6am Quickie
From the sudden influx of messages asking about the well-being of my dad, mum and myself, I gather it must be time for another update. I'm really sorry if I have not managed to reply your message personally but I will try to get around to them. It's now 6am and I should be getting ready to leave so please forgive me if this turns out to be a short update (unusual for me I know) but if I don't manage to put everything up here now, I'll write another one sooner.
I talked to my mum this morning so as to make sure you have the latest. A previous phone call about 2 days ago saw us all giving thanks to the Lord that the bone marrow test came back clear (i.e. the cancer had not spread there). The blood tests had also come back to show that my dad's blood count did increase although only very slightly. When I talked to him myself a couple of days ago, he had mentioned that he was breathing a little better as the tumour feels like it was reduced. The only thing right now, as I have just heard, is that he gets terrible headaches which prevents him from sleeping. The painkillers and what-not have stopped taking effect and it just makes things really difficult. My mum also mentioned that they were told the 3rd week of treatment is usually pretty bad because if any side-effects are present, they usually show up then. Next week will be the 3rd week of the radiotherapy so please pray with us that there will not be any problems arising from this.
My dad was trying to catch up with some sleep when I called but my mum mentioned that they were really hoping to be able to attend the prayer meeting on the Doulos before it heads out for yet another dry dock. In general, while they are both tired, they still look very much forward to fellowship and I know they are both still keen to go to the International Leader's Meeting just after the last radiotherapy treatment in March, I believe. We're still praying towards a decent recovery by then.
As for me, I'm just about to hop onto 2 buses to teach my last class in this school. It's one of those bitter-sweet moments though if any of you think that this means I have less work, please think again. I've got an 8,000 word essay due on Wednesday and have so far written about 3,000 words of fluff. I still have to be in school tomorrow so it's mostly down to a Monday and Tuesday effort. (I'm going to be recooperating from the week on Saturday and resting as I should on Sunday). Whatever the case and although I know I'm going to be exhausted, I'm also looking forward to being at George and Drena's golden wedding anniversary celebration tomorrow... I've missed some good OM fellowship I think. :)
Anyway, I've got exactly 5 minutes now to get my shoes on, grab a coat and head out the door so I'll say thank you yet again for all your love, concern, support and prayer.
