Another Medical Update: Fourth Round

Well I have completed the second week after the third round of chemo. It was an interesting week. It began with a bad outbreak of edema, for which I ended up having to see the doctor. The doctor was worried that I had a blood clot, but he thought it was probably a side effect of the prednisone. It seems that he was right because, this week, the edema has been disappearing at the rate of about 2 pounds a day. Yea, that's two pounds of water weight per day. On Tuesday I had ballooned up to above 215 pounds. Today I was 204. To add to the good news, my blood test today showed that I have a good red blood count and a good white blood count. In fact, both were well above the minimum number. So I'm good to go a week from Monday for my fourth round of chemotherapy.

I'm looking forward to a visit with the urologist next Wednesday afternoon. I've been wearing a nephrostomy bag since mid-February because my right kidney was blocked by the lymphoma and failed. With the bag, the kidney seems to be doing very well. The urologist will be testing that to see if things are back to normal in my urinary system. If they are I may get the bag off. They will leave the internal stuff in my kidney for probably a month to make sure that things are still going well and then I will hopefully get all of that taken care of. It will be really nice not being attached to a bag. So I would appreciate your prayers for that. As always thank you for praying for Joyce and me.

We had another visit from an old friend yesterday. Brad Boydston stopped by and we talked for a couple hours. Brad taught at PIU for three years, back a few years ago. Brad continues to teach for us as an online teacher and makes regular visits out to the islands to work with students. Again, it was good to have a stimulating conversation and get caught up on what's going on in Brad's life.We have long appreciated Brad's Ministry at PIU. So basically, a week that started very bad for me and caused a lot of concern, turned out to be pretty good at the end. Thank God.