15 Sep 2006

To All,

Well, here it is halfway through September and I am on my 22nd day at UW Hospital, this stay. I think if I added all the time up that I have spent here since last October 14 it would be somewhere around 6 full months.

Anyway, I am still in the hospital due to the continuing fevers and the fact that the doctors have not been able to identify and eliminate the source.

Despite this fact, our wonderful Doctor is pressing to continue on to the next leg of this journey by going through with a second stem cell transplant. As you would expect, there are a great many hurdles to clear in order to accomplish this - most of which deal with the insurance and their approval, the other minor hurdle is that I stay as healthy as I am currently.

Areas for prayer for me and my family include the following:

1. Devine intervention and healing, with or with out the Doctors and medical treatment.

2. If the above healing involves doctors and medical treatment, then prayer that what the doctors want to do the Insurance Company will approve - the insurance company is now questioning the logic of performing a second stem cell transplant and assessing the statistics of success.

3. That God will continue to watch after my two wonderful children in my absence. Many of you have invited them to special events and/or sent cards and more. Thank you so much - you have no idea how much help this has truly been.

4. Praise God for Gene's work place and his work associates who have also been very supportive from the very beginning, with out faltering. In addition to Gene's Army National Guard Unit.

5. Praise for the Church family and my family and friends who continue to shower me with e-mails, cards, letters, phone calls, prayers, humor, meals at home and visits (plus many other things). All of these have helped me to maintain my spirits.

6. Praise God for the fact that even though I have periods where my heart and morale sink very low and I breakdown in tears, there is always a ray of sunshine, a verse, a friend or someone close that helps me to see clearly again that strong faith is the only way.

I don't know what lies ahead for me regarding treatment, but I pray that it will be decided soon so that once again I can go about the business God appointed to me of being a Godly influence to my children and the children at church in Sunday school.

Love in Christ

Cheryl and Family