June 9, 2011

Greetings to all of you:

A lot has happened since my last blog. One thing is that I have not kept up my intention to blog about once every three weeks. The reason for that is that my wife and I have had the privilege of being away on vacation for about five weeks. And now we are home again. But our home situation has been another adventure, as we have sold our home of the last eleven years and have moved into a basement suite in the house of our son-in-law and daughter (along with their five children). We moved our possessions into our new dwelling and left before we unpacked. Now that we are back from our vacation we are busy unpacking and assigning places for all of our things. As the move entails a considerable down-sizing, the task is not simple. We continue to make trips to Bible for Missions and such like places to reduce our possessions in order to make sure we have enough room to move around in our new home.

All in all the last six weeks and more have been a busy and interesting time for us. We are very thankful that the Lord has allowed us to do all these things. We are especially grateful for the opportunity to drive across our vast country, to enjoy the variety of landscapes and people one comes across in the many kilometers and miles that separate us from our three sons: one in Winnipeg, one in Smithville, ON and one in Strathroy, ON.

We had decided to drive to Winnipeg and evaluate how that went before determining whether or not we would drive to Ontario or use different methods of transportation to get there. As it turned out the driving was very pleasant and allowed us much freedom to do as we wanted and health dictated. We drove through the US from Winnipeg to Ontario and back and found that costs in the US were considerably lower there than in Canada.

The fact that we were gone for five weeks also meant that we would have to deal with the full range of the side effects of the chemo pill I continued to take. We may gratefully report that other than less energy on the last leg of the trip we were not affected in our plans by the side effects.

Now that we are back we continue to be busy with unpacking, so we are still more active than normal, but I am in the two week period without the chemo pill. That regime begins again this coming Monday.

My health continues on as it has been for the last number of months. I did discover a lump in my right breast which I discussed with the doctor yesterday. He is not sure what to make of it. He suggested that men can also have breast cancer (something which I was aware of) or it might be the kidney cancer masticizing in a different locale, or it might even be a cist of some other kind. As it has been there for some four weeks already and has not grown over that period and does change size from day to day and even from morning to evening, we decided to continue on with the regular chemo pill regimen and schedule a CT Scan before my next doctor visit in six weeks and review matters at that time.

We praise God for the fact that we have no other difficulties or pains and are hoping to put in a round or two of golf in the next week or two.

Especially we are thankful to our heavenly Father for the fact that we were able to visit our three sons and their families and stay with them in their homes to experience their family lives first hand. It was a great blessing and a wonderful experience. We are also thankful that we could make that large trip without untoward incidents and any health set backs.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Pieter de Boer