The Weight of Affliction

Here is a very brief update on our life and a verse to share that is a great comfort to me.

In April my father had a hemorrhagic stroke while in Austin, Texas. He was completely paralyzed on the right side, but is making a remarkable recovery. He is walking with a walker and will even use a cane from time to time to get around. The first weekend of May, we flew him up to Wisconsin for the summer.

On May 15, due in part to his lack of mobility, he threw a massive clot from his leg to his lungs. He was flighted by helicopter (his second med-flight in 7 weeks) from Watertown to Madison. The clot had traveled from his legs through his heart and stopped in his lungs. The doctors placed a metal filter in one of his arteries to prevent future clots and he was released from the hospital three days after going in. Normally, a person can be given medication to help break up clots, but due to the type of stroke my father had, he cannot take that medication.

In the first week of June, my father had a routine follow up scan where they discovered a mass in his lungs. The doctors compared the scan from June to one taken 3 weeks prior and realized that the mass had grown in size and had changed shapes. The doctors believe that it is cancer. My father will have a full body scan done on July 1, to determine definitely what we are dealing with.

Last week, we evacuated my parents and their RV home from the campground where they were spending the summer. Due to the rain and flooding we have received in the Midwest, the campground flooded. They are currently living in their RV in our driveway.

Through all of this, Kim has been doing well. Most of her symptoms had stopped occurring and her pain was much less. We made sure to take care of her and she made marked improvements from where she had been. However, her symptoms have flared this last week. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that she complained of leg weakness. Whatever she has seems to be back to an extent. By the end of yesterday, she had numbness in her legs and her right arm was numb. Many of her other symptoms have come back in the last few days as well.

I post all of this so that I may ask for your prayers. I also wanted to share one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. It helps to put into perspective these slight inconveniences of the last few months. May grace upon grace fall down.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.