thanks for the memories...

       1st trip to the pumpkin patch

                                                       

 peek-a-boo

                                                 

    1st trip to the zoo

                                                 

light the night walk

Memories are a funny thing.  You are just never sure which memory will come to you and when.  A little known fact about me is that as a little kid about 5-6 years old I was in love with Paul Anka.  I would carefully study the album cover of the record, put the record on the stereo and listen to the 3 songs that I liked on the entire album and just play them over and over.  Not sure why this memory came to me so strongly in these last few days, but I am thinking it has a lot to do during a time I felt so safe and things were predictable.

Life for sure is not predictable right now.  I had my first chemo treatment today which once we got started things went very smoothly.  The entire cocktail of 4 drugs I am given takes about two hours for it all to transfer into me.  My original time was 10:45am but there were so many people today they pushed me back to 12:45pm.  Kindof a sad thing to think that so many people are in need of chemo treatments. 

The oncology nurses that were there are nice ladies.  The nurse I had was able to access my port quickly.  And let me tell you, having a port is the best thing for my veins.  So all in all right now I am feeling pretty good, just my stomach is a bit flakey but I took medicine for that and will again tomorrow.  It will be a slow road but hey 1 treatment down and only 7 more to go!  I cannot wait for this all to be a long distant memory that I will look back on and know that I beat this and am a healthy person.  I can't wait.

Thank again to everyone for the kind words and prayers.  I read each and everyone of them and they all make me smile and give me strength.  Once the chemo is completed then I move on to radiation for about 4 weeks in late February into March. I am looking forward to that time frame and I know I will be in the home stretch!

**one final note---thank thank you to all who helped with the Light the Night Walk.  We were able to raise $750.00 and my goal was $500.00.  This money will go to a great organization of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!