Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Surviving Chemo

Those of you who know folks or are personally experiencing a battle with cancer, understand the consequences of chemo-therapy. It's no picnic.

Saturday, I finally had a chance to connect, in person, with our friends who are currently battling breast cancer. If you follow this blog, you know that they are expecting their second child and there was a big decision to be made as to whether or not the chemo would affect the fetus. Aparently, not.

After their first round of four courses of chemo, I was expeceting the usual hororr scenario. Quite the contrary, I found the family to be both upbeat and very positive. Their older daughter was all smiles playing with our son. The Husband is very positive and optimistic. And his spouse, is as beautiful as the first day he met her. The fetus is doing well and they are at 5 months now (they think it's another girl, but her/his legs were folded during the most recent ultrasound so the certainty is minimal on that department).

A group of us have gotten together to fix them dinner periodically, and to also pitch in with child care and play dates for their daughter so that would give both Mom and Dad time together and time to recouperate.

As it turns out, they indicated that it would be nice to have meals delivered a day or two before rather than after the treatments becuase a person's tastebuds are shot after a course of treatment, and so, they wanted to be able to taste the yummy meals we trotted over to their place.

The next treatment is in two weeks, and our turn for a meal will come on the following treatment some time in May. The last is slated for June. They get progressively stronger/worse.

All of them were wearing the yellow livestrong bands. I think I am going to put mine back on as I wasn't wearing it for a while - at least until the chemo is over.

2 comments:

Sar said...

Wind - being relatively new to your blog this is my introduction to your friends' situation. They're lucky to have such supportive and attentive friends like you and your family.

Our 3 & 6 yr-old daughters join us in saying the same prayer aloud before our dinner each night, expressing our thanks and hope for continued health and strength, but also for "all people who are sick, sad, or suffering, that they feel better soon." We'll keep your friends in our thoughts as well.

Unknown said...

Thank you Sar.

It is awe inspiring to see such strong and giving people in the midst of such illness. This is the epitome of what Lance Armstong personifies.

Live Strong All.