Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Greetings,

  Yesterday Michele had her last scheduled Intrathecal procedure. Before injecting the Methotrexate into her spine, they withdrew a generous amount of spinal fluid for pathological tests. After the procedure, we made our way to the Oncology suite where Michele received a bag of saline solution to give her a boost. The next scheduled appointment is for January 15th to meet with the Oncologist. He will have the results from pathology by then and will tell us what our next course of action will be.

  The intrathecal procedure does leave Michele with a few days of discomfort, although nothing as severe as the massive Methotrexate treatments did. Her left arm and hand are always the most affected, but the nerves going to her legs get agitated as well. If this turns out to be the last of the treatments, she should be able to start taking vitamins again in 2 or 3 weeks and see some hair begin to grow back. Michele is anxious to restart her occupational therapy for her left hand and arm, which we will do soon, Lord willing.

  We are now in the 7th month since we began incurring medical expenses, and Samaritan Ministries has been great about publishing our needs. Other Samaritan members have faithfully sent their checks, which has enabled us to keep up with the steady flow of bills. But there is a catch, which has me (Tim) concerned. The plan we are enrolled in has a cap of $250,000.00 per event, and we are rapidly approaching that amount of published need. Now I want to go on record that I am quite certain God will meet all our needs, but at the same time, I need to confess that this situation increases my pucker-factor. I share this for two reasons: (1) So that you may pray with us for God to glorify Himself in this situation; and, (2) That you can follow along as God answers prayer and meets our needs. I'll keep you posted. It should be exciting.

  Pray too for Michele's mom, who was recently hospitalized with a congestive heart issue, but is now home again. We have not been to see Michele's family in California for more than 3 years and are really looking forward to Michele being able to travel again, so we can visit. My mom turned 92 in November and it's been a year since we've seen her too, so that will be another much anticipated trip.

  Thanks for following us on this journey.

With love,

Tim and Michele