Good to be home.

Does anybody still come here? Hello? Gonna write anyway. Don't let the title fool you, I've been home for a while. I have just been to lazy to write anything. I have just been cruising my family's blogs and seeing what they have to say. But alas, some of you are know better at posting than I am so, I guess I am forced to post at least once a month. I was finally released from the hospital on May 4, and considering the way I went in versus the way I came out, God has definitely been at work in my body. I went back into the hospital the Tuesday after Easter like a stick of cordwood in the back of my daughters van and had to be moved out of there by ambulance drivers. When I left, I rode out in my wheelchair and sat in the car without much pain at all. We stopped to pick up my meds on the way home, and I was still okay when we got here. For the most part I walk around the house without my walker, unless I have had a long day, like going to town and walking around to much. Then my left leg and hip start to hurt and I use my walker pretty steady.
It was so good to see all my family from BC while I was in the hospital, it sure cut the stay down when I got company every day. The only one I didn't get to see much of was Carolyn, but through no fault of hers, her little ones got sick and by the time they were healthy enough, they had to go home. Next time. To all my nieces and nephews out in the big old world, whom I didn't get to see, I know you are thinking of me and praying for me. Please keep it up. I covet all your prayers.
Yesterday was my first excursion out of the house on my own. As I am sure you are all aware from Beckys blog, she gave Sam his chicken pox vaccine just before she came here and from that I have a good chance of catching shingles from him. So Glen and Sam stayed at his Mom's house and Becky and Ben stayed at our house. Yesterday Becky had Bens birthday party at the pool in the city and I could not go because that would have meant Sam couldn't go and that would have be totally unfair as that little guy just loves the water. So I took the car and went to see Mom and Dad. It is much easier for me to go their than it is for them to come here. Dad just does not do stairs at all. Last time they were here he literally climbed down them on his hands and knees and butt. This is hard to watch when your father is 81, but wants to see you bad enough to do even that. From now on I will go their instead of him coming here. I did find out that it is easier to ride in the passenger seat than it is to drive. By the time I got to Osler I was in quite a bit of pain, and in the passenger seat I can move and lift a little weight off my butt so I can ride a long way. In the drivers seat it is a lot tougher, so from now on I don't think I will tackle driving myself that distance until I am a bit better. Someone will have to drive me.
I am on a cycle of 4 days on, 4 days off with a steroid called dexamethazone, this lasts for a month. I am almost finished this month and then I have to go into the cancer center for a few tests and this will determine my future treatment. After talking to the nurse there on Friday I think I will be put on another round of steroids regardless of the test results, and then do a bone marrow biopsy in July before going on chemo. That is mostly guess work right now and I will try to keep you updated, maybe the next time on the blog the Becky is setting up for that purpose.
On a more personal level, you can pray that my wife won't have to go back to work. She is off on stress leave right now, and her workplace wants her to come back to work. I can get along without her during the day, but I would have to do some things differently. Before I was diagnosed she seemed quite scared, but as time went on and they finally told me I had cancer, my wife just got stronger and stronger. I know that it had to be God that gave her the strength to be able to deal with everything that came our way. To this day she has to help me with my showers and a lot of the physical things that I have trouble with. But that is the small part. The biggest thing she gives me is the strength to go on day to day. She doesn't complain about the things she does for me, she is just a rock in my life. After almost 33 years of marriage I have come to know my wife in a whole new way again. We talk and share things like we haven't in years and God has awakened a love for her in my life like I haven't had in years. I pray that as the cancer goes into remission in my body, that this love won't go into remission as well. This awakened relationship is something that I treasure and I pray I continue to work at it.
So that is my life right now, and again, please don't stop praying for me and my family, as we continue to deal with the cancer that is affecting us all.