Round two of treatment began early today. A lady in the lab started things off by draining me yet again of some blood. When you are getting therapy for a blood disease it is pretty important to make sure that your counts do not drop too low. My blood pressure was down to normal yet again. Who thought that one has to get sick in order to get well? Doctor was again not gloomy in our visit. She feels like this approach is working from reports and observation. We discussed that kick in the gut fog mentioned in writings past. It was good to let her know my feelings. I also discussed it with her nurse. We have to find better ways for doctors to assist people who get such awful news.

We wrote last night about how the chemo room can be filled with people yet we are all on our own. My curiosity raises trying to understand that social aspect. Two members of my family stopped by as I sat waiting patiently for the drugs to finish. It was neat to share some time with them so they better understand the process. There was of course the temptation to be a bit silly to embarrass the daughter. I gave in to that feeling. Seems to me that you have to find some joy in the midst of times like that.

On to another note from a past blog. Someone wrote on my Facebook page that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. Let me remind you quickly of my view on that. I got to discuss it with two volunteers today. There may be times when God doesn't give us more than we can handle in order to get our attention. Sometimes a nudge like that works. But you won't change my mind on the idea that God indeed may give us more than we can handle. He does this to so we can put our full attention on Him. God is not just a resource of life. He is the very source of life. We can either choose to try and manage our situation or we can give it all to Him. My advice is move as fast as you can to giving it to God.

Being stressed beyond your ability is a gift from God. Sometimes the stress may have the best of intentions yet still not be the right choice. Sometimes we bring the stress on our self by decisions or attitudes. The gift is that God offers Himself to heal, forgive, and grow us. We can have the sin of trying to do it all forgiven. He can heal us from the best of intentions that go astray. He will grow us as we develop a firm foundation in difficulty with God. Life is not fair of itself. It does not operate on the reward system. God works on levels far past those of life. He acts from grace, mercy and comfort. We think when the bad times come that He tends to turn His back. What you learn in the dark places is that His arms are always reaching out to you even when you didn't know it. So why does it take us so long to discover that in our journey?

Bro. Trey