HBO- and NOT about movies

On Friday I began HBO treatments- HyperBaric Oxygen.  This is requested by my breast surgeon.  She has lots of experience and has frequently worked on women who have had previous radiation therapy.  The radiation damages the tissues and the blood flow to the area, and often these women have a difficult time healing, HBO creates angiogenesis (new blood pathways) and super-saturates your body with oxygen to aid healing.  I trust my surgeon, and got approval from my insurance, so I began that adventure, and will continue up until my surgery, and then after my surgery for a total of 15-20 treatments.  The down side is that each tratment is quite expensive, and take 2.5 hours in addition to the commute to Santa Fe (45 minutes each way), and I need to have them 5 days a week when possible.  So it is a sink of time and resources.  But i am hopeful that it will be good for me.

One amazing and promising sign is that my painful dermatitis on my thumb (several huge and sore cracks that are usually with me all through the winter) have healed right up after one treatment.  Imagine!  I am taking that as a little comforting sign ffrom the Lord that He is provinding through this for me healing.

And while my HBO is not really related to the movie-showing cable channel, I do get to watch movies.  There is a little video screen on the top of the chamber that I can watch.  ~90 minutes of Pride and Prejudice are behind me, with ~210 more ahead!  ;-)

I appreciate your continued prayers, Gentle Readers.  Here are a few specifics for you to join me in taking before the throne of grace:

• Last week and this I have had a cluster of migraine headaches after not having any for almost a year.  Please pray that this cycle would stop.
• I have also developed a mild cold.  Please pray I could effectively treat it and be cleared to go ahead with my HBO treatments tomorrow.
• Please continue to pray that we would get back the final genetic testing information.  That is the final piece we need before making our final plan.  
• Pray that the caner would not spread, and would not be found in my lymph nodes, and that my post-surgery pathology would be clear.
• That surgery would go well and that recovery wuld be uncomplicated.
• That God would bring healing through all these processes, and that i would rest in Him.
• That this would be my last breast cancer battle.