Another Round

Whew. Made it through another round of chemo. Next steps are to measure tami again to see if she’s lost some weight/mass. (If you will notice, I’ve decided not to even give her the benefit of an initial cap.) I’m hoping for the best, but preparing for more chemo if necessary. Maybe that elusive primary tumor will show up as well? I’m not including a date because just knowing there is a measurement and a potential barium enema in May is enough for me. Fortunately, there will be a baseball game in Houston to offset the drama.

This blog started off as a quick note, but after chemo, I was sure I needed to remind myself of a few things. Good things, that I don’t want to forget.

1) One sentence, delivered coolly by Dr. BAH to Sobotik was enough for her to quit drinking sodas for breakfast. “Hmm, that’s less than ideal.”
2) Wheatgrass.
3) Sixth row Van Morrison seats, although I think these were slightly related to tami tumor. Thanks again Mikey and Jane.
4) Finally, I was stone-cold sober on a night out with my best pals to see and remember Elise Chittick doing the running man dance in the parking lot of the Saxon Pub. There is no end to the benefits of being able to call upon that image when a light moment is needed.
5) I finally lost 30 pounds. Everyone said it would be so hard to lose weight in my forties.
6) Lesson learned: Pottery class should never be abandoned for chemo. There is always someone who wants what you think is crap and chemo is not a good enough reason not to enroll in another one of Janet’s classes. (I find it odd that this is another parallel between myself and Patrick Swayze.)
7) I’m very lucky to have such awesome people around me (and in email). People who would never imagine in a million years that I wouldn’t be able to kick tami’s ass. And for those that I suspect don’t feel that way (yet), it might be why I’m not returning your phone calls.
8) Nurse Brian’s method of describing poo. He said, “Sweetie if you’re not going to let me see it, you need to learn how to describe it. Now, was it like…” and so on and on and on for four days.
9) There are a zillion different kinds of cancer with people having vastly different experiences with the disease. Sometimes it actually does work to pray for the “not-so-bad” kind.

10) Tori's video below. She nabbed my flip camera after a weekend of camping and left this message on it for me. This was after I wouldn't let her sleep on my air mattress in the tent. "Because I'm older and I have a tumor" didn't seem relevant.  She forgave me.

11) I sat in a Borders bookstore parking lot on a Tuesday night in January, quietly listening to an old friend. She asked to, and then proceeded to, pray with me over our cell phones. She didn’t pray for a cure or even a happy ending, just for me and my family to have the strength to handle it, whatever “IT” was going to be. (Thanks again, Walza) I was warmly reminded that, yes, this could easily be a Fannie Flagg novel. And that’s okay because Fannie is good people and no one should ever be too big for their Austin City Limit britches not to be grateful to be from a small town where you are included on every church prayer list and then some. As Fannie says, “Sometimes the best surprises come from small towns.”

Blog. Don't be afraid to blog. Blog me, or email me at JKIKER@austin.rr.com or Jan.Kiker@freescale.com

Have a great day!
Jan