The Jollette Strikes Again!

Hello folks! Jollette here. For those of you who don’t remember me, I am the Jollyblogger’s daughter. Back when he was first diagnosed with cancer I signed on with health updates and kept the lot of you entertained while my pappy was out sick. And now I’m back to wreak havoc on my father’s blog!

Ok, not really.

I am here for two reasons: first to make an announcement and ask for any available help, and second to give a health update on my dad.

First things first. I’m going to London. Upon the turning of the New year, as well as the added bonus of graduating from High School, I decided that I would take a year off to work and travel. In the fall I will be working almost full time and studying part-time at the local comm. rftc x3632.783……….frrrrrrrrtgggggg        wb ,w444444444443

-My apologies. The new kitten walked all over my keyboard-

…..community college. Then, in late December or early January, I will be going with the comm. college on a two-week trip to London to do all the touristy things and instead of returning stateside with them, I will just. . . . . stay. I have friends in a variety of European countries, but not as many as I like, so this is where the request comes in play:  If you have friends in Europe (preferably Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland or Poland, although any country is quite fine by me)  who you think would be willing to help me out on my trip, (or if you yourself is in or from Europe) would you let me know what country they are in so that as my trip draws closer I can expand my list of contacts, I would be much obliged.

My parents are a bit more nervous about this trip after having seen the movie “Taken,” so I’m doing whatever I can to alleviate their  anxiety.

My second purpose for this post is to update y’all on my dad. He’s currently doing well. He has just started chemo up again, but this time it’s oral and not straight to the blood. Twice a day for a week by mouth, every other week. I’m not sure if it’s a pill or what but you can ask. This is his week off. He still preaches and still begs for your prayers. He wanted me to tell y’all that he will be posting sometime soon. “Soon” can mean a lot of different things for my dad, but I imagine he’ll post this week.

Well, as they say in Dutch, Goedemiddag (Good afternoon!)

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Dying to Self in 10,000 (or so) easy steps

As I closed things down at my old blog and started up here I mentioned that, over my years of blogging I developed a sense that I was engaging in much self-promotion.  As I suspected, many of you, the readers offered some kind words of encouragement in that regard, assuring me that my blogging had not come off that way.  I am, as always, grateful to you for that encouragement, but I had hinted back then that I may esplainify myself a bit more in this regard.

This nagging feeling that I was engaged in self-promotion is part of a larger aspect of my psyche that I have wrestled with for many years, many of those years being before the blogging days.  I will spare you a detailed journey into my psyche, except to sketch out a few patterns of thought and longing that became troubling to me in recent days.

At the outset I want to assure you that I recognize these issues as my issues alone, so this is not a commentary on anyone but me.

I became a Christian at the age of 16 through the direct witness of my best friend, our football coach, and indirectly through the work of the Fellowship of Christian athletes. My conversion was genuine, many questions were answered, assurances of eternal felicity offered and embraced and a new life was begun. 

Hello with an update

Here it is, 1:00am in the morning and I’m having trouble seeping and I thought I would use this time to fire up a quick post.

First a few health updates.

My last scan, back in January showed progression of disease.  All previously known tumors had shown signs of growth.   Also, numerous news spots/lesions/nodules (never sure what terminology they are using and what means what) have been found on my lungs.

Doc said that the good news was that all the growth was small, and the new ones were very small so we are not in crisis.  Said I didn’t need to go back on chemo immediately, but probably would in the near future.

Well, the near future has come.  I had another CT scan last Friday and don’t have the results yet.  I’ll see the doc on this coming Friday and will find out the results and make plans for future treatment.

Our hope is that things have reversed and I can stay off of the hard chemo – maybe stay on this maintenance treatment.

I frankly haven’t felt well lately.  I had a good couple of days a couple of weeks ago – full of energy, worked from early morning into the night.  Was hoping this was a breakthrough but I went back to my old pattern and have been mightily fatigued in recent days.  It is allergy season though, plus I got a nasty stomach flu a few weeks ago and I also had a bad reaction to the barium I had to drink for my CT scan the other day.  So that may contribute, but basically I have been feeling terrible for some time now.

There is much good news though in all of this.  2 Cor. 4:16 is mine in these days:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

I’ve lost more than a step or two but I haven’t lost heart.  My inner self is indeed being renewed and refreshed.   If you or someone you know is going through a terrible trial, take it from me, God will sustain you in the trial.  He won’t necessarily deliver you from the trial, but will be with you in the midst of it.

Though my attention is often largely diverted to physical matters, I believe and I feel that I am surrounded by God’s grace.  Christ is sufficient.  My wife is a constant companion.  My children are a delight.  The church is stalwart.  And I have many friends out there in the cyber world who continue to pray.  Of all the things I feel, and I feel many things which are all over the map, gratitude toward God and toward all of you is what I feel the most.

First Post

Hi Everyone – just in case any of you followed me from my old Jollyblogger blog on Typepad over here I just wanted to say hello and let you know I’m using this as a placeholder for future blogging.  I am not sure if I will blog much here.  I’m sure I’ll never try to recapture what I was doing back in the day on my Typepad blog, but I may do a few things.

If you never followed me over there I used to blog on topics related to Christianity – bible, theology, Christian growth and church life.

I was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer in December of 2008 and have used the blog to give health updates and write about topics of interest to cancer sufferers.

I may write about some of these things here in the future.  With my being sick I can’t plan on any regular blogging but I do like to have the option available in case inspiration strikes me or in case I need to put up a quick health update.  In the past I have been greatly encouraged as people have encouraged me and my family, and offered much prayer for us.  So, I do hope to be able to post health updates, if nothing else.

If you have followed me here from the old blog I’d love to have you leave a quick comment to let me know you are here.  Thanks