Celebration

This day, New Year’s Eve, brings two reasons for us to celebrate. There is the obvious ushering in of the New Year, but this is also Eileen’s birthday. Eileen always reads my blog posts… so Happy Birthday!! Eileen’s sister’s family heads back to Illinois this morning. So, we’ll probably spend a little time regrouping and catching up on a few tasks that we’ve let slide over the holidays. Then, we’ll probably spend a quiet evening together, just Eileen and me. There’s a small chance we may spend the late evening with a few friends.

The New Year rings in many resolutions in which we resolve to change all sorts of undesirable habits, behaviors, or life styles. It is said that it takes three weeks to change a habit, so be patient with yourself while being determined to overcome whatever may be your resolution.

I have a request to end this year. I have a good friend who goes for a biopsy on January 3^rd. Biopsies are never routine and always carry a degree of apprehension. We pray that her biopsy is negative and her fears are allayed. May her results bring cause for celebration!!

Skype

I just finished a conversation on Skype with my brother who is on vacation in North Carolina. Earlier today, Eileen’s sister’s family talked on Skype to their daughter who is visiting Germany. We talk to our daughter and our son's family on Skype regularly. For those not familiar with Skype, it is a free service which allows one to have a video/audio conversation with anyone in the world through a computer camera.

Well, whether it is Skype or another mode of communication, conversation is a very important aspect of relationships. Too often, time and distance creates disharmony in relationships as we don’t make the necessary efforts to nurture the relationship. Come to think of it, it doesn’t really take distance to precipitate communications falling apart; it just takes a lackadaisical effort towards a relationship. When we think of it, much of our happiness is found in the relationships we have with God, family, and friends. It’s good to keep those relationships in good communication!!

An Immunization

I’ve had my share of do-nothing days in my life but yesterday was the first one in a while. Eileen’s sister’s family arrived from Illinois and I spent most of the day in front of the TV watching football. I’ve missed watching a lot of football games this year but caught up on a few yesterday. I hope to watch a lot of bowl games in the coming week or so. I’m glad my brother-in-law is a big football fan.

Our granddaughter got her first immunization yesterday. She cried a bit but otherwise the rest of her doctor’s visit went well. You know, an immunization is a lot like many things in life; they are painful but necessary. If we only do what is easy or what is not painful, we will often find ourselves on the wrong side of life. I’m not just speaking physically, but especially mentally and emotionally. Many Right decisions we are to make as a parent, spouse, citizen, and Christian are emotionally challenging and painful. However, if we shy away from them we will reap some of life’s harshest repercussions. It certainly takes courage to live life in an engaged manner. It takes sustained courage to live life in a righteously engaged manner. Yet, like an immunization, if we stay focused on the benefits rather than on the pain, we’ll end up counting our blessings rather than counting the cost.

Family Time

I don’t mean to belabor my symptoms but especially with more leukemia patients reading the blog, I need to address them a bit more than I usually do. But don’t worry; I don’t dwell on them in my day-to-day living. I seek to live life and enjoy it!!

We were blessed to have our children home for Christmas. I know that won’t always be the case. In fact, they weren’t all home last year on Christmas day. But as the children get older, their own family obligations don’t always make it possible. Either way, our thoughts and prayers are always with the families who aren’t together because they have a family member(s) serving this nation. It’s one thing to be separated at Christmas because of certain circumstances but it is quite another to be separated because one is willingly serving the nation. It’s a sacrifice which keeps giving.

We’ve had a great time with our granddaughter. Prior to her going home on Monday, she was here since December 5^th. She’s two months old now and I held her until my arm was about to fall off. Actually, I did have to limit my holding time because my arm pain got to be too much. That was hard to do. I have a high pain tolerance but when it starts making me sick, I have to back down. But she will be back here on Wednesday though, and through the weekend and so I’m recuperating as fast as I can. I’ll be ready!! Indeed, we are enjoying our family time.

Navigating Cancer

Over the course of writing this blog for the past year-and-a-half, I’ve sometimes wondered if the effort is worth it. I certainly get less feedback on it than when I wrote daily and I’ve gotten several requests to write daily again. I’m still weighing that option. Anyway, I’m always thankful for the faithful readers who continue reading the blog. Otherwise, some people that I think should read the blog don’t, but then I’m always amazed to learn of new readers. Monday evening I learned that this blog was added to Navigating Cancer’s resource page. Here is a link: http://www.navigatingcancer.com/cancer/leukemia-chronic-my You’ll see my blog under “Chronic Myeloid Blogs.” I welcome new readers from this website and pray that your cancer journey goes well.

For the first time since December 5^th, our house is back to its normal crew when our son’s family left for their home on Monday. On Tuesday, the following day, we have more relatives coming in. So, Eileen and I spent the day at the store restocking groceries and running a few errands. The wind chill was in the twenties when we went out this morning. It was brutally cold. For new readers to the blog, I have a neurovascular condition in my right arm which makes me very sensitive to coolness, breezes, and temperature changes. Cold weather is especially hard on me. This adds to and complicates my Gleevec symptoms. In fact, I’m writing this post late at night after being unable to sleep because of my ills. As I was saying though, we went shopping and ran errands. Eileen wanted me to stay at home but I didn’t want her to have to do everything herself. She does so much anyway. Besides, with so much company this month, it is nice to find some time to spend just with her. And so, I’m fighting everything a bit tonight. Although I’ll likely start writing a little more often, I hope it’s not so late at night!!

End of the Calendar

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and will seek a blessed upcoming year.
We’ve had family at our house all of December and it will continue into the New Year. So, it’s been a wonderful month. This cold weather, however, is a different matter all together. It has made my arm go crazily bad, my Gleevec muscle cramps worse, and my Gleevec rash worse - - - as the temperature dips. In addition, the effort I spend fighting these off is effort I can’t spend fighting my stomach. And so, although it’s been a wonderful month, it has not been without its challenges. I need the temperature to warm up and I’m in great need of quality rest.
As a final thought for this calendar year, I want to leave you with this which came to mind last night: Those who accept failure are inviting a lifetime full of it. It seems to me that the important things in our life are worth fighting for. That is, our faith, family, and country are the center of what really makes life worth living. It’s best that we not accept failure in any of those areas. Once we begin accepting failure, it easily becomes the norm. We need to rise up and claim what is Right.

Merry Christmas!!

Our children are gathering with us like so many across this globe to celebrate Christmas together. While commercialization of Christmas continues to dominate, I hope and pray that we all center on Christmas' true meaning and significance. Thus, may you all have a blessed Christmas and Holy-day season.

This Time of Year

I should have mentioned last week that my blog was named one of the top leukemia sites by the Online X-ray Technicians Schools. I’m glad they like the blog and I am happy too that you continue to read it.
I’ve been feeling pretty well recently considering everything. My stomach continues to do better as I restrict beef and pork. I still get deep boring pains in my stomach that sometimes keep me awake at night, and I still have to take all my stomach medicine. However, overall, my stomach is improved.The cold weather is wreaking havoc on my arm. The worst of it is that it makes holding our granddaughter a challenge at times. However, I have a very high pain tolerance and my arm could all but fall off before I stop holding that child!! Actually, I try to be careful and mindful of my arm even when holding her.
Christmas time is fast approaching and I hope that we all remember that Christmas is all about Christ. It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the Christmas parties, shopping, and family gatherings. However, our nation has gotten lost in the commercialization of Christmas and it’s easy for us to get wrapped up in it too. I pray we take time to reconnect with our Creator and Savior during this very busy and often demanding time. A little humility and reassessment of our spiritual status can go a long way in reestablishing who we are and whose we are, especially during this time of year.

Twitter

I’ve been doing the Twitter thing. There are people I follow and there are people who follow what I say. With Twitter, the comments are limited to 140 characters per message. In researching people to follow, I would read a few of their comments. If it sounded good, I’d select “follow”. In researching Catholic sites, I noticed that most of them centered on the Church and/or the Pope. In researching Protestant sites, they mostly centered on Bible verses or famous Christian sayings. Despite being Catholic, and especially considering my last post (“Church at the Center”), I have to give kudos to the Protestant sites. It’s our relationship with our Lord, not the Church, which forms our faith.

If you are a Tweeter, I can be found at mgdoss.