Sunday,

An exciting Lord’s Day as we continue to see vast improvement in Bonnie’s WBC now at 3,000, which doubled yesterday’s level. The neutrophils are still at 80% of the total and still no blasts (leukemia cells). Her platelets are still low as is the hemoglobin, but we are rejoicing at how quickly and how well she is responding to the Neupogen injections that help promote the growth of the WBCs.

Today Bonnie was able to taste Applewood Ham on a Jimmy Johns sub sandwich, along with the tartness and juice of two apple slices (carefully peeled). She tried a small piece of chocolate, but no taste or appetite for that. But again a praise that some of her taste buds are maybe returning.

As requested yesterday, please continue to pray that Bonnie’s body will absorb the increase in protein in her food IV bag as well as any protein she may eat to help remove her bloated stomach, which is very uncomfortable every time she moves or bends.

Pray for energy for Bonnie. Some of her energy level tracks with the level of her hemoglobin, so it will slowly come back, but it will be good for Bonnie to get up and about and start walking again. This will also help her GI tract and reduce the bloating of her stomach. She is sitting up in a chair for several hours each day.
She is also retaining fluids and her ankles and legs are swelling so she has to keep them elevated. So pray that the water retention will end. She is obviously anxious to get home and once her WBC hit 10,000 that will be the next step, however she will need to shed the IV food bag and have strength to get around. So pray that the external eating will continue to improve and she regains the strength to regain her energy.

As far as my (Steve) situation, it has improved greatly from the painful day I experienced yesterday. I ended up going to the emergency room last night around 10:30 with the continued intense pain on the left side of my abdomen wrapping around my back. Because of the severe constipation and the continued pain I suspected a possible blockage in my intestines. At first the emergency physician suspected I had a kidney stone due to where the pain was located combined with small traces of blood in my urine. They injected a specific pain killer designed for organs and within minutes my pain was eliminated. The CT Scan confirmed that it was not a kidney stone but rather the mass on my sacrum pressing against ureter, which is the muscle duct that propels the urine from the kidney. The pressure against this duct would give me similar pain to a kidney stone.

With the pain eliminated and the confirmation that I did not have a blockage in my intestines enabled me to relax and allow my intestines to contract and expand more normally and helped to eliminate the constipation. I feel like a totally different person today and more like me as opposed to rolled up in a ball for the better part of the day yesterday trying to manage pain that my other pain pills were not touching. Thank you for your prayers.

I’m waiting for the official results on both my bone marrow biopsy as well as the PET scan that was completed Friday. Tomorrow I have my first day of radiation. Please pray that I can endure lying on my back on the hard radiation table for approximately 35 to 45 minutes for setting up the actual 3 minute radiation. The main pressure point for me on the table happens to be right on my sacrum so it is extremely painful. I’ve been told that the radiation should shrink the mass after the first two or three sessions. Please pray that the shrinkage will take pressure off the nerve endings which will give me overall relief and maybe eliminate the need for the pain medication.

On a few occasions I’ve had comments made to me (in a complimentary way so to speak) that it just doesn’t seem right that “Steve and Bonnie Opper of all people, should be the ones going through this”. It would be easy to say it just doesn’t to seem fair. Or with the unusual circumstance we face that it just doesn’t seem fair the both of our kids parents should be diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other. It reminds me of the many times over the years that I have attempted to explain to my kids that “life isn’t fair”. I think it’s so easy to say “why me” or “why us”, “why not so and so”? As we have stated previously, we don’t know what God has in store and how he will use this circumstance in our lives to bring glory to Himself, but whether life is fair or not is up to God. I’ve used three biblical examples with my kids in the past years I happened to recall today.

The first one was Moses. Here God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Throughout the years Moses interceded on behalf of an obstinate stubborn people who seemed to always have something to complain about. Moses on the other hand was faithful to God in following God’s instructions with the exception of one time where in the book of Numbers 20 he (Moses) was upset when the people complained about not having water and Moses struck the rock instead of telling the water to come out of the rock. Because of this one instance Moses was band from entering the Promised Land. Here he had to establish God’s law, deal with lawless people and wander in the wilderness and never enter the Promised Land, which had been the goal since day one of God calling Moses to go to Egypt to be used of God to lead the people out. Was that fair to Moses after “slipping up” one time when he had been so faithful to God? God is holy and His will is perfect. From the best I can tell in reading this section of scripture Moses never complained to God about God’s discipline and action He took banning Moses from going into the Promised Land. Moses accepted God’s will for his life.

The second example I used with my kids was from the same time frame only this time it involved Joshua and Caleb, two of the twelve spies who were commissioned to spy out the Promised Land. After spending 40 days on the spy trail, the spies returned with the wonderful fruits of the land and confirmation that it indeed was the land they had been told about, yet, ten of the spies were afraid of the nations in the land and lacked the faith that they could defeat the inhabitants so they created fear among the masses which all turned on Moses. Caleb and Joshua were the only two who had the faith and were bold enough to follow God’s instructions of subduing the land. Needless to say, Israel chose to listen to the 10 spies without the faith and God ultimately punished Israel one year for each day they spied out the land, or a total of 40 years they would have to wander in the wilderness until all from that generation had passed away, except Caleb and Joshua. Was it fair that Caleb and Joshua also had to wander for 40 more years, when they knew that God would have been with them had they gone into the Promised Land immediately? Maybe not, but God used those 40 years to prepare Joshua to take over for Moses when the time was right. Caleb was a patriarch when Israel actually entered and demonstrated to the younger Israelites how to obey God and follow His instructions.

The last example I always used was Jesus. Was it fair that He was sent to this earth from His highly esteemed place at the right hand of God as a frail human, who endured human trials, survived the devil’s temptations, healed people, taught people about who God is, lived a sinless life and yet was spit upon, arrested and crucified? Was it fair that He should be the one to suffer through this?

When I think about these three examples and the many others in scripture it helps to put into light how trivial our situation is in the bid scheme of God’s overall plan for the redemption of His people. Is it hard? Yes. Do we wake up each day with doubts, particularly after a long night? Yes. Does the timing of all this seem frustrating? Yes. Following all these answers of “yes” however is a “but”, and that is the “but” we have tried to share since the commencement of this blog. God is bigger than we are and He has a greater purpose and we can either choose to accept the burden He has laid on us knowing He loves us or we can abandon Him and go it alone. Those are our two choices. We’re glad we are not going alone, but glad God is present. His word is very clear in Matthew 18:20:

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them”

There are two of us here in this hospital room gathered in Jesus’ name and He is a man of His word that He is among us.

Sorry for the length of this, but we appreciate your interest and going along with us on this journey.

God Bless you!