blood and love

First, I would like to apologize for my lack of communication in the last couple weeks. I am experimenting with new ways of being in the world and it turns out to be very time consuming.
Plus, I had company. Also, I have been eating beef which takes a great deal of hemming and hawing. I am a long-time vegetarian. It is weird to eat a cow.

Tomorrow is chemo. And I love chemo. Really. It is not only an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends, it is also a modern miracle. It is a chance. It is a gamble. And it turns out that in this, I am lucky.
Also, I am very lucky in friends. Lucky in love – as they say.

Also: Lucky in Blood.
This week I had resigned myself to a low blood count and taking the Neupagen (“severe bone pain” ) drug. Got my blood drawn today and when i asked, Tracy, the prophetic phlebotomist, assured me that today’s result would be good.

I did not believe her.
Turns out she is right. My white blood count is normal. My red is good and my platelets are happy plateleting.
Holy cow.
No, really. This is kinda crazy. Normally chemo has a cumulative effect.
And i am of the opinion that it is the supplements (deer antler, wheat germ and some other thousand things) that have made some difference.
Mae Costello and Dara Barr give me these pills and powders and what not. Check on me to make sure i am eating them. Plus beef broth prepared by Liz Callow.

Plus all the help. All the food. (I am happily munching some delicious vegetarian lasagna right this second.)
The concern.
The people who let me explore my bizarre dark theories about life.
It has been 3 months since the diagnosis and people are still writing and checking on us and sending us gifts and feeding us.
I may win an award for the most weight gained while on chemo. 12 pounds so far. (Normally people lose appetite, get nauseous and lose weight.)

I feel good. Not real tired. I did some weight lifting this evening and I’m getting ready to watch the Republicans give it a go tonight.

There is sun, air and light. Like Deborah, I am noticing the beauty in tiny moments.
I am excited to get a chance to catch up with friends tomorrow. To sit and be loved. Get more delicious chemo.

On Sunday I am driving to Montana to see my lovely parents. I miss them. Miss the land. Miss the town. The excellent people of the First Baptist Church who put on a spaghetti feed dinner benefit for me.

I will take my excellent bad dog.
The beets are in season. The patty-pan squash. I will be fed to within an inch of my life. Watch some football on TV. Take a tour of the valley. Walk the back pasture. Go get an ice cream in town.

All the good stuff. The stuff of the living.