Small Steps and Another Must-Read

First of all, I want to thank all of you for passing along the e-mail and getting the prayer chain a-goin’. I can tell that in addition to Mike, many of you have prayed for me also because yesterday was the first time in a long time (and when I say long, I mean loonnnng) that I have not felt completely exhausted. I didn’t even feel like I needed a nap yesterday! Yahoo! Mike’s platelet count dropped ever-so-slightly to 48,000 yesterday, but it is up to 51,000 today. When I came in yesterday morning, Mike had been taken off of the oxygen assistance and has remained off of it since his oxygen levels have been pretty good. Another yahoo! I know that’s got to feel so much better on his nose. Having the oxygen in can sort of make one’s nose pretty darn dry, and who wants that? Not me, that’s for sure. And I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Mike would say he doesn’t want a dry nose either. Mike did crack a slight smile at me last night while I was talking with him, which is more reaction than I’ve gotten from him in the last week. Thanks again for all of your prayers; I’m sure they’re responsible for these small improvements. I’ve got to keep reminding myself of small steps. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, right?

So I read another book yesterday that I must recommend to you—The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch; it’s a pretty quick read. You may have already heard of it since the author was featured in last week’s Parade section of the newspaper and was on Primetime with Diane Sawyer last week. Pausch is 47 years old; he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given three to six months to live. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was asked to give a traditional “last lecture” where professors typically talk about what matters most to them. Since Pausch has three small children (ages 6, 3, and 18 months), he decided actually to craft the lecture for them, talking about life lessons and living life to the fullest. It was videotaped so his children could see it one day and have a glimpse of who their father was. It became an Internet phenomenon and evolved into even more musings in the book. You can read more about it and view the lecture on his website at http://www.thelastlecture.com/. I definitely encourage you to check it out!