The night before Chemo, and all through the house, no electricity was stirring...because a storm blew through and knocked out the power. So we sent Katherine to my parents' house, and Aaron and I stayed in a hotel because we had an early start the next morning.
We have really enjoyed the newest trail in town, Stone Dam Creek. It was the perfect way to move our bodies before being stuck in a chair for the rest of the day.
We were at CARTI by 7:30. With Aaron on my left, and a picture of my family on my right, I felt the prayers and support of hundreds of people.
Thankfully, I was also able to walk around during my treatment, so I often did laps around the infusion center.
My amazing hubby even left to go find me some coffee as a treat while I was sitting through the almost nine hours of pouring chemicals into my veins. He has been a rock through the last several weeks of this cancer journey. Who am I kidding?!?! He has been a rock through the course of our almost forty year old friendship.
I went home with the last medication in a little box on my arm, where it would "detonate" in 27 hours. Felt like something out of Star Trek!
While I still had energy, I met my mom and Katherine at the gym and we worked out for a little bit.
The next day, still riding high on the steroid and anti-nausea medications, I attended professional development by one of my favorite people, Jordan. I've known her since we were kids growing up at the same church, and she is one of the handful of people who still call me Jo. Her sessions are always encouraging and informative, and she always practices what she preaches.
When I got in the van to return home, I discovered that my Grandmother was still without power and needed a place to stay. So she moved in with us. We anticipated her staying about a week, since she lives out of town in a sparsely populated area, but she only got to stay one night.
The next day, I got a text from Jordan asking for my snail mail address, and moments later, another text saying to check my porch because she had dropped something off. The elephant was a reminder of one of her examples in class about how important it is to support each other and be a part of the "herd". I cried at her encouragement.
The same week, Olivia was trying to get back from Switzerland, but her planes kept getting cancelled. She finally arrived three days later than originally planned. And Aaron had a fabulous out of the box idea to get her home sooner and to prevent her from having to sleep in the Chicago airport overnight.
She changed her flight to Kansas City, and a friend drove to the airport to pick her up. Then Aaron and Katherine drove to NW Arkansas and met Olivia and the friend, finally arriving home around 3:45 a.m. It was a crazy adventure, but we sure enjoyed having her smile and her music under our roof again.
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