Quick update on the left foot

Hello Everyone - I hope you are all having a very Merry Christmas and that the Spirit of Christ has touched you heart this Christmas Season.  My family has been the recipients of Christlike service and love.  You have made our world brighter through your selfless acts of kindness, love, support, and faith.

Update on my left foot:  So, it began a few weeks ago with cellulitis and a hospital stay.  I was discharged from the hospital and the next day we went back up because of increased swelling.  They told us to elevate the foot more and to watch it like a hawk.  Angela was very diligent about watching it.  On the last day of my antibiotics, Angels felt like it was not healing as quickly as it should.  She asked a good friend who is a wound care nurse to come and look at it.  She looked at my foot and poked around some and suggested we go the the emergency room (as this was Saturday).  So we heeded her counsel and headed to the Emergency Room.  The ER doctor agreed with our nurse friend that there was some kind of infection that the current antibiotics were not healing.  They called in the foot doctor and he did more poking and prodding and said he thought I had a strep infection and needed to use a different antibiotic.  So, he set me up with a new IV antibiotic.  They gave me the first dose at the ER.  I have to go to UVRMC infusion center each day for the next 7 days to get my daily dose of the IV antibiotic.  The doctor told me to rest and stay away from groups of people.  That is why I was not at church and because the infusion was at the same time as sacrament meeting. 

So, I hope to have a functioning foot and be social again in a week.  Thank you so much to everyone that has dropped by  goodies, greetings, and well wishes for our family.  We have felt very loved today.

I was supposed to get a new port put in on Tuesday, but we have had to cancel that.  We will see if/when that happens.  I am scheduled to have my second round of chemotherapy on January 4th.  We will see how I am doing then; hopefully, I will be back to good health and can continue the treatment.

This Christmas time definitely has not turned out the way I had planned.  I have been away from family, away from work, and away from church.  Through all of this, I have had moments of sadness, where I feel the burden of my sickness, especially the burden it places on my family.  At those moments, I cry out to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ for comfort and peace.  My Christmas miracle is that I have felt the Spirit of Christ this Christmas time.  I have felt God's love for me and my family. I have felt his love for each of you.  My burden has become easy and my yoke has become light.  I have peace in my soul.

No matter what are burden is, Christ has suffered it all.  He knows our pain, sadness, sorrow, weakness, and guilt.  He can lift the burden as we take His yoke upon us and do His will.  When we lose out lives in Christlike service and actions, our burdens become light and at times can be forgotten.  I know that God lives and loves us so much. 

Merry Christmas to all.  I pray that Heavenly Father will bless you and your families that you will feel of His love for you.  As you lift the burden of others, your burdens will be lifted also.

Love, Doug