Dear Friends,
Thanks so much for all your prayers and encouraging thoughts and words, with so many texts and emails and cards. I feel very blessed to have friends like you, offering your support and care. I haven’t responded to everyone individually, and probably won’t be able to: but I do want everyone to know how much I appreciate all the expressions of grace and love that you have sent my way.
Today is prep day for tomorrow’s surgery: a clear-liquids diet, with adjustments to my meds. I note that I haven’t been hungry, but I want to eat something. That’s an interesting phenomenon: eating is often more a habit than anything else. I am more hungry in my mind than I am in my stomach. At the moment, my soul is longing for a large oatmeal raisin cookie. But I guess I’ll have to delay the gratification of that desire for a day or two.
Tomorrow, then, is surgery day. If all goes well, the procedure will last about three hours. I thought they might put a monitor on the ceiling so I could watch, but it turns out they intend for me to sleep through the whole thing.
We’re trying to get the biopsy of the spot on my lung scheduled for tomorrow or Wednesday, to confirm whether that is also cancerous or not. If it is, it can be treated with radiation. If it isn’t, then it’s probably old scar tissue, probably left over from some mishap in my teenage years.
So I am waiting to find out what we find out. I’m excited, and hopeful, and anxious. Like everyone else, I am in God’s hands, trusting that whatever happens, I belong to Jesus.
Let me say again how grateful I feel, for all your love, compassion, and prayers.
In Jesus’ love–
james-ayers.com 