God's Faithfulness to Us

I'm not able to sleep tonight, my arms and shoulders are hurting too much so I came downstairs for some warm milk. Since we have not updated the blog, I thought I would drink my hot cocoa and write a note.

A friend emailed recently and encouraged me with this "we’ve seen God do amazing things in your life as you waited on Him – He will carry you through this too." She reminded me of all the amazing and miraculous things I have witnessed God do for our family. I am very blessed to be able to clearly see God's hand in my trials as well as my joys. God is so faithful to us - our family's song that we sing EVERY night to the girls since they were babies is "Great is Thy Faithfulness".

Nana (my birth mom from CA) is here helping take care of the girls, Jack, and me. The girls have had a lot of fun playing with her and she has helped "run the house". She has brought a lot of laughter and fun (she even smiles while changing Jaclyn's dirty diapers :-) while wearing a full princess dressup outfit with a pink diamond tiara, big pink tulle tutu, silver wand, and high heals that Julia had dressed her in :-) ).

They increased my Methotrexate pills on Friday (the chemo drug that is a total immune suppressor). Please pray that helps completely stop my immune system from attacking my muscles and that I am able to stay well. (Somehow, I am supposed to stay away from sick people - the doctor's don't understand that 2 and 5 year olds are always passing along fun "bugs" :-) ). My Immunologist said his hope in the next weeks is that these drugs (along with the Steroids) will get rid of the burning pain in my arms, shoulders, and hips. Until then, I am supposed to continue with the "arm rest" so I am not allowed to do anything that causes pain (more muscle damage). After they finally stop the antibodies that are attacking (and therefore the pain will be gone), they will immediately have me start physical therapy to gain back my muscle strength. The doctors plan to keep me on Methotrexate for the next 6 months to a year (hoping this will not allow me to have a relapse and to stay in remission). Please pray as they are still trying to figure out how many steroid infusions I'll need depending on how my body responds to the new combination of meds (they said it is a fine balance to not hurt my body with the medication but give me enough to stop the attack completely). I'll for sure be getting steroid infusions along with the steroid pills through the summer and they will re-evaluate at that time.

The pain in my arms, shoulders, and hips seems to be improving the last couple of days, as long as I don't pick up anything too heavy. Obviously, it is worse at night and the prescription sleep pills they gave me are not working well enough :-). I still can't drive so it has been hard on me to depend on people for rides and the loss of that independence. Boy, I will NEVER take good health for granted again or the ease of jumping in your car and driving to where you want to go.

My walk with the Lord has really grown through this whole experience. I am so blessed to see how God is taking the bad and making it into good. The verse I am memorizing right now that has brought me great comfort is Isaiah 58:8, "Your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard."

Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Love,
Michelle