Thursday
Day 2 ½. We still don’t know the subcategory of the AML…most likely tomorrow. They started an oral form of chemo last evening and throughout the day today. Regular drip chemo will start tomorrow and go for 7 days. Bonnie’s fatigue is more pronounce today, but her fever broke and maintained a normal temperature for several hours. The source of the fatigue is from the disease, the meds and low hemoglobin in her blood. Because of the low hemoglobin they are doing two bags of blood transfusion – red blood cells. The other piece of good news is the doctor informed Bonnie that the harsher drip chemo shouldn’t make her feel any sicker than she already does.

She continues not wanting to eat much….it would be great if she ate a little more for some energy. I (Steve) did convince her to go for a walk this afternoon so that was good.

Again we are so thankful for the many offers for help and with meals. We will more than likely take many of you up on the offer, but we’re still early in the process and trying to structure a process that works best in coordinating everything. We are fortunate that my folks only live a mile from our house and Bonnie’s mom is playing the role of house manager at our house while I’m (Steve) here at the hospital with Bonnie. I’ve mentioned to a couple of people that the real reason I’m staying here is because I have the best parking spot in the parking ramp and don’t want to lose it!

So back to the serious side, we have three extra drivers in addition to Cassandra. Priscilla Lohrmann is helping me (Steve) to put a structure in place and Mary Grace Braatz (who I owe many thanks to!) helped get the ball rolling with our church’s Manna Ministry to coordinate meals. I have a mom and a mother-in-law who like to cook, but I know there will be many opportunities for meals. As things take shape I will communicate with you who to contact for what.

As many of you know, Cassandra is graduating this year and her commencement ceremony is a week from Saturday and although God’s timing is far superior than ours, it still is hard to accept the fact that Bonnie won’t be able to be there to help hand Cassandra her diploma after all the years she poured into teaching Cassandra. Something exciting that others are working on that you can pray will pan out is the possibility of using South Church and Sparrow’s technology to somehow simulcast the graduation so Bonnie can watch it in her room. There are a few people working on this to try to make it happen and I am so appreciative of it. Of course we also have Cassandra’s openhouse on May 30th. A lot of advance planning has been done, but there are still items that need coordinating. We’re working on the best solution to accomplish this.

Just to end this blog for the day, earlier Bonnie asked me to read some scripture to her. I used my “read through the Bible” version and read the portion of Psalms for today’s date which is appropriate for our situation……..Psalms 61:1-4…”Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You. When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.”