Today was a day of rest. Even God rested after creation. Today was my day of rest after treatment. One of the many things that chemo does is to work on the various blood counts in the body. For example, my white blood cells are probably down quite a bit over normal. This is one reason doctors want you to guard against infection. My system just does not have the normal amount of resistance to germs and such. It also takes a hit on the red blood cells. Exercise and diet can help raise this a little faster than the other. The whole point is that three days after treatment is a good day to allow my body to do some catching up. Just as it was following creation it was also a good thing. Tonight I really do feel very good.

So far this second round of therapy is going perhaps better than the first. Now I know more what to expect as the week moves along. I spent this week doing exercise along with watching my diet. Seems logical to me that staying active will help those red cells to keep multiplying. It was also the week of VBS here. Sadly, my participation this year was limited to cheer leading. But congratulations to all of our workers for their efforts. This is still one of my most favorite weeks of the year. Is it draining? Of course it can wear you out but it is worth it when kids learn more about Jesus. My opinion is that our leaders did a fantastic job this year. My gratitude goes out to them.

Part of my rest was returning my mother back to her house. We did have to cross over into Louisiana but we got back to Texas as fast as possible. The day was made better getting to eat seafood while we were gone. I take steroids for five days so all the medications work better. This was the day the hunger part of that regiment took over. There is truly nothing wrong with my appetite today. Now we have clean clothes to wear. We have a refrigerator filled with food that awaits my attention. Maybe there is some upside to this whole being sick thing!

It is impossible for me to put into words my gratitude tonight. I am indeed a fortunate person. Now I am still wrestling with the idea of whether or not being ill is a blessing. Part of me is unsure about the whole cancer being a blessing thing. But the one thing that I do know is God is bigger than the disease. Any blessing comes from Him far more than from being sick. It's a bit like the acceptance speeches during the Oscar ceremonies. There are far too many people to thank and too little time to do that. So let me simply say thank you. You know who you are. Well, maybe you don't know who you are but I do and so does God.

Bro. Trey