Short Trip, YEAH!

The chemo trip was, indeed, short, today.  We arrived about 9:30 am and were done and out of the office by 11:30 am, just in time for a meal at Olive Garden before the crowd hit.

Rhonda is tired this afternoon, so we will have to wait and see how the week progresses.  We expect she should bounce back quicker this go round.

Our kids say the Star Trek origins movie was great and insist we should go.  Maybe, we can work that in on DVD sometime soon, or maybe after the initial crowds die down.  I am a little concerned, yet, about the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus being in the general population.

Yes, the hair is shorter, kind of pixie short and cute.  I like it!

Meal update:  please hold off on meals at least through next week, or, for sure, check in with us, first.  We are in good shape through the end of next week, I think.  Thank you to everyone who has so graciously provided meals over the last month.  We certainly appreciate not only the meals but the experience of having new delights from others kitchens and some from favorite restaurants, too.  Katie and Kevin will be home next week.  So, between the three of us, we should be able to keep the kitchen going fairly well.

By the way, last Saturday was Hawaiian Day for me again.  Nice, relaxed with the green leafy shirt, and occasional laundry load.

Love and thanks to each of you reading this,

David

A Great Mother's Day!

I had such a gift from God on Sunday - I felt good for the first time all week! I slept about 7 hours Saturday night, the longest I've slept since before surgery, and woke up without nausea. I even felt hungry for the first time in weeks. David, Lesia and I went out to dinner in the evening with my mom and dad and enjoyed being out together. So, even though my kids were in College Station studying for finals (right, kids?) I still had a great Mother's Day.

This past week has had some rough days. The nausea lingered longer and, to add insult to injury, I developed horrible heartburn. I finally called the doctor's office on Friday and they sent me a prescription that seems to have knocked it out. That was a relief! My treatment today will be the first short treatment I've had so far. Sitting for "only" one-and-a-half to two hours sounds like a walk in the park compared to the past two weeks. The doctor has told me I'll feel better during the next two weeks than I have in the past two, and I'm going to be really disappointed if that's not the case. We leave Wednesday to go to College Station for graduation and I want to be able to enjoy the trip.

I do have a new prayer request that deals with my recovery from surgery. When the surgeon removed the portion of my lung he froze nerves through the surgical site to help with pain management. I still have numbness on the left side of my abdomen and across my rib cage, which is a weird sensation! The problem is that the nerves are beginning to regenerate and I'm experiencing pain off and on again. Most of the surgical pain had gone away, but now a new pain has shown up! It will take up to 6 months for the process to complete itself and I have realized that some of my lousy feeling is still due to surgery. So my prayer requests for this week are less nausea, more energy and controlled pain.

By the way, I have a new short haircut! Another side effect last week was hot flashing and my hair felt like it weighed ten pounds. (Yes, this was from the chemo - I have hormones to control the real thing!) In desperation I called Steven and he was gracious enough to work me in on Saturday afternoon. I've decided to think of it as my "transitional do" between a full head of hair and none at all. I hope it will be less traumatic to have short pieces fall out than to end up with a hand full of long ones. I reminded David that I had short hair when he married me, but it wasn't quite this short. So, if you see me around town this week be prepared to do a double take!

Love,
Rhonda

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle

Not Jingle Bells, but jingle keys!  I finally drove myself somewhere yesterday and you won't believe where I chose to go first.  WalMart.  How sad is that??  Luckily, I took Katie with me because I was a lot perkier going in than I was coming out.  In fact, I relinquished the keys and let her drive me home.  So my return to the driving world was more a moral victory than a physical one, but it makes me feel better to know I have the option!

One week from today Katie will graduate from Texas A&M University.  What a milestone.  It's hard for us to believe it's been four years, although I'm sure it seems much longer to her.  She will begin working on a masters degree in Public Health in September.  We're so proud of both her and Kevin and the effort they're making to find their way in the world.  This time next week we'll be in College Station getting ready for the ceremony and figuring out where all their "stuff" is going to go.  Both are moving home for the summer so it will be interesting around here!  

Enjoy the fact that it's Friday and you've made it to the weekend!  

Love, Rhonda

Tomorrow is the DAY!

I feel like a teenager that's been grounded for 6 weeks and tomorrow is Freedom Day!  The car keys will come back into my possession and I can start to make short trips around town.  Yippee!! It's so aggravating to think "I'll just run down to the store and buy some milk" and then realize, NO, you won't.  I know dozens of you have offered to run errands or drive me around, but it just seems like a huge imposition when it's for little things.  The challenge will be to not over do it in the beginning.  If you see me out and about the next few days be sure to have on your sunglasses so my smile doesn't dazzle you!

Katie drove me (of course) to Lake Jackson Intermediate School today to pick up some files so I could work on lesson plans.  This is the first week of my lower white count, so I wore in a surgical mask to keep the kids away.  I only heard one comment about "swine flu" in the hall and hope people don't go home and start rumors.  Can't you see the headlines now? 

Teacher Exposes School Children to Swine Flu

The television stations will be parked out front and my name will be mud for sure!  Film at 10:00 pm.

We picked the right day to go - I found out today was the PTO Teacher Appreciation Lunch and Katie and I stayed for Mexican food.  It was great to see everyone from my usual lunch period and made me feel a little less isolated from what is going on out there.  

Please keep the prayers and thoughts coming.  The next 14 weeks still loom ahead when I think about them and I'm working not to be discouraged about it.  One day at a time!

Rhonda

Plugging Along

I don't really have anything to report today, but I know I haven't posted since Sunday.  It's tough to keep your public happy if you aren't consistent!  I'm feeling fair after yesterday's chemo, but the steroids I have to take for three days kept me awake most of the night last night.  I went upstairs and quilted for about 2 hours in the middle of the night instead of tossing and turning in bed.  The Food  Channel kept me company and the sewing took my mind off of my rolling stomach.  I've run temperature today and have felt generally yuk, so I'm just sitting around being grumpy.  Hopefully I'll sleep more and sew less tonight.

Dead days have hit at Texas A&M this week and my kids are in and out of the house keeping me confused on who is here for how long and when they are leaving again.  Kevin has applied for a summer job at Home Depot and had to come home to take a drug test - we hope he studied hard for it!  He came in Monday night about 11 pm and went back to College Station at 3 pm today, so he was a blur in passing.  Katie came home today and brought April, her cat, for the summer.  It seems April is hampering packing efforts so she has begun her summer vacation early.  I'm not sure who was more hot and bothered when they arrived - Katie or the cat.  April has already been outside several times, checking out her usual haunts and making a large crow very unhappy.  The crow is about as big as the cat so we will see who wins the battle of the yard.

That's about it -  I'm hanging in here and so is my hair.  My sister, Lesia, is my substitute during this ordeal and she's begun to experience the joy of teaching sewing to 7th & 8th graders.  We should probably be more concerned with her hair than with mine!

Love to all, 

Rhonda

The Beach Report

David and I went out to Surfside this afternoon and walked on the beach for a while.  For those of you who are heading back to the coast soon I can tell you that the seaweed is out (but not so bad it smells) and today the waves were rough and dirty.  When we came over the bridge we could see a brown ribbon of water that was carrying rain water from the rivers farther north.  There were a lot of people surfing at the jetties but I was too wimpy to stick in more than my feet.  It was still a little cold for me!  You can still find all kinds of items that have been deposited courtesy of Ike, and I'm not sure it would be very safe to go in without water shoes.  Who knows what's out there on the bottom. Yes, this is a mother speaking!  

I was impressed with how nice Surfside is looking.  Almost all the houses have a fresh coat of paint and they've painted them bright, pretty colors.  They look like they're on track for the summer season although there's still houses that are damaged and not repaired.  It was a nice outing and the walking wore me out.  It was the most continuous exercise I'm had in 5 weeks and it required a long nap afterwards for recovery!

I made it to Houston yesterday and returned with an extra head.  :)  I still have my own hair attached, but I brought my wig and supplies home.  I tried it on at the hair studio and they trimmed it up for me.  Those who have seen it tell me it looks a lot like mine, but I'm not sure.  It's just hard to get past the fact that it's fake and that I'm really going to need it.  I guess we'll test the theory that two heads are better than one!

Thanks so much to all who have brought me goodies for tomorrow.  My day should go by faster with all the reading material, puzzles and snacks you've dropped off.  I've felt pretty good the past two days, which I guess means it's time for them to slap me down again.  This will be the 6 hour treatment, but I'll have two light weeks to follow.  I'll have to just concentrate on getting to those.  This also starts the two week period when my white blood count will be at it's lowest.  I don't plan on eating out and really to have to watch what anyone brings for me to eat.  We have lots of things in the freezer that are left over from other meals, so we'll be fine.  I appreciate all of you feeding us twice - once the original meal and again the leftovers!  Come visit as long as you don't have the swine flu or any other raging infection.  I'll be glad to see you!

Love, Rhonda

Hair Day

It's Saturday and I'm going to Houston to pick up my wig and supplies.  I don't think we're going to cut my hair short today because it's not "releasing", as the stylist said.  I think that's politically correct speak for "falling out in hunks"!  My scalp has started to itch and tingle like they told me it would and the texture of my hair is already changing.  It's just a matter of time, but I think I'll hold onto it for as long as I can.  I'll let you know how it went.

Rhonda