Praise God for his life!

My dad went to be with Jesus this morning at 11:35am. His body could not fight off the infections. His battle with the infections and the side effects are over. Praise God for his life! He was such a great man, the best. I thank God for every moment he gave me with him. More details to come.

....life support....

they've put dad on life support.....can't keep his heart rate regular.....hospital just called.....

Dad's Evening...

dad's heart rate is pretty high tonight. it's been as high as 150 bpm so the nurses are trying to get it down a bit. he has a bit of a fever again, he was pretty cold with the chills when we were there tonight. he was trying to sleep for most of the later evening. we're hoping he doesn't have too rough of a night. the nurses are going to call us if anything changes dramatically. we are gonna try and get some sleep tonight, leaving dad in God's hands.

stable.

dad seems stable now. the doctors say he has improved. he is still given medication to keep his blood pressure level and still has an oxygen mask. he was a lot more coherent this afternoon and evening. he was talking with us more and joking around a bit. um, that's all for now. i might have more to report tonight. if not i will update tomorrow. i'm going back to see him now....

stabilized?

dad has kind of stabilized. his fever went down throughout the night. he slept off and on throughout the night. blood pressure is still a little wonky but hasn't shot down dramatically for a few hours. they are pumping everything out of his stomach as he is very naseaus. he is still on oxygen and drugs to correct his blodd pressure. they also gave him platlettes as he has barely any. i guess we are just waiting now to see if his body has it in him to fight off the infections. i am very tired got maybe 2 hours sleep last night in waiting room chair.....taking a nap now while mom and chris sit with dad. will write more later.

....night watch....

it is 1:40am. i am home to grab some food and take my contacts out. we are uncertain if dad will make it through the night. please join us in prayer. his blood pressure drops significantly every time he burps, sneezes, etc. and then goes back up. pray that his internal organs will not fail, pray that his body will get rest tonight so it can fight the infections. pray that he will not have to go on life support...........i will update when i can.
my cell phone is 306-291-6587 but it will be off most of the time as i will be in the ICU with dad. leave a message and i will try and get back IF i can. check back here tomorrow if i get a chance to update.

Dad is in ICU...

dad is in the intensive care unit. we almost lost him this morning. he has a very high fever and 2 blood infections. he's on antiboitics but he has no white blood cells to fight this off. we believe in the power of God and we believe that God will take care of him if this is his will, we pray it is. he is doing alright now. he's in and out of consciousness but he knows we are there. if you could join us in prayer we would really appreciate it. things are still uncertain.

Little Bit

Dad's getting weaker each day--which means he is on par. Hopefully by the end of next week he will start to get his strength back. We're still waiting word as to the progress of the stem cells put back into his body on Wednesday.

I'm heading off to Battleford today to visit with mom and to get some things done there. Later.

What Is This Peace You Speak Of?

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
-Isaiah 9:6

Just wanted to say that my family is filled with peace. Not a peace that you or I can understand. Our minds are at rest when we think about God and the things He has done for each of us in my family; when we talk to God.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." -Philippians 4:6-9

Don't just read these words take a moment to think about them.

All we have to do is talk to God--to present our requests to Him, and He will guard our hearts and minds from worry. It doesn't say, "the God of peace may guard...." This peace also comes from concentrating on and filling our minds with godly things. It sounds so simple, and it is.

Have you experienced the kind of peace that my family and I have?

God is Sovereign

Dad has 4 more days of chemo and then his stem cells will be tranfused back into his bloodsteam. The idea is that the stem cells will engraft themselves. If they do it will encourage the bone marrow to produce white and red blood cells and platelets once again. If they do not engraft themselves dad might not recover. Into God's hands we commit his life, knowing that God is Soverign.

Psalm 20:7, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. "

*Pray that the stem cells will engraft and that dad will fully recover.
*Pray for mom as she drvies back and forth this coming week.

Last Round......*Ding, Ding*

Dad received a phone call at 4pm today saying a bed was available at RUH. So him and mom got ready and made it into the city by 8pm. I will just take a moment to re-cap some of the details of everything happening for this round of chemo. Non-Hodgkins Burkitt's Lymphoma is dad's diagnosis. This type of cancer spreads through the lymph nodes to the bone marrow and the brain (is how i understand it). Dad has had preventative chemo in his brain already (last year). The plan now is to kill most of the stem cells in dad's bone marrow. It is a preventative measure as there is no cancer found in his body at this time. The procedure is scheduled for 2-4 weeks depending on recovery. The statistics and facts are a little discouraging, however we acknowledge that God is bigger than this. Please pray for all of us as we begin the process.

Correction to earlier post....... 3.5 million stems cells were harvested; not 350K.

Here is dad hooked up to the Stem Cell Harvester on Wednesday, January 31st. This is at about 3:30pm after several hours of this procedure.

Stem Cell Procedure Complete

Dad was not admitted to RUH as I had earlier posted. I tracked down mom and dad yesterday. I had tried to find them at the hospital on Tuesday but the records were not updated as to their location within RUH so I just ended up wandering around to no avail. We spent the better part of the afternoon and evening together. The nurses harvested 350,000 stem cells from dad's blood on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dad was very weak last night. Apparently one is fatigued after twenty-five litres of their blood is circulated through a machine and back into their veins (I believe all of the blood in his body went through the machine 5 times). He was hoping for a blood transfusion, after the stem cell procedure yesterday, to regain some strength. The doctors held off until this morning for this. My parents stayed at the Cancer Patient Lodge across the street from RUH all this week. It is a reasonable price to stay and includes all meals. They are driving home today. Mid-February is when the final round of chemo begins.

*Pray specifically that dad will be 100% in good health going into this final round.

*Praise God that dad had absolutely NO pain after his GCSF last week. He said it was a complete miracle that he had no pain because EVERY other time he had the injection the pain required high doses of morphine and other pain killers.