Del's slideshow

Here's a slideshow of Delwyn

Steve & Anna - Jac Dinner

Steve & Anna at the Annual Jac Banquet!

Anna inspecting the purple wall!

Steve & Anna

Steve and Anna at Big Camp, October 2007

Julie & Jason - Missionaries to New Zealand!

Jason will be graduating from Theology in a couple of weeks. They have been appointed to Timaru, South Island of NZ where Jason will be pastoring a couple of churches. Julie is excited as there are a couple of Thai families in one of the churches. They leave on 30th of December! While we're excited for them, we're really going to miss them. Living only a block away, we've really enjoyed having them so close!

Lenny - almost 3 months old

Lenny's doing well. He has quite chubby cheeks - obviously feeding well, despite having a little tongue tie! Julie is doing well, wouldn't know that she's had a couple of kids!

Visiting Delwyn

Del's strength and courage are so inspiring! During the birthday party, we watched the slide show that Danielle made and we then had a prayer petitioning God to heal her, but leaving it in God's hands. Most of us were in tears, but Del was so strong. What an inspiration! She is truly amazing!

Robyn has done a great job in looking after Del this past week. Her experience has been invaluable in helping Del be more comfortable! A new electric hospital bed, wheel chair, walker etc have gone a small way in helping her. Probably the biggest part though is helping get the pain medication sorted out! I'm proud of my wife! She's a great nurse!

Julie come down with me and brought her 5 week old baby! These two cousins have been very close. Julz was able to sit and chat with Del about a huge range of things which helped Del unload.

Julz and Jase will be going to New Zealand (as missionaries!) at the end of this year. Jase will be pastor for 2 churches. Julie is about to become a pastor's wife. Judging by what I saw in the few days with Del, she's going to be a great pastors wife!

It was great to spend time with family during this difficult time. One will never know why sickness comes to such a beautiful girl. We do know that our God doesn't make mistakes. Having a close family certainly helps ease the pain! It's very hard for Elwyn and Helen!

Thanks to our many friends for your care, support and prayers!

Don't forget to keep checking www.delscale.blogspot.com for updates on Delwyn.

Update on Del #4

We have set up a blog for Delwyn. Please visit it at
www.delscale.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting

Update on Delwyn #3

Robyn flew down last Sunday to help Del. As a community nurse, Rob specialises in palliative care. She has been able to assist with Del's pain management which has helped her lots. Robyn just said that she was walking a little in the house today and even went outside in a wheel chair! That's good news.

Julie and I are to Melbourne tomorrow morning to see her, so hopefully we'll be able to give some more up to date news.

Thanks so much to people who are sending messages to her... she really appreciates it, even though she is not able to respond to everyone! And of course, thanks too for upholding her in prayer.

Update on Delwyn #2

Del's contagious smile!

Delwyn is back home at Delhuntie after a good stay at Highwood. The good news is that the blood tests show a reduction of cancer in her body (down from 275, to 261), making Del, the doctor and family very happy. Blood test will be continuing! She’s definitely feeling better, but still got pain. She’s stiff and not up and about too much.

Should you be planning to visit Del, please coordinate with her parents, Elwyn and Helen just to make sure that there isn’t too much going on. They’re phone number is 03 5633 1000 or 0438 563 329.

Del wants to thank all of her friends for their love and support. She particularly enjoys text messages, rather than phone calls. She is by no means out of the woods and still needs your love prayers and support. Her faith is stronger than ever.

Should you have any nice pictures of Del for the web, please email them to me wscale@gmail.com

One Thing I Don't Miss!

We were sitting upstairs in Memorial Church this afternoon for the Spring Festival on the old movie theatre type seats - the ones with the wooden arm rest between seats. I found myself vying for elbow space with my wife! I then realised that is something I DON'T miss - vying for elbow space in economy class for 10 hours on an international flight!

Update on Delwyn Scale and her battle with cancer

Del having fun on the Big Rip at Delhuntie, Christmas 2006

Almost a couple of years ago, my niece Delwyn, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite having surgeries and a lot of treatment, the cancer has spread through her body with metastases in her lungs and back.

While the prognosis is not good, Del’s faith in God is very strong and she’s certainly not giving up. She’s currently in a specialist health retreat centre at Highwood in the Dandenong Ranges. She’ll be there until about the 21st of September when she returns home to her home Delhuntie Park.

The cancer is impacting on Del’s life. She’s spending more time in bed due to a tumour putting pressure on her spine. She’s needing some morphine (Endone 5mgm) to help control the pain. As the morphine makes people nauseated, she’s having anti nausea medication when needed (Maxalon).

Each of us, as family members, are amazed at her faith in God. Del has said that she’s much closer to God as a result of her struggle and that it is worth going through all of this to bring her closer to God! She is even taking the time to encourage loved ones who are finding it hard accepting this illness.

Probably the best way to communicate with Del is by text message as she can then reply at her leisure.

Del was anointed some time ago, and just a couple of weeks ago, we had a Sabbath of prayer and fasting petitioning God to heal her if it was His will. We also prayed that if she’s not healed that she won’t be in a lot of pain. (Bone cancer can be very painful).

I know that you’ll join with the family in praying for her continued strength and that she may be a blessing to others.

(I’ll keep updating this blog weekly and at other significant times).

Lenny - One Week Old

He's one week old tonight!

He looks a lot like Julie when she was born!

Julz came home a day earlier than expected! She's doing really well. Caleb has happily accepted Lenny into the family. Jase is a pretty proud father!

Lennox Luke Hankinson

Lennox was born at 6:20pm 17th August 2007 to Julie and Jason Hankinson by ceasarean section at the San. He weighed in at 3.5kg and was 51.5 cm long. As you can see he's got blonde hair and we reckon that he looks a lot like Julie at the same age... not sure what that means for his future! Everyone's well and Caleb's happy so far!

Not quite ready!

Julie was due to have a Cesear tomorrow, but the doctor told her that she's got the joy of carrying her new boy for another week. He's now due on the 17th! Watch this space! Literally!

We've bought a new home!

This is our new home...

We (Robyn, Warren & Westpac) have bought a new home! One of our friends owned it and let us know that it was for sale. It's just an investment. Something that we should have done years ago. Now that I have more time, I've been able to organise things like this. The lady living there will continue to stay there.

Hopefully the market will improve and that will keep us ahead of interest and payments!

Honey Moon is Over!

In my "work" clothes!

(The picture was taken with my phone... I'll get a better one up soon.)

It's work I'm talking about! For the past few weeks, I've been working full time! I've been doing some extra shifts in the at Gosford Hospital as well as my regular work. From next month, I'll have full time work at Wyong for at least a 6 month period, but that will probably become permanent. I miss the free time! By Friday night, I'm pretty tired too! The extra income is not only good, but very necessary if we're ever going to get this house paid off!

Robyn was full time for the past few months, but she's back to week on - week off, with a few extra shifts during her week off. She's been pretty tired too!

Last take off from Cooranbong

(Pr Len Barnard, me, John Strong & Kevin Strong, just before take off)!

Since the closure of the Cooranbong Airstrip Dec 05, we have been flying from private property under CASA guidelines of an ALA (Aircraft Landing Area). A developer in our area has told us that he doesn't want aircraft flying over his new development. The local council tells us the he has put a complaint in and the council has said that an airport has been built and operations must cease immediately or face a $110,000 fine. Now you know why we had our last flight from Cooranbong!

We have moved the plane to Cessnock which is a good home for our plane, but it takes about 40 minutes to get thre!

Blog Updates - automatic notification

Do you want to take the guess out of whether a blog (or any web page for that matter) has been updated? It's pretty simple.... just go to http://changedetection.com/monitor.html and follow the directions. It's real simple.... just fill in the blog or web page you want to monitor, then add your email address and you'll receive an email when the page has been updated! I've been trying it for a few months and it works really well.

New Corolla

We have bought a 2004 Corolla. We bought it damaged and it has now been repaired. Our nephew Daz Scale organised it and meticulously watched over the repairs to make sure it was done well. You can't even see any sign of damage. I went down to Melbourne a couple of weekends ago and picked it up. It uses less than half of the fuel our Prado 4WD does! No wonder they are the most popular car in the world.

It was great to catch up with family. It's something that we don't do enough. I think I might sell this one and buy another one so that I can catch up with family again!

I saw our niece Delwyn as well and it seems that with God's help, she has gained the victory in her battle with breast cancer. Praise the Lord and may she remain clear in the future.
Our former neighbour Heather was down there (coincidentally) the same weekend. It was her first meeting of Daz and Neda's son, Jalen. We miss not having them next door!

NatFly at Narromine 2007

This is Narromine Airfield with about 550 light aircraft from all over Australia. It's the annual fly in. Robyn and I drove out. (Can't fit everything in to our little Drifter). It was nice to meet with the local church members at Narromine on Sabbath.
My old mate Jon Johanson was there, and when he offered to take me up for some formation flying, I couldn't resist (nor did I even try!). It's pretty intense, Jon doesn't take his eyes off the other plane at all - right from take off!
Robyn and Jon. We don't get to see Jon very often, so it was a great opportunity to catch up!

Julie & Caleb

Julie and Jason are expecting again! She's due in August! She's had lots of morning sickness this time, may be a girl? Maxalon helped a lot! At 4 months, she's pretty much over it.

Caleb is still getting cuter and cuter. He's walking very fast, almost running now! You can ask him questions "Where's Grandma or Pa? or where's Dad or Mum? and he is now pointing to the right people! He's now 18 months old!

He loves using mobile phones....

Caleb enjoys standing by the air conditioning compressor with the wind blowing in his hair! (Pa's jealous of his hair!)

Operating Theatres

It's been about a month since I've done any updating! Work is going well, and I'm still enjoying it very much. We do a good variety of surgery at Wyong. From eyes, vascular, general (including endoscopic) , gyny, urology, ortho - lots of joint replacements. It's quite a challenge knowing the surgery well enough so that you can anticipate what the surgeon will need next without him having to ask!

I spent a few hour in recovery recently. It's nice having the automated gadgets that take and record, BP, pulse, respirations, O2 levels etc.

I'm working 20 hours a week. Three days one week and two the next week. I'm mostly doing morning shifts with the occasional evening shift - till 9:30pm.

My feet are getting much more used to it, but I've still got a bit to go!

Update on Theatre Work

I scrubbed the other day - meaning I was the RN in charge of preparing and handing the instruments to the surgeon - the first time in 25 years! It all come back and I was quite confident. The next day, I scrubbed for another list of operations, and was going well, but when it came time to close up and do the count, I discovered that I had counted a ligature pack as a needle, and so I was one needle short, but on checking and realising the mistake, I wasn't really short at all. I informed the surgeon (and apologised) and an x-ray proved that there was nothing left behind! Now, that's a lesson I've learnt the hard way.

Apart from that, all is going well... my legs and feet are getting more used to it, and one of the RN's gave my a nice compliment and said it was hard to believe I was away for 25 years! At this stage, it's fun being back in theatre!

Working in Theatres

I worked yesterday in Theatres for the first time in 25 years! It was really interesting to see how little the instruments have changed!

The worst thing was at the end of the day, my feet were killing me and my back was aching something terrible! Today I wore compression socks (the ones you wear on a plane to prevent DVT's) , and I took every opportunity to sit down and today was lots better!

The staff there seem great and I have a good boss!

I spent the first 3 days of the week at Gosford for general Orientation - that was interesting - significant changes in OH & S. I'll be down in Gosford for another 3 days at the end of the month for specific orientation for the Theatres.

It's nice to be employed again. It's a good feeling making a contribution to society again.