Pastor's Family Updates 9/11/08

Hey, I just wanted you to know that I am up and running again (or blogging). We are so glad to be bak from our Sabbatical. Cathy is in the 9th week of her treatments and doing o.k. 9 weeks ago her viral load was around 800,000. (That is the amount of virus or Hepatitis C in her blood)
This week her viral load was down to 2,000 . We are so thankful and excited. We have good doctors, great friends and family that are praying for us, and an Awesome God!!!
Thank You all so much for your love, support, and prayers.
David, Cathy, and the Gurlzzz

Update on Our Stuff

New Mexico Retreat

As I write this blog, I am in the mountains of New Mexico surrounded by snow, sunshine, tall Pines and Aspens, and it's a refreshing 30 degrees. Thanks to the generosity and servants heart of a few wonderful friends, we were able to come to this beautiful place for the price of gas only. We are truly blessed. Yesterday my girls and I were able to hike about 3 miles into the forest. Within a half a mile we were standing on top of a mountain looking over deep snowy valleys, and mountain peaks that were miles and miles away. I t is easy to see the handiwork of God from high on a mountain top, but Oswald Chambers reminds us to look for God in the commonplace; the every day activities and occurences, He's There...and you might miss Him if your looking past Him. We are having such a relaxing time. Today we will go hiking again and tomorrow we will attend one of the local worship services. Cathy's health has been really good. Thank you all for your prayers and support as we are away for just a few more days. You are always in our hearts no matter where we are.
David, Cathy, and the Gurlzzzzz

Gale Family updates

Just wanted to update you first on Cathy's condition. Her liver biopsy turned out really good. Her liver has not been affected or damaged much at all. This means that she is a prime candidate for treatment. Her new Dr., we are told, is one of the best. We will meet w/ him for the first time in March, and he will discuss treatment options with us at that time. It is our understanding that the treatment will last about 1 year, and will leave Cathy feeling weak and sick much of the time. We are also told that it has a 60% cure rate so we are excited about that. Thank You for all of your prayers, cards, hugs, and encouragement. In spite of the many trials we have had this year...we feel tremendously blessed by God!!!!!
Also we have an added blesssing this week. We will be leaving Monday the 4th to go on a family vacation. We will be gone about 11 days, but we will certainly miss all of you. God has blessed us with many wonderful friends, family, and church family, that have made this all possible to get away at this time. All three girls will be going with us; We are so looking forward to this.!!!!! We will be keeping up with our e-mails and blogs while we are away so please keep in touch.
In His Strength,
David, Cathy, and the gurlzzzzz

Update on Pastor and Family

As soon as the doctors confirmed that Cathy did have Hepatitis C, they suggested that everyone in our immediate family be tested. So a week ago Alesha, Alayna, and I all went to have our blood test, to see if we also had contracted the Hep. C virus. The Doctor called yesterday to confirm that none of us have Hep. C. We were all willing to take the treatments together if that was the case, but now we can focus all our energy and strengths towards getting Cathy healthy.
Cathy will be having a liver biopsy done Thursday, the 24 th, to determine if there is damage to her liver, and if so how much? This will also determine her treatment time and strength. Keep praying for us. We know that we have the greatest church family in the world and could not get through all of this without your love, support, prayers, and encouragement.
God BLess!
David, Cathy, and the gurlzzz

First thoughts about our family

Hey everyone! First of all I wanted to thank everyone for your prayers and concern for our family. Cathy is having good days and bad days, but has not yet started treatment for her Hepatitis C. We will see the Dr. next week and discuss different treatment options. Many people are asking a lot of questions, wanting to know more about the didease so I will give you some info. and a web link where you can find out more.
Hepatitis C is a blood disease that (if left untreated) attacks the liver. People in the health care fields such as nurses, Dr.'s, paramedics are probably the most "at risk group" to come into contact with it. Also Drug addicts who share needles, people who have received blood transfusions, or who those who have been pricked with a contaminated needle. the fact is that many people who have Hep C. don't really know how they got it, since it can be in your system for decades before it is detected. It cannot be spread through hand shakes, hugs or even kissing but must be an exchange of contaminated blood to anothers blood source. I don't want to take up a lot of time on this first blog talking about Hep C. but if you want to know more, simply type "Hepatitis -C facts" in the search engine and you will find 100's of helpful pages.
We thank you so much for your prayers, love and encouragement. We are especially thankful to God who has allowed us a very blessed life, and wonderful friends and family to share it with.
God Bless! Pastor David and the girls