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Our first newsletter for 2008 is now available online. Click here to go immediately to this newsletter. You can also find this and all our previous newsletters on our website at http://YourWorldMissionaries.org/.
You can also access our first video update on our YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTj-BWjww0.
Have you ever been tired? I don't mean that end of the day, following lots of mental or physical work, where you are ready to curl up on the couch and take a nap kind of tired. I mean where you are so tired that you can't focus on doing the things you love. Things like reading, watching a favorite TV show with your daughter, taking a walk around the block with your wife. And then having to deal with that kind of tiredness day in and day out. That is my definition of fatigue. And that is the most significant side effect of my chemotherapy.
There are lots of side effects from the chemo. Many of them of a nature that I will not share in a blog. But the one that is having the greatest impact on my life is fatigue. I can't really tell you when it first hit. It just seems to have crept into my life and taken root. There are nights when I can sleep for ten or twelve hours, wake up and start my daily routine, and within a few hours be sitting in a chair or on the sofa with no energy or drive to do anything.
I've been blessed in that God has allowed me to stay focused through the workday at Book of Hope. However, where I used to spend two hours or more each evening reading or studying, now I can hardly focus on that task for 15 minutes. And on most evenings, staying up past 9:00 is a real challenge. It is kind of sad in that I'm in bed well before my teenage daughter.
I'm sharing this so that you can join with me in prayer for release from fatigue. Pray for energy to work a ten-hour day and still be a participant with my family in the evening. Pray that I will have the focus to continue my studies. Those studies are critical if I ever what to reach ordained minister status with the Assemblies. And pray that fatigue does not disrupt my international travels and the tasks that I perform as I travel around the world. My next trip will be to India from March 28 through April 14. Pray for the strength and stamina to be effective day and night during these weeks.
Yes, I know it's been some time since I posted an update on ministry or health issues. Sorry about that. This post is to let you know that I'm doing well. I am nearing the end of my third cycle of oral chemotherapy and will start the fourth cycle on Thursday. There is a pattern that is starting to develop. There are two different pills that I take during my six-week chemo cycle. One involves four pills each morning for four weeks. The other is two pills in the morning and two in the evening for six weeks. Based on my first three cycles, things start out easy, build up to mild complications in the later part of the second week, then get harder by the end of the third week and continuing that way until the end of the fifth week. From that point to the end of the cycle things get much easier.
Okay, you say, so what does it mean to be easy, mild, or hard. Well, there has really been no consistency with those definitions. The first cycle was devastating to me. There were times during the hard days that I could hardly move and I was so tired that I didn't even want to get out of bed. However, since then, God has bless me. The hard periods of cycle two and three were both better than the mild period of cycle one. My nurse tells me that it is normal for patients to develop resistance to the toxicity that causes the side effects. However, it is also normal for side effects that seemed to be behind a patient to suddenly flare up in a future cycle.
My prayers for this period of my life remain consistent. I am asking the Lord to give me the courage to walk down this path He is taking me down and to help me to have the strength to overcome any physical issues that may arise. I've also been praying for my hair, but it does not appear that my hair is on the top of God's issues list for me. But that's for another posting.
Thank you for praying with me and my family. We feel your prayers and I know that God is listening. I am getting stronger with each cycle of chemo and I fully believe it is the hand of the Lord that is making that happen.
One more note: I'm losing weight like crazy. I don't recommend cancer or chemo as a traditional weight loss plan. However, it feels good to be 30 pounds lighter than I was before the ruptured appendix that started all this one year ago.
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