Kenton J. Kutney

Often, with a rare disease like HES, it is difficult to sum up what is going on for people who ask.  Until now, literature online has been too long and complex, biased or outdated -- finally here is a new link to an accurate medical report from the National Institute on Health which briefly covers Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypereosinophilic Syndromes.  To zero in on issues relating to my diagnosis, see comments dealing with the Myeloproliferative Variant. Click the title to open the link and read ... however, at the end of this article about my rare blood disorder you may feel confused or dissatisfied like my new Pain Specialist, who read it and confessed he didn't understand it all:  "It was gobble-dee-gook to me!"   (Such comfort!) From our perspective, we have had plenty time (since 2004) to learn the terminology of Hematologists, yet answers don't come easily or without serious risks.  Essentially, we monitor the blood tests, use prednison

I have been pondering how it is even possible for a modern mortal to ‘share in the sufferings of Christ’.  It is one thing to recall the history of early church persecution, 'the blood of the saints that was the seed of the church'.  And it seems that many of the exhortations to endure suffering in Scripture are directly related to the hardship of the church and the cause of the Gospel of Christ.  These are the hero-saints of which the world was unworthy (Heb. 11:38). Especially when I compare that to my sufferings with a chronic illness: years living with a silly vortex of trials which constantly surprises in some fresh way with the same old symptoms (deep pain and sheer fatigue, troubled sleep, stomach troubles, financial strains, concerns about the future, etc.), so that once again one is caught muttering “Why me?” and feeling immature.  How do my aches and anxieties possibly compare to His sacred stripes?  How can they in some way be spiritual?  I am no martyr.  I hav

--> "Tapestry Holes" The other day I received I great email fwd (unknown) from my brother, Lorne, who is among the great ‘forwarders’. Along with reading Scripture and some C.S. Lewis, it has triggered some fresh insights or appreciations about Easter and my own chronic illness.  I’ll see if I can synthesize it in few paragraphs. It begins as dreamy face-to face encounter with the Maker at the Judgment. I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls.  Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off my pile, I noticed how ragged and empty the squares were. They were filled with giant holes.  Worse yet, each square was labelled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I faced in everyday life.  I saw hardships that I endured, which were