What a long day

Today was the second day of chemo and it was a long day. I was there from 8:30am - 2:00pm. I had 4 infusions to take. Two were chemo and one was for my bones and the other was to prevent nausea. I had to ask for a break just to stretch my legs. One good thing is that I am able to eat a lot better. If you recall I had lost my appetite to the point of not eating because the radiation had expectantly interfered with the cell lining of my esophagus and I had difficulty swallowing anything thicker than pudding. Imagine going through the holidays with that feeling.

I will share that last Thursday was great, but by Friday, the nausea, fatigue, and feet swelling had set in and was there throughout the weekend. Luckily, I had wonderful friends from Austin that visited on Friday and throughout the weekend which did NOT allow me to focus on myself. They, like many, were able to focus on the positive and it really encouraged my spirit. Reminiscing, updates about our families, sharing LIFE stories supersedes all of my illness and allowed me to really cherish LIFE as I have lived it and shared with others.

I am able to look back over my life and realize, of course, there have been some hurdles, low points, etc., but I sure have some wonderful friends, had some really fun times, have had some times that make me say "Did I do that?", and well just memorable times with awesome people. Life is divided into seasons. You meet different people, have different experiences just for that season of your life. What's so wonderful for me right now, is that many people that I have met throughout various seasons in my life are present for THIS season of MY life, and it's like looking at all the seasons of your life at once. There is no book and I haven't met the authority that promised that there would be no problems in life. I had time to sort of meditate on that today. As a matter of fact, we, Christians, are assured to have troubled times and that my good friends is where our faith will sustain us.

Since today was a good day, I took advantage of it and went to see my baby girl play basketball (she's in the 7th grade). Unfortunately, they didn't win but I was sweating by the time I finished coaching, cheering, screaming, and... well me and this cane were almost on that court. Don't know what I was gonna do but I was already on the second row, so I didn't have far to go!!! Good thing I didn't; I'm sitting with a heating pad on my back just from cheering and all.

Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day and the weekend as well. I ask your continued prayers that the drugs that have been infused in my body will be effective in killing the harmful cells and allowing the healthy cells to take over toward the healing that I have already claimed in Jesus name. Lastly, because inquisitive minds surely want to know... I still have hair and therefore Mike has not been able to exercise his "barber" skills.

Praying for you all in every aspect of your life...

Yolanda