MEDICAL UPDATES
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UPDATE No. 1 Tuesday
22 /2/ 2005
Hi ... This is one of those circular letters that I need to send
to a dozen people ... to tell them all the latest news. On Wed. 16th Feb. 2005, I told Dr.
Daisy how food was sticking in my throat ... so she sent me off for a
gastroscopy ...if that's how it's spelt. I told her that Vijay, who
used to be a member of my church at Rosanna , was a surgeon who did that kind
of thing ... so Friday (18th) I popped off to see him ... and he slithered a
camera down my throat to see what was the matter... (you can see where this email is
heading , can't you ?)
The next day ...Saturday 19th ... he rang Barbie to say it
was serious and he wanted to see both of us on Sunday afternoon at his home. So I
preached that Sunday morning at Williamstown ... took Barbie out to
lunch 'cos it was her birthday ( tho' I only had pasta that slithered
down ) ... then off to Vijay's. I already had said ... " Sounds like
cancer " and sure enough ... it's cancer of the oesophagus.
This has led to folk phoning and speaking in hushed tones
as if its a funeral service. So much
for the spooky word cancer! Another sends me rather boring sermon snippets
from Puritans who lived 200 years ago. And another tells me that I was healed
2000 years ago ... They all mean well ... even those who splutter and
just don't know what to say .
Vijay urgently arranged for me to have a cat-scan the following day
( Monday 21st.) and he rang the results thru' the same
afternoon. (They had found no cats. nor had the cancer spread.) I must see my cardiologist next Monday
to see if my heart will conk out under an anesthetic or not ( who
knows ?) ... and then see a Thorasic surgeon ( who lives in
Thorasic Park ?) next week ... ( already organised by Vijay
... he is so helpful ! ) .... and he hopes to have me
in Northern Hospital , Epping, by Friday week !!. Wow ! He said it was an urgent " major, major operation
!" (Im not sure if that means the
operation is dangerous or whether he stutters. )
He will do half of it ... another surgeon does the chest as he
does the abdomen. Maybe they get Houdini to cut me in half first ? Yuk
! If I don't have the
operation the cancerous growth
will block my oesophagus and I'll have to be fed thru' a tube the rest of my
life. And it's difficult to get vanilla slices through a tube
! The growth, incidentally is close to a major pulmonary vein ... just to
add to the drama.
None of this had really upset me ... but having to cancel 23 preaching
& mid-week Bible studies during the next three months ... is really depressing ! Grrr !!! On the good
side , however , is the fact that I'll be in hospital about a month surrounded
by pretty nurses who laugh at my jokes ... or in Heaven singing to the
angels with my ukelele.
It's a win/win situation !!
God holds the key of all unknown
and I am glad;
If other hands should hold the key
or if He trusted it to me ...
I might be
sad.
( Joseph Parker )
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UPDATE No. 2
March 1. Yesterday was a cardiogram
tomorrow a
nuclear (!) cat-scan
Thursday see Vijay again and Friday see the chest
surgeon. I might add
things just grew more depressing . I was not allowed to drink coffee or
tea for a day or two previous
or wait for it
eat chocolates !!
UPDATE No. 3
March ... 4th. 4:00 p.m. Saw Vijay
yesterday ... he had the results of the stress test
( so
called 'cos running 50 m.p.h. on a treadmill
puts one under so much stress !) and the nuclear cat-scan .... It
seems that the operation will be "high risk" due to the damage
to my heart some 8 years ago when I had my heart attack. Now he
thinks I ought to go to the Austin Hospitalwhere they have equipment available
if my heart stops during the surgery. I will be seeing the Thorasic surgeon at
5:30 p.m. today to get his final decision
March
4: 8:00 p.m.
Well !!!
Dr Seevin ( or something like
that )
the Thorasic surgeon
seems to think the best course of action is a
few weeks
or months ( !!)
of chemo-therapy
to shrink the tumor away from the heart before an operation. So
now we wait to see Dr. Tuppett
and another gastroscopy
in the
meantime its still One day at a time !
I dont know what the future holds
but I know Who holds the future.
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UPDATE No.
4 March 11th.
Hi !
Here I am ... still
kickin' ... and rejoicing
with the latest news about my health.
Last
Tuesday Barbie & I saw a specialist ... who said so many
things about what I needed having done to me , I'd forgotten most of it by the time I was back to the car. But Barbie had taken
notes
bless her ! ... so I can tell you what lies ahead.
On March 22 is a nuclear P.E.T. scan
... followed by another test ( a something or other that Barbie couldn't
spell )... followed by another heart test to see if my heart ( which was
damaged by my 1997 heart attack ) will cope with the operation
/anesthetic. Then chemo-therapy for 3 weeks or more.... then the
operation.
Worst
of all ... is that Barbie made an appointment for me ( March 18 ) to get
a flu injection from Dr. Daisy !!
Last
time I made her laugh just as she was about to jab and I'm sure the needle went
in one side of my arm and came out the other. Moral of the story is don't make
your Doctor giggle at a precarious moment.
At
the moment New LItho ... the company that provided me with this
computer, ... is working on a web-site for me . I'll let you know when it
is up and ready to go. It will provide something for me to do seeing as I'm not
allowed to preach ( which included hours of preparation ) during the weeks/
months ahead .
God
bless you all.
Thank-you
for your prayers ... for myself and Barbie and the family ...
that we will know the peace of God in the midst of this disruption
to normal life.
Donald Prout
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UPDATE No. 5
March 18 th.
Im just home from the opening night of the
Franklin Graham Festival.
He certainly preached the old-time gospel
faithfully and it was good to see the response to the invitation to accept
Christ as Saviour and Lord.
But the music !!!!!!! Gone are the days of massed choirs and
George Beverly Shea
now its guitars and drums and singers (?) whose
lyrics I am unable to understand. All at full volume.
Anyway
thats not why Im writing this.
Today the inimitable Dr. Daisy with her
omnipresent needle gave me a flu shot.
This coming week , on Tuesday , its
the Positron Emission Tomography
better known as The PET scan . I
get a dose of radio-active tracers injected into me
and for 6-8 hours after its over Im not
allowed to go near children under 2 years
or pregnant women !
Then Wednesday I see the Specialist
.
And Thursday I have a camera inserted in my
tummy to see if any cancer cells are floating around where they shouldnt
be. After all , no sense chopping it
out of my oesophageus if it is hiding somewhere else
sneaky-like !
So thats what lies in the immediate future
stand by for the next update next Friday
God willing !!
God
bless yall !!
Donald
.
P.S.
I'm in trouble, too.
I just had the toughest time of my
life. First,
I got angina pectoris and then
arteriosclerosis.
Then it was cardiology and thoracic
rhythm.
Just as I was recovering from these, I
got
tuberculosis, double pneumonia and
phthisis.
Then they gave me hypodermics.
Appendicitis
was followed by tonsillectomy. These
gave way
to aphasia and hypertrophic cirrhosis.
I completely
lost my memory for a while, amnesia and
dementia.
I know I had diabetes and acute
ingestion, besides
gastritis, rheumatism, lumbago and
neuritis.
I don't know how I pulled
through. It was the
toughest spelling test in my life!
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UPDATE No. 6 Thursday 24
Hi ... 'tis Donald !
Well ... another week of Doctors' waiting rooms (and needles) is past.
Both the PET scan ( last Tuesday ) and the laparoscopy this morning revealed no speed
of the cancer outside my oesophagus.
At the moment I've a rather sore tummy ( and there is a lot of it to be sore !) where the
surgeon
drilled a hole and popped in a camera, ( I won't send you a copy of the
photograph...it's not my best angle
...)
I'm looking forward to preaching next Sunday night ... probably my last sermon for many a day.
Then it's a heart scan
next Tuesday ( 29th.) ... 
( I hope they leave it inside to scan it ! )
a visit to Surgeon No. 1 next Thursday ( 31st. ) for a check up ...
and then have a chemo-therapy 'port' inserted in my shoulder ... next Friday ( April 1st ).
I hope I can find a good book to read whilst I wait , wait , wait to be attended to.
I'm getting sick of 1985 Womens' Weekly's that abound in such places !
The Best Book reminds me that " tribulation worketh patience " ( Romans 5:3) ... and I don't need convincing that such is just as true as the rest of the Book !
Pray that I won't get frustrated or irritable ... and that Barbie will be able to cope with it all. My web-page still has teething troubles ... but I'll let you know when it is up and running.
God bless !
Donald.
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UPDATE No. 7
FRIDAY April 1st.
Hi ! everybody ...
This is just to let you know that I'm stll alive , and
kickin' , ... and sore !!!
You guessed it ... more needles !!
Today the
chemo-therapy 'port' was inserted under my skin ... next Tuesday it gets
hooked up to the chemo itself ...
Barbie
has been so good driving me to and fro and waiting hours ... bless her ...
that's one of the things that saddens
me. It has messed up so many of her baby-sitting duties and
other things she used to do.
On the happy side ... my
Web page is working ... the only trouble is that I have trouble working it. A
friend taught me how to do it ... but when he went home , it didn't work for me
!! Oh well , another 47 lessons and I should be a computer whiz-kid !
In the mean-time ... click
on this and you should see what's on the Web-page so far.
Last Sunday night
Northcote Baptist let me preach my 'last' sermon ... 'last' for
how long , I don't know.
I didn't realise it
when I felt that Psalm 23 was the theme I should choose that verse
4 was a part of it.
How about that
!!! It was as if I was preaching to myself !
Below is a copy of
the notes I distributed after the service ... in-case you are interested.
Donald
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The
King of Love my Shepherd is
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Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my
shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life:
and I will
dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
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INTRODUCTION
This Pearl of Psalms is
one of the best known, best loved portions of Scripture.
Are
there any new gems of truths to be unearthed within it ?
On the other hand, Psalm 24 is the
Psalm of His Coming Again Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of Glory shall come
in
(v. 9).
Let us summarise it thus:
Psalm 22 The
Saviours Cross!
Psalm 23 The
Shepherds Crook!
Psalm 24 the
Sovereigns Coming !
* Psalm 22 finds its New Testament
correlation in John 10:11: The Good
Shepherd Who gives His life for the sheep.
Our Dying Lord!
* Psalm 23 finds its New Testament
counterpart in Hebrews 13:20: Now the
God of peace Who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great
Shepherd of the sheep. Our Living
Lord!
* And Psalm 24 finds an echo in I Peter
5:4: When the Chief Shepherd
shall appear
Our Coming Lord!
Let it be emphasised, before we
continue, unless you know Him as the Saviour of Psalm 22 you cannot enjoy the
blessings of Psalm 23.
(2) THE STARTING POINT OF THE PSALM
Whereas Psalm 22 spoke of
the Provision of Salvation
the Cross
Psalm 23 leads us to the Appropriation of that Salvation.
He is not just a Shepherd , or even the Shepherd, but my
Shepherd !
By faith I have made Him mine.
Have you ?
.
(3) THE STRUMMING OF THE PSALM
The six verses of Psalm 23 have been likened to a 6-stringed
musical instrument. And where-ever you strum
it vibrates with Divine melody.
* Notice verse 4.
There is a change of grammar here.
The Psalmist is no longer telling others about his Shepherd as he did in
vs. 1-3 but now he addresses the
Shepherd directly . Thou art with me ! It is in the valley of the shadow the Lord becomes even closer to
us !
..
* Notice vs. 5
My cup runneth over ! And as the old Scottish preacher added
and my saucer too ! Daily He
loadeth us with benefits. ( Psalm
68:19) What a Good Shepherd we
have
* Strum a little on vs. 6
Goodness and
mercy in this life ! And Glory
hereafter !!
Why would anyone want another Shepherd ?
CONCLUSION
Psalm 23
why not memorise it this week ?
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UPDATE No. 8
Hi !
It was last
Tuesday ( April 5) I entered hospital for over-night Chemo-therapy
... but coming home on the Wednesday (April 6 ) did not eventuate
!!
Firstly there was some trouble
in getting the new-style needle into my 'port'... (a thing they implanted under
the skin of my shoulder the previous Friday) . Two nurses and two doctors all
had a go ( three or four jabs each !) ... and one hour later ... they
found an old-style needle that worked. I was beginning to think I was in
the acupuncture ward by mistake. I was glad my
local doc. Daisy
had
toughened me up to this with her needle jabbing caper !
This delayed the Tuesday dose
of chemo ... which I eventually received Wednesday .
So far my hair hasn't
fallen out .. not even out of my eyebrows , 'cos there is plenty there too
...
Barbie was coming to
take me home about 6:p.m. ... I was even out of bed and in the waiting room
when I had a rather ... er ... violent reaction to
the chemo ...
I was .........................
and all the old heart attack symptoms I'd experienced 8 years ago returned.
So it was back to my ward bed
which the staff had made up for the next patient .
I was visited by the
Hospital Chaplain ... who remembered me speaking at a Christian meeting
in her school when she was a student there YEARS ago . She even invited me
to speak at the Hospital chapel service if I were still a patient there on
Sunday!!
Then I was visited by a
social worker whose theology was way out liberal.
I was visited by a speech
therapist (! ) who wanted to see if I swallowed correctly.
I was visited by a dietician (
which was better than a mortician ! ) who said ...I kid you not ... that I
should eat "lollies , chocolate and ice-cream
!" Barbie thinks I bribed her to say it ... but everything I say is
true and that's especially true !!
So .... I just arrived
home. ( Saturday 9th. )
They plan to change the
medication ... and the type of chemo therapy... and hopefully the needles!
Next
Monday I get stitches out of my neck ... OUCH ! ... and later, when they
arrange it , I'm
back for a two-hour dose of
chemo.
They say it affects the,mind, too .
Will I remember how to tune my ukelele ?
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Whilst I was in Hospital my web
page was getting knocked into better shape ... I will be able to add to it
soon.
Thanks so much to Peter Osborne
in Surrey Hills and Chris Field at this end who both dithered with it at the
same time. ( I'd explain to you how they did it but it's a bit ... er ...
technical for ... er ...you ! )
If you haven't seen it
yet , 'tis
When Val Dunleavy comes for
another visit and saves my one-typing finger by using her
ten-typing fingers I'll be able to add a ton of stuff to it.
Some folk ... about 23, have
sent emails during the last 5 days .... so I'll get around to answering
those later.
But I wanted to get this
Update out because I know some folk share it with their Church tomorrow morning
( God bless 'em !) and are praying for me.
There were good opportunities
to speak a good word for the Lord Jesus whilst in hospital , both to
nurses and other patients. May He water the seed that was planted.
I'm feeling reasonably well ..
still having trouble swallowing food ( no steak thank-you ) ... and was told
that whilst the chemo-treatment wears out of the system for a couple of days ,
I'm toxic ! Someting like the Six-million Dollar Man. ? But the down-side
( from my point of view, anyway,) is no more kissing !!
I found an old wig at
Super Savers for $2 ...it may come in helpful when my hair falls out.
Or do you think it doesn't suit
me ?
V
V
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God bless !!
Donald
UPDATE
No. 9
'tis Donald .... and I'm still trying to find a suitable hair covering . ....
not that my hair has started to disappear yet ... at least , not as a result of
the chemo-therapy treatment !
But maybe this makes me look too much like an eighteenth century missionary
from the Amazon basin ?
v
v
v
v
v
v
vv
I was discharged from hospital last Saturday morning ( April 10) .................
... but felt too unwell to get to church on the
Sunday ... 
then back to the hospital last Monday to get stitches removed ( OUCH ! )
... back to the hospital again on Tuesday for more chemo-therapy ... ( but only for a couple of hours ) ...
and eventually home, half asleep, until now. Some people walk in their sleep , others talk in their sleep and others snore in their sleep. I feel as if I'm doing all three at the same time.
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Oh, yes ! .... there were more needles stuck in me earlier this week .
But
I've realised there's another little fellow who suffers needles
worse than I ....
God bless y' all .. thank-you, so much, for your prayers ... and cheery emails ...
Donald
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P.S. My web-page is growing
.... http://donaldprout.com/
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