{"id":589,"date":"2025-03-17T18:10:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T22:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/?p=589"},"modified":"2025-03-17T18:10:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T22:10:49","slug":"dichotomies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/2025\/03\/17\/dichotomies\/","title":{"rendered":"Dichotomies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some days it feels like we are living sharp experiences of dichotomies, sort of like the two world experience like we have described before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Chris and I are in Chicago, at Northwestern Hospital, for the start of his Car-T treatment.  He recovered from the flu and last week made it through 3 days of outpatient chemotherapy.  It has been a tough past few days with more nausea and vertigo than he has experienced before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chemo and cancer can feel like a dichotomy: One day Chris is appearing very well, attending meetings, exercising, doing all-the-things, and in the course of 36 hours he is spending most of the day in bed and sometimes feeling miserable.  This has been on repeat over the past many months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived downtown to start the chemo treatment the weather was so pleasant.\u00a0 We took a walk along the lakeshore, very near the hospital and near Navy Pier.\u00a0 I have always enjoyed Lake Michigan and it has always represented peace, rest, and beauty.\u00a0 Now that we are on the Chicago side of the lake the dichotomy struck me so strongly.\u00a0 On one side lays Lake Michigan in all its beautiful God-given glory and just a few meters away towering buildings and a bustling city, such a sharp dichotomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being in downtown Chicago has had its interesting moments.\u00a0 One day I was riding down the hotel elevator and when the doors opened there in front of me stood three tall, green, American-looking leprechauns.\u00a0 The lobby was filled with all sorts of green outfits; lucky me my exercise shirt was green.\u00a0 Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Chicago style.\u00a0 We were able to go out for a very short masked walk to see the green river and all the revelry.\u00a0 We pretty quickly retreated into our hotel room, more medication, and more rest.\u00a0 Another strong dichotomy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Good thing Christ knows all about dichotomies\u2026he gets it, he lived it too, he did it best.  In him all things, even sharp dichotomies, hold together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Colossians 1:15-20
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. <\/strong>For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. <\/strong>He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. <\/strong>For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, <\/strong>and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. <\/strong>He was with God in the beginning. <\/strong>Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. <\/strong>In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. <\/strong>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17th is the long-awaited-for CAR-T infusion day.\u00a0 We praise our great God for allowing us to get to this day and this time with a great medical team and with great test results a few weeks ago.\u00a0 We are trusting God\u2019s plan and provision for Chris both today, tomorrow for the infusion, and for his future health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That God\u2019s power would be over all things happening at Northwestern for Chris\u2019 treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Chris would not have any negative health reactions that are not part of God\u2019s plan for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our family as we spend many days apart; I will return to GR to be with the kids on Wednesday.\u00a0 Again, our parents are a huge part of our support – pray for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future look ahead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris will be in the hospital 7-14 days. This is to monitor for rare symptoms and be able to respond quickly if they occur.\u00a0 Following infusion, he will stay in the Chicago area for 30 days so he is nearby for medical support and appointments; this is a mandatory part of this treatment.\u00a0 On April 15 he will have a full battery of tests including the CT\/PET and MRIs to track his progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some days it feels like we are living sharp experiences of dichotomies, sort of like the two world experience like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":595,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions\/595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}