The. Weirdest. Christmas. Ever.
I keep wondering why I keep hearing Christmas music and seeing so many ads and then I give my head a shake and remind myself that it's "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"
Here's why I'm so confused - two reasons:
Firstly, we're renovating our house and we've been living in the basement since October 13th. As I don't like to eat out much, I've managed to be very creative with a crock pot, rice cooker and hot plate (plus we've had a little help from our friends who have taken pity on us and brought us food). Ty moved out early on in the reno, so that made life a little less squishy, but it's been interesting and annoying and fun all at the same time. Christmas decorating is "minimalist" this year - just a few decorations we've managed to find. But the end result is going to be fantastic and it's on schedule to be done around December 23.
Not hard, not challenging, it's self imposed and just inconvenient (and kind of fun).
Second - this part is hard and challenging, forced on us and very inconvenient (no fun at all).
Jacqui had her second round of chemo on Wednesday. The doctor advised us to go the "Port" route and so she had the port inserted on Nov. 25 and had her first round on Nov. 26. This chemo is administered for one hour, on one day, every other week. Jacqui thinks it's short and easy with the port - the best chemo ever. But there are still the side effects to deal with - mostly exhaustion and it's hard when the actual chemo part is so short to remember that it will still take a while to recover. She'll continue with this chemo until the end of the year and in the new year there will be another scan and the doctor will decide what actions to take next.
And then there is the pain, so much pain over the last few weeks. Sometimes it's just a dull ache and sometimes stabbing pain that lasts for a few hours before subsiding. It looks like it's fluid buildup in the lungs - so now there's that to figure out. She's tired and she hurts and it feels like enough...when we look for the light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes all we can see is darkness.
That's when it's time to look at our little Christmas tree and it's lights remind us of the light and hope of this happy season.
Merry Christmas!!!
So feel for all of you. I'm also getting a port and hopefully that helps me as well. I so appreciated Jacqui's email to me a few weeks ago…it helped me get some perspective. xo - Lianna
ReplyDeleteOh Carol - self imposed challenge of renovating and the inconvenience of that plus the uniqueness of that.......is WAY WAY easier than the alternate challenge of Jacqui !..... Biggest thing I read was the pain being Enough ! It's always darkest before the storm, and then the clouds pass and the light returns. Thinking of you - wishing this Christmas to be fab with your new kitchen......and hoping that Jacqui's timing of the chemo works for nice recovery days over the holidays. xxoo
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