Thursday 4-29-10

Day one of the second to the last chemo session. As I finished my chemo I called Sharon to see how everything was going and she could hardly take the time to talk to me. She was jammed and the cook got sick and Anna had to take over the grill. Her words were, CAN YOU HELP??? I quickly got on 469 and headed to 24 to Antwerp. When I got there she was full in the back room with quickly arriving rotary people and in the middle section with residents and in the front with hungry customers. Since I have not been trained to take a customers order, I was assigned the residents. It used to be that I knew almost all the residents by name and what they liked to drink etc. Well guess what. We now have 41 residents and many of them are brand new. We lost three residents to the Lord and then added a bunch of new ones. I quickly went into funny mode and tried to use what names I could remember and then laughed about chemo brain. Since we have a special of the day, most of the residents want food ASAP so if you just say: Want the menu today or do you want the special, they will say OK and it is somewhat easy. Since Anna and I used to work together on feeding the residents it went pretty smooth. You see I don't write anything down and just shout out: I need three menues or three specials. If they get them too me quickly, I can remember who I was suppose to serve the specials too.

After about twenty minutes of mayhem the chemo started to do it's business and I was whipped out. I was able to see one of my chemo friends, Diana, who had just graduated from her chemo after one year and a day. She had breast cancer and is now cancer free. She came in to celebrate. Sharon comped the meals, and they were truly happy. They are heading to the Blue Chip Casino and for some reason feel REAL LUCKY!! God love them, they have been in my prayers ever since I met them a year ago. You can beat this stuff, at least for a while. And sometimes, forever. Only God knows which way that's going to go. We can only accept what he has in store for us.

I'm now home watching Sammy, and we have this agreement: Help grampie with what he has to do and the treats are yours. She is like any kid at that age and will usually start with the sweet stuff, but she also like the healthy stuff. Today it was two sweet and one healthy. Well that was Brian on the phone and grampie just ordered a subway, BMT for me. I'll have enough for at least three meals. When I get the chemo I feel hungry, but I never can eat much. I have not taste buds and food soon becomes uninteresting and I just stop eating. I will usually loose 6 to 8 lbs in the two weeks of chemo. I don't stop eating, I just don't eat near as much.

Well time to go, Brian is on his way. Love to all