Today we head over to Barberton Hospital for Jeanie’s fourteenth day of radiation therapy. So for, she has had very few side effects from this treatment. She will occasionally feel some fatigue and need to rest a bit. She has also developed a very slight redness to the skin in the area being radiated, but other than that she has had no problems with the radiation. The radiation therapy is designed to sweep the chest wall and lymph node area of any cancer cells that may have remained after the surgery.
We are approximately one third of the way through and Jeanie has four more weeks of treatment with the daily trips to the Parkview Breast Care Center at Barberton hospital. Her appointment is at 10:45 each morning, so we get up, have our breakfast and get ready for our day. There is not much time for additional activities, as we spend our mornings getting ready and then leave here a bit before ten each morning. The actual treatment is only about 10 minutes long, but still it is close to noon when we return from the hospital, just in time for me to fix lunch.
As we move through this treatment, we have come to realize that treatment for cancer is pretty close to a full time occupation and that it will absorb the better part of a year. We also realize that medicine is an imprecise science and that there are many different opinions as to what should be done and when. So through all of this process we listen to the physicians and then we pray and Jeanie makes her decision as to the “what” and “when” of her treatments. I have committed to supporting her in her decisions. We know that ultimately our lives are in the Lord’s hands and that we trust and depend on Him for our every existence.
It is for this reason also that your prayers and words of encouragement mean so much to us as we stumble through this rather confusing and disconcerting process. We thank you so much for those frequent prayers and thoughts during this entire time. Your love for the Lord and for us is evident in your words of encouragement and your expressions of concern for Jeanie as she faces this trial. Thank you, and may God bless each and everyone of you just as the Lord has used each and everyone of you to be such a blessing to us!