Summer comes undone.
I'm sitting in the Living Room & for the first time in months, there is a cool breeze coming through the window.
This summer has been good. Really good. At the beginning of July G ended up getting Pneumonia and a fungal lung infection (don't worry! it gets better!). He was in a bad way for a couple of weeks. Despite being on a pretty crazy cocktail of antibiotics & feeling pretty crummy, he never spent a day in bed - he got up, got dressed & did the day.
I've filed this under the 'Count your blessings where you find them' category because his Dr decided to put his chemo on hold so that he could properly recover from the infections. G recovered fairly quickly (although still has some of the fungal infection) and so we were set loose. Nothing to do but nothing. We Lazily started our days making delicious breakfasts. Afternoon walks & naps. Playing & cuddling with Frances - still pretty amazed that she's ours.
She's growing so fast (already 4 1/2 months!) and what a beauty she is. I can already tell she's going to have a good sense of humour & she's really agreeable & easy going.
We went away to a cottage with G's family for 5 days. Amazing to get away - and I was sure to drink up every moment of it. All of this living it up made it easy to forget what else is going on in our lives..... oh yeah...... Leukemia.
I just want more of this. Forever. A peaceful trio: G+N+F. Is it so much to ask? Is it too much to hope for?
When we got home from our mini vacation there was a message from PMH saying they had a date for the transplant. October 12th. He'll be admitted on the 6th. In the meantime he's back on chemo to keep him in remission. Back to reality.
3 comments:
I'm glad you've been able to have so many good times this summer! G+N+F until you're all old and wrinkly!
I have never commented to a blog before but I just have to tell you my story.
My husband was diagnosed with Medullablastoma, a rare form of childhood brain cancer (he was 31 when he was diagnosed) and after the initial treatment he went into remission only to relapse with metastatic disease in his spine and bones a year and a half later. We were told our only hope was a stem cell transplant but they had never tried that therapy on this disease before. Eventhough we live in Vancouver he was treated at the Fred Hutchison centre in Seattle and we sat through the exact same meeting with our two very small sons where they lay out the blunt, terrifying statistics that make you want to run screaming from the room.
I am happy to say that that was in 1999/2000 and we are 11 years past transplant and he is healthy minus a few GVH (graft versus host) disease problems. You have to stay positive. My husband always said that dying was never an option and he never let it enter his mind in the wee hours of the morning. He truly believes that his positive thinking was 80 percent of his recovery. He also said that you have to think like a cockroach, i.e. even a nuclear war can't kill a cockroach. (he thought this was funny).
Reading your post gives me that rock of fear feeling in my stomach. We have definitely been there and done that. Please know that, eventhough we don't know you, my husband and I will be sending our positive energy to you.
Best wishes -- Michelle and Neil
Michelle & Neil - thank you SO much for sharing your story. I am really thrilled to hear that things are still going good 11 years post transplant. This is excellent news! I'm going to pass along all of what you said to Gord.
Many thanks again.
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