realized that God may be trying to tell me something. I also realized that since I started playing, I have been doing too much playing and not much praying! Oh, no! Of course God was not pleased. Those silly games have taken over my precious time with Him. Got it, Boss! I’m sorry! No more playing! Actually, it was tough to pray that night knowing how much I have offended the Lord. I am just glad that we have a God who is slow to anger and quick to forgive. The following day, they found out that strep was causing the fever and they were able to treat it. Hallelujah!

Now for the bad news: The hospital is putting me through a series of tests to make sure that I don’t have anything else going on that may badly interfere with the transplant. So far I had chest x-rays, EKG, echocardiogram and CT scan. They saw a small lesion in my liver during the CT scan. After an MRI and liver scan, they still couldn’t figure out what it is, so the doctor wants me to have a biopsy on Tuesday. It could be as bad as a liver cancer, something totally benign or many other things in between. Please pray that I will have a clean biopsy on Tuesday. I certainly do not need any more challenges.

My blood count has not gone up at all from the bottom. It probably didn’t have a chance to inch up because the few good cells I left had to fight the infection. It was like a few brave men fighting an army until the right antibiotic came to the rescue.

Please keep praying that my blood count will go back to normal and that I will not have any other infections from here on. Please also pray that they will not find anything else wrong with me, and that the biopsy on Tuesday will come out clean. Lastly, please pray that Rob will have the strength and wisdom for his new role as Superdad, and that all of us will remain happy throughout this new adventure.

Thank you very much once again for your prayers and may God continue to bless you and your family.