Hooray, hooray, its a chemo day today!

Dad met his oncologist today.  And the oncologist was happy.  A week into Dad's 3rd round of chemo, his White Blood Cells are up.  Way up!

2 weeks ago Dad's WBC count was 2800 and his neutrophil percentage was 20.  Both pretty low.  Dad's oncologist decided that he would wait for a few days to see if Dad's counts would go up.  They did.  5 days later his overall WBCs were 4800 which is in the realm of the 'normal values' (4000-10000), and though his neutrophil percentage was still low at 22%, Dr. Bakshi decided that Dad should go ahead and start the first dose of the 3rd round of chemotherapy.

Today Dad met Dr. Bakshi with is latest blood report.  Dr. Bakshi smiled.

Dad's counts have gone up to 9000!  And his neutrophil percentage is at 60!  And that after the first dose of this round...   We are so grateful for these mercies.

So tomorrow Dad is scheduled for dose no. 2 of this round - and then next week he should be getting dose no. 3.   The Lord is good - His mercies endure forever.

Each day we have Mum and Dad with us is a miracle and a blessing.  Yes those are words that people fling about, but they are true.  Yes, every day is not always happy-clappy - but we are just so grateful to be going through these days together.

Today Sheba and I were able to spend some time with Mum and Dad, praying before we went over to have an important conversation with Dr. Stephen Alfred.  Later in the evening, Mum was there with the other ladies from church and JSK who come for prayer from 6-7 pm on Wednesday evenings - and Dad met with us from 9.30-10.30 pm when a handfull of us men get together to pray.   At other parts during the day our lives intertwined in various ways both mundane and special and now the whole household is asleep except for yours trully typing in the quiet cool darkness (with the screen on of course!).

In a few minutes we will be able to say...  Hooray, hooray, its a chemo day today!

We have been blessed by generous gifts towards Dad's therapy which means that Dad now has a positive credit at the hospital.   And so we step forward into the next bit of chemo, the next tone in the melody of our lives, the next opportunity to see value and joy.

Thanks for being with us on this journey!

---------------------------------------------------

P.s.  the photo is from the time Stefan and Neeru and kids were with us 3 weeks ago.