October 29 Day 186

Hi Everyone,
October 22nd was my 6 month mark and my doctor seemed really pleased by it. It must be a good sign!!! I am doing OK but have been having issues all along. I still have the blood clot, although it has gotten smaller and I'm still on the blood thinners. I'll probably be on them thru February. The shingles have faded so you can barely see them but they still hurt. It's really weird having the pain when they seem to be gone and I'm looking forward to having the pain be gone too! My father-in-law had them for a year so hopefully mine won't last that long, but you never know. I had a PSA test done a while ago that showed readings that were too high, and they think I might have prostate cancer. I went to a urologist and after he examined me he said that we would wait until March or April and do the test again because the high reading might have been from an infection I had a few weeks before I had the test done. He said that prostate cancer is very slow growing and not much would happen between now and March so it's OK to wait. Normally they would do a biopsy but they don't want to do it now because I'm still on the blood thinners. When I was at the urologist he informed me that I have a hernia. I hadn't noticed it but about a week later we were moving some boxes in the garage and that night it was more pronounced, I can really tell I have one now. My bone marrow doctor sent a referal to the surgeons, who will figure out if it needs to be repaired now or if it can wait. I'm thinking they'll do it soon cause it's a little painful now and they won't want it to get worse. They also found that my blood sugar reading was in the range of being diabetic so I've been testing myself but the readings have been only slightly high when I do it. The high readings (I've been told) could have been from some of the meds I'm taking so they aren't too concerned right now. My spirits are still high but it is frustrating because it seems like things just keep coming at me, one right after the other. I would really like to be well and healthy again so I can do all the things I did before, but that's in God's hands, and I trust Him completely.
In his sermon last Sunday my pastor said that when he died he would like to be martyred. I thought that was kindof a strange thing to say until I thought about it. If we are really sold out for Christ, then we would be able to do that, to be martyred for Him. Quite a lot of Christians down thru the centuries have been, and I have wondered how they were able to do that, or if I would ever be able to do that, because it's such a huge thing to do for Christ. My pastor said the secret is to do all the little things for Christ, then if it ever came time that God wanted us to do something huge like that for Christ, we would be able to. The little things (obeying Him, helping others who aren't as fortunate, etc) are things we can do every day, right now. The bible says that if we're Christians, we're just visitors here on earth, our real home is in heaven with God, FOREVER!!! I'm not saying you'll have to be a martyr, but it's truly something to think about, no?
IN HIS HANDS,
Ernie