update a month later

Sorry it’s been a month since I’ve written in here. Thanks for all the loving and supportive notes from you all.

I have had four treatments of the new drug. I’m not feeling sicky stomach wise. I have my appetite back. The main side effect that i am having right now is extreme fatigue. My counts are really low and my doc says I have acute anemia that is chemo induced. He wouldn’t give me any iron supplements because he said the chemo would wipe it out anyways. I just have to deal with being extremely tired all the time.

I decided to go back on medical leave. Thursday was my last day to work. I have 8 weeks of weekly chemo treatments left and 6 weeks of radiation. It’ll be nice to be home for the summer. I don’t plan on going back until August. I have worked since February 21st so two months. It was nice to work while I could. The hospital will pay me 70% of my income while I am home. That’s managable.

John and I have used all of our income tax money to pay off medical bills. My mom and dad gave us some money and so did my co-workers. We used it all towards medical bills and we also payed off a few small credit cards. Before I got cancer I was doing our budget and bills and we got so far behind on everything. When I got sick John took over everything…bills, budget, parenting stuff, decision making etc. Now we are in pretty good shape. I am so thankful for this. I was under a lot of stress because I was trying to make ends meet and John didn’t know about a few of our credit card bills. Now he knows everything.

My van is really old. It has 190,000 miles on it. I was really worried about it not lasting too much longer. We haven’t had a car payment in 7 years. We just paid off John’s hospital bill from his motorcycle accident when I got sick. Well, my friend’s sister was selling a car and she just wanted to get rid of it. It’s a 2000 Chrysler Concorde. It  only has 108,000 miles on it. Would you believe she sold it to us for $1000.00??? We sold my van for $700!!!  There is a receipt in the glove box and she just put $600 worth of new tires on this car a few months ago. What a blessing!! I absolutlely LOVE my new car. It is so much fun to drive. I have driven a van for 15 years!!

I just found out last week that my neighbor has colon cancer that migrated to her lung. She had to have half of a lung removed. I feel so much pain for her. When I went to the cancer center I grabbed a bunch of information for her from the American Cancer Society. One of the things I grabbed is a workbook called "When your parent has cancer…a guide for teens" Her son is in 8th grade and he has been talking to Tara on the bus. They have been able to talk to each other about having a parent with cancer. I don’t know her very well but lastnight i went to see her.

She is devastated and numb with shock. Her whole world has been turned upside down. I was able to help encourage and inspire her in so many ways. We laugh and cried together. I was able to share those materials with her and we mostly talked about the parenting issues with cancer. I am so thankful that God was able to use me to reach out and help someone else going through this.

Now it is 5am and I can’t sleep because I keep thinking about her. I know EXACTLY how she feels. Just visiting with her put me back there mentally and emotionally and I have to admit it has been a little painful. Only when I was in Crisis about my cancer it was over the holidays so it seemed more difficult. We plan on keeping in touch and I will continue to visit her and pray for her.

Well, that’s all for now. I will write in here more often now that I am on medical leave. It shouldn’t be another month LOL!!