Headed to last radiation!
Just about to head out the door to last radiation treatment. I’m feeling better each day but not as great as I
hoped. My doctors tell me to be patient (grrrrr) and that the full effects of radiation are still weeks out. But the sun in shining and I really just want to bundle up and go for a long run! Soon… Soon! I’m taking this little gift to the radiation techs at Norton Hospital. They are the kindest, compassionate, professional people I’ve ever worked with. They are such a big part of someone’s cancer journey- working with you daily, over and over again, and they do their job with such love and care. They also happen to do this great work in the basement of Norton (because of high levels of radiation, etc…) and their hands are COLD! Especially since my treatment was all during the coldest days of the year! They maneuver you on the radiation table and line up your “marks” to be just right for treatment. And theirs hands are freezing. So, I am giving them a bag of hand warmers!! 12 hours of heat- hopefully they can warm up their fingers before each patient! Hopefully I won’t see these kind folks again for radiation. I will certainly always remember their cold hands and warm hearts. With hope, Lara
started talking with her about Hope Scarves. She was wearing a scarf and I am always so excited to let people know about our program. After my treatment I had a chance to talk with her sister (while she has having her treatment) and learned she is also fighting metastatic stage 4 breast cancer. She just finished chemo and has 7 weeks of radiation! 7 weeks! My heart just sank as we talked. She and her husband divorced during her treatment 6 years ago and she has 2 sons. My heart went out to her so deeply… her sister said she is really scared. I hope she reaches out to Hope Scarves so we can send her a scarf and encourage her to keep fighting! I am so blessed to have help overflowing, an amazing husband and so many people praying and encouraging me. I am also so honored to be able to share Hope Scarves with people like this brave woman. I hope we can do our small part to make her smile, just pass along a little bit of hope and help her feel she isn’t alone.
the distraction.) Each Friday evening since then I’ve been surrounded friends. Just sitting around, talking, laughing and sharing stories about our kids, lives and ideas. I love this. Last night I also received a big box of love from my Alabama girls filled with some of our favorites things from Birmingham and sweet notes of encouragement. When jay came home he had a huge basket for me that the Chenoweth basketball moms had put together- full of thoughtful gift cards, signs of hope and a card signed my all our third grade hoopsters. I haven’t felt like eating much but when my lifelong best friend from childhood sent my favorite homemade cookies- I hadn’t tasted anything so delicious! I am not writing all this to brag. But to just share several examples of how amazingly women surround each other and hold each other up when they need it. Crisis has the ability to reconnect friends, re prioritize days and make special outings happen more often (like going out with friends on a couples lunch date to a nice restaurant on a Tuesday afternoon). Who does that? (We did and we are going to keep doing it!) I wish this never happened. I long for our precious life of just 2 weeks ago when I was a cancer survivor, runner, mother, social entrepreneur and so, so happy! But it has. And I hold right to the beauty it has revealed such as the joy of friendship. And I hold tight to the idea that I can fight this a long time… so I can hold up another friend when she needs it.
We enjoyed a ky snow day today (which is kind of comical to two Michiganders). It was nice to get a bonus day with the kids. Bennett and I completed a huge lego castle and wills and I read our books snuggling under the same blanket on the couch. Our dear neighbor, Paulette Cunningham, came over so jay and I could go to radiation treatment. She brought math games and a board game about animals. The boys loved it! I had a meeting with a couple Hope Scarves board members this afternoon to make a plan for our board meeting on Friday. I am honored to have board members so dedicated to the mission of hope scarves and my well being. I’m looking forward to our board meeting Friday to talk about short and long term plans for Hope Scarves. Thank you to everyone who has expressed support for me by sponsoring a scarf. This brings me so much joy! If you want to sponsor a scarf please visit our website. Www.hopescarves.org – click on support. We had a little Macgregor snowball fight this afternoon and a dance party while making dinner tonight. It’s really sweet to see how far my dear husband will go to make me laugh. We have such a precious family. Four radiation treatments down! Looking forward to my parents arrival tomorrow and knocking down radiation #5. Keep all the prayers, jokes, cards, hugs, carpool rides and support coming! It means so much! With hope, Lara
Thanks to everyone who drove the kids around town, brought meals, shared gentle hugs, sent messages of encouragement and so much more. This week felt like a month! I am managing my pain and starting to make sense of things. 2 radiation treatments down and 10 to go. Every morning at 10am. Hopefully I feel more pain relief as the radiation shrinks the tumor. Happy Sunday, “funday” at our house! Lara