And So It Goes

I had almost forgot this, but normally at this point -- two Fridays after Jeff's last chemo treatment -- we could be cramming as much fun and 'normal' stuff into the weekend before the next round started on Monday.

But not this Friday!!!

Jeff's done the chemo, baby, and he's doing really well!

Oh, okay, there was a loooong visit to the emergency room last Friday which turned into a two night hospital stay (but with basically a day pass on Saturday between antibiotic treatments). The culprit was a tiny cut on the knuckle of one finger which became infected and left untreated could have killed my husband as we found out his immune system was truly shot.

No words for that one, people, other than this phrase: "Thank You, God, for Your protection!!"

I mean, it wasn't like he or we were being stupid or careless. He was at home when he got the cut, a cut which one would barely pay attention to under chemo-free circumstances. But never the less, there it was, there we were and now it's done. And we're trying to be careful without being tremendously uptight and/or paranoid. We'll leave the stress part to my mother-in-law (whom I love dearly, but she is a bit of a worrier *but* has the saddest grief of any parent as she lost her older son to cancer 14 years ago).

Then there is the tricky path of telling people you haven't really kept in contact with for however long and didn't really think to contact them or try to find out how to contact them to let them know "Hey -- cancer! FYI!", only to have them be hurt that you didn't tell them. Or that *someone* didn't tell them. Or something. And getting cards from people who called weeks ago just to see how you were doing and who you really meant to call back but didn't. You didn't call them sooner because you weren't ready to deal with all that yet and you didn't call them later because you just honestly forgot. How do you explain that?

Then there is the whole 'getting back to normal'. There are some thing I would love to see be 'back to normal' such as Jeff resuming the cleaning of the cat's litter box, him being able to do all his regular things without getting worn out, etc. But then there are other things I hope don't go back to normal -- the communication, the priority on just spending time together -- because the 'old' normal pales in comparison to the 'new' normal.

And so it goes.