God is so good.

Tomorrow is another visit to our home away from home, Duke Medical Center.  I will get a Hickman port installed, which is just a fancy way of saying they will install a couple of plastic lines in my chest that connect to some large veins.  These will be used to administer my chemotherapy, and the raft of other drugs that I will be receiving over the next few weeks.  It keeps down the wear and tear of getting stuck with needles every time you turn around.

This week we will be staying in Durham on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, before returning home on Friday.  A few nights of sleeping in our own bed, and then it is back to Duke next Wednesday.  I will be admitted to the hospital for high dose chemotherapy, but Holly will have to stay close by, until I am discharged from the hospital the following Tuesday.  We will then need to stay nearby for a minimum of three weeks, so that I can make daily visits to the transplant clinic for my daily blood work and reassessment.  That works out to about 30 nights that we will need to be staying somewhere near Duke in the next 5 weeks.

When someone is diagnosed with cancer, there are a multitude of issues and concerns that must be dealt with, some right away and others later on.  One of these issues is finances.  Treating cancer is not cheap. and depending on the type of treatment required, whether or not you will be able to work, what type of insurance coverage is available, etc., the financial consequences of a cancer diagnosis can be, in some instances, almost as devastating as the disease itself.  Having to spend 30 nights in a hotel with no cooking capabilities, can add up to very large expenses very quickly.  Staying in some type of apartment may reduce the cost of eating out, but generally is much more expensive than hotels.  Trying to determine answers to this aspect of treatment simply adds to the stress and anxiety levels, that are already excessive.

Back in the early days of our journey with this monster, we knew that this would be something that we would need to address at some later time.  But we knew that the Lord was well aware of our many needs, and that somehow he would prepare the way.  Whenever we reached that point, he would show us the where and how.  Part way through the clinical trial chemotherapy phase, we met with Dr. Horwitz and the bone marrow transplant team, to explore BMT as a possible future option.  During that visit we were told that Duke would provide us with a local apartment from the time I was discharged from the hospital until we were released to return home.  This apartment would be made available to us at no cost.  What a blessing.  We were so relieved and so grateful.

As suprising and wonderful as the news about the apartment was, that still left 6 or 8 nights, before and during my hospital stay, that would need to be addressed.  With the majority of our housing requirement already taken care of, we would see about making arrangements for the remainder as the time grew nearer.  Our daughter lives about 4 hours away in western North Carolina, and attends a weekly bible study group with some of friends.  She had asked them to pray for me, and provided them with periodic updates on my progress.  She had apparently mentioned our temporary housing need at some point, because one of her friends commented that her in-laws lived not far from Duke and had a guest house, and she would mention this to them.  Recently, we were told that we were welcome to stay at their guest house as needed, at no expense to us.

Often, we get so busy with our daily lives, with our worries and aches and pains, with our relationships with other people, with the many things that occupy our minds, that we miss the many ways that God is working in our lives.  The many ways, both large and small, that He is preparing our paths and providing for our needs.  He doesn't always do things in quite the way that we might have imagined or preferred, because I have yet to get that fancy sports car that would just thrill my heart.  But He is always there, and always watching out for each and every one of us.  His blessing are many and His love is so pure and complete.  God is so good.