Saturday Afternoon

We had an 11:30 show time today and before we left I fed Deb a plate full of my famous home made spaghetti. Candy was our nurse today. She's a lot of fun and has an unusual and loud laugh. When Candy laughs, everyone hears it and you will probably join in with her. Well, today she was unusually quiet. Deb and I plotted to make her laugh. I selected an old Utube video of Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett show doing the dentist with a shot needle routine. It worked! She laughed! Then I played video clips of John Denver songs while she cared for Deb. It helped pass the time and keep Deb calm.

Before we leave home Deb takes a handful of steroid pills. At night she takes the thalidomide. Then she gets more pills and shots before the IVs in the chemo chair. Then the bag gets two bags of chemo. While taking one, she must continuously crunch ice and popsicles to prevent mouth sores. That chemo is strong stuff! At home she takes a thick orange 'magic mouthwash' which protects her gut.

Right now,4 pm, she's napping and I'm watching the Arkansas-Alabama football game.

Deb is blessed to respond well to the Total Therapy.Not everyone does. Today Eva sat in our cluster and was upset because she has been here 11 months and is unable to produce stem cells for collection and can take very few of the meds without them killing her. She thinks she has no way to ever leave here. She's about forty and from Austria.

While we were waiting for our ride, another classmate sat with us and sadly told us that they had gone home for a 3 week break and they got called back to the cancer clinic because the at-home blood work showed her blood proteins indicated that her cancer was acting up.

What do you say to a friend with such bad news?