September 25, 2023 - Scheduled

     I am sorry for the stretch between blogs.  I will try to catch up on some things.
     We got word on Friday afternoon that the surgery for the thyroid cancer will be October 17th.  The Lord willing, I hope to preach a couple of weeks before the surgery because I will be out for several weeks after the surgery.
     Saturday was such a heavy day for Sammy and the Filmalter family, as well as for many of us who attended Brandon’s funeral.  Please continue to pray for Sammy and her family.
     I need something light to start the week.  Let’s see if we can accomplish that.
     Because I knew that Daybreak was in good hands with Matt Rose preaching on Sunday, Teresa and I headed to Tennessee to hear Mike Courtney preach.  It was such a blessing to spend time with him and Doris.   They have been such an encouragement to us.
     Here is one thing that I haven’t shared.  After the deep line catheter was put in, I didn’t know what to call it.  I thought it was called a port, but that’s not what the staff called it when it was installed.
     When I went to have blood drawn, I told them I had a line in.  The lady said, “Oh, you have a port.”
     When the nurse practitioner came to remove it, she walks in and says, “I have come to remove your port.”
     I should have called it a port.
     It took the surgical team 84 minutes with sedation to install the port.  It took the nurse practitioner less than 30 seconds to remove it.  And that was without any sedation.  Ouch.
     When I got the short haircut I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “Lord, I will be happy when my hair gets even this long again.” 
I gave very little thought to shaving my head at that haircut.   There would have been no poetic justice had I done that and five hours later made the decision not to have the transplant!
        Even after two weeks my hair is so short that it takes me as long to dry the hair on my arms and legs as it does to dry the hair on my head.
        On Friday evening we had supper with our neighbors.  It took us four years to have a sit-down meal with them.  There has been a lot going on in both of our families in those four years.
        All four of us shared our struggles.  In spite of the struggles we laughed a lot.  There hasn’t been a lot of laughter in the last few months.  It was a welcome change.
        I will end with two ironies.  I was scheduled last May to have a follow up visit with my endocrinologist in Lexington.   The date and time for that visit was October 17th at 11:00 a.m.  If things go as planned, that is likely to be the day and the time when I will be having surgery on my thyroid.
        When we left for Rochester last month, we were expecting to be gone for six weeks.  On that Saturday I hurriedly wrote three tithe checks to Daybreak that I left in my desk at church.  I am not sure why I wrote checks for just three weeks.  As things turned out, we were away from Daybreak only three weeks.  
        Sometimes things are difficult to understand or to explain.  Yes, we do see in a mirror dimly, but some day we will see face to face. 
We stand on faith when sight and understanding cannot explain things.