Miracle of life

 Dear friends and family:

This has been an eventful week. Last week my daughter, our third child, was born! It was a delight to hold her in my arms and welcome her into the world. I was able to be in the delivery room during the C-section and be next to my wife as she was being operated on and stitched up afterwards. I was also able to cut the cord and sing for and bless my daughter. What wonder to see her open her beautiful eyes and look around for the first time!

On the afternoon of the delivery, I came down with a fever. I had been chilled in the operating room and then found my biliary drain had been somehow locked in the "off" position, causing bile to leak out around the tube and soak my shirt. Remembering fever as an indicator for sepsis in January, I called into the hospital and was referred to the emergency room. 

That was the last place I wanted to be on the day my daughter was born. Yet I went. I ended up staying five days in the hospital as blood and bile cultures were incubated and an infection was found in the liver. Sensitivity analyses of the bacteria required time as well. During that stay my biliary drain tube was replaced. 

It was a challenging week--I was on the seventh floor in the cancer ward; my wife and daughter were on the seventh floor in the children's hospital. We talked online and prayed to be home together. My heart ached to be with them. The nurses were twice able to arrange for my wife and daughter to visit me during the time when all three of us were in the hospital. Those were sweet moments. 



God did answer prayer. I was able to make it home and am now with the rest of the family and the new baby. I am on IV antibiotics provided by a home healthcare company. 

As a result of this infection, my planned radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which were to have started this past Monday, were postponed another week. 

We continue to fight for life, believing that God has started the healing process. A CT scan during the hospital stay suggested that there was no significant change in the tumor. I want to be there for many years to come for my family and to continue to testify of God's faithfulness and goodness. He is good and has granted new and sustained life. For this we are grateful. 

Thank you for your continued prayer and support! I appreciate your prayers for ongoing healing and for the new addition to our family. 

Blessings and love,

Tim 

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