Reality 101

Cell death is painful in cancer treatment, at least it has been for me. After being up all Tuesday my evening got rough. The tumor was giving me sharp, stabbing pains in my abdomen. I could have used a couple of aspirin then to kill the pain but because of the Warfarin I can not take aspirin.Instead I took my evening medications, said a prayer and slipped into bed. Fortunately,I was tired enough and was able to fall asleep. The pain disappeared sometime during the night.

Wednesday Beatrice and Myron, my brother and sister, came out to help me. Beatrice did the dishes and made supper for us. Myron made me a mesh cage for burning papers that I do not want going into the dump.It is still too windy to burn but one of these days that job needs to get done.

I had a meeting at church last night and that went well. After my meeting I spoke with the Young Men's president about the possibility of a service project for the boys. I have this huge, old Cottonwood in my yard and every year it drops more branches on the yard. It is a very messy tree and I did not get all the mess cleaned up this past fall. My concern is that the grass will take off and bury all those branches which can wipe out the riding mower. That project requires more energy than I have to put into it and so I hope that the boys and maybe even some of the young women from the church will come up and lend me a hand with that job. Hopefully the nice weather will continue and it won't be a miserable day for completing the task. I have requested that they come during the week that I feel good enough to be up and around so that I can help or at least tell them where to drop off all the dead wood and leaves.

Today I spoke with my supervisor from Lutheran Social Services. They need an update on my condition so that they can extend my leave of absence. The surgeon, Dr. Peterson took me off the weight restrictions so that I could go back to work but I am not so sure that it is a wise idea for me to go back yet. I was really anxious to get back to work, when Dr. Peterson put me on those restrictions but now that I am having the chemotherapy I am finding that I am getting tired out quickly with activity and need to rest more often. The second week after chemo is the hardest as that is when I really get hammered by he side effects of the chemo drugs.

After speaking with the oncology nurse about it today, I think that it might be a good idea to hold off going back to work for a while longer. Dr. Oken told me that as the tumor shrinks I should get more energy but because it is shrinking so slowly there is no telling how many treatments it is going to take before that happens.

It's only 9:30 P.M and I'm already starting to nod off as I am sitting here so I need to close but not before I say thank you to Molly, Sue, Beatrice and Myron for all the help they have given me this week. Thank you for being here for me and thank you for all the time you have spent to make my life easier. I really do appreciate it and have asked the Lord's richest blessing for all of you.