Round One Done!

May 14, Part 2: First Round with Chemo complete, 15 to go!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31

“The Lord will fight for you, you have only to be silent.” Exodus 14:14

First of 16 rounds of chemo in the books! And I’d say I won Round 1! 1-0 ME! My sweet sweet parents were here for my maiden voyage. And can I tell you how humbling it is to have your 70-something year old mother tell you to sit down and rest while she works and serves my family!? She is unbelievable! The energizer bunny with body and spirit! My boys could not ADORE her more! And for good reason! She’s the best! Every time they come, she completely takes over my laundry from the minute they arrive to the minute they (sadly) depart! And that’s just the start of it- she cleaned out my frig, she organized my Tupperware drawer, she mended shirts, she helped me finish projects...the list goes on! My dad too was so helpful with so many little things I just haven’t had time for and both LOVE playing pickleball and nightly games with us and playing cheer section on the beach while the boys hit the waves surfing! Needless to say they are awesome, amazing GRANDparents and a blessing to have fighting alongside me!

But I digress;)...10am Thursday morning Dave drove and dropped me off at the Leonard Cancer as they’re not allowing any visitors yet to keep me company while they infuse poison into my veins to kill the cancer (and my hair, digestive, blood and other fast-growing cells in my body) and save me! Kind of counterintuitive when there’s a bag of KoolAid-colored red chemo, aptly nicknamed the “Red Devil”, that is going to be infused straight into the veins that lead directly to me heart!...after that load me up anti-nausea and anti-inflammatory (steroid) meds. Red Devil down, one  more un-nicknamed (I’ll have to change that! For those who know our family, everyone and everything gets a nickname as a sign of affection) chemo drug to go...& I was homebound and feeling good! 

The boys (when I say boys that includes my sweet, just-turned 50, 6 ft 6 hubby who’s just as much a boy as the 3 teens I birthed when it comes to fun!) had just purchased a fun new “toes on the nose” longboard that they wanted to try out and we packed up and off to the beach we went! We brought Rifle, our wonderful “bald guy named Curly” family dog, a camera to capture their epic rides on film (they always want me to be the photographer when I’m not in the water with them and I wasn’t allowed in yet after my port), and chairs for me and my parents. Great afternoon! We stayed til sunset and then headed home, picking up dinner from a dear friend on the way home. I was so thankful to have them taken care of in the food department cuz I was going down for the count(spurred on by the ride home in the truck). I headed straight for my Zofran (antinausea meds)& my bed! Each of my boys and my mama (a nurse too) of course, came to my bedside to check on and pray with me. I could feel the tears of my oldest 17 yo son fall from his eyes and onto my hand as he held it tight, with care & compassion.

The next day I felt ok.  Kept nausea at bay by not eating much and taking my meds.  Energy level was a few notches below normal but all in all ok.  Saturday, which we were warned was the worst, was another surf day for the boys. Dave insisted I stay home to rest, denying my desire to join them and “just rest on the beach!”  I hated missing out and not being there with them but it was probably for the best. I did rest most of the day. Sunday I was starting to feel better and actually ate some dinner with family and dear friends who brought it over.  I am continually humbled and grateful beyond words to all our dear and amazing friends who have insisted and just shown up with delicious meals for my family full of growing boys! As I told one friend, who was asking for our Panini Grill order, regardless accepting all this over-the-top generous TLC and food, “this is harder than chemo!”