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Over the past month or so Lorinda has had to deal with several challenges. She started to run a fever of over 103 and became very sick. It turned out that she had a very serious staff infection in her blood from the port by her collarbone. She had to be hospitalized for a few days and is now back home with an almost normal temperature. They installed a new port so she could continue with her medication. A blood infection goes everywhere in the body, even the brain. She was so weak she could hardly think clearly enough to get a glass of water at the worst of it. During this ordeal, she really could not eat much and her weight dropped to 96 lbs. They put her on an antibiotic, which brought her fever down, and now that her appetite has returned, she is back up to 103 lbs. The nasty side effect of the antibiotic though is that her liver pain is pretty consistently back up to a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. It really is incredible what she has to endure with essentially no reprieve. She is waiting for another shipment of the Ferguson oil from Germany that really helped with the pain before. Hopefully she will be able to discontinue this antibiotic soon and the pain will subside.

Lorinda has had to pause the chemotherapy treatment while dealing with this infection but she will resume as soon as the antibiotic is discontinued. We will keep you posted as important news develops.

In some of our earlier postings, I think we mentioned that Lorinda has had a couple of dogs as her very close companions for the past 13 years or so, Precious and Princess. She truly loves these dogs; they have been like her children. A couple of months ago, Precious had to be put to sleep which was quite a loss. The night before Lorinda had to go to the hospital, she was relaxing with Princess and, as she was petting her, she noticed that her breathing was slowing. A few minutes’ later Princesses eyes glazed over and she died in Lorinda’s arms. Yes, all while Lorinda is extremely weakened with the temperature and about to go into the hospital. Sorry to paint such a gloomy picture but this is what is actually happening. It just keeps going…One really starts to think of the biblical character, Job, after a while. Of course, Lorinda does get comfort from thinking about that story, not only how it ended but also because God had reasons behind it. Even though she does not know the reasons for her suffering right now, she knows that God does. In this she takes hope.

On the brighter side, young Thomas is quite a little fella and tremendous source of pride and light for Lorinda and Tom. That’s him there in the picture to give you an idea what’s going on there. The smile is self-explanatory.

Tom is putting in some long hours at work trying to keep their heads above water financially and their close friends and family members are helping with errands and taking care of Thomas. Lorinda is continuing to be vigilant in this fight and, aside from all the complications, overall she seems to be slowly winning the battle. They continue to be extremely grateful for all of your prayers and financial support. As the bills pile up, when they receive a gift, it is truly like a breath of air.