;)
What Lies Ahead?
Christmas offered both moments of great joy and times of high stress and anxiety. How could it be any other way, given the circumstances we face. Tonight is New Year's Eve and Terry and I will be home together without any other family. This is not something we dread. A quiet evening with no responsibility for anyone but ourselves is a good thing. I doubt that we will stay up to welcome in the new year. I have noticed that the new year comes whether I am awake to know it or not.
Terry begins chemotherapy on Monday. She will be five hours at the clinic. Then she will come home with a pump of some kind to continue the treatment for two more days. This is the first of eight treatments that will take place every other week. That will be four months of therapy. By the first of May this part should be over. I prefer to think of this as eight treatments rather than four months. Every session represents 12.5% of the journey. Two sessions and we are 25% of the way home. That is less discouraging than "four months".
My ernest desire is that these treatments be effective and that when this is all over this cancer episode will be finished. However, there is no certainty of that. All we can do is follow the plan and trust in God and in the efficacy of modern medicine. We do not know what to expect or how difficult this will be. We do not know how long it will be before Terry begins to feel healthy once again. I do not know if I have what is needed to be a help to her and to continue with my ministry at the church. We do not know what lies ahead. I can wear myself out if I spend too much time thinking about it. Never has a new year presented so much uncertainty.
Dave Gladstone