September 5

I am so glad that summer is coming to a close, the weather has been a little cooler and I felt justified to pull out some of my favorite fall decorations.

We spend almost all week in Sacramento, what a blessing to have a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.   I am grateful for that every night as I make my 2 am trip to the potty.

Wednesday morning we sat out at 7 am to finally get this treatment started and find out what it will do to me.  To anticipate the worst is a un-nerving feeling.

As soon as we turned right out of Tim’s neighbor hood the sun came over the horizon and totally blinded us. Fortunately there was very little traffic on that road and we knew that after a few hundred feet we would make u-turn and have the sun behind us.  So we started to sing ‘ ..if the sun hits your eye like big pizza pie it’s amore..’  Suddenly a big jolt and a loud rattle made us realize that we had not seen the curb of the median and the right front tire had hit it straight on.  We bounced of the median again and limped to the side of the road.  As soon as we got out our worst fears were confirmed, we had totally busted the front tire.  Since time was of essence we hurried back to Tim’s house and while Dad had to call the insurance and a tow truck Tim was able to take me to the hospital before work.  I considered that car ride with Tim a great blessing because it gave us an opportunity to talk and share our thoughts and that comforted me a lot.  Even though by now we had a late start I made it to my appointment with 2 minutes to spare and the added blessing was that the hour long commute gave Tim and me the opportunity for a good talk that uplifted and strengthened me.

After donating some more blood to science I was welcomed to the infusion center of the UCDavis Cancer Center. I was assigned a chair and a friendly nurse, a blanked, a pillow and some hot chocolate.  My right arm was pocked once again to attach a port that would allow them to draw blood at frequent intervals to make sure the infusion would not kill me.  Then the nurse put on a protective gown, a mask, some goggles and special gloves in order to hook me up to the infusion.  It was not very confidence inspiring to see that the nurse had to wear all this gear to protect her from coming into contact with the stuff that was to seep into my veins.

As I was thus being prepared Dad arrived at the hospital and is was so good to see him, he had rented a car and hurried to be there so he would not miss the exciting stuff and so he could give me moral support.  While I was hooked up to the IV I didn’t think they had turned the trip on yet and I was nervous how I would feel when all this poison was pumped into my body.   I mentioned to Dad that I was wondering when they would finally turn the infusion on and to my great surprise Dad showed me that the bag was already half empty, it had been running for some time and I had not even noticed it!  I felt just fine, no nausea, no vomiting, no cramps no nothing. I am so grateful that I did not even notice that it was turned on so I could not be prejudiced about it. From then on I was so relieved and rest was no problem at all.  I still had to stay there until late in the afternoon because they had to take blood samples periodically and give me EKG to monitor my heart.

At the end of this eventful day I felt somewhat foolish and embarrassed that I did not have more faith and trust in the feeling that everything would work out fine. I had prepared myself for the worst and I was willing to accept whatever would happen.  How grateful I am for this blessing, my worst fears have not materialized and I can look forward to the next round of treatment with much less trepidation and nervousness.  I feel that the countless prayers and the fasting of so many wonderful people in my behalf have given me this great blessing.

Today was Fast Sunday and I received such an outpouring of love from our brothers and sisters in the branch. Even Kong came and stood in line to give me a bear hug.