Last Scheduled Chemo Jan 2015

I greet you with a hearty hello in this new year!

Rob and I pray you had a safe New Year's celebration, filled with lots of smiles and happy memories. :)  

We are hoping you are NOT experiencing the frigid cold temps that we are.  If you are, we feel your pain!  Brrrrr!!!  Frigid is not even a cold-enough description!

Our New Year has been, well...  it's been interesting!

Rob woke up in the late morning to a very bloody nose  --  everywhere, and lots.  To be expected I guess, because the apartment is dry, and all his blood counts are down, causing him to bleed easily.  So we got everything cleaned up, and spent the day quietly home.  It was a blessing.  And mostly uneventful.  Mostly...

I got this brilliant idea that I would cut my hair and fix what I didn't like about it... I think it's a control issue. ;)  Anyways, the long and short of it (short being the more powerful word here), I paid to get it fixed four days later.

Why four days later, you ask?

On January 2nd at about 3am, our phone rang and minutes later I ran out the door to watch my grandbabies as my son-in-law, Mike, rushed Nicole to the ER.  Turns out her gall bladder was extremely enlarged and badly infected, thanks to two previous doctors not listening to her tell them she didn't feel good and had horrible stomach aches and a pain in her side.  So after a couple of IV antibiotics, surgery, and a balancing act with her heart, BP, and other meds, she is home and healing.  Praise God for these blessings!

I was blessed to be able to care for the children during the day times, calling Rob to make sure he was okay throughout the days.  Mike came home in the evenings so I could go home, then we repeated it until Nicole convinced the staff she could go home late Sunday.  :)

That's when I got my hair fixed.  Well, not until after the battery died in our car...  but Mike saved the day and not only went and picked up the new one, but installed it, all done in a flash!  Another blessing!

~~~~~~~~~
 
So yesterday Rob had his last scheduled chemo of this second-line treatment.  Only one poke (blessing), and rather a quick stay, even though we had a slow start.  All of Rob's red counts (RBCs, hematocrit, hemoglobin) are well below the normal low, his platelets are teetering close to the low end, and his WBCs have dropped down below the normal low.  We have to be very careful about exposure to any sickness/illnesses, and he has to be VERY careful not to cut himself, can't even shave right now.  Okay with me.

Next Tuesday we will revisit his oncologist, who I am sure will rerun the battery of CTs, xrays, and bloodchecks.  We are going to have her try to do the brain scan as well, hopefully at the same time as the other scans, as Rob's headaches do not stop.  He is in pain all the time, sometimes very intense pain where he scrunches up his face and holds his head with both hands pressing tight.  It even makes me hurt.  But doubling the pills has helped to take the edge off when they are intense, so that, too, is a blessing.

Riley is loving the snow, but not liking the cold on his feet when it's sub-zero out there.  I am trying to explain to him why I cannot continue to carry him back to the warmth of our apartment, now that he is over the 40 pound mark, and still growing.  Ahh, always a puppy at heart though. ;)  He and Gypsy are getting along much better.  Most of the time.  She has to stop running, though, because he becomes a Greyhound chasing a rabbit track, and that doesn't go over well in our apartment.  Good thing his body is giving as it bounces off the walls!  But he is happy and enjoying his days, as Gypsy is hers... another blessing for two rescued members of the family.

Some may say that 2015 is off to a bad start on our end, but I would have to disagree wholeheartedly.  

Things happen in life...  sometimes good things, and sometimes bumpy things.  But with every bump and valley, we are lifted back to our feet, as God continues to bless us through so many ways...  our friends and family, time off work, medications that help, support in the very moment we need it (whether financially, spiritually, or emotionally), encouraging words, and the list goes on and on.  

Example:  Last night after getting home from chemo, Rob always goes in and goes to bed because he feels so awful.  I was taking care of Riley, getting things put in order, and talking to Nicole on the phone to see how she was doing and update her on our day.  I hadn't had lunch or dinner, and told her I was just going to snack on cheese and crackers because I was so tired.  As we were talking, my doorbell rang... 

Nicole said, "It's Mike."  
I said, "Why is he here?"
She said, "You'll see. :)"

We hung up, I buzzed the main door, and when I opened our door, there stood Mike with two plates filled with the most delicious warm food for us!  A blessing!  And in a flash, he was gone.  

After getting our wild-child under control and enjoying a delicious meal, I called to thank Mike.  He instead thanked me "for being me."  I started to cry.  (Yeah, my heart leaks quite often these days.)  I wonder if he realizes what a blessing he has always been in my life...♥

I believe this year will continue to be filled with blessings!  And as much as I'll cry, or hurt, or not understand, I pray I will always remember to stop and quietly step back, and just soak in all the blessings that surround me.  Surround us.  All of us.  So I can keep my perspective. And know I am loved. 

Our time here is so limited, so precious, and I want to enjoy it for all it's worth.  

That's my goal for this year:  To enjoy *life*.  

With asterisks!!!

I'll be back in a week or so with test updates, probably a week or so after that with the findings.  

Good or bad, 
big or small;
God gives blessings, 
to handle it all.

In love and wrapped in His peace,

Cheri ♥

Just a side-note reminder:  I am not able to comment to comments here on the blog... not sure why, but it doesn't work.  But I do listen!
And for those that send me FB private messages, I do not have the Messenger App to see them, and am unable to check online from my tablet (what I'm usually on).  Once I get on my main computer at home, I can catch up, so be patient with me, and know I'll respond when I get back here.  I love and appreciate you all more than you know!  Thank you for blessing my life so. ♥