Dec 29: New Year's Eve at BUMC

 Here's where I'll be ushering in 2024, if all goes as planned. It's a happenin' place!

Another sign of the times. BUMC now requires visitors register upon entering a building for 2024. 

Saw oncologist this morning, but room won't open up until 2p. So, I treated myself to a Potbelly sandwich for lunch instead of hospital fare. It was good; 2 thumbs up. UPDATE: I didn't get a room until 5:30p, ugh. A wasted day. No Blincyto tonight because the chemo pharmacologists go home at 5p. They did start IV taps in my port. All dressed up, and no place to go. 

Blincyto side effects they seem to be concerned about are neuro brain fog and flu-like symptoms. Hopefully, I won't be any more foggy than usual. 

Blessings, love, grace and mercy be yours in full measure from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Dec 26: Blincyto New Year's Eve Party at BUMC

 I hope you had a blessed Christmas with family and friends. I did. 

So, doing pretty well in recovering from my roto-rooter on Dec 20th. No pain meds, things seem to be getting better and better each day in that department. 

Next stop of the A.L.L train is a month-long round of Blincyto, starting with an extended weekend at BUMC to make sure the potential side effects don't get too extreme. Nothing says, "Happy New Year!" like a tray of hospital food. 😜 You can read about it here. 

So much for my usual wild New Year's weekend of falling asleep on the couch around 9:30p. 

I wish you all a very blessed and hopeful 2024 and a growing relationship with Jesus, my eternal hope. 

G

Dec 17: Blessed

Blessed with a new day - His mercies are new every day. 

Blessed to be worshiping with others today - I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

Blessed to share a meal with fellow followers of The Way this afternoon - Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

Blessed to be sealed with His Holy Spirit - In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Blessed with a relatively pain-free body today - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  

Blessings, grace & mercy be yours today in our Father God and our Lord Jesus Christ

Dec 14: The all consuming body

 My body has become a near all-consuming demander of my time. I am treating one set of symptoms 4-5 times a day. I'm juggling scheduling a surgery on the 20th and another 4 day hospital stay on the 29th for my pre-transplant infusion treatment (28 days total.) After the hospital stay, I'll get a stylish fanny pack to carry around an infusion pump 24x7 and multiple trips to BUMC to get it "recharged." Add doctor follow-ups, trips for prescription refills and it's a pain in the patootie. 

I have about 1700 mutant Philly+ cells/3M. That's very low, but the infusion should take that to zero. 

Good reminders shared with me for me today. 

Psalms 139:7-10 
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

Rom. 8:38-39
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Blessings to you today; grace & mercy be upon you and yours.

Dec 8: Oh, What a Christmas we have planned.

 Pray for me that a prostate procedure will go as smooth as possible with no complications on Dec 20. I'm juggling this around and on top of my leukemia treatment and getting ready for the stem cell bone marrow transplant in late January. That'll be a month-long hospital stay, followed by a 100-day intensive outpatient follow up. I'm 5 months into the leukemia treatments and frankly I'm kinda worn out from the battle. Icing on the cake - a raging case of hemorrhoids from the peeing challenges and chemo. 

OK, pity party's over. Thanks for your prayers. Lord, give me strength. 

Dec 6: Our Days are Numbered

 Our Days are Numbered

A sober topic, to be sure. So, if you've done any retirement planning, one of the key factors is what you think your "end date" will be. Mine, prior to leukemia, was 93. As all these numbers, it was arbitrary in many ways. 

Psalm 90 says: 

Seventy years are given to us!    Some even live to eighty.

But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.

and

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

at the beginning of Psalm 90, it starts with Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Are days are numbered, and we don't know what that number is, unless the days are very short. My "93" was based on my pre-leukemia health, longevity of my Dad thus far (85), and other paternal men who lived late into their 90's. 

Complete remission means I die of something other than leukemia; of "old age." Will that be 93? I just don't know. My days might be very short. It's a challenge for my faith, but ultimately, all our days are numbered. Because of the destruction of sin, we all sin, the wages of sin is death, and we all face a physical death, but

we also face a spiritual death, an eternal death apart from Jesus. Jesus paid that sin, my sin, and so I need not fear the "2nd death."

My retirement plan is much more fuzzy now. but this I know, God provides. 

Dec 4: Peace, Medicare and Piano

 Another hodge-podge of thoughts. 

Peace. 

In this Advent season, Peace is one of the themes. Many people grew up with the angel's declaration, "Glory to God in the highest, Peace on earth; goodwill toward men." Many miss that the peace is The Peace - Jesus, the Messiah, who had come to earth in the flesh, and ultimately brought peace through His death on the cross between God and those that would put their faith & trust in Jesus, the Messiah. That's the positional peace between us and God. Practical peace then becomes a step of faith - trusting God in circumstances that seem to lack peace - contentiousness, animosity, lack of unity, and simply lack of peace in your soul with your circumstances. 

which leads me to...

Medicare

Definitely tries my desire to live in peace with my medical situation and its costs. Trusting God to bring peace to my situation with Sprycel and what Medicare is saying they will and won't cover. The figures as I understand them is it'll cost me about $3400 this month, my first month to be on Medicare (and my first & last month of 2023; lucky me.) and 2024, which is looking like $8000 for Jan & Feb combined. That's better than the $14,000/mo the drug "actually" costs. I have 3 more days to wrangle it, possibly get Medicare to cover it under Part B vs Part D (subscription) and pick a Part D plan for 2024 by Dec 7th. Seems fitting that's Pearl Harbor Day.

UPDATE: BMS has covered my Sprycel and the normal Medicare and supplemental deductible has kicked in, which is tolerable.  

which leads me to....

Piano.

Which has nothing to do with the first two thoughts. I was blessed that the Beaty's, the previous house owners, decided to leave their piano. I took lessons for 3+ years as an elementary age kid, then gave it up in sixth grade for trombone.. Long story short, I've come back to it. It is peaceful to play, except when I miss notes. I'm grateful for the opportunity to play again. 

Blessings to you all. May grace and mercy be yours in full measure. 

G

It's nice to have fall color in the back yard. One of our maples.