“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.”
It’s been some time since my last post. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather the past week or so but will try to catch everyone up.
Last Tuesday was the latest round of infusions. Unlike the previous chemo infusion, this one was done via outpatient and only required 4 hours. I also began a 10 day oral chemotherapy regimen taking a product called Revlimid.
I felt pretty good after the chemo infusion on Tuesday. I had been advised that I would probably need to take the following day off to rest and recuperate, which is what I did. On Thursday, I had my blood labs done (everything was good) and by the time I returned home, I started experiencing some nausea. This nausea became very strong and continued through Saturday evening
Since starting chemotherapy, I haven’t been able to spend much time with my children and grandson. As some background, we are a very close family and normally don’t pass too many weekends without finding a reason to get together. The toxicity of the original chemo regimen I was on, as well as the need to be isolated from illness, resulted in an interruption of these visits.
In a very welcome event, both of my children, my son in law, and my grandson came up to stay with us for the Easter weekend. I was in something of a chemical fog through Saturday because of the meds and the nausea. However, Sunday morning came and I was feeling pretty good. I was able to spend some quality time with everyone before they had to return home. It was a great reminder of the importance of family and how blessed I am to have a strong family who would do anything for you without question.
It is Sunday evening as I write this. I am feeling a little melancholy because it seems that I lost an entire day’s worth of opportunity to be with those I love so much because I was feeling ill. However, I have to remind myself this condition is only temporary and my healing is well underway. It also serves as a great opportunity for me to remember that there is a reason I have been assigned this journey. What is that purpose? I don’t yet know but am confident that I will discover it at the appropriate time!
Despite the nausea, I have experienced many blessings this week. Perhaps top of the list of blessings is the fact that, had I not been cleared of a particular type of cancer, I would currently be in the hospital wrapping up a 96 hour chemo infusion rather than having had the opportunity to spend time with my family.
Given the importance of the Easter holiday and what Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection provides for Christians, it prompts me to pause and say a prayer of thanks for the many blessings in my life. It is so very easy to focus on the negatives … the challenge is to identify the blessings and focus upon them. I find that when I focus upon the blessings, my troubles seem to lessen in significance.
Praise in the Storm 