Update: 22nd Feb

Needle-free Wednesday failure
Yesterday should have been my first needle-free Wednesday since I finished chemotherapy last week. However, as the day progressed, I grew more stiff and tired and developed a headache. During the afternoon, my temperature started to rise.

Nevertheless, we decided to go to the second meeting of our new Bible study group for 20-30 somethings at All Souls, which turned out to be an excellent decision. After having 7 people last week, this time we had 15! We're now thinking of starting a second group on Tuesday nights. This is very exciting and an answer to prayer as we seek to build a sub-community within the church in this previously under-represented demographic. We started a series on the passion narrative in Luke (very appropriate for Lent), in parallel with the sermons until Easter. The triumphal entry is such an interesting passage (Luke 19.28-40) - perhaps I'll post on it sometime soon on my main blog.

However, when we got home from the group, my temperature had breached the limits of the normal adult range. This, for a chemo patient, is potentially quite serious since the treatment reduces the body's ability to fight infections. An illness that might send a healthy person to bed for a day can be life-threatening if your white cell count is too low.

So we went to Emergency at RPAH and discovered that combining 'chemotherapy' and 'temperature' turns out to be one of those secret passwords that gets you lots of attention very quickly from the triage nurse. One of the 'benefits' of my condition is that I seem to jump lots of queues and have had less experience being forced to be patient than most patients.

As it turned out, my blood count was unexpectedly good so close to chemo treatment. Since they couldn't find the source of the fever, they decided to keep me under observation and hydrated (i.e. with a drip, requiring yet another needle and cannula, hence the failure of needle-free Wednesday). By morning, my fever had broken and by six this evening I was discharged. This is the first time I've needed to be admitted to hospital, which is a great blessing. I admire those who work there, as they can be very depressing places.

For now, the main task health-wise is continuing to rest and remain hydrated. The main task life-wise is still loving God and neighbour.