Home After Chemo #2 - October 26-November 1

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, my Neulasta On Body failed. Denise and I went in on Wednesday morning, so I could get the shot manually. Without it, my white blood cell count would take longer to recover.

My uncle Larry shared with me the devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers for October 31st. It was very thought-provoking and deep.

Matthew 17:20, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you."

"We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith - faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

"Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him - a faith that says, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do." The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is - "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15)."

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. That is so true! And our faith is being tested and tried!

Each and every day I was so grateful to be healthy and at home, though I did have a little trouble with nausea. Sunday morning I was feeling good. I talked with a pastor and his wife in Ukraine. Shortly after that I started feeling poorly. A pastor from Ukraine called me, but by then I was unable to take the call because I felt so badly.

By early afternoon, my temperature had jumped to 101.5. Because I also had a headache, I took some Tylenol, which dropped my temperature to under 100. Unfortunately, that was short-lived, as I had a fever of nearly 102 in the evening.

With my immune system nearly non-existent almost one week after chemo, we decided that going to the ER was the wisest course of action, even if that was not what we wanted to do. I knew that they would admit me to the hospital, but because I am susceptible to infections at this stage, I really should not take any chances.

We gathered some things for me to have at the hospital and headed out the door about 8:45 PM, fully expecting that I would be back home about Thursday.