Maalox to the rescue!

Boy, the heartburn has been bad these past few days. Even when I don't eat anything, it's there. And I am really noticing changes in taste recently. Water even tastes weird, which makes drinking a lot of it post-chemo a hard thing to do. Salt is about the only thing that tastes good to me right now....how sad is that?

Yesterday's chemo session was fairly uneventful. It was a very busy Monday, even on the tollway. I walked into the office one minute past my appointment time, which is unusual for me (especially when I am driving by myself!). It took a bit to be called back for my blood draw, but I got in a chair not too long after that. All the chairs were filled quickly, and most everyone was there for a longer time period. I leafed through one magazine, napped a bit, and spent the rest of the time just listening to the stories that were being told around me. There is one older lady who is a native Houstonian; she loves to tell stories about when there was no I-45, etc. Her latest recommendation is that we "youngsters" (ha!) all need to be enlightened in the "olden days", so she told us we have to go to the Heights to the Yale Street Pharmacy and have lunch at the Grill there. It's news to me, but then again, I'm not even a native Texan, let alone a native Houstonian. I couldn't even begin to figure out how to get there without Mapquest, but I may just take her up on it one of these days. Sounds like fun.

Something else that struck me yesterday was the looks on the faces of the people who were coming in for the first time. I wonder if Michael and I looked as shell shocked on my first chemo day. I bet we did. How long ago that day seems, even though it was only about 4 months ago. The new people are always taken to a separate room for their first time, so it's pretty easy to tell who is new. Yesterday there were a number of newbies, and for some reason their facial expressions caught my eye. They all had very stressed and worried faces, very much in tune with the next path they were undertaking. It gave me a chance to pray for them, and next time, I can look for them in the big room to hopefully spread some encouragement.

So, today I am fighting reflux and fatique. Last night was a rather sleepless one. And no matter how hard I try, I can't motivate myself to do much that is productive while I am up in the wee hours of the morning. I did check some of the girls' schoolwork; I also looked through a cookbook for some easy dinner ideas. But the clock said 4 AM, and my brain said "I wanna go to sleep." Unfortunately my body wasn't cooperating!

We have a wonderful dinner waiting for us tonight, thanks to a sweet lady from our church. Many thanks again to all of you who still shower us with prayers, food and encouragement. You are such faithful friends, and we love you all.

Yesterday, while I was in my recliner, resting with my eyes closed, listening to the voices around me, I heard one lady conversing with an older man. This lady has been coming much longer than I, and I see her nearly every Monday, but I don't really "know" her. But I learned there is another sister in the Lord there on Mondays, as I listened to her quote Scripture to this man - "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."- Isaiah 53:5

posted by Kim @ 3:17 PM