Dear Friends –

I’m writing this from Saint Mary’s hospital in Grand Rapids, where I’ve been a resident for the last five nights, with one (at least) to go. I might go home tomorrow, or they may hold me for another day or two.

I started round 9 of chemotherapy on Thursday, November 30, and things seemed to be going okay, with the normal side effects. Last Monday, December 4, I went to Physical Therapy, and ran out of gas very quickly: I did the easiest third of my routine, and was completely wiped out. “See you Friday,” I told the therapist, “I’ll be fine by then.” Didn’t happen that way. Tuesday was Presbytery: I had to walk up the slanted sidewalk to the church entrance, maybe 60 feet. I almost couldn’t make it: I was breathing very hard, pulse pounding, chest hurting. A few minutes later, I was pretty well recovered, but I felt quite alarmed by this incident. Wednesday I was breathing hard just walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and we called the doctor. He was concerned, feeling the situation might be dangerous, and sent us to the emergency room, where they checked me over and then checked me in.

The scans Thursday morning showed a new pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs). They put me on heparin, a heavy duty blood thinner, to dissolve it. My comfort level was up and down the next couple of days: a good day followed by a bad day. Still, overall, the heparin seems to have made some progress: Accompanied by the PT staff I walked (with a walker) the length of the hallway here, and then did two staircases, without any discomfort.

The oncologist thinks that nearly all of this is probably caused by my body’s reaction to the chemotherapy. I hope that’s correct. If my blood numbers are good enough, I’ll start round 10 this Thursday. I want to press on, to complete this course, and aim to be getting back to some kind of normal after that.

In the meantime, I’m having fun with my blog. I hope everyone is enjoying the current daily series on 21 centuries of Christmas Music. I encourage people to subscribe, so that you will get an email with a link to each day’s posting. I have not been reliable about linking them from Facebook while I’m in the hospital, so if you were using that as your way to find these posts, you may have missed a few.

Thanks, again and always, for the cards, notes, and emails. They always warm my heart.

With deep gratitude for your prayers and support –