Where the Wild Things Are

So much good news to tell this week! On a recent weekend, we had Stake Conference at our local Church, and one of the General Authorities, or Church leaders, came from Salt Lake City to visit and to be a speaker. It was Elder Bradley W. Foster of the Seventy. (For members of the Church, you'll recall that he spoke at the recent worldwide General Conference. His talk was entitled, "Mother Told Me", in the Sunday afternoon session.) John and I were so excited to learn that Elder Foster would be coming to our home for a personal visit to us that weekend! What a wonderful, warm, humble man he is. He gave us each a blessing. This is a picture of us with Elder Foster (on the left) and our Stake President. It was truly a memorable visit.

During Stake Conference weekend, John was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood by our son-in-law, Travis. And we have set May 22nd as the date when we will go to the Chicago Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity to each other and to our children! The blessings continue to flow.

Last week John had a head CT scan, his first one since he finished his last radiation treatment on March 6th. Two hours later we sat in the radiation oncologist's office, endlessly waiting for him to come in and tell us the results of the scan. The wait was interminable, and we felt pretty nervous. We definitely had a bad case of what our daughter's friend aptly calls "scanxiety". (Spell check just freaked out over that one.) It was like waiting for the jury to come back. At last he came in and said all the spots in John's brain are "smaller to stable". Hooray! We breathed a sigh of relief, in unison. The tumors are responding, and will continue to respond for up to 3--4 months after the radiation treatments ended. He will have another MRI in two months.

In early June, John will have a CT scan to see how the lung tumor is responding to the Tarceva, the daily chemotherapy pill that he continues to take. His rash (from the Tarceva) flares up now and then. He has trouble taking the oral medication for the rash twice a day and has cut back to once a day; he thought it was making his nausea worse. He really struggles with queasiness and a poor appetite. Constant fatigue and lack of energy are also unwelcome companions that seem to have come to stay for a while.

We've been taking daily walks, though. Our house is right on the Capitol City Trail, and it's a beautiful place to walk, just enchanted-looking, with a real "Secret Garden" atmosphere. Our grandson calls it "Where the wild things are". And yesterday we walked in the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and marveled at the seemingly endless rows of lilac bushes blooming along the paths. We also went to visit Andrew in the Milwaukee area with Hilary, Jack, and Grace. And last week we spent a really enjoyable afternoon with my niece Kate and her husband Randy at their vacation home, Hill House, on seven wooded acres near the Dells. Oh yes, and we play Bananagrams a lot, to stave off "Chemo Brain"! It works!

We find endless reasons to celebrate, and we "press forward, having a perfect brightness of hope,...feasting upon the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 31:20). As Paul taught, God is the "God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation"(2 Corinthians 1:3-4).