Thanks Cathi. I feel a strong connection to your Dad too.

My brother's chemo was a little iffy today. His blood tests showed problems with the liver (he's been looking sallow and yellowish the past few days), so the on-call doctor was hesitant, but in the end decided to give him the chemo anyway. But we're definitely anxious to see his own doctor on Wednesday!

I didn't stay for the whole 4-hour chemo today; my other brother is staying with us this week and he stayed for the last 3 hours and then drove Gary home while I went to help my granddaughter celebrate her 6th birthday.

Dianne, I don't know why people say those kinds of things. Cancer is cancer, not divine punishment! I think God has better (more life-giving) ways to teach people any lessons He thinks they ought to know! I wouldn't be surprised if He uses the cancer to teach them about His mercy and about other GOOD things, but I can't believe that He GIVES people cancer or anything death-oriented to punish or teach people lessons. What good is learning a lesson if the person doesn't get the chance to live what he/she has learned?

Cancer doesn't differentiate who it hits. My Mom was one of the last people on earth who "deserved" to have cancer, yet she died from it. My brother has never done anything to warrant "punishment by cancer." It is what it is. Why do people feel the need to twist it (and God's love & mercy by doing so) around to become weapons of divine mass destruction!