Believe God

Hello everyone.  I am pleased write my first blog post today, August, 9, 2008.  I would like to thank J.D. (Dave) Pendry, a great friend, who has created the blog and offered it to me to use.  Thanks, Dave!  Please visit his site at his link on the menu on this page.

As I begin writing today, I bring first the latest news of my husband’s health.  Chuck was diagnosed with severe emphysema about 12 years ago and was diagnosed with esophageal and stomach cancer a year ago in August 2007.  I’ve been sending out updates on his health via email and I hope to convert those writings to this blog.  

This past week, without question, was the most difficult week of Chuck’s life, and therefore the hardest week I’ve ever had, too.  Last Tuesday morning Chuck woke up with severe pain in his upper left chest area, a head full of congestion that was causing his nose to pour and was unable to breathe without the assistance of his Bipaps unit, which is a pump with oxygen attached to a mask that keeps him breathing at night.  This unit was prescribed several years ago when he was diagnosed with severe apnea.

When Chuck tried to take the mask off, he was unable to breathe without it, but he was struggling to clear his head of the drainage at the same time.  For quite some time that morning, he thought he was going to die.  We spent that day and the following day caring for him and praying.  

Hospice came on Wednesday and the nurse and social worker spent most of the day with Chuck.  The nurse assessed his condition and obtained some medications from the doctor and the social worker spent some profitable time with us going over where we are with Chuck’s health and where we’re headed.  We talked about many end-of-life issues and also about serious decisions and planning concerning the suffering of suffocation.  

They delivered a hospital bed that day to offer Chuck the ability to incline while trying to sleep because his chest hurt horribly when he tried to lie flat and he had slept in a recliner the night before.  What a strange sight in our living room!  I would walk through the living room and wonder how that thing got there.  Chuck was unable Tuesday and most of Wednesday to walk much farther than from one room to the next and most of the time was barely able to just sit and breathe.  He struggled so very badly.

It was not an event we anticipated we’d have to face at this time.  It came with no notice and it brought Chuck to do and say some things he needed to do and say.  He emailed his sons and said some things he wanted to say.  He tracked down and called an old friend from his past and apologized for something that happened years ago.  He spoke with me about details we hadn’t faced yet.  He contacted his daughter and siblings.  He had begun to prepare himself and others for his death.

But God had other plans.  We don’t know why his breathing took such a drastic turn nor why his chest hurt so badly.  Over the next two days his breathing eased and so did the pain.  On Friday he was scheduled for a chemo treatment but was unable to leave the house.  The chemo nurse scheduled him to see the oncologist on Tuesday of this week to determine whether he should continue with the chemo, take a break from it, or stop it altogether.  

By the time Tuesday came along, his breathing was much improved.  He and the doctor agreed that he should try another round of chemo and then take about 10 days off, then resume his previous schedule of another 3 weekly treatments.  He received the treatment Tuesday and that afternoon was breathing much better.  Wednesday and Thursday have also been good breathing days for him.  We remembered that when he took chemo initially last fall that each treatment did seem to ease his breathing.  

So for whatever reason, Chuck is doing much better than last week and we are so thankful!

Chuck’s oldest son, Ryan, came for the weekend and spent time with his dad which also lifted his spirits.  They enjoyed time together, talking, laughing and just being together.  What a blessing.  His youngest son, Chad, plans to come this week and his 2 sisters are planning a weekend trip August 15th.  So we will be blessed yet again with the company of loved ones.  

Please accept our thanks for prayers, cards, emails, visits, and words of encouragement and hope.  A special thanks goes out to those who have served us in so many ways and continue to do so.  We also appreciate all of you who want to serve but for many reasons cannot right now.  We are in that place with others as well sometimes.  

God did give me an opportunity to speak to others about His faithfulness, His love, and His mercy last Saturday.  I visited with a great group of women who tutor students in a Christian home school program.  They were such a blessing to me and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to minister to them.  Please pray for them as they, like many of you, begin to gear up for school to start.

Please also pray for other opportunities I have for speaking engagements and those not yet known.  Pray that God would use our circumstances to show Himself to others as our great God of provision and strength.  Pray that I would be faithful in delivering the Word of God appropriately and effectively, to the glory of God and that I would deliver it with the attitude of Christ.  Please continue to pray for Chuck’s healing and for my strength and joy.

Thank you again.  I continue to pray for you as well.  

Ann Georgi, Believing God; Privileged to Serve Jesus Christ