Vicissitudes and gratitudes

 Last week was kind of difficult, or at least complicated. By the time it was over, we had made four visits to the medical clinic. That's a thirty four mile round trip. Two of the visits were for blood draws. They were on Monday and Thursday. The other two, on Tuesday and Friday, were for platelet transfusions. I am approaching the point where my blood counts are at their lowest following my last round of chemotherapy. 

When I am in this phase of the treatment, I get light-headed, fatigued and prone to bleeding. I was fortunate to get the Friday transfusion, because if I had not, and if I subsequently had a bleed, it would have meant a visit to the ER. That in turn would have meant mingling with lots of people. Now I like people, but with the current rise in Covid cases, I would just as soon not be exposed to them. Thank the Lord for Friday platelets! 

Our son Patrick had a lot of fun teasing me about whether platelets were tiny little plates. As he put it, platelets < plates, like piglets < pigs. I suggested maybe they were actually tapas, and we had a good laugh over that. I suppose that, in reality, they are like tiny little plates. See photo below. 

Suffice to say, they are a vital part of our amazing blood system, although I think I would rather look at tapas!

My friend M., whose friend was hospitalized for Covid and on a ventilator, wrote me. M.'s friend was taken off the ventilator and passed within an hour. M. was angry, not that they took her friend off the ventilator, but that she was taken home to be with the Lord, when she was needed and loved here on earth. M. has been blasted with friends being sick and dying, and she is heartsick. She is a young woman of great faith, but life's tragedies are wearing her down. 

I didn't know how to respond to her pain and anger, except to let her know how deeply sorry Jill and I are that she and her friend's family had to bear this tragedy. I also thought of the lyrics of a song by Marty Robbins. The song tells the story of a couple who were deeply in love, and then she passed away. One of the lines of the song says, “God needed someone to brighten his throne. Lisa was taken and Johnny was left all alone.” I imagined that M. was feeling something like that. The best advice I had to offer was: "I guess the only thing we can do is be grateful for the time you had with her, because that was a gift from God." There is nothing that can ease this pain, except the love of God and time for it to salve the wounds. If you are a praying person, please pray for M. and for her friend's husband and children who are left to grieve. 

The week ended on an up note. We had a lovely Zoom chat with some dear friends. It was good to see them. We hadn't seen them since our odyssey began back in June. We all agreed that seeing one another in person would have been much better, but thank God for the technology to be able to meet, in spite of the need to quarantine. 

Right after that, I got a call from a another friend who has just recovered from Covid. He and his family all had the virus, but it was complicated by the fact that they are in the process of selling their house so they can move across the country, buying another house in the new location, packing for the move and doing all the culling out of unwanted or unneeded things that always comes with moving. The reason for his call was to tell us that the sale of their house here in Dallas, while not closed, appears to be on track to close on time, in spite of some difficulties and irregularities in the transaction. We are so happy for this family, although we will miss them when they are gone. 

So, life goes up, and life goes down. I am grateful to be along for the ride. 

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for that is God's will for you, in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)