I realize that I haven’t contributed to this blog for a very long time. Believe it or not, it does take some thought and I usually write it during the middle of the night. Since I’m trying to avoid being up in the middle of the night, because it messes my body clock up so much, the further away I got from writing, the harder it was to get back to it!
Excuses aside, I’m sure that most of you know by now that my last scans and bone
marrow test showed that I was in REMISSION. I do have my last (6th) round of chemo
next week, which will be followed by another set of scans (but no bone marrow test, thank goodness!) just to make certain that things are as they should be so that I can put the
chemo behind me and move on to a maintenance program. I am thrilled to be in remission
and know that it is due to all the prayers that have been offered to God in my name - and I thank you all for your kindness and diligence - but please don’t stop praying now!
A lot has happened since I last wrote, but due to chemo brain, I can’t remember
most of it! Something neat did happen today, however . . . A few days before I received
my lymphoma diagnosis (end of June), I had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist because I had something wrong with my left leg and it was so painful to walk that I was walking as though I had one leg shorter than the other. He took x-rays and said that I had
a torn miniscus in my left knee. He gave me a prescription and an order for an MRI which
I cancelled because of the cancer news which came a few days later. How I hurt my knee was a mystery and it certainly wasn’t from anything sporty like running or bicycling - can we say “getting old”? My knee seemed to be less of a problem with the anti-inflamatory and the lymphoma soon became the main health focus.
During chemo, I receive steroids, which also help the pain in my knee, so until lately, I’ve
chosen to take Advil and otherwise ignore the problem - until very recently, that is. (This
is really boring, isn’t it!) Today, Terry and I went back to the Ortho doctor to see about
getting a shot of cortisone (which he originally offered). He’s a fairly young guy (we’re old enough to be his parents), and very personable. I told him about being diagnosed with lymphoma a few days after seeing him, and that I’d been through 5 rounds of chemo (and
of course he looked at my hair) and said that when he was young, his mom had been diagnosed with the same thing and had fun buying wigs, too. TOO? At that point, I had
to slug him and let him know that I WAS NOT WEARING A WIG! When you say you’ve
been through chemo, they always look at your hair! She had gone through chemo and radiation and ended up passing away when he was 12 and his brother was 8.
We asked if that was his motivation to become a doctor and he said that he had
put it on his application to med school.
Okay, so the part that I thought was so neat was after we shook hands and he was
leaving the room and Terry said to him, “You know, I have to tell you something”. Then
he paused and finally said to him “you know, your mother would be very proud of you”. Instant tears all around! I hope that it made his day! It made mine and I was so thrilled
that God had given Terry those words. I asked Terry why he had hesitated and he said it was because he had started to tear up and couldn’t get the words out! Everybody needs encouragement and maybe that was the real reason we were there today. This might
have been a “you had to be there moment”, but it really touched my heart and I wanted
to share it with you.
I’m sort of waning philosophical, but I think that it’s the little things that really count in life.
If you wait for the big things, you just may miss a lot of important stuff along the way. A few thoughtful words can be so powerful. You can quote me on that (even though I’m sure that philosophers don’t say “stuff”!)
I'll be back in a month . . . . probably!
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