"Overall, going in the right direction"

Those were the words of my doctor after our review of the labs today. There are 4 indicators that he referenced. These numbers show improvement by decreasing in value because they are measuring the disease.The most important one stayed the same. We had hoped for better but at least it didn't increase. I will not give you technical terms (e.g. Beta Z M) but quote the numbers. These are all changes since the last month. One decreased from ~33,000 to ~14,000 which is an improvement of 55%. Another decreased from ~10 to 5.7 which is a 43% improvement. Most encouraging is that the kidney indicator dropped from 2.8 to 2.4. This 14% drop in a month indicates that my kidneys are responding (Yeah!). We asked the doctor what the goals are and he said that they have to  return to normal. Even with these improvements I am a long way from normal (some of you may assert that I was never normal in the first place). Yesterday I started the new cutting edge chemo and the doctor is hoping it will accelerate this good trend because it needs to move faster. He is still "amazed"(his word) that I am not sick. He is glad of the level of nearly normal activity that I am able to maintain because he believes it is a key to my health. With my blood count up, I am feeling really well. I may start riding the bike to school again.

Spiritually. Sometimes circumstances make it easy to praise God. Velda and I (as well as our doctor) were pretty upbeat today. We felt like we have made it over a hump. Velda provided the verse for this blog entry. Jeremiah chapter 33. In verse 3 God says to "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Many Christians have found comfort in this verse. We as well as many of you have been consistently calling and will continue faithfully. Thank you all. Later in verses 6b and 7 God says "Behold . . . I will cure them, and reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first." God has provided me and my family with an abundance of peace and we are putting our hope in Him to build me back up as I was at the first.