Halfway there and living on a prayer!

It is such a joy to read my comments when I get home from the hospital at the end of the day. Thank you so much for checking in, for your notes of encouragement, and especially for keeping my Dad in your prayers.

Today, he reached the half-way point of this first round of treatments. He continues to be such a fighter and a trooper. The side-effects of the treatments have been getting the chills and nausea. Dad doesn't really like for my sister and I to be in the room when he is experiencing the side-effects, which typically come about three hours after receiving the dose of treatment and then last for about 2 and a half hours after that. When he is feeling better, he likes us to be there because it helps pass the time faster for him. So we have typically been going to the hospital in the morning as he is receiving his first treatment of the day and visit until lunch time, which is around the time when the chills seem to come. He then asks us to go have lunch, which we know means "I'm starting to not feel so good. Please leave now." So we do. We just want him to be as comfortable as possible, so if that means being alone for a while, so be it. After the side-effects have passed, he calls us on my sister's cell phone, and we come back to the hospital for a few more hours until visiting hours end.

My Dad knows that a lot of friends are praying for him. His specific prayer requests are that this treatment will be killing the cancer in his body and that the side effects of the treatments will be minimal. He commented today that he is amazed at how his side effects have been minimal in comparison to what most people suffer going through this treatment, and said that it must be prayer that is helping, so please keep praying!

On a much lighter and happier note...an eSuitor story. Last night, when sis and I got home, she went skipping and giggling through the house, like she was in on a secret that I didn't know about. When I asked her what was up, she said, "A present has arrived for you." She opened the front door and presented me with a box that was on the front step. I began to open the box and a flash went off...sis was photo-documenting the experience (which, of course added to my excitement)!

I opened the box to find these beauties with a note saying, "Thinking of you. -eSuitor". When I talked to him on the phone to thank him, he said, "I just wanted you to have something bright to cheer you up, since this is a rough week." What a sweetheart!