March, 2006
Wednesday, March 29th. This was the scene at our house this afternoon. Many of our neighbors and friends organized a raking and yard reconfiguring party for us today. To all of you who made the outside of our house look like human beings actually do live here, THANK YOU! It was a great gift to our family.
In other news, Christie had her fourth treatment last Friday. The biggest shock of the whole procedure was that Christie's port . . . actually . . . worked! When my wife called me during the treatment with the staggering news, I could not quite comprehend it. What a blessing from God! I still can't really believe it and I have to confess that I had given up praying that it would function again. Another exceptional answer to prayer was the fact that her blood levels had rebounded well from the previous treatment. That has been (and will naturally continue to be) a major concern and God has provided for her to be holding fairly steady from treatment to treatment.
As our 12-year old mentioned in the update of the 21st (below), our one year-old son had acquired the stomach flu last Tuesday. Well, he had it for five days and it appeared that all the rest of the Turnbulls were going to escape it. It appeared that way . . . until Saturday night! In one single night that has become a blurred memory of cleaning floors and cleaning products and that will live in infamy in the darker pages of the history of this family all five daughters gave hearty evidence of their having shared in their brother's affliction. Naturally, mom and dad slept little. But the real tragedy of the whole affair was that Christie got it on Sunday night. That is not good for a woman so pregnant and on chemotherapy. As a consequence, we spent a big part of Monday at the clinic where Dr. Pitts prescribed for her what Dr. Bracket always prescribed on Emergency! She had 2000 ml of Ringers Lactate. Even so, she has continued to feel poorly since then and we may visit the doctor again tomorrow. As it is in so many other situations, it was our three year-old who came through with the utterance that makes the whole ordeal worth it. Last night, very shortly after throwing up, she heard me talking to her mother about my intention to leave to go to the store for some supplies. "Dad," she said, " I need a cheeseburger and a Carmel Macchiato."
Saturday, March 25th. I spent a really long time writing some thoughts on the structure of the universe and where we came from and realized quickly that it really did not belong as part of the chronicle of Christie's progress. If you are interested, please click on this link: On Design
Tuesday, March 21st. Today we drove to the nearby "big" town of Wenatchee for our first field trip during my tenure as head teacher at home. Two weeks ago the students of Greenwood Hall Academy put out their first newspaper. It was a logical thing to do given that their grandparents (Miles and Jane) published weekly newspapers in Utah and Washington for twenty years, and their great-grandfather and great-grandmother (Harold and Mildred) published the Diagonal Reporter (in Diagonal, Iowa) for nearly 50 years! It is likely and hopeful that they have ink in their veins. Anyway, it was a great pleasure to take a tour of the Wenatchee World's printing facility. Teresa, our tour guide, loves her job and made it a great time for us.
ATTENTION! The following brief travelogue and announcement was written and designed by our twelve-year-old:
The downside of the day was when our brother revealed that he had caught an internal disruption and surprisingly vomited while we were in the car. We now know that he likely has the stomach flu. Please pray for our family as we go yet another time through the valley of the shadow of stomach flu. Mom is dealing remarkably well with this surprising turn of events.
And finally, the event you've all been waiting for........................"
The Grand Name Announcement! The name is:
Thank you for all your great suggestions and help!
(This is her dad back in control of the keyboard. After a brief scuffle, resembling a staged fight on the bridge of the starship Enterprise--complete with lots of grunting and suspenseful background music--I am now back at the helm of the computer. We did think, however, it was a fitting privilege for the oldest sister to get to announce the great news.)
After the making of many lists and many scratchings-out of possibilities, we have finally decided on Isabella Vivian as the name of Little Girl Turnbull. Our primary concern was that her name have a great meaning. Isabella means "pledged to God." Vivian (which was the proposal for her first name for two weeks) means "full of life."
She had yet another ultrasound on Monday to measure her growth in comparison to that which was predicted by her gestational age. This is one of the best ways to determine whether or not she is being affected by the chemotherapy. She measured right on target! Praise God for His mercy. Here are some of the many pictures the nice lady who performed the ultrasound printed for Christie.
Just one more picture from the past week. If you didn't know the context, this could really be a still shot from a horror movie. Doesn't it appear that I am intent on shaving not just the hair, but the skin, off the side of our son's head? And doesn't he look like an unwilling victim? Whatever it looks like, it cannot be a training video for aspiring barbers who want to specialize in pediatrics. Notice, the "barber" in this picture is gripping the clippers (as well as biting the tongue) with too much force to convey the impression of confidence. And the "barbee" in the picture is never going to be classified as "another satisfied customer." In truth, after he got used to the noise, he really liked the idea of getting his second haircut.
This week has been one of the hardest for us. Thank you again for praying for the Turnbulls. We are looking ahead to Christie's fourth A+C chemo treatment on Friday.
Wednesday, March 15th. Although the last two days have included some nausea and a degree of fatigue, we look back on the previous thirteen days in wonder. Christie has had so much energy and has been the owner of a settled stomach for over a week and a half! What a great answer to prayer and gift from God. The wonder only increased when we got the results from her blood draw on Monday, which showed her levels at their lowest. It just doesn't make sense that she would be feeling better than she has since she started chemotherapy. Though her levels are a great concern and something we are praying about, we have enjoyed these days and are reminded that God is walking with and ahead of us every single day.
Last Friday we drove over the passes to Seattle to have a very detailed ultrasound on our daughter's heart. This time a doctor performed the entire ultrasound. (Often, when we have cardiac ultrasounds on Turnbull children, the doctor just visits with us at the end to review the pictures.) He said things looked entirely normal. I am not sure the word "normal" applies to a little girl who is enduring surgeries, chemotherapy and other daring feats, but to hear him say that was another substantial cause for rejoicing. One of the chemo drugs is potentially a threat to cardio-health and so we were particularly encouraged by the news. Since we had to go to the big city, we decided to spend the night and make a getaway of it for mom and dad. We had a superb time and we want to thank everyone who helped our kids have a superb time when we were away. It was almost as if they did not miss us.
Tomorrow Christie has another ultrasound in Wenatchee to look at our daughter's overall development in comparison with her gestational age. We look forward to knowing how that turns out. Below is one of the prime passages in John that gives one of the best and clearest pictures of Christ, the One who made all of us. It's a perennial favorite.
21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” 23 Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
John 11:21-27
Wednesday, March 8th. In a stunning turn of events, my wife has had five full days free of nausea and free of chemo-fatigue! We are happily perplexed. We are super-grateful to God who made the heavens and the earth and mercifully rules all things, for granting Christie this window of relief. (By the way, "super" has become my wife's favorite prefix over the last two months. If you want to start an "I can talk like Christie Turnbull" fan club, just add the word "super" onto the front of most of your adjectives. For example, instead of simply saying that your hamburger was "delicious," you can ramp up the descriptive power by saying something like this, in Christie-fashion: Mmmmm. That was a super-yummy hamburger. Think about changing your vocabulary for a few days as an act of solidarity with Chris. It will likely catch on in your circle of friends and make you the trendsetter.) Anyway, it often has happened over the course of the last three treatments that there have been days when my wife was nauseated, but not particularly exhausted. Or, conversely, she has often been super-fatigued, (note use of crucial prefix) and not nauseated. There are quite a few days when she is both. But not since early November has she had a string of days with neither! It is hard to communicate how encouraging that is to both of us. Thank you for interceding on behalf of my wife.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverances; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. --Psalm 68:19-20
Speaking of encouragement, I have been enjoying these verses at the end of Psalm 27 over the past couple of weeks: I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord (vv.13-14). As this last verse plainly states, there is a time to wait for God. This passage makes it clear that for a human being who follows God, there will be times when a main portion of what it looks like to be faithful involves waiting. It is a command. If you think about it for a minute, it becomes manifest that the act of waiting necessarily involves some kind of desire or hope that is deferred over time. I don't wait for things I don't want. And, in our society, many things I want, I don't have to wait very long for (like a super-delicious hot bowl of oatmeal [which is one of the best breakfasts known to mankind]). But there are many longings and needs that we experience that do not have immediate satisfaction. This cancer generates an abundance of desires and needs. There is so much we don't know. Does Christie have cancer in other organs? Is the chemotherapy working? Is our little baby girl being shielded from the chemotherapy? God knows the answer to these questions. And rather than satisfy our need for knowledge right now (or even the need and desire for healing) He rightly calls us to trust Him and wait. If Christie and I are going to enjoy obedience to the Lord during this difficult time, it means that we will be satisfied to wait on God.
But I think the most encouraging thing about this set of verses is that it has a current of hope flowing under it. First, people do see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And when we look at how life is going, it is apparent that we are seeing His goodness everyday in so many big and small ways. This past five days of no nausea/no fatigue is a goodness that we savor, for example. But we also hope that whatever God provides to happen in the future, His goodness will be part of our experience. Secondly, there is a manner in which He tells us to wait on Him: be strong and let your heart take courage. So, to wait on Him faithfully means that we should actually be about the business of waiting on Him. But it also means that because of His excellent character, because of His ultimate victory over darkness and sin and death, and because of His goodness, we can and should wait in strength and with courage. How happy is the man whose face is bright in the midst of harsh winter, because he rightly knows that the warmth and mildness of Spring marches inexorably closer.
Friday, March 3rd. It was an incredibly smooth chemo treatment today. Thanks be to God for the great strength He gave my wife. A foremost feature of the day's events was the kind and professional treatment Christie received from her doctors today. Though Dr. Smith was the only oncologist on duty today (whereas there are normally four), she took ample time to inquire after my wife's symptoms and to discuss how the treatments are affecting her. In addition, we learned something about Dr. Smith that surely is part of the reason she is such an excellent physician. She loves Utah. She spent large parts of her childhood in the Southern Utah desert. As everyone knows, Southern Utah is the epitome of what is grand and elegant and prodigious about God's creation. It really is God's country. At any rate, Dr. Smith loves it and so should all oncologists, doctors and human beings.
Then, Dr. Pitts (though he was on-call) sat in the room with us and answered even more questions from the Turnbulls. We inquired about how exactly it will work to try to induce the baby to come four weeks early. He explained the various scenarios. He sat there as though he was not hurried and he showed, once again, how much he really cares for his patients. It doesn't seem quite fair, however, that he gives much more attention to my wife's needs than mine. Nevertheless, we are continually thankful for him and his good advice and great care.
Thanks to all of you who prayed for Christie today. Even though the port did not work, the IV did exactly what it was supposed to. In fact, the Adriamycin did not hurt as much as it has in times past and the whole treatment went remarkably smoothly. Another reason we give thanks to God was that Christie's blood levels were very good. Actually, her white blood cell count--one of those that matters most--was well within the range of normal. Wahoo!