Remission

I'm feeling pretty energetic today. Yesterday was really rough.

Sometimes I analyze things so much I miss the obvious. I spent yesterday wondering why I was so fatigued. My red blood cell counts really weren't low enough to justify the exhaustion ... and even a little bit of confusion. I wondered if maybe the Neulasta shot from Saturday was making my body work so hard that I didn't have energy for other things.

It could have been a lot easier. I could have thought, "Wow. I'm really tired. I need a nap. People on chemo need more sleep than normal."

I got a long and good night's sleep last night. I feel way better.

Sometimes the obvious is hard to see.

Did you know Americans don't rest enough? We think that if we keep going, we'll get more done. Sometimes stopping is the best way to get things done. I have that American insanity—just keep going till you drop—as bad as anyone.

Get some rest.

Remission

A friend sent me a text about the use of the word "remission" in a Bible verse. Usually, it's understood to simply be a synonym for "forgiveness." My friend, however, was thinking about it in the context of my remission from leukemia, and he told me about it.

It really got me thinking.

I wrote a blog post on it, but since the post is focused on following Christ, not leukemia, I thought it fit better on my The Rest of the Old, Old Story blog than here. Since it was inspired by leukemia, I am linking it from here, though, for those of you that want to read it.

Boredom and Rest

There's not much to report the last two days. We're simply enjoying the long weekend and waiting to visit with Dr. Strickland at Vanderbilt on Tuesday.

I really don't feel bad. I just get tired extremely easily. I nap a lot, more than once per day. I can feel my swollen spleen if I bend quickly or move wrong, and I think that when my stomach is full, the combination of the enlarged spleen and full stomach restricts my breathing.

My discomfort, though, is minimal to non-existent. I have nothing to complain about.

I walked down the street this morning to visit friends. I walked maybe 100 yards. That's not difficult as long as I walk slow. But as soon as I got there, Chavvah quickly got up, did a mental check, and announced, "No one's sick; you can come in."

Oh, yeah. I forgot.

My wife was mad at me for walking down to their house, and she wanted to drive me back in the golf cart they own. I refused, opting to walk back in the far too hot but nonetheless pleasant sunshine. Vitamin D's good for the health, too, and it's best obtained from sunshine.

We're going the extremely healthy route. I'm eating only whole, unprocessed foods, though I made an exception at the barbeque this afternoon and had my dad grill my chicken breast with soy sauce. Otherwise, I'm drinking something like 3 quarts of fruit and vegetable juice that we juiced ourselves from organic produce, and I eat vegetables. Oh, I also get eggs, fried in olive oil, and whole grain bread with butter in the mornings.

Is that going to heal me?

Um, I don't want to be healed. I think I'm supposed to talk to people at Vanderbilt first. If we get to Vanderbilt, and all this organic stuff has made me better, I'm going to be real confused about what God's saying.

Still, never hurts to be healthy. After all, I do expect to recuperate eventually.

My prayer is to run the Badwater ultramarathon some day with some of the other runners from Rose Creek Village, and maybe with Austin, who's in Florida volunteering for a mission organization right now. He was born with heart defects that required heart valve replacement after puberty, and there were complications all along the way. Now he's healthy and jogging and doing construction for ITEC, as ITEC helps missionaries go where they've never gone before.

Hmm. This was a lot to be able to write today. More than I expected.

One thing. It seems weird just waiting around when the last week and a half has been so full of leukemia news, research, and running to appointments. This weekend seems, well, boring.

Along life's path, though, I've learned that if life seems boring--and you're really walking with God--take advantage and rest. There's something coming you'll need the rest for.