In and Out Again

Many people were praying for Sandy to remain in good health so she could speak at an event at church last Friday (Sept 30). And God said yes! She faithfully shared some of the lessons and truths she's learned or been reminded of as a result of this cancer journey. Around 250 people attended, and many have commented that they left encouraged, inspired, and challenged. Sandy left the event feeling honored, encouraged, loved, and greatly supported. A link to the video is below, as well as on the bottom of the intro section of this blog.

https://vimeo.com/c3media/review/185699250/24bdbf13d2

On Tuesday, October 4, Sandy had an already scheduled, routine drain exchange. Everything went well, and around 3pm she was home. However, around 4pm, she began having chills, shakes, and a quickly rising fever. We've been down this road enough times by now to know that an immediate trip to the ER was required. Thankfully, the skilled medical team was able to help, and she was released Thursday early evening (October 6). Her team discussed how to prevent this from happening every time she has a drain exchange, and they seem to have landed on the option of giving her an antibiotic prior to the drain exchange to ward off infection that results from the goopy, germy drain being slid through the inside of her body. Those were not technical terms, by the way. :)

True to Sandy-style, she not only taught her classes on Friday but also was a sub for two classes, in addition to a trip to the infections disease doctor, where she was given the meds to finish off this new infection. On Saturday evening she lamented that her weekly grading had not been finished...somehow, not even a rough three days was enough reason for her to easily accept not being able to complete everything she had planned!

While this up and down journey can be more than tiring at times, as Sandy says, it's better than the alternative! This is one example of the blessing being found in the difficulty - we'd be foolish to wait to have peace and joy until this undesired journey is over, because even if God heals her on this side of heaven, we would be wasting learning opportunities, and if He heals her IN heaven, we'd be short-changing our time with Sandy. Knowing our ultimate future allows us to live in the today and both look for and soak in the blessings that are in each day. 

2 Corinthians 4:17

"For these light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."