 Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Some random updates
Sorry I haven't blogged for so long.... I kind of lost my perspective for blogging a bit. I don't know why I keep blogging. I might stop for a while.
Jamie's been quite stable. At present she's in a treatment phase that she goes to hospital from Sunday night till about Thursday lunch time for a week, then break for a week... she needs to do this four times. We've done twice so far. This week is the break week.
At the hospital she's getting a heavy dose chemo, which affected her appetite a bit while she's in hospital. Her mouth is sore sometimes which makes her hard to eat,too. But at home she's quite normal and quite active.
Last week while she stayed at the hospital, she had a roommate. While my husband and Jamie went in the room, there were a lot of people visiting the other girl and they were having a prayer meeting. The parents are pastors and they have a worldwide deliverance ministry. I don't know what they did to my husband, but whatever they did was amazing, cause by the end of the week my husband did a three day total fast....and that's the first time I've ever seem him doing it.
I'm quite addicted to the blessing your spirit ministry these days. So whenever I find time, I'm always listening to their teachings or watching daily blessing videos on their website. I'm learning heaps from them. And I play the blessing CDs while the kids (especially baby)are sleeping so their spirits can absorb the blessings.
Bode stood up by himeself today...he's getting so close to walk.
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Friday, June 22, 2007
Pray for Justin
My computer has been playing up quite a bit, so I haven't been able to blog....
Jamie started another treatment block. She went into hospital on Sunday and just came out today. Next week is a break. She'll do this one week in, one week out for four times. It's a heavy doze chemo. She's coping ok, but her appetite's been affected quite a lot. She had very little to eat at hospital.
I met a lady in the waiting room of the clinic, whose baby son has brain tumour. I invited her to Hillsong women this morning. Please keep her son in prayers if you can, his name is Justin, who's only 9 months old.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Back to school
Jamie went back to school today (yay!). Thanks Kerry :)
She should have been back much earlier, but she didn't want to. She quite enjoyed staying home. But over the weekend she was invited to a school friend's birthday party and that really motivated her to go back to school.
She still didn't feel quite comfortable about the break time at school, so she wanted me to pick her up before morning tea break this morning. She just wanted to go there for a short while. But when I picked her up, she was quite happy there and wanted to stay longer. She asked if she can go to school for the whole day tomorrow...
The hospital has sent a community nurse to the school to talk to the staff meeting and also to her class. So they're all well prepared... Jamie felt very welcomed back to school.
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Saturday, May 19, 2007
The battle goes on
Since the blog post of the bone marrow test result, quite a few people have asked me the question, so is she healed? will the treatment stop,etc.?
Well from the doctors' point of view, it's an expected result for this stage. It should happen for most patients to have the cancer in remission at this stage of treatment. But they'll not say a patient is cured until the cancer is clear for at least 5 years. The treatment plan for Jamie goes on for at least 2 years.
I guess that in some way cancer's a bit like head lice. It's easy to get rid of live head lice after some brushing and combing, but then the battle comes in dealing with the nits. If the nits are not completely dealt with, then the hair might appear to be clean, but after a while the lice will come back.
So likewise in remission doesn't mean the finish of treatment. The treatment will still go on to deal with the hidden nits of cancer.
She's in treatment protocol 1, which is nearly coming to an end. Then she'll start another block of treatment, which includes staying in the hospital for 4 days or so every fortnight for 4 times.
Jamie's been coping quite well. She's been doing heaps of things, like walking around on roller skates, falling off Billy cart, walking around shopping centres, running, jumping with the eye toy game,etc. She's been quite cheerful most of the times.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Neutrophil
It's been quite good these last few days, although I felt a bit lazy about blogging.
Jamie's been doing heaps of things, going out shopping, library, park, feeding ducks at the lake, restaurants, reading heaps of books, doing school works...... She's got heaps of energy. She doesn't sleep during the days, and she's always the first one to wake up in the mornings.
We went to hospital on Tuesday this week, and then the nurse comes every day till Friday. Her platelet continued to be good, and her white cell and Neutrophil count had a big jump. Her neutrophil count had been between 0.3-0.8, and yesterday was 3.1, white cell from previous 1.6 to 4.2 which was quite an improvement as well.
She doesn't want to go to school until her chubby cheek goes down.
She has stopped taking steroids, but her appetite is still quite good....but no more 3am meals(thank goodness!)...
We're all in good spirit.
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Sunday, May 06, 2007
Blessings from day 11
I was reading the book "Blessing Your Spirit", and here at day 11's blessing, these few passages kept lingering over my thoughts:
"I bless you with enough problems in life and God's rescuing you from those problems that you no longer fear problems because they become an opportunity for God to show Himself strong. I bless you with the blessing that Daniel had of living so long with God and experiencing His faithfulness so many times that when he was in the lion's den, he was not overwhelmed with fear. The animals' mouths were bound, and they could not bite him.
I bless you, with the same security that David had, to walk into the enemy's camp and leave with Saul's spear and water bottle. I bless you with experiencing your Father's intervention so often and on such a profound level that you are emotionally secure. I bless you with seeing Him do remarkable things to rescue you, so that you can go before God's people and share glory stories of what God did on your behalf, and how He activated events to rescue you from the trap of the enemy designed to destroy you.
........
I bless you with not just enjoying the emotion of release and rescue, but also translating those experiences into acts of worhip. I bless you with worshiping and glorifying God, encouraging His people, and memorializing His power after a magnificent rescue....."
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
Blessing your spirit
I am tremendously blessed by the concepts of this ministry. (click on today's blessing and listen to it for a few days!)
If you've been into deliverance, inner healing,etc. and found yourself saying, there's got to be a better way, then this might really interest you. A cousellor friend of mine who's highly experienced in deliverance and inner healing introduced this concept to me. She ministered to me over the phone for a few days and I'm just overwhelmed by the power of this concept. It's very contagious.
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The bone marrow test
Today started a new phase of treatment. For the next coming four weeks she'd only need to go to the hospital once a week, then a nurse will come home to give her some injections 3 times a week. Well this is the treatment plan, but anything can change any time.
The bone marrow test came out very good. There's no cancer shown in the bone marrow test...Yay! So the treatment has been very effective. The blood count had a big jump...her platelet count has been very low for a long time, usually around 20-30. She had to be given platelet just about every week, which will push the number up to over 100 for a few days then dropped back to 20 or so again. She hasn't been given platelet for maybe 2 weeks now, but the number today is 356. So that's a good thing.
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Sunday, April 29, 2007
An early morning trip to the hospital
Jamie has been quite cheerful in the last couple of days. She's been reading heaps and eating heaps. Sometimes I find it hard to catch up with her....she eats a meal every two hours!
She's been feeling quite well except when she wakes up in the middle of the night she'd have tummy pains. We gave her some panadol then usually she'd go back to sleep in a few minutes.
But last night she woke up around 3am and was crying of tummy pain.... then she complained of a suspicious chest pain. Peter rang up the hospital and they told him to bring her in straight away. So Peter took her in around 5am. And on the way to the hospital a friend (one of her dance teachers) sent a SMS on Peter's mobile asking how Jamie was and then said that she was praying for her....(at 5am!) Well this is very cool.
The doctors did some tests on Jamie and said she was fine. And they came home around 9am......phew!
The blood count has jumped up quite a bit, which is a very good thing.
Jamie said she just can't stop smiling these days....hmm
I asked her if she was tired being up since 3am, she said no, and she wanted to go to bowling...
We ended up playing some card games then she had quite a few friends over to play for the whole afternoon. She played for a long time in the backyard....swings, trampoline...making lots of noises.
Tomorrow will start a new phase of chemo therapy. It'll be a big day for her at the hospital for the first day, having 6 hours of treatment...then a nurse will come to give her treatment at home for a few days....this pattern will go on for a few weeks.
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Thursday, April 26, 2007
1st visit back to school
Finally Jamie had her bone marrow test done today.....
Peter took her in around 7:30am this morning, and by the time I arrived at the hospital at 9:30am, she's nearly finished. Normally I had to wait a couple hours before any treatment even started. We waited for a while for her to wake up and then had a bit of rest, then we left the hospital at around 10:30 (hooray!).
She feels quite happy today, so I took her to Parramatta the vietnamese noodle shop again(of course!)for some lunch. She ate a whole big serve all by herself. Then we went to the shopping centre....she got some nice clothes, hat, shoes, backpack for her new build-a-bear, then some clothes and shoes for herself at pumpkin patch.
She still wasn't feeling tired and she was quite bubbling, so I took her to school for a visit. Her teacher and friends at school were all quite excited and happy to see her......they had so many questions!
I think she might like to go back to school soon....maybe next week.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
A passage from the book "Dream Language"
I read a few pages from a book called "Dream Language" by James W. and Michal Ann while at hospital. I found this passage quite interesting and encouraging:
"One dream that had great significance for me personally occurred in August 2003. I saw a great army coming up to me. Huge in number, the closer they got the more formidable they seemed to me. I began to fear that they were going to overwhelm me completely. Then, suddenly, the whole perspective of my dream changed. I was standing on a horizontal plain, on the same level as they, and as they approached I began to grow, rising up until I saw two or three times my normal stature. Now I was looking down on my enemies. That huge army, once so formidable in appearance, now seemed to be nothing more than little stick figures only a few inches tall, lined up in neat little rows.
As I surveyed this changed scene, a word came to me on the wind(often a sign of angelic activity):"And your enemies shall become like grasshoppers in your own sight."
I woke up and thought, "Wow! that will really preach good!" I thought the dream was imparting a message for me to teach others --and it may have been. However, about three weeks later I found a suspicious lump under my skin, which quickly grew to the size of a cluster of grapes. I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer.
I thought back to my dream of a few weeks before. Little had I "dreamed" at the time that I would be the one who needed the message of that dream! Yet God knew. Isn't He such a gracious and merciful and loving Father! .........."
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Home sweet home
Jamie still didn't do her bone marrow test today....the white cell is still too low. But she was discharged from the hospital. Finally she gets to have some undisturbed sleep.
She'll need to go to the clinic at the hospital on Thursday this week. Again, if her blood count is good, she'll have her bone marrow test done then.
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Monday, April 23, 2007
Budgie
Yesterday (Sunday)Jamie came home again for the afternoon and went back to the hospital in the evening. Today's the same, afternoon break and back in the evening. She's been having antibiotic for a few days and today they stopped. Her blood count is good this morning. She's scheduled again for the bone marrow test tomorrow, if the blood count tomorrow morning is still ok. Then hopefully she can come home after that.
She finds it very hard to sleep at the hospital, although she's always in bed. The machine which gives her blood and medicine beeps every few minutes and the nurse comes in every few minutes....plus she's not used to sharing the room with daddy....he snores so loud! (LOL)
She quite likes her new look, and actually she said she wanted to keep her hair this short even if the hair grows back. She looked at the mirror and said she looked like a little budgie, so my husband calls her budgie as a nick name now.
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Saturday, April 21, 2007
A nice little break for a new look
Jamie's been staying in hospital since Wednesday and will probably be in hospital for a few more days. But today she's allowed to come home for just a few hours in between treatments.
She left hospital just after 12, and we took her to castle towers for some vietnamese noodle soup. She had three bowls of noodles. Then we got her a new hat and some games.
Some friends came over to play with her. A friend of mine who's a hairdresser gave her a haircut. Not a complete shave, but more like a Bode's look. She did it while the friends were around and she didn't mind. She's quite happy with the new look and she likes to wear the new hat. She was quite bored at the hospital so this little break brought a lot of smiles to her. Then she had to return to the hospital at 5pm.
Bode's been quite sick for the last couple of days. High fever. So it's been a bit tricky juggling between the two of them. Yesterday I had to tell Peter to take a day off work. He's much better now. I hope tomorrow he'll be back to normal.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Back in hospital
Jamie was scheduled to do a bone marrow test today to see how she's going with chemo, but was canceled as she wasn't well enough. Her white cell is too low. She has coughs. And she has a bit of temperature. So she was admitted back to the hospital for a few days until her condition improves.
She's been quite moody. Her hair has fallen out a lot, but she refuses to have them cut or wear a hat. So she's looking a bit awkward but she doesn't care.
She's not at the camperdown ward this time. Because she's got the coughs, so they put her at the variety club ward, 3rd floor, same end as camperdown ward, but walk along towards the car park.
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Saturday, April 14, 2007
My previous experience with leukemia
About 15 years ago I was working at a uni in Beijing. I was fellowshipping with 3 other Christians as a small group at the time. One day one of them told me that one of her workmates who was a teacher at the uni got leukemia and was at the hospital. I don't know this teacher but we decided that three of us would go visit her at the hospital.
At that time I guess there was no efficient cure for leukemia. She stayed at one of the top hospitals in Beijing, and according to the hospital record since the hospital was founded, there was only one patient who got out of the hospital after 6 months of treatment. The teacher had quite severe leukemia and she was given 3 months to live.
When we got to the hospital, she looked quite pale. Both she and her husband were very depressed. They were both communist party members. My Christian friend shared with her about our faith and offered to pray for her. They were not quite sure about becoming Christians but agreed to let us pray for her. So we did.
A week later we went back to the hospital to see her. She looked really happy and her face looked normal. She told us that all her tests came out to be normal, and she just needed to excercise a bit from lying on the bed so much. A month later she went back to work.
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Read till you drop !
Jamie's been feeling a lot better these days. She went to church at Hillsong women on Thursday, went to the library yesterday, she wanted us to take her out to the club for dinner or bowling last night but we didn't end up taking her, and she's now at the waves swimming pool watching other kids swim. She didn't want to go anywhere before.
We borrowed a lot of books from the library yesterday around lunch time. And before Jamie went to bed last night, she's read about 50 books!
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Friday, April 13, 2007
Bode's turning one!
It's Bode's birthday today....yay!!
I don't think Bode can care less about his birthday.... but Jamie's been so excited about his first birthday. She's been counting down the days, and she's been planning. She wanted us to take him to lollipops or playgyms, and then take him to a Vietnamese restaurant for noodle soup, and to RSL club for dinner.... She wrapped up his presents and waited beside his bed for him to wake up this morning and taught him how to open his presents...... she's such a little teacher.
Treatmentwise she's been coping well. Blood pressure is still slightly high, but she hasn't been complaining much about headaches. She has strong cravings for food, like yesterday at hospital she called daddy that she wanted Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, so poor daddy had to go to the restaurant in parramatta to get her some. Then she woke up 2am and had a huge bowl of pasta. Sometimes she can be a bit moody. When she gets bored, she bites her nails....there's absolutely nothing left in the nails for her to bite, but she still plays and bites nails for hours.... anyone has any clue how to deal with this? Every time she goes to hospital, she has to have two needles, one on finger and one on bottom. She doesn't mind the finger one too much, but she hates the bottom one. But finally there's only one more to go and she's so looking forward to when it's all finished. (well for this treatment phase at this stage) After next week it'll get a lot easier, she'll be mostly at home, and a nurse will come home to give her some chemo treatments. She will need another bone marrow test next week to see how it's going.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Easter
Jamie's been feeling heaps good since last Thursday. She hasn't been complaining much at all of any pains. She's been eating very well.
We had a very peaceful Easter. The highlight for the kids was an Easter egg hunt in the house. Jamie's been given so much chocolate over the last couple of weeks but she hasn't been eating any of them until Easter Sunday. (well she had 3 little eggs that's all.) She hasn't been wanting any chocolates...
We're at the hospital Tuesday and Thursday for this week. She's mostly home other times. She hasn't been wanting to go out much except a library trip for some books.
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Monday, April 09, 2007
Some recent pictures
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Sunday, April 08, 2007
Some old pictures of Jamie
 I haven't got around to sort out the recent pictures, but here're some of the old pictures of Jamie that I have posted on this blog 
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Saturday, April 07, 2007
A quiet afternoon
So we went to the fish n chip shop near church for lunch. Jamie was really happy there. We were planning to go to the market for some wig after lunch, but it started pouring rain. So I decided to take baby and Jamie home while the rest went on with the shopping trip.
I asked Jamie if she wanted to do anything: watching a movie, having a friend over,etc. She said, nothing, just feel like a rest. So I let her rest, and I put baby to sleep. When I came out, I found she was reading a Bible. It's a kids Bible. I didn't suggest to her, or give the book to her. She found it on the bookshelf by herself. By the time daddy came home, she had read most of the kids Bible, and also a bit of Joyce Meyer's book, "Battlefield of the mind for kids". She told daddy, "I loved reading this Bible, it's so interesting! .......daddy, on my birthday, I only want books, so can you give me lots of books as presents?"
How sweet.
Well daddy didn't find a wig in the market. But I got one on ebay, it looks like this, Jamie picked it out herself.
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Oh happy day
Jamie came to my bedside around 5am this morning, "Can I have some vegies now?" So I got up and cooked and she ate a whole bowl of green vegies and some rice.
She came to our bedside again at 7am, with a big bright smile on her face,"I'm feeling good today, let's go to the fish n chip shop!" So Peter got up and made her some hot cross bun. She had two and still wanted more, then I told her to wait for a while otherwise she'd have a sore tummy. I went back to my room and put baby to sleep. By the time I came out, she had eaten another pile of hot chips and 6 nuggets...and she wanted to have a mango as well, and she still couldn't wait to go to the fish n chip shop for lunch.....oh my gosh.
Then she showed daddy a bunch of hair in her hand that she just pulled out......
Oh well, at least she's happy and she's been a chatter box all morning. :)
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Friday, April 06, 2007
Roller Coaster
Yesterday at Hillsong women, Jamie went up to the front, and a few key pastors led the whole church prayed over her. It was such a moment. Pastor Bobbie gave her several CD and DVDs and a huge chocholate. While we were all praying, I felt my hands shaking, which is quite unusual.
Chemo starts to get a bit hard on Jamie. Although we explained to her a few times, and she read the book about chemo herself, I don't think she quite understands what's happening. Yesterday at the hospital, she had a big cry when it was the needle time again. Then last night, she lashed out on daddy, and refused to take medicine. She thought it was all daddy's fault......it was daddy who insisted on having a blood test to her, and ever since that she hasn't stopped having to have medicines and needles...and the more medicines she had, the sicker she felt...... she doesn't quite get it why so many people suddenly become so nice to her, either.
She constantly has tummy ache and headache, and in between that she has cravings for food.
Like yesterday before Hillsong women, she had a piece of raisin toast, and then for the whole morning she just kept asking me,"mommy, can I have another piece of raisin toast?" I asked her later what she liked most about church, and she said.....the toast (lol)
Usually it's quite an effort to get her to eat one spoonful of green leafy vegies, but last night she ate a whole bowl of green vegies by herself and she still kept thinking about it the whole night, and asked me for that this morning....I had to go to the shops to get some more this morning so she could have that for breakfast....(well she had dropped the toast already)...sounds like how I felt when I was pregnant.
Life at the moment feels like a roller coaster. Although there're some sudden turns and some scary moments, even some screams, inside I know I have a safety belt and I'm holding on tightly to the safety bar. It's a journey....an unusual type of journey.....it's a roller coaster ride time!!! (BTW, roller coaster is Jamie's favourite ride, she's never scared of it.)
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Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Today at hospital
I took Jamie, Kate and Bode to the hospital today. It was supposed to be a short treatment, about an hour or so. So I thought it should be easy.......but I ended up spending like 5 hours.
Jamie had headache again, not as bad as last time which she was screaming, but enough to cause some concern. Her blood pressure went up, as a side effect of the medication. So we had to stay a few more hours in the hospital until the blood pressure came down and she felt well enough to go home. She had some blood transfusion today. She had put on 2 kg since last week. She didn't have much to eat during the day as she didn't feel very well, but she had a big dinner. Poor Peter had to get up every morning like 3am to cook something for her as she's so hungry. She's looking very chubby and rounded now.
Bode got quite sick by the end of the day. I think I might have to take him to the doctor tomorrow.
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Sunday, April 01, 2007
This week so far
It's been a very busy week. I was trying to keep things as normal as possible. Jamie's coping ok with chemo. She threw up quite a few times, and complained of tummy aches after she ate. Apart from hospital visits, she had been staying home. She's on steroids at the moment, so that helps her eat. Sometimes she'd wake up midnight craving for food. So it's actually quite funny to see her suddenly becoming chubby and with a round tummy. She might become quite big in a couple of weeks....but the weight will be lost soon after she stops the medication.
She went to hospital again on Thursday and had some blood transfusion, which made her feel a bit better. She looked quite pale and lethargic in the morning. She came home after 7pm.
Tomorrow (Monday)will be a big day for her at the hospital. She will need to do a bone marrow test and a few other treatment. She will need to go to hospital on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday next week.
I've been on a Daniel fast(and here) since last Thursday. So if you find me looking a bit slim..... don't be worried. I guess it's a good chance to lose all those baby weight. :)
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
By the grace of God
Today is a new day of reality.
Peter went back to work. He took a whole week off to be with Jamie, he's a really good dad. Jamie said the best thing out of all this is that she got to spend time with daddy.
But he had to go back to work. So it started the first day of responsibilities mostly on me.
I was a bit nervous at the beginning of how this all gonna work. Bode, my 11 month baby, was a bit sick for a couple of days, a bit of fever and cold, so he had been very clingy. I could hardly put him down on the floor for just a few minutes or having a friend cuddle him...he would scream straight away.
I had organised for him to be in childcare today, but in the back of my mind I had thought over and over if I should cancel that, because it just didn't seem it'd work. What if he kept screaming as soon as I got in hospital? It's about 30 minutes drive. What if half way through treatment the childcare wanted me to pick him up? Maybe I should just keep him with me.
Well, I decided to still give it a go with childcare. I dropped Ellie, Kate, and Bode at three different places, school and different childcare for Kate and Bode. Then I took Jamie to the hospital. They took some blood, then we went to the clinic for chemo treatment. There was about 2 hour wait. Jamie coped very well. She had to have needles on finger and bottom. It was very unpleasant to watch, but she didn't cry at all. She just held my hands very tight when it hurt. The nurses were very kind and skillful. She did a lot of drawings and color-ins while waiting. It was quite a long wait, the other patients told me to just get used to it.....there're gonna be lots of hospital visits, at least twice a week for now. Meanwhile I sorted out car park ticket, medicines from the pharmacies, got some lunch from the canteen,etc. Amazingly, the childcare didn't ring.
I found myself saying again and again today, by the grace of God, by the grace of God. ......By the grace of God, I got a carpark space in the peak hour of the busiest day, by the grace of God, Jamie went well with all the treatment, and nothing went wrong, by the grace of God, Bode settled quite well in the childcare, I picked him up at nearly 4pm and he was quite happy, by the grace of God, the treatment finished at 2:40pm, just in time for me to rush back to school to pick up Ellie at 3pm......by the grace of God, the first day of hospital visit when everything is new and unfamiliar to me I was able to go with just Jamie and I had somewhere to drop off all the other kids...by the grace of God someone dropped us a meal at dinner time to ease the burden....
There're so many things to be thankful in the last week. I could hardly write them all down. I did try to collect them in my notebook and I got a long list...
One thing I decided to do is try to be aware of God's blessing, to be aware of how the angels fill in the gaps. God's grace is sufficient. Where there's trouble, grace abounds. I remember Donna Crouch used to preach, look out for blessings....when her daughter broke her arms God wispered in her spirit, look out for blessings.....I remember Venessa preached, collect your harvest, pick one fruit at a time, keep picking them and you'll soon have a whole basket of fruit and that's how you have your harvest....
Every night before retiring for the day I'd like to retreat to my journal book and write down God's whispers in my spirit. And I found it so refreshing and encouraging. He filled up my strength during these moments so that I had peace to go on the next day.
Yes, one day at a time. I'm just so thankful for God's grace in my life.
I can write so much more, but it's 1:30am now. I'd better go.
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Sunday, March 25, 2007
Jamie came home
I was just at the colour conference when suddenly Peter rang me, "Jamie's got leukemia..."
So I rushed to the hospital. Somehow that morning I just didn't feel like going to the conference. I didn't know why, usually I'm quite passionate about colour. I've actually said I didn't want to go, but the friends who stayed at my place convinced me to go, and Peter even agreed to take the baby for me for the day. So I went....but only stayed in the conference for 20 minutes or so.
Jamie has been complaining about a backache and tommy ache for 2-3 weeks. It started at a dance lesson. So I thought she must have hurt a muscle somewhere. I did take her a couple of times to a doctor, and had her x-rayed. I've registered her for colour kids, but then her school had an excursion and she really wanted to go, so I let her go with the school while other kids went with me to colour. Around mid day the school rang me telling me that she threw up and needed us to pick her up. So Peter went to school and took her to a doctor. Peter asked for a blood test, the doctor looked at him, and said, are you sure you want a blood test? And Peter insisted. She was quite fine after school, and even went for her art lessons. The next day the doctor rang Peter up, saying the blood test result was very serious, and Jamie needed to be sent to the hospital straight away.
So we spent the whole week in the hospital. She was confirmed of leukemia the next day. And chemo started on Monday. Jamie's such a brave little girl. Once a nurse poked deep into her arm for 10 minutes trying to get some blood and kept poking at the wrong spot. Peter couldn't even look at her. She had tears rolling down her eyes, but she didn't make a sound. She cooperated so well that the nurses said she's the best patient in the whole ward.
Peter took a week off work and stayed with her day and night, while I spent most of the days there but came home with other kids for the nights. The support and encouragement from church, school and friends are just overwhelming. The hospital facilities are just fantastic.
She was staying at the Westmead children's hospital. It's such a children friendly place. My other kids were having such a good time there. The support from the hospital staff and volunteers are amazing. While she was staying there, there were school teachers offering schoolings, play therapists came and play with her and do arts and crafts, hundreds of videos and dvds, computer games everywhere, entertainers, singers came to her bed to sing songs for her and even offer free guitar lessons....hundreds of people were praying for her.... she went into hospital with a small bag, and she came home with a full car of presents and stuff.....
She came home yesterday(Sat), as an out patient now. We'll just be going to hospital for treatments, but will be living at home. She'll be staying home for a while as it's the changing season time, lots of colds and flus around.
It's a challenging time for all of us. But I believe God's grace is sufficient. God will turn every situation around for good. Please continue to stand with us in prayer and faith.
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Susan @ 9:08 PM
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Sunday, March 18, 2007
Jamie
My beautiful daughter Jamie has just been confirmed of Leukemia. She's been in hospital since yesterday which we just found out. Poor little thing has to go through a few operations this week and extensive treatment over at least the next two years.
Please pray for her!! We believe in miracles.
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Susan @ 3:07 PM
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Friday, March 02, 2007
Purpose of deserts
I used to think that desert is a kind of punishment. Because we did something wrong, then we ended up in desert.
Now I've changed my way of looking at this. You see, Moses spent 40 years of his life learning how to do desert, finding all the routes, tricks and life skills on how to survive in desert, so that later on he could practically lead people to do desert. It'll be hard for a prince in the palace to cope with leadership role in the desert. Abraham spent 13 years of his life learning how to be a parent on a practical level before he was entrusted with a heaven blessed boy. Joseph spent numerous years of his life in the prison learning from other prisoners all the mistakes they'd made that upset Pharaoh, so that later when he was working with pharaoh, he was wise enough not to upset him and made him happy enough to trust him on a daily practical basis. Imagine how hard it is to live with a bossy pharaoh?
There're lots of practical lessons and skills to be learnt in the place of desert, which is to build up the character that's needed in order to handle the job that God would want you to do. It's like an Olympian, before the glory, before the championship, there has to be sweaty trainings. There has to be practical skills to be learnt, practical muscles to be built up before the real talent, real gift and real calling can emerge.
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Susan @ 9:05 AM
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