Round Two: Infusion #11

The past three weeks have quickly gone by and tomorrow is the first infusion of the biologic drugs without chemo. It is wonderful to know that my strength and energy will stay with me this time and that everyday I will continue to grow a little bit stronger.

I have a love-hate relationship with chemo; I love that it kills the cancer cells and of course I hate the side effects. If the side effects were short term it would be easier but instead they drag on and on and then rats - I finally would feel better only for it to be time for chemo again. I am so very grateful that the chemo portion of the treatment has been completed - I am SO VERY GRATEFUL.

I only needed two Lukine injections and that was last week. This week the white and red blood cells were at the lowest point of being normal, the platelets were low but not too bad. I did have a B-12 injection last week and this week I had what will probably be the last one. It does seem a little strange to not be at CBCC so much.

Each day seems to go by quickly and the two greatest daily accomplishments are taking a long nap and doing the dishes. Anything else that I accomplish is as they say, icing on the cake. And, I'm pleased to tell you that the cake has been iced a few times lately. We finally have all of the Christmas gifts purchased and wrapped. I did quite a bit of on-line shopping and between Randy and April the majority of the gifts were purchased. Yesterday I did have lunch with a friend and then I stopped at the mall on the way home. I was at the mall for less than an hour and then the exhaustion caught up with me but I was happy that I was able to accomplish what I did.

Today, well today I've been really tired which is both irritating and okay. It is irritating because my body still can't keep up with my mind - and at the same time it is okay because that's the only healthy way to handle this situation. It could be worse and now is not the time to forget my blessings and to be ungrateful. Each day is a blessing and sometimes I have cake with icing and sometimes I don't. Years ago my sister-in-law Nancy shared with me a chocolate cake recipe called Goofy Cake - it's goofy because there is no icing but the cake is so moist and yummy that icing is not needed. Some days my life is like the Goofy Cake and that's good enough.

I wish each of you a Merry Christmas. May 2010 be filled with lots of cake and icing and just the right amount of Goofy Cake to keep all of us humble and grateful for the days we are blessed with cake and icing.