Dear All,
Apologies for the silence over the winter period. These past weeks have been very challenging indeed. It is hard to believe that two years come tomorrow Rebekah took ill and that we are still dealing with the fallout and aftermath. But as we look back we give God thanks for his continued faithfulness to us as a couple and as a family.
Over the past three months Rebekah has been on a slow reduction program of her steroids. She is still on 7mg a day but the Consultant is determined to take that down to 5mg. She has on the whole been coping remarkably well. Life however has had its major challenges with infection after infection for her as well as exhausting sleep patterns. For those of you who are parents out there you will understand the frustration when you start to settle your child for bed at 8 and you are still trying to do so at 11.45. When this is a one off you can cope with it but for over three months this was the case pretty much every day of the week with a few exceptions. Whilst Jillian and I are exhausted from lack of sleep Rebekah has boundless energy which is again down to the steroids.
Again we are grateful for all the help that we have received and prayers from many all over without this we could not survive.
The Consultant now wants to get Rebekah's medication down as she has been on the high dose steroids for too long. She is concerned about all the other side effects of leaving her on them going forward at any dose higher than 5mg. So we would continue to ask you to pray that we will be able to get her down to 5mg asap and that there will be no serious relapses as a result of doing so.
One very positive bit of news is that we have shared on many occasions the issues that Rebekah has with her memory. These past couple of weeks Rebekah has been in a poetry competition in school reciting Ally Bally Ally Bally bee. She was selected along with two other from her class to enter the whole school poetry competition and last night she came first for the primary 2 classes. This has given a huge boost which we give God thanks for and indeed we give God thanks that despite her memory issues she has been able to do this.
Over the last couple of months we have been receiving help from a charity called Epilepsy Scotland which has been helpful for us just to be able to talk to people who understand some of the condition that we are dealing with day in day out. They are looking to see what other help and assistance that they can get for us particularly in the area of getting Rebekah to sleep at night.
Prayer
1. Please continue to pray for healing for Rebekah
2. Please continue to pray for the other members of the family as we deal with the situation day in day out.
3. Please pray for wisdom for the consultants treating her - particularly as the conditions are so rare they are learning a lot from Rebekah.
4. Please pray for continued progress at school.
Thanks
1. We give thanks for all the help received.
2. We give thanks for Rebekah continued high spirits and how brave she is taking her medication every day.
3. We give thanks for her success last night in the Robert Burns competition in school and the boost this has given her.
4. For God provision for us over these past two years.
There are a number of verses of scripture that come to mind but we just ask God's will to be done with Rebekah and that we would see his hand in everything.
