Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Tuesday! All is well here at 811. Daddy is still gaining strength and I am anxious to see him in a couple of days.  I have had two radiation treatments today. I will have two treatments tomorrow.  That puts me at 16 treatments down and 18 to go.  By 1:00 tomorrow I will be just over halfway to completion.   I shared with my doctor today that my goal is to have radiation completed before we set sail for Alaska. So because I missed some treatments last week he offered me the opportunity to have two treatments a day for the next two days and if I need to miss more I can double up as needed. While this plan will absolutely comply with my timeline, the price paid for this is more rapid skin redness and exhaustion.   I give thanks for lavender oil and living 2 minutes from the cancer center. Today as I was going to have my treatment I thought of the Thanksgiving Day spent at MD Anderson. We had become friends with a family whose husband/father was battling melanoma. We pooled our resources and brought in thanksgiving dinner from Luby’s and had Thanksgiving dinner in The Park area of the hospital. Our friend who was battling cancer offered the Thanksgiving  blessing. His opening sentence of the prayer was, “Lord, we are not glad for why we are here, but we are glad we are here and in your tender care.”  I will never be thankful for cancer, but I am glad every day that God has granted the gift of knowledge, healing and compassionate care to those who treat this evil disease.  This man found a way to give thanks in the midst of the evil disease that had captured all of us reminding each of us that God has all of us in His tender care and to trust in God no matter what.

I sat across from a gentleman yesterday morning who was waiting for his radiation treatment on his brain. I was able to share the Thanksgiving story with him.  It seemed to resonate with him and give him a different way to think about things. I sometimes think that God allows me to go through situations so that if I am paying attention, what I have gone through can help someone else.  I cannot take credit for the Thanksgiving day story, but I am thankful I was there to witness and be a part of God’s holy moment from one who would lose the battle with melanoma just a couple of months later.  This bit of wisdom empowered all of us with hope. The gentleman in the waiting room needed his hope restored. I think the story helped.  And as my BFF always says, “Hope does not disappoint.”  God is good and love wins.

“I find rest in God, only he gives me hope.”

Psalm 62: 5

“On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times. O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”

Psalm 62: 7-8

Take joy in the journey remembering that hope does not disappoint.  Wear comfortable shoes and continue to pray for Daddy. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene