Another Update for Captain Hook

I just received another update on Don and Jo Ann.  Thank you for your prayers for these precious people.  God is not just guiding them.  It is as if He is paving the road.  Thank you, God, your blessed grace and strength which you give so freely to Don and Jo Ann.  I pray that your Presence will continue to abide with them as they continue their cancer journey.

“Ahoy Prayer Warriors, We came to the Clinic this morning at 8:00 and had blood drawn. We went to the cafeteria for breakfast and then went to the Infusion Unit and had the nurse put a new dressing on the CVC line in Don’s chest. The dressing has to be changed every four days. The report on the blood work was good (A wonderful answer to prayers PRAISE GOD!). The white blood cell count was up, which means that Don’s immune system is up enough that he is not as susceptible to infections as he was. The platelet count was 10, which means that Don will need a transfusion of platelets. We are now waiting for the transfusion.

We are planning on going home tomorrow for a few days. We will need to watch the platelet count while we are home. We are not sure what the treatment plan will be, but trust that God will lead the Dr. in making the decision. He is in control of this journey and we are blessed to be in His loving hands. We think we will be home for nine or ten days. We will not do another UPDATE until we return to Houston.

We want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU and GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS. We are looking forward to coming home and telling everyone we see how much we love and appreciate them.

GOD BLESS AND GIVE EACH OF YOU SMOOTH SAILING UNTIL WE RETURN,

CAPTAIN AND MATE”

Captain Hook and First Mate, Once Again Making Lemonade From Lemons

This update on Don just arrived.  Their sweet spirit is nothing short of inspirational.  The challenge for Don is that the chemo treatments for his non Hodgkins lymphoma is very hard on his body.  His platelet count, red blood count and white blood count always bottom out when he gets a treatment.  It requires large amounts of  prayers and patience, and many transfusions to raise the counts so that he can get another treatment.  Read as they once again take sour lemons and make very sweet lemonade.

Don and Jo Ann, thank you for being so positive.  You set a wonderful example for us of God’s Grace and Peace as you travel done your cancer path.

“Ahoy to all of our faithful prayer warriors. We are at the Clinic today for blood work. The blood draw was done at 8:00 by a very special tech. named Herooth. She is a cute little lady from Ethiopia. She loves Don and always seems happy to see him. Don gives her a hard time and today she put red tape over the cotton that covered the puncture site. She told him that she bet that his wife would love to have some of the red tape so that she could put it over his mouth to keep him quite. ha ha
Don came out of her room laughing and told me. We shared the thought that Herooth knew him well.

The report on the blood work showed that the platelets were eleven (up from five on Mon.). We are now in the Transfusion Unit getting eight . units of platelets. The white blood count was 0.7 which is very low. When the white count is this low, Don must wear a mask, no fresh vegs. or fruit, and can not be around people. He would not be able to fight off any kind of infection. So I guess we will be staying close to the apartment until Mon. when they check his blood again and make a lot of good lemonade.

We want to thank all of you and express how blessed we are by the wonderful messages on the care page, the phone calls, the heartfelt cards and most of all for the prayers. God seems to send angels to minister to us when we need it. We pray that God bless each angel ten fold. You can not out give God and because you have given so much to us, you need to get ready for abundant blessings.

Smooth sailing, Captain and Mate”

Another Captain Hook Update

This update on Don, aka Captain Hook, just arrived. It is getting harder and harder for his body to tolerate the chemo treatments. Please pray for Don and Jo Ann. This has been and will continue to be a long journey for them.

“God is good all the time!!!! All the time God is Goooooood! :<) :<) How are all of you prayer warriors? We pray that each one of you have received a wonderful blessing today. Did you look for it????

Sunday we visited South Main Baptist Church (The church that is providing our apartment). It is a beautiful church and we were able to express our appreciation for the loving apartment ministry. We met some of the volunteers that work in the “Sojourn Ministry”. They are dedicated to providing a home for the cancer patients at MD Anderson. I know it has blessed us and we Thank God for SMBC and their ministry.

We came to the clinic today for blood work. We did the blood work at 12:00 and finallllllly got a report at 5:00. The Captain’s platelets dropped to 5. (5,000) They scheduled a platelet transfusion for 9:00 to night. We hope we get out by 12:00. The other counts were not low enough to require a blood transfusion. We will have blood work again on Thursday. We are asking you to pray that God led the Dr. as he makes the decision about the next one or two treatments. We know that we are in God’s hands and we rejoice in knowing that He loves us and will lead us through this journey.

We want to thank all of you for your love and prayers. It is wonderful hearing from home…….we miss you all.

God bless with smooth sailing, Captain and Mate”

Update on Don (Captain Hook)

This is an update which comes through the CarePages from MD Anderson Hospital. Don and Jo Ann returned to Houston yesterday. Their updates are always fun and uplifting. Don is also known as Captain Hook and Jo Ann is the First Mate.

“AHOY to all of our faithful prayer warriors!!!! We were blessed with sixteen days at home and it was wonderful. We are so blessed with a wonderful family, a praying church family and pastor, and friends that have lifted us up to the Heavenly Father. THANK YOU!!! I thought that the ole Captain would be nicer after the break, but I was wrong. He is still a mess – I will just ask for an extra cup of GRACE each day.

We came to the Clinic as soon as we arrived in Houston. We had blood work done and than waited for the report. The report showed the platelet count was up to 48. THANK GOD!!! The nurse made an appointment for Thursday to have blood work done and scheduled admission into the hospital, if the platelets are high enough.

God bless you all,

CAPTAIN HOOK AND FIRST MATE”