Fever

Well... we had a fantastic girls weekend of talking, shopping, reminiscing, some tears and even some eating (ok, too much eating... that crazy Mad Mex gets us every time!). It was such a treat to spend the weekend with some girls that have truly been with me for the long haul! Hope that everyone at home got to stay up too late, eat too much junk food and watch way too much t.v. (you're welcome Colson, Elizabeth, Lily, Ellie, Owen, Maya, Isabel, Judah, Ezra, Noah and Zion!!).

However, not long after the fun had ended and we were heading home from Giant Eagle (the local grocery chain...) the next morning, Parker began crying that his "forehead" hurt. Well... go figure, he was sporting a 102 fever and we were in for three more days of fever fun. By the time that he had finally wrapped things up (in the midst of which we finally took Dryden to the pediatrician for his never-ending cough - which they determined to be "nothing" caused only by sinus irritation, not contagious and certainly not the dreaded swine flu - which one of his close friends in the neighborhood is just getting over...), my throat was feeling sore, my nose was running (more than usual - it turns out that the errant drip is a constant hazard for the nasal-hair impaired) and I ended up running a fever of my own come Thursday afternoon. A call to the onco nurse (a must if you are getting chemo) landed us in the ER for 3 hours getting the "septic work-up" (it's just a LITTLE frightening to have your name mentioned in the same sentence as septic... yikes!!) after a frantic search for someone to come and stay with our marginally healthy brood of little ones. (There is a special place for you in heaven, Halley!) Fortunately nothing came of any of the multitude of tests that they performed with the exception of an elevated white count - which the CRNP that was treating me seemed a bit concerned about until he spoke with my oncologist who was overjoyed (it turns out that they are much more concerned about LOW white counts... at least I had someone fighting whatever was attacking my system!). So... with a little mask and a prescription for augmentin (overuse of antibiotics on suspected viral illness be damned!) we headed home. After a very restless night's sleep we woke at 5am to Neely crying (unusual...) with a 102 fever of her own! Seriously????? I was feeling awful and so was she so another saintly friend and neighbor took Parker for the entire day (as well as to his skating lesson... meaning that poor Gwen had to hang out in the rink for no good reason... thank you Gwen!) while we both nursed our illness with the Food Network (and a little Dora). So all of this to say that it has been a nightmare of a "good week" and right now I am just praying that I am back to "normal" by the time I am starting to really feel badly. ugh...

So, Friday as I laid in bed feeling utterly miserable (and wondering why I had to feel that way when I know that I am going to be feeling that way all of next week...) I read:

"Look to Me continually for help, comfort and companionship. Because I am always by your side, the briefest glance can connect you with Me" (thank goodness because that is often all that I can muster these days! This was truly comforting to me...)... "When you need comfort, I love to enfold you in My arms. I enable you not only to feel comforted but also to be a channel through whom I comfort others. Thus you are doubly blessed, because a living channel absorbs some of whatever flows through it." wow... isn't this what I've been praying to be?? Lord please allow me to live it...

But... it gets better... for the past 6 months I've been planning a small surprise 35th birthday party for Darin at Audrey's house (while the cat's away the mice will play... Audrey has been the most gracious host to so many in the past couple of weeks!! thank you Audrey!!) on October 17 (his actual birthday). As we approached the date, not only was almost everyone in our house sick but in the homes of our guests the same types of things were occurring. However, we did manage to pull it off - with the help of our guests, all of whom managed to be there - hooray!! And had a super relaxing evening with a very good group of friends. Thank you all for making it possible!!

Through it all there are more prayer requests - friends' still ill children, friends' suffering parents and my full recovery prior to more chemo this coming Tuesday (yes, already... YUCK!) and ust as many praises - thank goodness it wasn't anything more serious for me, we still got to surprise Darin (I LOVE YOU honey!!!!!) and our kids are all actually beginning to resemble the healthy bunch that they were just two weeks ago. I know that it gets old for some of you but it does bear repeating... God is good! Oh yeah, AND Grammy & Grampy returned this Saturday to visit (and hopefully NOT catch anything) and to stay (Grammy, that is... Grampy is hoping to find some unfortunate doe with his muzzle loaders' name on it) for another round of chemo fun. It has been crazy here, but we're coming to expect nothing less. I am, in so many ways, disappointed that I really didn't get to have very much "good" time. My tastes are still very "off" and my sleep is currently dismal. But I'm learning not to rely on my feelings and trying hard to remember that this isn't my forever condition.

and, so fittingly (it's amazing how God arrives in this way... as Rock would say, "He's borderline genius"! ha ha) today I read in my lovely little devotional:

"Go gently through this day, keeping your eyes on Me. I will open up the way before you, as you take steps of trust along your path. Sometimes the way before you appears to be blocked. If you focus on the obstacle or search for a way around it, you will probably go off course." (hmm... this sounds a lot like me in the past week...) "Instead, focus on Me, the Shepherd who is leading you along your life-journey. Before you know it, the "obstacle" will be behind you and you will hardly know how you passed through it."

Dear Lord make this the truth for all of us today!