Health Update - 27 July 2010

Dear Friends,

For all of you who are so faithfully upholding us in prayer, I want to let you know how we're doing.

Last Wednesday, I had my first infusion of the CD-40 drug that is designed to work in concert with the chemo treatment. Again, there are only 2 others receiving this trial. The infusion only takes 25 minutes but they're required to observe me after the infusion for the following 6 hours. One of the men in the trial had severe shakes, the other fellow only had a mild chill in reaction. My Dad reckons I'm the swing guy to see what will happen to me. We prayed that none of the side effects would come upon me and nothing did happened. No shakes, not even a chill. Lying there for hours, the Lord granted me a peace concerning the treatment that's difficult to put into words.

In the meantime, I'm spending a lot of time lying around yet finding it difficult to read. I taken to reciting Scripture verses in my mind working my way through various books of the Bible chapter by chapter, recalling the Scripture. It's actually been amazing to realize how much you can actually recall. Likewise, I'm drawn to praising to God in song continually (even though it's only in my mind). Some of my favourites are: "Holy, holy, holy"; "Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul"; "He is Lord"; and "O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth".

So, I'm operating on a three week cycle: The first weds. is the chemo; the following weds. is the CD-40; and the final weds. are tests. Right now, I'm feeling well and the effects of the chemo seem minimal. My mouth does present some problems like sores; irritation; and frankly, my teeth plain hurt like they just had a good clean. Over the next ten days, I plan to consume large quantities of food to get my weight and strength back up to the next round of chemo. I don't know if it's right to pray for gluttony but that's kind of how I'm feeling.

• Be praying that the chemo and CD-40 are doing their job.
   
• My parents are flying back to the USA after having been with us for a month. It will be hard saying goodbye but they've promised to return and I intend to hold them to it.
   
• Praise God; the word is that my special bed will arrive on Weds. so I can move out of the living room recliner and into a bedroom with my wife again.

As you can imagine, this spiritual journey take can one into dark places. I dreamt the other night of driving behind the wheel of a car with the windows fogging up and nothing I could do would clear my outlook. Driving down a crowded road with little certainty of what lies just in front of me. Pray for that Evil One will not have any foothold in my life and in my soul.

May God bless you all.

PS. Drop me an email; I love to hear from you all.

Yours in Christ,

Graham Johnston