My dear friend,

This morning I had a very encouraging email from a friend in India, "We are praying in Delhi!"  Wow! I am privileged! Thank you for praying in                      (please fill in the blank)

Little by little I am regaining energy and doing a bit more. Sometimes working out how to do a small task with one strong hand and one very feeble hand takes longer than doing it... but the achievement of being able to accomplish simple tasks does spur me on. Why, today I tugged the lid off the deodorant myself!

Very early yesterday morning we set out for Dr Richie-Gillespie's clinic in Fort Worth.  Two weeks ago Sammy Sarcoma was ripped from his comfortable billet in the muscles in my forearm.  My surgeon was very pleased with the healing process along the length of the scar, and now I am allowed to shower! Yeah! Baby steps towards normality! It will, however, be another two to four weeks before the staples come out.

Dr Richie Gillespie also told me that the next two weeks will be crucial in the recovery phase for the muscles in my arm.  She recommended some exercises to keep my elbow from stiffening and others to maximize the function I will ultimately have in my thumb and forefinger. Trying to use my arm, I find, sometimes sets up pain spasms, so please pray I will persevere through appropriate pain to achieve good mobility. I'm really thrilled that a Wycliffe colleague who is a qualified physiotherapist has offered to help me with these exercises. Thank you Marcia:-)

Dr Richie-Gillespie shared the results from the pathology lab.  Sammy had shrunk a lot during the radiation and chemotherapy. An answer to prayer and great treatment, right!  About four fifths of the tumor the surgeon removed was dead.  However, the still-live part of the excised tumor was about the size of a golf ball and resting right on the deep muscles.  A few live cancer cells could possibly be left in the muscle of my arm.

I asked my amazing surgeon, "What's next?"  The reply was clear: "I want to take this step by step"  So, we won't know for a few weeks what the next phase of the treatment will involve.  My three doctors will work together to decide whether I will have more radiation, or chemotherapy, or whether, because so much of the tumor was dead, the treatment I had before surgery will be sufficient for now.  Whatever happens, I am expecting regular appointments and scans to check that there are no signs of Sammy's offspring growing at the original site or anywhere else in my body.

Mmmm...step by step... As you can see, the war is not yet over. Please keep praying, especially for full healing from the surgery, and the best possible recovery for my thumb and fore finger. And, for dangerous live cancer cells to lose their power. God can do amazing things, you know.  Pray that my three wonderful women doctors will make wise decisions about future treatment.

As often happens to me, words of a song have begun to sing in my mind:

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You

I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

May that be true for me, and for you. Thank you for your friendship, your loving concern and the prayers in your hometown. Smiles...

Stepping along with you,

June