From Cottage to Chemo

Hi Everybody:

Well, we had a great time up the cottage. It was good to get up there. Our friends Pat and Brenda who live up Cherry Grove came in the driveway just after we pulled in. They helped us unload the van (thanks guys) but more importantly, they disrupted some stinkin' thinkin' and me and my sister did NOT cry. This was good. (We didn't get to visit with you guys as much as we would have like to. Next time, let's have dinner together. Jim will cook. lol. Don't tell him I said that.)

Thanks to Kim and Mark for all the work they did and for helping us get there and to have some fun. Jim did a lot of resting, some repairs, some walking, some groaning, and lots of smiles. It was great to be with him outside of hospital stuff. I didn't have phones to answer, doctors to drive to, bills to ignore, mail to sort, etc. Mark did tons of work that Jim couldn't get to, and Kim cooked, and did dishes. And I beat her at Catan many times....OH YES I DID.

This is Jim and Frank. Frank lives in Cherry Grove and has been a friend of the family for a long time and knew Jim when he was 8 years old. He's 82 years old and has many ailments, but he lives in the mountains and still cuts his own wood to heat his home for the long winters in the mountains. I imagine he'll be around forever...or at least break 100 and then some. He made Mark felt old. How??? Well, Frank says to me, "I can't get the blog to work. It says I have the incorrect URL." Mark, who is half of Frank's age has no idea what a blog is or a URL. Ok, so mountain men blog now adays. It's a new world. Isn't that cool. 82 year old Mountain men who blog. You reading this Frank. I sent you a new link. ;0

He took me down in less than 1 nano second.



This is me picking black raspberries. My sister, who isn't in any of these pictures is sitting pretty on the golf cart while I do all the work....

This is our fave thing to do up the cottage when we're not fishing, hiking, sailing, birding....we call it our senior citizen QUAD. We OWN the mountain when we're golf carting around. Watch out folks...

Well, that's all the fun stuff and pictures.

Tomorrow is a scary day, despite me not being scared. I'm either in denial, or finally maturing and living each day as it comes, rather than fret and worry.

We have an appointment with Jim's doctor to review the PET scan and see if it is working. Jim's off the pain meds again, but he still has lots of pain. And 2 nights at the cottage he had a temp 2 nights in a row, which made us think is it the cancer again. But he hasn't had a temp in 2 days. So....we'll find out tomorrow and if this treatment is working good enough for them, Jim will go in the hospital for round number 3 of ESHAP.

Please continue to pray for him. His hands and feet are numb. Sometimes he can't walk well because he can't feel his feet, and his hands shake. The neuropathy is getting worse with each treatment, and he still has possibly 4 more to go if ESHAP is working...plus the big one before the stem cell transplant. And if the ESHAP isn't working, there is either another type of chemo to try or a clinical trial, and his neuropathy will only get worse. But that's the least of our troubles.

BUT OH, I'LL TELL YOU. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SWEET to not talk about that stuff or have to live that stuff for 5 days up the cottage. What a delight it was to, in a small way, not to be thinking about that stuff.

So, keep praying.

And thanks to all of you who are praying for us, cutting our grass, or blessing us in the many ways we are being blessed. You are God's arms around us. I never knew we needed you as much as we do.

Jim and Gloria