Talking Out Of Turn

Although far from being a godly song, I used to identify a lot with “Comfortably Numb” from Pink Floyd’s album The Wall.

Hello
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home?

In some ways I feel numb now, but not numb from shock or anything terrible that is happening. Nothing terrible is happening; I’m just overwhelmed.

Here’s the news, for the last six months or so (in other words, This Is Where I Am Right Now):

1. I have cirrhosis. I’ve never been a drinker and nobody seems to know where it came from, but my liver is failing rather faster than it should be. Thankfully this hasn’t turned to liver cancer or anything quite that severe; I just need to be careful, and be ready someday for a liver transplant if it keeps getting worse.
2. I have some sort of anemia. At the very least, my body doesn’t seem to be absorbing iron at all, or producing red (and sometimes not white, either) blood cells with any regularity. I’m very run down, worn out, and so forth. A brisk 50-yard walk, even downhill, will leave me breathing hard to get oxygen in. Exercise has become very difficult to sustain. Even public speaking for a long time can leave me near blacking out. The good news is, I haven’t had pneumonia for nearly a year now. I’ve got a good hematologist and we’re still working through some troubleshooting on the blood count.
3. I still have to be careful about an ulcer that was found last year (which is what launched this whole medical issue for me). I’m on medication to neutralize stomach acid, which makes digestion a lot harder than it normally would be.
4. If all goes well, we’re moving at the end of the month, just a little bit farther into Illinois. The house is a lot older, slightly bigger, and I will have an office again! Finally. We’re not packed yet, the new owners of my house have a laundry list of things they want fixed, and Tracey will be out of town for a few days right when we need to do the most packing. Given my condition and her packing abilities, this is really going to be a challenge for us.

I imagine that this sounds like complaining. Really, I’m just trying to explain why I’m so far behind on things. It’s been six months (again) since I was updating the testimony page, and I’ve had nothing else to say. I owe a number of people correspondence and/or phone calls. I’m the technical guy at the moment for Triablogue, but I’m a bit behind on tasks there too. I’ve been meaning to convert the GCBC website to a content management system so somebody else can update it, but I haven’t done that yet either. I need a vacation to catch up on work.

Speaking of work, I’m very busy there too. We’re replacing the entire network infrastructure in the next 45-75 days, with no guarantee that the normal load will be lightened at all.

My spiritual life has flagged a bit. I haven’t been devoting the time to prayer and study of the word that I should.

In good news… well, we are moving, after all. I still love my church. God is still faithful, Christ is still on the throne, the Spirit is still moving. The kids are continuing to grow, and learn. My wife continues to love me, and I her. Our families continue to support us.

I’ve still got long-term projects - even creative ones - that I’ve been considering.

Please pray for me, and for my family. I’ll tell more when I can.