Yesterday we laid our hand print mosaics at Dave’s headstone. Mine is the multicoloured one. Vicki and Philip brought coke to share (Dave’s favourite drink).
After Dave died, I received a lovely letter from another widow. She wrote that at first the horribleness of the illness and the suffering had dominated her memories but in time the happy memories came back come back. They do
I am very grateful to have walked life’s path with Dave for almost 18 years.

In the word of Dave “Don’t wait for cancer to change your perspective. Live fully today.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. I have been so loved and blessed by friends and family who have helped me this last year. Thank you.

May God richly bless you!

Marantha: Come Lord Jesus!

It is available for $3US as a file download or you can purchase the book through Lulu. In a few weeks the books should be available from fishpond in New Zealand.

http://mandenomoments.com/david-burge-funeral

Video:

http://mandenomoments.wordpress.com/293/david-burge-funeral-av/

There is also a video index, scroll down a little on the page .

A big thanks to Mandeno Moments

~Tarnya

http://tarnya.wordpress.com/

A copy of Jefferson Vann’s message linked above.

The service was a wonderful tribute to Dave. Thank you to all.

You will find me at

http://tarnya.wordpress.com/

Love Tarnya

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

This road has been walked by many before me. Elisabeth Elliot was widowed twice. Her books are a great comfort:

The Path of loneliness: Finding Your Way through the Wilderness to God and
A Path through Suffering: Discovering the Relationship between God’s Mercy and our Pain.

His funeral service will be 10:30am Saturday 10th July at;

Manurewa Baptist Church, 9 Lupton Road, Manurewa 2102, New Zealand ( see map below)

Everyone welcome. Please bring food to share after the service. Please note there are very limited facilities available for warming food.

Dave’s body will come home to us on Thursday and Friday (8th and 9th July). We would like to open our home to  friends and loved ones to visit briefly anytime between 10-12noon and 2-6pm.

Our postal address: PO Box 202162 Southgate Takanini 2246

Short Version

Dave had a serious nose bleed due to inflammation in his nose and low platelets. He has had 4 days of being very seriously ill. However due to good care and a couple of “chance meetings” including with his consultant, Dave is now much better. The consultant suggested that the nose inflammation might be viral and prescribed large doses of antiviral medication. He also encouraged Dave that his blasts had come way down instead of continuing to climb.

Long Version (Warning: Not for the Faint Hearted)

It started with a small bruise on the end of Dave’s nose on Friday evening. By 1am on Monday we were in the emergency department of Auckland Hospital with Dave’s nose pouring blood, and blood running down his throat. Large clots of blood were dropping out of his nose, filling his nasal cavity and hanging into his throat making breathing difficult. We went into hospital. The nurse at the desk of the Emergency department called three times for an orderly to come and take Dave through to the assessment ward. This was first time since Dave was diagnosed Tarnya was really sobbing. She was not sorry for herself but for Dave. This has been a horrible disease and so far this was certainly the lowest point in our journey. The nurse gave up on the orderly and took the bed down the corridor herself with Tarnya’s help.

Tarnya spoke to the doctor saying: If there is nothing you can do for Dave, would you make him comfortable? He hasn’t been able to sleep for a couple of nights. He is in pain, struggling with each breath, blood running down the back of his throat making him want to vomit, clots hanging in his throat making breathing difficult and seeing your life blood pouring out of your nose is not a great experience.

There was plenty to be done however: Dave had 3 bags of blood; 3 bags of platelets and had his nose packed with self dissolving gauze etc by an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist (ENT). The ENT Specialist kept apologising for the pain she was causing. Dave only said that he wanted to stop and hug her. He was so pleased with the work she was doing. His throat was still very sore but even by what she had already done the pain was greatly lessened and Dave could see hope that it would get even better in the future. He was given extra morphine and other medication to make him comfortable. After all that treatment he was able to sleep. He had a fever.

Tarnya was given a referral to a palliative care doctor so that we could arrange things so that Dave could go home. The palliative doctor was wonderful and with help from hospice we have managed to get a hospital bed, syringe pain pump etc, organised so Dave could go home. Tarnya needed to pick up some medication from a local pharmacy before they shut. She was unsure whether she could get Dave in the car so she left Dave at about 4 pm (in Auckland hospital) with an ambulance booked to bring him home at 5 pm. She drove home very carefully since she had not slept at all the night before and only briefly the night before that. The ambulance was so late that at 7:30pm Tarnya started the drive back to Auckland to collect Dave. However before she got onto the motorway the ambulance did at last arrive.

There were some good things that came out of that delay: Dave’s consultant “happened” to be walking past and noticed Dave. They had a chat. The consultant noted that Dave was unlikely to win a beauty contest at this stage. If you could have seen Dave’s swollen face at this stage you would have doubtless agreed (Even before this time my chances were somewhere between zero and nil – Dave). The consultant recognised that the problem with my nose was viral and so added or increased another very important medication to Dave’s list of pills (Sometimes unusual diseases show up with leukemia because of lower immunity. We have noticed a significant improvement with the extra anti-viral tablets which Dave took through that night).   The Dr had some other good news to share too – Dave’s blast cells were down- that was encouragement to Dave to endure a blocked nose, considerable pain and great difficulty with getting any sleep over the next 2 or three days. Dave was dizzy, and frequently doing “the long blink.” We were told that when the body gets oxygen deprived there is something in the brain that should tell a person to mouth breath. So Dave would nod off, not breathe, then suddenly breathe through his mouth which would awaken him. When totally exhausted this sudden deep breath would not wake him and he would sleep for less than an hour mouth breathing. The pain medication also makes you feel disconnected and so he would feel he was drifting into unconsciousness. He was unable to eat anything solid. Swallowing was hard work but it was important to swallow those pills.

Tarnya has been wonderful. It takes nearly all her time to look after Dave. At night, when Dave wakes, she wakes. During the day she has help from the children. The emotional support is more important to Dave than the physical support. We couldn’t begin to describe what it is like, the pain, physical and emotional, is at times overwhelming, but we are at the same time closer to God and to each other than we have ever been.

Today, Friday Dave and Tarnya are feeling tired but rejoicing that things are better than they were.