Part of the diary I kept starting in 2010 when I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
August 13, 2010, Friday. Today is first grandson, Joel's 25th birthday. Hard to believe. He is up in Alaska working on a fishing boat to make some good money for school.
Yesterday I went to lunch at Linda Ryan's. Phyllis, Karen, Carol Lee, Maggie Duncan. Just a lovely time. Kind of a 'lets send Norma off on this journey' lunch. As usual we talked on a lot of subjects and laughed a lot. God has blessed me with a remarkable friend base. I am blessed and recognize it.
Well, today is the day this journey takes a new fork in the road. Today I start the chemo. A little trepidation, but calm (resigned?). I pray for strength, perseverance, patience and peace. Angela and Maureen arrived late last night. Maureen first. We went out on the front patio, to watch some sort of meteor shower, I just saw one meteor and Maureen saw several. There is just too much light around this house - which is mostly a good thing. I remember once being at the farm in Missouri and it was one (meteor) after another, crisscrossing the sky, amazing to see. And of course, there was no light other than the summer sky. There were a lot of stars out tonight, more than I've noticed for awhile. Still warm at 10:00. The weather the last couple of weeks has been in the mid 90's with heat indexes over 100. Ironic! The hottest July on record here in Peoria was 1936, the year I was born. Mother said to keep the babys cool in the nursery, they took blocks of ice and put fans behind the ice to blow cool air on us. Look how far we've come. Sitting here now in this air conditioned house. Isn't technology wonderful. Sort of a link to this cancer thing. This trial that I'm doing may be the one that will help scientists find a cure.
Mary put on facebook that pearls are the symbol for lung cancer so she and several of our friends are wearing pearls today. Neat!! (actually cream colored ribbons)
We got at the Cancer Center about 8:15. We went out War Memorial and no traffic. They took one container of blood, we visited with the doctor - I gave him the St. Peregrine card. St. Peregrine is the patron of Cancer victims.
About 9:30 we went into the chemo lounge. Chose a space with two guest chairs. I was in a recliner. The nurse was Linda. She put a very warm towel around my left arm to bring up the veins. She put the IV port in my forearm. Hung three bags. Angela set me up with her I pod with the book, 'The Help' and I started to listen. Got to Chaper 5, I think I will like it. I shooed the girls away, they certainly didn't need to sit there and watch me. They came home and worked at their computers. Then came back about 12:30 and I was about done. Amy Kennard's sister works there and she came over to say hello. Very, very nice person. The staff couldn't be nicer. They made the experience a good one.
Afterwards, we went to eat at 309, a new restaurant in Junction City. Started with the requisite bloody mary and then salads. As we were leaving, the hostess came over and said: "Don't leave yet, someone has ordered 'lemon drops' for you. Lemoncello and vodka courtesy of Mary Luann. On the way home we drove down Prospect and Grandview Drive.
This was my horoscope in the Journal Star today: Once you overcome your fears, several matters that have been difficult to finalize will work out quite smoothly. It's amazing what a little faith will do.
Pretty appropriate, huh!!
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