Road Trip...

It's Thursday night, and we just got back from the JV football game. Our young Wildcats crushed the Crescent JV Tigers 27-0, and my beautiful Karmen was cheering them on the whole time. She is such a natural cheerleader, all she has to do is be herself and school spirit just flows. Now we are looking forward to tomorrow, as we will travel to Iva to watch Blake and the varsity Wildcats take on the Crescent Tigers. Wildcat fans travel well, and always arrive at away games early to do some tailgating. The food will be delicious and the fellowship will be pleasant. Then we will all go in and yell until we get hoarse.

High school football is a wonderful diversion from this cancer that has turned our world upside down. It all happened so quickly... the pain, the doctor visit, the tests, the scans, the surgery, more tests, more scans, and now... the waiting. I am so pleased with the way everything has progressed, still the waiting is hard. Right now, I'm getting a blood test every week to see if the levels will continue to fall and eventually normalize. This week, the alpha-fetoprotein level (originally over 140) dropped from 14 to 8.3. They want it to be 6.1 or less. The hCG level (originally over 1800) dropped from 57 to 15. It needs to be less than 2.

I am so thankful for wonderful friends and family who have been so gracious throughout all of this. I'm thankful for my church family (Ninety Six First Baptist) and for the many other church families who have been faithful to pray for me every week. I firmly believe that every good test report I've gotten so far has been the result of God's people faithfully lifting my name up to Him. I'm thankful for Dr. Parramore, Dr. Sadurski, and for the good folks at the Self Regional Healthcare Cancer Center, who have been caring and encouraging as I have visited them many times over the past few weeks. I'm thankful for Dr. Harwell who took time from his vacation to administer my anesthesia when I was in surgery.

I am VERY thankful for my wife who has led the charge for me and taken care of all the details relating to my care. I don't know what I would have done without her. I'm thankful for my children who have been so good to me and have lifted my spirits so many times with a hug or an "I love you". I'm thankful for my mom who carried me to appointments so Karen wouldn't miss so much time from her job. I'm thankful for my dad who is doing some home repairs and other things I am not able to do yet.

Most of all, I thank GOD who is and always has been in control of this. He has been with me and never left my side. He is my Lord, my Sovereign, my Healer, my Hope, and my Friend. I'm thankful for doctors who can minister to the body, and they can do so only with the knowledge that He has given them, but healing comes from God alone. I so look forward to my healing.

But enough about me. I started to blog about football, and that's the way I would like to leave it. I look forward to watching my son and his team mates win in a big way tomorrow night. GO WILDCATS!!!