A Quiet Saturday Morning at Houston Central

Well week 6 of radiation is history VP's!!! Only 6 more radiation days / 10 more treatments (remember there are 4 days of double treatments...) and Brenda can ring that bell that she's finished with this nasty radiation. I can't even begin to tell you how nasty our poor chemo-sabe's neck is. Nasty, nasty, nasty. In spots it's blistered, weeping, and raw. We have special gel sheets that we put on the nasty spots at night just to soothe these really angry wounds. She is such a trooper and I'm a great mixer of the drugs to keep her comfortable. We've got a great concoction worked out so she sleeps solidly (that's another word for totally drugged....Ha!) through the night.

She's actually doing a lot better than she was about 2 weeks ago. Mr. Flipper (the feeding tube) has decided to "play nice" and we're getting meds, food and water in like we should be doing. We have her pain down to a 4 or 5 (scale of 10) and we've even got a little weight back on her. Now that's music to all our ears!! All your positive energy is really helping get Bren through these last hard days...we know it. Here's another request...please send your collective positive, healing energy on Monday at 2:00 to 3:00 pm Houston time. That's when we see Dr. Hong and we're hoping, praying, begging, pleading that he won't say that Brenda will need another round of chemo. We are so hoping that he'll say just go home and heal from all this and come back in about 8 weeks for the follow-up scans. PLEASE!!!!

When you see Bren you're going to have to ask for her autograph because she is becoming an MD Anderson "star." We all know that she has had one of the best attitudes imaginable through this mess, and we also know what a nightmare the feeding tube was initially. Well Denise, our dietitian, asked us to be on a video they're producing about feeding tubes!!! Ya just gotta laugh! So yesterday we came in early for the taping...you know all that "cut, print, wrap" thing. There's another part they want to tape about the cleaning of the wound around the tube so we'll do that before we leave for HOME!!!! We all know that Brenda was a star before all this began...now she's a "star" at MD Anderson!!! We're getting a copy of the final tape...autographs upon request!! Ha!

We're still hoping for August 21st or 22nd depending on flights and the final coordination of all this...to go HOME!!! That is such music to our ears!!! We've even begun to pack up some boxes of stuff to ship home because I don't think all the stuff we've collected over these past few months will fit in the car!!! Ha! We are definitely "Gear Girls!!" Heck! We have a carload of just medical supplies!! I will never begin to tell you how crazy happy "Going Home" makes us feel. I think that's just the perfect medicine that Bren and I need right now, especially for her continued healing. HOME...HOME...HOME!!!

I've got Chemo-sabe's meds so fine tuned that I think we're even going to try and take in the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow morning...now that's some darn good drugs!! She might sleep through most of it but at least we get out of the apartment and do something that feels more like our normal life. I think it was Bonnie who asked what Brenda was looking forward to when she got home. We were talking about that the other day and although our lives will never be the way they were before this diagnosis, we both are looking forward to recreating the "new" normal for us...back in our home...with our dogs, friends, and family around us...celebrating life and each other and trying to make a positive difference in this world.

So there ya have it for Saturday morning. Brenda is sleeping on the couch while I get a feeding in her. I'm doing the laundry and will do some more packing this afternoon. YEA!!! Wishing you all a wonderful Saturday.

Nurse Dee and a sleeping, drugged, Chemo-sabe