Journal of a Living Lady #90

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

Just got home from having chemotherapy…not the rough kind I was previously on, but a kinder one that strengthens the deteriorating bones. There are some side-effects, but they are tolerable.  I also received prescriptions for no less than thirteen drugs to treat everything from sinus to anemia.

 

Last Saturday I went to a local health fair only because Buddy wouldn’t go unless I did. He skipped the mammogram and I declined the PSA exam. Otherwise, we got the same tests. When the results came back, his blood report was perfect. Not a single component was out of range. He was as euphoric as a child with straight A’s on his report card.

 

I nervously tore open my envelope hoping for equally good news.  Alas. Over half of my lab results were flagged as abnormal.  When I asked my cancer doctor today what those lab results meant, she answered succinctly, “You are a sick lady.”

 

Hmm. What wisdom.

 

Lately I have been noticing an enlarged lesion at the end of my spine making it uncomfortable to sit.  My oncologist is sending me over the mountain in the morning to see the radiologist. I have had radiation in the sacral area twice. Since there are limits to the number of times a body part can be radiated, I may get to live the rest of my life standing up.

 

Cancer is such an inconvenience. I already had plans for tomorrow. Lying on a cold x-ray table wasn’t one of them. Guess I should have learned Life Lesson #124 better,  “Expect the unexpected.”

 

One Sunday morning not long ago a restless little girl was in church with her mother..

 

"Mommy," she said, "can we leave now?"

 

"No" her mother replied. “The preacher is about to give his sermon.”

 

"Well, “she replied, “I think I have to throw up!"

 

The dubious mother responded nonchalantly, "Then go out the front door and around to the back of the church and throw up behind a bush."

 

After about sixty seconds, the little girl returned to her seat.

 

"Did you throw up?" Mom asked.

 

"Yes," the little girl replied.

 

"How could you have gone all the way to the back of the church and returned

so quickly?"

 

"I didn't have to go out of the church, Mommy. They have a box next to the

front door that says, 'For the Sick'."

 

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