Well, it's been a heckuva week in Hattiesburg, my home town, out there on the edge of the prairie...

Monday - discharged & outta there for a brief season. Home about 10:30 p.m., and I was totally wiped out from sitting & riding in the truck driven by Lisa & Jim. ("Totally wiped out" will be a recurring theme in this post...) After greeting James & Anne & Mom at home, I tossed & turned for 10-15 seconds before settling in for an 11.5 hour sleep.

Tuesday - a day I'd dreaded (mistakenly!)...the celebration of my Lord in the life of my buddy, Jason Weathers. (some would call it a funeral...I much prefer "celebration" or "coronation.") Stephanie sent me a text Tuesday morning saying that she wanted to worship today; mission accomplished, my friend! (aside: you didn't misread that...she sent me a text on the day of her hubby's funeral encouraging me...Y'all who don't know her should meet Steph; God is all over this woman, even in the midst of her grief!) We sang praises to our God, we laughed, we cried a bit, we laughed some more, we praised some more...I was an honorary pallbearer, which is a very high honor. Steph's Dad, my friend Gary Shows, used my poem "Giants" to close out his message--that's a higher honor still! I got there early, & thus the casket was still open, so I wandered up. And was struck anew with the total impermanence of these bodies and this life, and with the total, decisive, glorious, eternality of life with our Savior. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here..." was what came to mind.

And then, home to take a nap before retiring for the evening. (totally wiped out...)

Wednesday - a not-much day (another recurring theme...) Hung around the house & tried to recover more. Went to my Dr. here for post-IL-2 bloodwork. As all week, I felt great, though completely without energy. Plus, day 2 of post-IL-2 lasix...this tends to keep a person...close to home, let's just say. I did get dropped off @ church to catch up on some email stuff (web trouble @ the house).

Thursday - went crazy today. Lunch w/ my friend Eddie Baker & the coaches helping with his Upward basketball camp, followed by sitting in Eddie's office & catching up on church stuff. Then home to take a nap, for I was (everybody now) totally wiped out from eating & sitting.

Friday - breakfast w/ Lisa & Anne. Then dropped @ church to catch up on email/web stuff. 10:32 a.m., & I'm already tired from eating & sitting...

So, basically, I feel more or less normal, if normal means "good for about 30 minutes of sitting & talking, followed by a 2-hour nap..." The lack of energy thing is a hassle, but then, I'm regularly reminded that lying around & sleeping is probably not a bad plan for preparing for round 2 week after next...

Thanks so much, my friends, for all of your prayers and encouragement during this season. We are most humbled and grateful for the many ways God has used you folks to add grace notes to our lives. Can I ask you to hang with us in prayer a bit longer? My prayer is that after round 2 we'll discover that "there's nothing to see here" and move on to other, more normal life concerns like where Anne will go to college, James' 1st year of pharmacy school, how to teach & research econ & finance things better, and whether my alma mater will finally restore order to the universe by beating Auburn in the Iron Bowl. (sadly, my prediction is no, for one more year...)

And that's the news from Hattiesburg, where all the women are strong, the men are handsome, and all the children are above average! (thank you, Garrison Keillor!)

With much love and hope,
Mike

p.s. - go over to Jason & Steph's site & read through the last several journal entries; you'll be blessed and encouraged. You might not want to read them in a public place though. Personally, I particularly enjoyed the picture of them burning all of the medical stuff...

p.p.s. - Dr. Homsi's nurse just called to discuss my bloodwork (routine call). All's well, except for one liver enzyme, bila-something, that was high when I left Monday & is still high. It is coming down, which is good, but still a bit high. She said we'd just monitor it w/ next week's scheduled bloodwork. (boy, how I love getting stuck...wait...no I don't...*sigh*) The only wrinkle is that because of this bila-whatever being high, I can't take my cholesterol pill. Isn't chemically-aided living fun??