Tired and pensive, but eating for Wales!

Up till now the 'others' were claiming that they didnt realise he needed further treatment, just happy in the normal expectation that he's getting better, which he is. In fact he's eating like a horse - oh, except they dont tend to go for steak! Someone kindly brought him a slab of rump to 'beef' him up (the rest of us enjoyed tasty sausages) which he merrily waded through. Life for the two younger ones has very much returned to normal with the return to school. Pads' teachers only found out about the illness on Monday and this is the first time they've had to deal with anything like it. So they feel a bit out of their depth but Ally was really impressed by how thoughtful and imaginative they're being to help him keep up to speed as much as he is able to over the next months. He wants to see his chums tomorrow in school but we're all a bit worried how they will react to the 5 inch scar at the back of his head - some will be appalled and others may mock... but he's not swayed by such thought thus far.
We've all been reading up on cancer treatments, the others were reading Annie's story on the way to school this morning! Himself was on Captain Chemo this morning. He's getting the message that treatment is going to have unpleasant side effects and this has contributed to a fairly pensive mood today. He felt too tired to come out to our 5th Anniversary Preaching Rally tonight which the rest of us enjoyed tremendously. The safest route between doing too much and not enough is to leave it up to him. Dr Peter Masters came, in spite of being quite ill himself, and gave a wonderful, compelling, clear gospel message from 2 Kings 6:17

And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

He explained that although the young man in question had better vision than the prophet, he had not seen how God's power could help. Elisha's prayer, for the lad's eyes to be opened, needed to be ours, for ourselves or others who are not saved. The message, which will soon be available via our website, was a repeat of the one preached in the Met Tab in May of this year.

Pondering past and future

While we ponder the recent past and the hopeful future, we are reminded of different days, with Ally reading the biography of William Carey. This passage about Hannah Marshman (p187),

whose unruffled temper, 'extraordinary prudence', devoutness and zeal made her the settlement's true mother - the Mission's saving health. Her heart was filled with sympathies and her days with deeds of grace. Six times was she called to mourn the loss of infants, but she was too rooted in the trust of God to be morose. Though faced with frequent motherhood, she bore the burden of her own and her husband's boarding-schools with an unruffled temper and a rare sagacity.

Combine this with 1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Just sitting across the dinner table with Pads is a privilege.

The hairs of our heads are all numbered!

Someone kindly sent us Luke 12:6-7 which talks about God's esteem and lovingkindness to us...

6 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

This raised a smile because we had just finished mowing his hair! It hadnt been washed in 2 weeks and had 'stuff' sticking it together from the operations. Ally used scissors but, to be gentle, I used the clippers I had used to play 'barbershop' with my grandad. This game took a decisive turn when I eventually worked out how to actually cut hair with them. They are hand operated, made in the USA, and have a patent date of 12 December 1926!

Medulloblastoma

Cancerbacup is a good website about it. The oncologist said that they have to treat every case as pretty much unique, so, until they have refined the diagnosis (results next week through sending a sample off to a specialist centre) we will have to wait to find out how they intend to proceed. They have to wait at least a month for us to fatten him up anyway.
Pads is really unaware of all this in as much as all he really knows is that he will need further treatment. He is exceptionally relieved to have got through today with having the staples removed. In all he had 37 but it wasnt the quantity that scared him, it was having had a Dr remove the drain and put in a stitch without sufficient pain relief last Thursday. This so traumatised him that he has been unwilling for anyone to even hint at touching his head and today he was hysterical at just seeing the nurse. After an hour I was called over from work to reason with him. I negotiated starting with just getting 4 out and, with plenty of gas and air, and with being able to control the staging of further staple removal, he got through it without lapsing into terrified mode.

malignant tumour

Just to add a small bit of detail to the tweet announcing the histology earlier.
Pads had a good night - still waking up thinking someone's going to check his obs but that's getting better. He walked slowly all the way to the hospital which was remarkable and he chatted all the way too. The neurosurgeon is still concerned that hydrocephalus may recur so we're keeping an eye out for headaches.
I'll fill in the name they gave it later but Pads is being lined up for various scans and therapies. These interventions will have to await him recovering strength so that may take a few weeks. The oncologist said it had probably been growing for months rather than years. In the mean time they are sending it on to getter a better fit on precisely what type of cancer it is. That will determine how they order the treatments.
This general type of cancer can spread along the spine, but not to other organs, so they will scan to see if there's anything there, although surgery can 'muddy the waters' a bit making it hard to tell what is lump and what is leftovers.
Bearing in mind that some cancers can move quickly to take over the whole body, this is not the worst news but it is a far cry from 'surgery was enough' - we're looking at 6-12 months of treatments which will have a major impact on lots of things.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalms 73:26