In World War-II, my Uncle Bob Slater was a member of the 94th Infantry Division, 302d, of Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army. Shortly after the Battle of the Bulge ended, they were fighting hard in an area known as the Siegfied Line and every town was a really tough fight. One town in particular I'm especially familiar with for reasons I'll come to later. It was the tiny town of Sinz near the German, France, Luxembourg borders. It was a terrible battle and many men were killed, many more wounded during the fight. But they took the town.
Within hours, they were informed that the armored company that had supported them was being detached (pulled out) for another engagement. They knew they could not hold the town without the armor and had to retreat only to be faced with taking the exact same town again later ... at the expense of more lives of course. They did take the town again and continued to push forward into Germany until the war was won only 4 months later.
Why do I go into all this on Daniel's page? Because tomorrow (Wed 9/4/12) it feels like we're going into battle to take the same town for the second time. Last week, we thought it would be the biggest of the battles we faced during this last intensive phase of his chemotherapy. Unfortunately, because Daniel forgot he wasn't supposed to eat after midnight the night before, and his parents didn't realize the mistake, we had to postpone the worst part of the scheduled treatments ... the spinal tap. Rather than pushing it back to late afternoon the same day, they just postponed the spinal a week since we were due to be back in the clinic anyway. Even more unfortunately, this put the spinal on the same day as the first round of his shots piling up two of Daniel's most dreaded treatments.
If you've followed us through the beginning of this phase, you may recall that he had to endure six different treatments of 3 injections each, spaced 2 days apart. I won't go back through the "whys" here, but suffice it to say, with Daniel's hatred of needles, he had a really tough time dealing with this treatment. His other arch-nemesis is the spinal tap. He has to be put under for this and recent experiences have left him much more nauseated and with a sore back than they did originally. So while he was quite happy to postpone the spinal last week, here we are again staring at the same battle for the second time. Only this time, we're also got a regular chemo IV plus the dreaded leg injections all piled together. It's like taking the same town again, but this time they know we're coming!
He started struggling with anxiety on Sunday and had it even worse last night. So far, some discussions about courage, spiritual armor, God's peace, and taking our thoughts "captive" have been able to turn things around for him. But I'm not looking forward to tonight as the evening wears on.
Tomorrow, if the battle goes as planned, we'll be through yet another spinal (only 23 more scheduled), another infusion of this drug (24 more scheduled), and the first of 6 sets of injections over the next week and a half (15 more injections). It'll be a tough battle over the next 24 hours - in some ways, the actual procedures will be easier than the waiting period ahead of time.
I'm reminded of a line from the movie "The Lord Of The Rings" by the Hobbit named Pippin when he said, "I don't want to be in a battle, but waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse." I'm sure Daniel would agree!
I'm familiar with the first Battle for Sinz, on Jan 26th, 1945 because in it, my uncle Bob was mortally wounded, dying a week later at a field hospital. It was tragic to learn that all the ground they'd won in the battle that claimed his life was lost again just a day later, yet ultimately I know his sacrifice was not in vain and the war was won. You can read a little bit about the battle here: http://www.angelfire.com/va2/worldwar2family/freddie4.html Scroll down to the entry titled: "SINZ: The Lynchpin".
So too shall our war be won with Faith, Fortitude, Courage, and Perseverance. Making advances against the enemy is never entirely in vain - even if we suffer the occasional set back. It's not the ground we cover, it's the victories we win. And if we win two victories for every loss on the same ground, we're still winning and still moving forward overall.
Thank you all for your continued prayers, support, and all the wonderful comments. Rest assured we feel and appreciate every one (both prayers and comments ... but especially the prayers. :)
For our prayer partners, the above text should provide plenty of prayer requests without my listing them again here. Again ... THANK YOU. and may God bless each of you.
- Tim, Andrea, & Daniel -
Please also continue to pray for our friends The Kellers and their son Joey. Read their updates here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joeykeller
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