Here I am. Send Aaron: March 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Cycles of Things

We have sprung into spring and although that may be a hard sell to some folks up north, the calendar says it usually comes about now, give or take a week or so. For us in the Gulf Coast, it is here, complete with the pollen clouding the air.

The last few weeks I have been feeling the urge to get out and get going and that is the seasonal part of my cycle in the past. I have been feeling well and energy level was good. I felt that this was a definite improvement over last year. I had just celebrated my 2nd anniversary of the Stem Cell Transplant. This was great. Then last Saturday I began to have a fever and it was high 90's at first and then just over 100 and up to 101 at a point. We have been instructed that I go to MDA emergency immediately if it reaches 100.4. Dang it. So we head down and by 4 am I am in a hospital bed, with antibiotics and fluids. It was also a time that my afib starts up so I am hooked up with a monitor as well. By Monday morning some of the results come in and there are no infections and I also get a consult with a cardiologist and they said we could try another medication to control the afib. Isaac was downtown and waited the hours that it took to my discharge.

It was a excellent example that I must be aware that I am always at risk for a flair up of some kind or another. They found nothing and that is good. One time they had discharged me and as we were leaving the parking lot they called me back to say something had shown up and I needed to stay a little longer.

In the mean time Isaac said I had become dehydrated and also lost weight. I had not noticed. So some new challenges still lie ahead. I am at home and I still feel well and it has been a good week. Today I work on the garden. It will be good therapy. Thanks Lynne and Isaac, left to myself I may not have gone in and intellectually I know that can be dangerous and life threatening. Thanks again.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

I'm 2 Years Old Today

So today, Lynne and I, along with Isaac and Katie, sat down and broke bread together on the occasion of the 2 year anniversary of my Stem Cell Transplant. My sincere gratitude and thanks go out again, to Brian Re, my donor. I will forever remember him and each year the gift is more treasured. Thanks again Brian. This past week I have felt fantastic and each month I feel stronger. I thank God for all these wonderful gifts.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

"He Descended Into Hell" Yours And Mine - I Gotta Have It

"I believe in......." and on and on we went, all with one voice, the congregation did, as we stated our faith with the words of The Apostle's Creed. We knew it by heart, we did. Just in case some one did not it was printed out for them or if you were a little uncertain you could follow the words. As we are professing our faith I'm looking at the floor, what else can you do with your eyes anyway and I find it is a good way for me to focus on the verbal. "Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried. The third day............ ... "Wait a minute. Back up there a second. You missed a part, that part about, he descended into hell." I know, I know, some of the early transcripts do not have this or did not include, the descending into hell. So some Churches do not include it. I know all that. What I experienced was that something was missing and it came so suddenly that my first reaction was, "I have to have that. He had to descend in the depths of hell, the hell of suffering and pain, the hell that the righteous and the unrighteous both endure, especially the righteous who intuitively have seen their righteousness as a, 'Get out of jail free' card. How can he know my or anyone else's suffering?"

A psalm of David. Psalm 22

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
²My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

New International Version (NIV) Matt. 27:45&46

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,^[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Yes acquainted with all the slings and arrows that flesh is heir to as Mr. Shakespeare would say.