Thursday, April 17, 2008

Waiting for Flowers

Hi Everyone,


We are in that time between, like limbo, but of course that term is antiquated now, but you know what I mean, we have turned the page on active treatment and now Deb visits doctors every three months, or when, God forbid, something isn’t right. We’re not treating but we don’t feel cured yet either.

The hair is back, and so is Deb’s sense of humor. She laughs easily now, and at the silliest stuff, but I love it and try my best to make it happen.

She misses our old church and how close we all were there. We go to The Chapel now, but it’s not the same. The message is terrific and there are lots of things happening, but it’s another limbo thing, not quite integrated yet and feeling like a stranger. We know it will change and we have to have faith.

Chemo brain is the term used for the forgetfulness brought on by chemotherapy. It frustrates Deb sometimes but she is much better lately. In my case it’s just old age.

Our routine is back to where it was before all this started. I arrive home first and take Strider out. Deb comes about 20 minutes later and depending on Strider’s whim, may have to take her back out again. Then dinner and a few chores and early to bed. The weather is so nice.

We have a few invitations for charitable events. Deb plans to do the Relay for Life in June. This is the season for organized events. Heidi Kattner is going to walk for the March of Dimes. That group is working on advancing the understanding and treatment of premature births and health issues.

In 1950, before the vaccine, I had polio and the March of Dimes helped with my medical expense. Infantile paralysis, as it was known before that, appeared in the public conscience when President Franklin Roosevelt was crippled by it in the 1930’s. He found that the mineral waters Warm Springs Georgia helped him with the pain, so he created a charitable foundation to make the waters available to anyone. He asked for donations, even dimes and a media wag coined the term “March of Dimes” from the old saying, the march of time. Mom spent a lot of time as a volunteer to repay the charity she and I had received back then.

In this world where seven out of ten people, including children, go to bed hungry every day, we are blessed with amazing abundance in America. We enjoy a standard of living that is second to none, and yet if you’re like me, I tend to take all these blessings for granted far more than I should.

Take a moment to pray for Marge, the Kattner twins and those who will start cancer treatments for newly discovered cancer. Keep Deb in your prayers too because even when she is healthy she still has to live with me.


God Bless,
Dan