Holly's Notes and Condition

June 2nd-3rd - Refocused This Weekend

Sat June 2 - I spent the better part of the day feeling sorry for myself. It was a definite 'why me?' moment. Two things in particular hit me today - its the 4 year anniversary of my brother-in-law, Roy's bout with cancer and its also the 28th wedding anniversary of our friends, Gary and Ginger.
Surviving cancer and wedding anniversaries - both huge life events and cause for celebration.

I am thrashing, as I can't even start counting myself as a 'survivor' until I complete treatment, which for me is still a ways down the road and Dave's and my anniversary/completed treatment plans will most likely have to be postponed, as I haven't started radiation therapy yet. As a result, Dave and I ended up having intense conversations this weekend. I gave voice to things I have been feeling, that I haven't shared with him until now. Dave too, is feeling things that he needed to share. Somewhere over the course of the weekend - we went from a low, fractured place to a much more united and loving place as a married couple.

And on top of that, we worked in the yard, cleaned, cooked, worked on our computers, read, watched a little TV, slept and fortified ourselves for the upcoming week. Both of us started to really feel better. Have I mentioned that I don't have the tingling nerve pain shooting down the back of my left arm and the numb left pointer finger anymore? Of course, I do have the numbness and tingling pain down the back of my right arm, but that's only to the elbow.
Hey, at least it isn't both arms and maybe that right arm will ease up with time, just as my left arm did - here's hoping. I can raise my right arm 7 inches over my head now and I can hold it there for 10 minutes. More to go.

Dave's brother, Gary called from Colorado on Sunday to say that he and Ryan had arrived safely - the Ford Focus made it with no problems - I'm so glad to hear that! Then later in the evening, Justin called to say that his flight had arrived safely in New York and that he made it through customs up into Canada, as he is back there for a sales conference and doing training on the software product that Dave's company designed, supports and sells : "Stay-Linked". He'll then fly down to Baltimore, Maryland to do a support training and then be back at the end of the week. Jeremy spent his day off on Sunday out in Palm Springs with friends - it was a mere 106 degrees out there - HOT! He was very glad to come home to OC, where it was a mere 74 degrees. It was nice to be outside on Sunday, and I didn't think that I had been in the sun that much, while I worked on my strawberries and clearing the last blooms of my sweet peas away from my grapevines - but I got a touch of sunburn on my shoulders and upper back - so I put on the aloe vera gel. I had been warned that the antibiotic could make me especially sensitive to the sun - I guess they were right.

posted by Holly @ 2:01 PM