Of Love, Hope, & Rainbows

May 26th came, and we were actually heading to Milwaukee where Ernie would have his second bone marrow transplant. Again, he had the PICC line put into his chest. Then he went to the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit where he was put in room #10. At 5:00 p.m., the nurse came in and gave him the huge injection of chemo that took about 20 minutes, but before she did that, a doctor had come in to tell us that they were going to give Ernie 10% less chemo than they normally do. Hmmmmmm. What a surprise that was for me. I guess I thought, maybe they actually liked my idea of giving Ernie less chemo because he was a lot older now.
Ernie had to eat ice chips for 20 minutes before the injection of chemo and continue to eat ice chips for a total of one hour. This is to help the patient from having problems with mouth sores. Ernie did an excellent job with this. The nurse complimented him. When she was finished with this procedure, she asked him if there was anything else she could get him. Ernie responded, “I could use some de-icer.” She laughed and said that was the first time she had ever heard that request.
The plan was for me to leave and drive back to Sheboygan at 7:00 p.m. We figured by then the traffic from people going to the Brewers game would be settled down. I got in the car and was just making the turn around the Marquette inter-change when this whole thing hit me. I started crying (this was really not a good place to be crying on this busy freeway.) The reality of the transplant hit me hard, and I was sobbing. I cried out to God saying, “It’s too hard. It’s too hard. It’s just too hard, God.” I knew there was no turning back now, as the dose of chemo was already injected into his body. My days of living with denial that Ernie would never have to go through another transplant were done, and I had to face reality. Then my prayers turned to pleading for God’s help, begging Him with all my heart – “Please help him through this. Please, please help him, God.” I knew God heard my prayer as immediately, I felt a peace come over me. I sensed God’s presence and my eyes were dried. I got home safely feeling assured that God was going to get Ernie through the tough battle ahead. He would be there for us and everything would be alright. I went home and slept peacefully. In fact, I slept peacefully every night, feeling confident that God would see us through.