Took a day off blogging.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, I will have the odd day here and there for whatever reason won't be writing.  Please don't worry about me when this happens.  All is as good as it can be at the moment.

Had quite a busy day today.  Up very early this morning because my pump alarm went off at 5 AM .  This thing is not very reliable. You certainly could not use it as a wake up alarm that's for sure.  Once it goes off you have to get up and disconnect as the stuff they are feeding me hardens like glue if you let it sit.  Nice eh?  Imagine what it is doing to my guts.  It is my short term goal to get off of the thing entirely. Each day I am adding more foods by mouth.  Today, I even went to the Dairy Queen for my first ever Blizzard.  Got about half way through the Blizzard and said to Kelli, " Oh my goodness, Tommy is coming to beat on me in 45 minutes.  This is not good."  Tommy did come and he did give me my usual pounding which feels strangely good.  The good news is is that I have coughed up very little today and he says my lungs are sounding much clearer, even from yesterday!  I can feel this myself.

Saw the oncologist this morning and together we decided to give me one more week to get back on my feet before they hit me with chemo.  Tentatively I will get my first dose on Tuesday depending on how my blood work comes back next week.  Up to that time they have me busy.  I have to have a Mugo test on my heart before we start later this week.  It is just a baseline to see how your heart is functioning as one of the drugs they will be giving me is potentially dangerous to your heart.  I think these drugs are potentially dangerous to every part of you.  They always tell you the horrible things and I listen with one ear because I really have no choice here anyways.  I'm not quite as cheeky now about thinking to myself "oh that won't happen to me."  I have been humbled.  It took a bit but I have been humbled.  I can just hear some of you actually chuckling, perhaps even belly laughing at this possibility.  But it is TRUE.

On Thursday I go in to see the nurse practitioner who has been assigned to me and will follow me and my symptoms on a weekly basis and then she will send me for "hydration".  They have found that keeping patients well hydrated helps with this particular regime they plan to put me on.  I am giving this a shot for sure but must confess there are many moments when I question am I going for "quantity, or quality of life here."  Sure they may be able to prolong my life, hopefully put me into some sort of remission or  more hopefully cure me," but at what cost?  Guess that is just a chance you take.  I have to believe that I will get a shot at both here or I would not be doing this.  This go round will be different than last.  Chemo intravenously once every three weeks and pill form chemo every day.  A little daunting to be sure!

On a more uplifting note, did my Nose Hill Loop today and it was much better than yesterday.  Won $5.00 on the Stanley Cup last night (thanks Kath), the Camray survived it's broken timing belt (lucky Kelli because losing your timing belt in MOST models of toyota means losing your engine as well.  Fortunately for us this particular year of Camray had a slightly different configuration and the car was salvageable.

Finally, I have loved and enjoyed some great sayings and quotes from many of you over the past couple of days.  I do love quotes and often used them on my kids at school.

This one is from my friend Wendy who is currently riding across America from LA to Boston with her husband Barry.  They have covered over 2000 miles and are going strong although reading their blogs has not inspired me to ever want to tackle it.  It sounds BRUTAL.

"There is strength in keeping everything together when everyone expects you to fall apart."
I am not falling apart.  In fact in a meeting Kelli had with my oncologist he told her "Your Mom's a farmer".  I have no idea what that means but it was said as a compliment so I'll take it that way!