Annnnnd . . . The Light at the End of the Tunnel

No, my husband did not suddenly quit having chemo 'n' cancer for the past month. Not that we would have minded that. Especially after having to wait to find out if round 3 of the chemo was happening on the day it happened. That, in a word, sucked. You wait, you hope, you pray, then blam-o! You find out and suddenly get to deal with all of it not yet being done and no word on whether or not there will be a fourth round.

But to quickly clarify, there will be a fourth round of chemo, which we actually found out about this week and which is not slated to start until June 2nd. And we're believing it will go as fabulously as Jeff's last round did (minus the over-scheduling-cause-I-feel-fine part (cough*husband*cough). How fabulous was it, you say? Well, he was not laid out in bed from Wednesday night until Sunday morning, only threw up a few times over the course of the week, and was able to pretty much eat and move around without any issues. There was some nausea, general ickiness, and some dehydration (so should have watched that one better!!), but Jeff was able to enjoy a good chunk of his birthday that Saturday and, well, just the week as whole.

We have realized, however, Jeff's oncologist is more a treater of the disease and not so much of the people. Perhaps this is why he seems to have no qualms with 45 minute waiting periods to see him for a *scheduled appointment*, and just generally the attitude of 'this is what we're doing and that's it' sort of attitude. Not that he's mean or brusque or anything . . . just rather detached from the people, I think.

One thing we have had a bit of a time dealing with is the number of times people have told us how well we're dealing with everything. And usually when they see (or hear from) us, we are dealing with things in a good way. What they don't see is all the times we're not, those wonderful times when we're frustrated and being snarky with each other or mad at the little reminders that things aren't normal (which can lead to some mean cleaning streaks!) and what have you. Thank you for the encouragement . . . we'll try to keep the rest to ourselves. ;-)

Honestly, we would *not* be dealing with things in any sort of good or healthy capacity if it were not for our faith in God and the awesome provisions He has made for us in all this through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus along with the strengthening power of His Holy Spirit. We have a strong, faithful pastors and a great church family who has lifted us up in prayer time and again. We have great families who have done whatever they could to help us with listening ears, food, and 'whatever you need' things. It's just . . . wow.

Jeff's hoping to be back at work part-time somewhere around the middle of June. I asked him if his bosses were still going to let him have his summer holidays (booked for the last two weeks of July), to which Jeff replied "Yes!". He really wants to have some time off when he's healthy, as he has been frustrated at times with how quickly he can get tired.

I'll be looking forward to it, too.

Oooo -- a quick P.S. which I must include! Jeff's last round of blood work and his last CT scan (done prior to the start of round 3) showed the cancer markers are all at normal levels (we all have 'em -- I didn't know that prior to all this!) and the CT scan looked good, too. So yay! And thank You, Lord! We'd be lost in this without You!