Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sunday,

Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend where to even start with an update on Bonnie’s condition. In one hour there is a praise for us to hold onto giving a source of encouragement and energy, yet the next hour brings a new challenge you don’t expect and it is difficult not to allow doubt to creep into your might wondering what God has in store. Today was one of those days.

This morning Bonnie had the privilege to be prayed over and her fever subsided without Tylenol from 102 degrees down to 98.7 degrees. Tonight her fever is back up at 101.4 degrees which triggered another chest xray and blood culture. As long as she has a yeast infection, she is going to continue to have swings like this. The blood cultures continue to confirm that the yeast is still running havoc in Bonnie’s body. The Infectious Disease physicians are running one last antifungal medicine and then there isn’t anything else they can do until Bonnie’s White Blood Cells start to produce.

Bottom line, we have two main prayer requests: (1) Pray that the yeast infection would disappear and (2) that the White Blood Cell count would start to show progress. The doctors have doubled the amount of Neupogen injections to promote the growth, but thus far she is still at zero as of the lab reports from earlier today.
One other concern is the peripheral IVs Bonnie temporarily has as a result of the removal of the triple lumen, which they believe was the source for the yeast infection. The IV specialists are having a difficult time finding good veins to insert the peripheral IVs and the fear is that her veins can’t handle the volume of fluids being pumped through her. Please pray these will last until we can get approval from all the doctors to do another triple lumen. They normally will not do a new one until they yeast infection has been eliminated. The whole ordeal is more or less a “Catch 22”.

A few of you have asked about my (Steve) situation with my back. Supposedly I have some sort of growth on my sacrum area that both an MRI and CT Scan has revealed. I will find out more tomorrow about the biopsy and when it is scheduled. Please pray that it is nothing and benign. We thought God has really been giving us an opportunity to put our faith to the test, which He has, but obviously we needed more refining. I mentioned to a couple of people today that when we said God won’t give us more than we can handle, I (Steve) sort of thought that maybe we had a saucer size plate that He would fill, but didn’t realize He blessed us with the main platter.

God ha s truly blessed us far beyond our ability to communicate in words the emotional intimacy that has been formed in this hospital room between God and the two of us. Something I (Steve) have yet to share thus far is a pray that I prayed back in February and March of this year. As many of you know, with homeschooling, May is one of the busiest month of the year and nothing is ever planned during this month as school is wrapping up and we have two of our kids birthdays that month. To compound things this year was having a graduate and all the extra activities that coincide with this phase in the life of a graduate. Earlier this year Bonnie had volunteered to handle ticket sales for a drama production that Cassandra was involved with. When Bonnie signed up in the fall to do tickets, little did she know the huge time commitment that would be required starting in February running through the play in April.

Needless to say, we were like two ships passing in the night and not having much in the way of quality time together. I found myself praying and asking God to give Bonnie and I quality time without interruption of the cares of the day and to give us the chance to spend together alone. It didn’t hit me until we had been here at Sparrow Hospital for about two weeks that I thought to myself, God answered my prayer. Not the way I wanted it answered though. Isn’t it interesting the amount of time we now have together alone each day and night in this hospital room. The opportunity to serve and care for Bonnie through very mundane things has created a level of intimacy between us that is absolutely incredible and indescribable. God is faithful to help us recall His promise of answered prayer, even in times when it appears He is distant. He isn’t distant, He is omnipresent and that is the comfort we hold onto day and night as he takes us on this journey. This morning I (Steve) read Psalms 73:23-26 which summarizes pretty good His closeness:

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”


Please keep up the prayers. They are what continue to sustain us. Thank you!

4 comments:

  1. Steve and Bonnie - Even though we have been mostly under the radar, we want you to know that you have been in our prayers constantly since day one... words fail us and it is impossible to communicate our hearts to you... Your faith and perseverance shared through this blog have been incredibly inspirational to us. We thank God for your relationship Him and the example you are to all of us... We continue to pray and believe for complete healing for both of you... May God bless you tonight with sweet sleep... We love you - Susan and David, and the girls...

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  2. Steve and Bonnie,
    Please know that you and your family are in our prayers. Your faith and trust in God is truely an example.
    Although we can not begin to comprehend the trials that you are going through, we trust in a might God that will see you through them.

    Tony and Pat Smith

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  3. But He knows the way that I take,
    When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
    Job 23:10

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  4. I LOVE Psalm 73. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has a fantastic sermon that is almost all on the one word "nevertheless" in vs. 23. One of his 11 sermons on Psalms 73 from his book "Faith on Trial."

    His stated aim in preaching through Psalms 73 was:
    “May it prove to be a 'door of hope' to many another whose feet are 'almost gone' and whose steps have 'well nigh slipped'."

    http://www.reformedbooks.net/review_faith.php

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