Month: June 2011

Neal and I went to Relay for Life survivor walk this morning. This was our first year to experience Relay from the cancer survivor side. It was very emotional for me. It was very encouraging to see so many other purple survivor shirts. The survivors take the first lap around the fairgrounds while everyone else is on the sidelines cheering you on. I thought of the the verse in Hebrews 12 that talks about the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. We all need people to encourage and walk along side of us.

Neal here: The Relay for Life was very encouraging and meaningful because I could walk hand in hand around the track with my wife. You can’t walk holding hands alone, can you. I was also impressed by the large number of survivors. One fellow in his seventies had 4 different cancers in 17 years.
My numbers are low so for the wedding I received a booster shot today. I told them I had to deal with 200 people and didn’t really want to wear a facemask down the aisle. 🙂

It’s been a while since we have posted. Neal has been feeling good, even going into work to visit and do some administrative stuff. His white count and platelets have been going up then down. But the past few weeks they continue to go downward. His white count is 1.3 and his platelets are 60,000. The doctor says this is normal but if his platelets drop to below 50,000 then that’s an issue. The big hitch is that Whitney gets married next Sunday, July 3 in Indianapolis. Neal’s numbers need to go up. We really don’t want him to walk Whitney down the isle with a mask on!
The University of Chicago doctor called the local oncologist here and has Neal going to our hospital tomorrow to get a Nuelasta shot. This should help his white count go up and hopefully stay up.

Our pray request is that Neal’s white count goes up substantially and his platelets don’t go below 50,000.

Please pray for the wedding next Sunday. The ceremony is outside so we are praying for good weather. We are blessed to have Ty join our family. Whitney has been doing a fantastic job with the plans. I just do what she asks me to!

We have had Lane with us this past week while Grant and Jenni take a vacation before the next baby comes in November. I forgot how tiring a toddler can be! We have really enjoyed him. Both Karsten and Collin have been a great help. He have dragged out the duplos, Brio train, match box cars, trucks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, books and books. Good thing I kept a lot of the boys things especially with 2 grandsons!

On the journey,
Trish