In a few minutes I'll start getting ready. This is actually part of the process. I'm thinking that my cammo pants with little eye-lit lace pocket details are appropriate. This time I had to take steroids at home 12 and 6 hours before my treatment. Despite the warnings that I'd be wired, I did manage to sleep alright. I was pretty tired, I think that they (nurses & doctors) underestimate the power of kids to make you really tired. Mine are good kids they just go ALL day long.
Recapping my birthday; it was great. I got to see photos of friends, hear about you having salmon, enjoying daisies and I felt great in large part to due to feeling so loved. I got some beautiful flowers, had a visit with 2 women intricately woven into my life, had my family around me. It doesn't get too much better than that (well, aside from erasing cancer from the equation obviously). Believe me as I type that I feel good. I wish I didn't have to spend hours at an oncology office, but I feel good. I eat, I sleep, I do all the regular things. Some days I am slowed down by the treatments, but in a 2-week period, that may spread over the course of only 3 days. Some days I get pissed but other days I feel so lucky. It's hard to imagine feeling lucky to have cancer but think of all the things that I have felt free to say and all the things that you have felt free to say back to me. It's been an amazing gift in that sense.
Here's to getting through 7 of 8 treatments! The end of the first trimester of Cancer ED is coming fast.
2 comments:
sweet jenn-o-centric --
it never ceases to stir amazement within me when i read your blog for i just concluded reading Chapter 6 regarding Psychoneuroimmummunology that I am sending you.
we are on the same page, i.e.:
Cancer as A Turning Point: Lawrence LeShan, PhD
In Chinese, there is no word for crisis; the word that comes closet consists of two symbols: on is for "danger," the other for "opportunity."
"Getting cancer can become the beginning of living. The search for one's own being, the discovery of the life one needs to live, can be one of the strongest weapons against disease."
To summarize, Dr. LeShan takes the approach of "what is RIGHT with this person?" vs. how did this happen, what is wrong, etc.?
What they discovered is the person who greets each day with a song in their heart, a smile on their lips, and a sparkle in beautifully shaped eyes the color of Courvoisseur, is the type who restores balance to their immune system, by living life with hopefulness and zest.
Does the aforementioned describe anyone "we" might happen to know?
Yeppers!
You are the "zest" in all of our lives, Jenn.
As for your treatment today, a few lines from this poem, changed for YOUR "centric" world seems apt:
"If I can endure for this minute
The 7th treatment that is for me,
No matter how heavy my heart is
Or how dark the moment may be -
If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That the cancer will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too -
Then NOTHING in life can defeat me
For as long as this knowledge remains
I can endure the Taxol and such
For I know I will heal all of the chains
That were binding me tight to the cancer
That tried to fill me with fear -
For there is no night without dawning
For I know that MY jenn-o-centric morning is near.
... Helen Steiner Rice
And this, too, shall pass.
your friend for life with love and more,
cherie
Jenn --
I'm always so tickled at how together you are. and how amazingly well you handle all of this. I'm getting all hallmark-y now -- you're just an inspiration. We miss you! Happy Birthday -- and we are rooting for you every step of the way!
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