Well, today’s the day I’ve been dreading. Back to Chemo! 

As I am sitting here, waiting to talk to the doctor regarding the pathology report from Moffitt, my resting heart rate is 100. Think I might be a little anxious ha ha. 

Fighting for your life is hard work especially when you don’t see an end in sight. So how can we do it? 

1. You have no choice.  
2. Try to maintain a positive attitude while still facing the reality of possible outcomes. This is not an easy thing to do, but well worth working on.(say that 3 times in a row )
3. Gather strength by keeping your friends and family close, speak often and share their happiness. Treasure the fact that you are still here and can give love and receive love.
4. Find medicines that can help you relieve your pain. For me, the answer has been medical marijuana and Tylenol. I’m staying away from opioids because they can be highly addictive, and even worse in my case, cause constipation 🙂

I am now writing this at home having been reprieved of starting chemo. Apparently, the pathology report can take a week or two and we are still waiting for that. Instead of Chemo, we scheduled a meeting with Dr. Barry for next Tuesday and depending on the results, we will start chemo then. 

I feel like I won the lottery by getting the extra week!

More good news. While we were out at Home Depot getting some plants, I got a text from Shona from Underdog Rescue at Florida asking if I could take a couple puppies from a litter of five  that were turned into Animal Services. Much to my surprise and delight, Hans agreed that we could take two and we quickly drove to get them. I took the only girl and one of the boys and Hans named them Penelope and Paddington. They were very stinky and required immediate bathing. Both were angels in the wash tub and seemed to enjoy the blow drying!  Though they were very shy initially, they have already come out of their shells and run up to us with lots of kisses and cuddles.

Life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated. – Osho