Tuesday August 20, 2013

We went to Wenatchee on Friday for a CT scan and a blood draw.  Glenn's white and red cells were too low for him to have a chemo treatment.  Also the Scan revealed that he has big spots on his liver and a spot on his lungs.  The chemo that he was taking was pretty nasty stuff, it caused a lot of pain in Glenn's joints, so it was no picnic.  It was decided that he will no longer be taking chemo.  The cancer is stronger than the treatment.

He has been very tired this past three weeks, so Dr. Smith suggested that he get a blood transfusion.   We stayed in Wenatchee so that he could have it done there.  We left home at 7:30 AM and arrived back home about 8:30 PM, so it was a long day for us.

While we were there, our oldest daughter, Danielle and her husband and son were driving here.  They are here now and will be leaving tomorrow morning.  That is if Danielle can drag herself out of here.  It is good to be able to enjoy their family.

Danielle's son Chase is a very enthusiastic 9 year old boy.  He loves to come and he especially loves to go swimming.  One of my all time favorite things to do is go swimming with my grandchildren.  When they are ready, they let me teach them how to swim.  Most of them have learned to swim in our pool. When Chase started swimming on Saturday morning, he didn't have the breathing rhythm in the crawl stroke.  I worked with him for a few minutes and Voila, now he can swim the length of the pool!

It is so fun to watch each one of them, on their own level, progress from being timid, to jumping into my arms, to playing on their own, to putting their face in the water, to blowing bubbles,  to floating, swimming with their arms and then breathing and swimming!  Then there is diving...their parents have to teach them that!  They are all little fishes and can do all kinds of things that I can't do.  I CAN'T go to the bottom of the pool, I can't dive, I can't stand on my hands (in or out of the water).  Any way, playing with my grandchildren in the pool is one of my all time favorite things to do!

Although we are sad that Glenn's health is going down hill, we have so much to be thankful for. Mostly we are thankful for the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for our temple covenants that bind us together eternally, for the joy of our family.  We have so much to be grateful for at this time of sorrow. I found this scripture and and I think it applies to us:


 "They shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Isaiah 51:11