9/12

Today is Saturday, 9/12.
Do you remember how you felt on 9/12/2001?
Do you remember the feeling of unity we all felt after the terrible attacks of 9/11? I wish we still had that.
Do you remember seeing the flag flying on every lawn and every house? I wish we still had that, too.
We will have our flags out (the American flag and our 'Don't Tread On Me' flag).
We had planned to be in Washington, DC for the 9/12 March on Washington, but this illness has derailed those plans. We will, however be there in spirit and we'll be watching on FoxNews as Glenn Beck covers the 'action'. The 9/12 Project is his project after all. You can go to the website --- www.the912project.com --- and join your voice to the hundreds of thousands already part of the group.

It has been an interesting week. Some really bad days this week with nausea and pain. I think we got it all figured out, tho, as far as what I need to do/not do, take/not take in order to feel okay most of the time. Having my Mom here with me during the week has been great, tho. Even though I know I drive her completely nuts, it's been nice to know someone is here helping me and caring about me.

Next week I get another chemo treatment - my 2nd of 3. I am anxious about what the side effects will be with the 2nd treatment. They say the side effects can grow with each treatment. So - not really looking forward to that --- but I am looking forward to having this tumor shrink and being just another milestone closer to getting better.

Mom and I built 3 construction paper chains this week. One chain is for my radiation treatments - only 20 left (I know that sounds like a lot - but I've already had 8 treatments). Another chain is for the chemo. Since I have chemo 24/7 in a pump, it's an everyday-until-October-13th chain. I have 32 days to go on that (including today). The last chain is for how many days until I can have a Dr. Pepper!!! I don't drink a lot of soda or a lot of caffeine...but I am craving a Dr. Pepper and carbonation isn't at all good on my stomach right now. On Ken's BDay (10/26) I am targeting to have a BIG Dr. Pepper!

We are also planning a couple of trips. I'd like to try to get down to Vegas during my 'recovery' period and see Terry Fator at the Mirage. I don't even care that it'll cost about $500 for rooms and tickets. Then we want to go down to Baton Rouge and take a side trip to Destin, FL in February or March. I could stand to hang out on the beach for a few days. If we can swing it, we might even try to get to Cancun!!!! Ken isn't a beach person...but he'd do it for me!!! And, we'll plan a trip to the Candian Rockies for the summer. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it!!!

Okay - on to College Football Saturday!!! Go Cougars! Geaux Tigers!