32nd birthday.

Today is my sweet Joe's 32nd birthday. Unfortunately, he's spending it in the hospital. Saturday evening, it seemed Joe had irritated his gums by one of his back molars. Possibly a little cut? It wasn't bleeding though, and he was meticulous about making sure everything was clean. Sunday morning around 1am, Joe began feeling cold. He thought it might just be the A/C, so he turned the temp up a bit and put on an extra blanket. But at around 3pm, he checked his temperature about 7 times, and it was 101.7. Not good. He was able to reach a hem-onc fellow and was told to start some antibiotics he had been prescribed for just such an occasion. We were to show up as usual for his appointment. Around 7:30am, we learned that Joe would be admitted overnight.

At the hospital, Joe tried to bargain with the doctor to go home for his birthday! It seemed as though it was a possibility early in the day...However as the day progressed and into the evening, Joe had several episodes of shaking chills...each one seemingly worse than the last...which led to a high fever. It became clear that Joe would likely be in the hospital for awhile.

Between yesterday and today, Joe was visited by our parents. Also SuAnn, Jimmy, and his parents from NJ! David, Myra, Terry...and Ariel and Lilly stopped by with a card but didn't get to see Joe. What can I say but we continue to be overwhelmed by the love and concern everyone has expressed. We appreciate that we are being showered with prayer. It seems as though we keep getting bad and scary news. But through it all we know we have God, our family, and our friends. Joe has the absolute best possible network of people fighting with him, and that has brought such peace to our hearts. Plus the nurses in the hospital have been so great. Diane was the best. She had the evening shift, and it was clear that she was so busy. But she always made us feel at ease, she stayed positive and kept saying to Joe, "no problem! It's my job!" in a way that made it clear he was in good hands.

Well, being in the hospital is NOT a fun way to celebrate a birthday. But Joe is in good hands, and for that I am very thankful.