October 15: Having a Great Weekend

As it turns out, laying around really does help (with recovering from a spinal tap). By the end of the night last night, I sat up for a good hour, then went to bed with no headache at all. So this morning I got to go for a walk, and I did some weightlifting. I just avoided exercises that involved a lot of back movement.

Our house is full of visitors. It was great to hear the noise of people chatting first thing in the morning.

So many people always reminds me of a book I read called Revolution: The Story of the Early Church. It's a retelling of the first few chapters of the Book of Acts (from the Bible) by Gene Edwards. I have some problems with Gene's ideas about how a home church should operate, mainly because experience says it doesn't work very well, but there's no denying he's one of the best storytellers there has ever been.

Anyway, he describes the wild new life of the early church, as they tried to take care of hundreds of people who had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, then stayed after they heard the Gospel. He described waking up on a living room floor to another saint, and the exuberant joy of just being together.

It felt a little like that this morning.

As the morning passed we added David and Ariel and their kids, who stopped in on their way to the airport. They're "missionaries" to Sacramento, California, living out there for the purpose of helping Christians live that together life that Gene Edwards described. (As those of us who have tried know, being family is difficult for humans to do, especially when they're not already family biologically. It takes an ongoing infusion of the love that comes from heaven, and that love does not come in response to a set of good Christian rules. It comes only in response to a real and spiritual relationship with God.)

My parents are in town for the weekend. My brother and his wife are due this afternoon. My two oldest sons have also shown up, along with a couple of their friends. Of course, the way we live, my kids friends are usually my friends, too.

So it's a great day. I'm still having to lay down on and off to stave off the headaches from the spinal tap, but that's working great.

So, I'll send more news when I have it. I'll have to call the hospital Monday to find out when they're going to admit me for more chemo and how many more spinal taps they're going to do. Nurse Works made it clear there's going to be more, but there's no more scheduled at the moment.

Have a great day!