Hello everyone,
A very blessed new year to each and all! May we live each day to count every blessing that God has given us - especially, the breath of life.
Watching the devastating situations caused by the Killer Tsunami moved my heart to tears. One man lost his entire family of 12 members and now he is only one in his family that's left behind. A woman in India was so grieved to the point of near insanity. Many are still in the state of shock as they hold and watch the lifeless bodies of their loved ones especially the children. And many, many may not be able to see the bodies of their firends and family at all. I can't imagine what's it is like for them. My little experience was when I lost a very close friend who is an unbeliever few years ago when both he and his wife died during their honeynoon in China. I had no chance to see their bodies at all and it was very difficult not being able to say goodbye.
I want to thank for protecting my sister, Angie and her family (husband and 3 lovely children). They were in Langkawi before the tragedy happened. They plannned to fly to Phuket after that but was unable to get any ticket. Because she also needed to come back to have her blood matching done for my stem-cell transplant, they decided to return earlier. Thus they returned on Sunday from Langkawi.During our monthly Ong family prayer meeting,we were so thankful to God for His protection over them.What really blessed my heart was to see how my twin nephews for the first time experienced the reality and goodness of the Lord in a situation like this.Praise the Lord!
On a personal note, I am grateful for every new breath that has given me each new day. Life is short. We cannot take it for granted. One never knows what can happen to us the very next minute. Every day, we hear and read of people who perish just like that.
I am thankful that in spite of my condition, He has given me so many new days. Indeed, "in Him we live, and move and have our being"(Acts 17:28).I am also thankful that He has taught me to appreciate and cherish the people in my life. And to "praise the Lord, as long as I have breath"(Psm146:2).
Well, thanks for 'listening' to my heartbeat. Now let me share with you about the followup with the doctor at SGH.
The blood haemoglobin is still at 13.1 which is good. After this last cycle, he will do a bone marrow aspiration from the pelvic region to determine if the cancer has gone into remission by sending the fluids for myeloma studies. The next appointment is on 31 Jan. Then he will schedule auto(self) stem cell transplant where the traditional chemo will be adminstered to destroy the body cells; blood will be drawn from my marrow to be 'washed' and finally put back into my body to grow again.This method is only to prolong the life span as it bears the risk of blood contamination as it may still harbour some cancerous cells. For this transplant, hospitalisation will be needed for at about 2 weeks.
The donor stem cell transplant will only be done at a later stage. All my 5 siblings have gone for the blood matching. By God's grace, 2 of my sisters' blood have been completely compatible with mine(Angie and Mary's).Altough the chances of finding a donor amongst siblings is usually 1:4 and 1:20 000 for others, we were told that there have been cases where patients find it hard to find complete matches though they have a very bigger family.Once again, we are thankful to our Jehovah Jireh!
You must be wondering why Whee Ling hasn't been writting for a while now. Well, first of all, she is sleeping now as I pen these words. Secondly, I have not shown her her to log into this blogsite so that she can use it. But you will probably hear from her very soon.
This blogsite is very new to me as well. A dear brother helped us set it up. I understand some of you would like to reply to us. We will figure it out ASAP so that you can reply simply by cliking the comments.Currently many of you can't unless you are invited or you are a blog member I think. Meanwhile, you can still reply to my email at daveongke@pacific.net.sg
It's getting late. Need to send Josh to kindergarden by 8am every morning. Being with him is one of the things I enjoy the most every day. Now I understand how much it delights our heavenly Father whenever we spend time with Him. May we do that with our spiritual children as well.
thanks for standing by us,
david; whee ling and josh.
p/s: Special thanks to Dr.Melvin Tan; Eric Too; Sean Foo; Klein Tan; Peter Loh and whoever I may have missed - for sending out sms every night at 10pm to many in the loop to pray for us. We are deeply touched.
