A New Week

After a wonderful weekend, I begin the new week full of energy and optimism mixed with a bit a dread and fear as chemo treatment #3 approaches quickly.

The weekend was good, we spent Saturday relaxing by the lake with Greg's dad and Jean until I reached my maximum "awake" time and we needed to depart. It was a perfect summer day so wearing my 50 (yes, that is not a typo, they make 50 spf!) sunscreen and a large hat, we sat on the deck and enjoyed the day.

Sunday was spent running errands and working on the cabin and our yard. She is shaping up fast! Dodging rain drops throughout the day we ended the night with a fabulous dinner with friends Laurie and Rodger to celebrate the fact that Greg has finished his 1st book and submitted all 32 chapters, 380+ pages to his editor! Hooray! We'll let everyone know when it hits Borders...;-) Publish date is Spring '09. What's next? Well, book 2 of course! I did partake of some champagne and am happy to report my taste buds were back to normal, somewhat. Anything sweet still tastes extremely sweet and anything with "fake sugar", i.e. aspartame, etc. tastes awful.

I started the week with a good 3 mile run (thanks Amy!) and hope to get runs in tomorrow and Wednesday as well. I am trying my best not to think about Thursday and the week or so that will follow. I need to reframe my thinking to, "well this is treatment #3 so only one more round of Adrimycin and Cytoxin to go...." I am hopeful the weekly Taxol treatments won't be a "taxing" on my system. (Sorry had to do it!)

My biggest life lesson this weekend occurred courtesy of my sister-in-law Christine. Christine e-mailed me a very nice note along with a photo of my niece and her very good friend hugging each other on the beach; two beautiful 8 year old girls with smiles from ear to ear. Why would this photo provide a life lesson for me?
My niece's very good friend has alopecia. She is totally bald. So while I deal with losing my hair and "oh what do people think", this little girl has never had hair and who knows, may never have it. Yet she is beautiful and happy and lives her life. I then look at my niece who obviously adores this little girl and am so proud of her for being someone who does not judge a person on appearance alone. I printed the photo and posted it on my fridge to make me smile each time I see it. This photo reminds me of just how precious this thing called life is, along with the friends we have in it!