Great Last Week/Chemo Number 5

Last week was a fabulous getaway for me.  After sightseeing on Monday and Tuesday in D.C., I spent Wednesday at the hotel mainly lounging around the pool and being lazy in the hotel room.  On Thursday Ken and I rented a car and drove to Richmond where Ken's brother Bill and his wife Gale live.  On Friday morning we drove east to their new river house which is on one of the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay (sorry, Bill, can't remember the name of the river!!).  Their house is in an area called Moon, Virginia, and most of the houses have names associated with moons.  Bill and Gale's house has been christened "Casa de Luna," and it's stunning.  I could so see myself retiring to a place/home like that!!  Ken and I were spoiled and  treated like royalty during our stay.  Thanks, Bill and Gale.  We flew out of Baltimore on Saturday (after a two-hour delay and four de-icings sitting on the tarmac) and finally got home a little after 5:00 on Saturday. 

Today I had Chemo Treatment #5.  The Halloween spooks and goblins must have already been in action this morning because the clinic was packed out.  I had to wait over two hours before my treatment even began.   Dr. Bondly decided to cut my Taxotere (new drug beginning with this treatment) by 20% to hopefully prevent any low blood counts.  She says most people do not have low counts with Taxotere, so hopefully I'll not be the exception to that rule!!   Complications notwithstanding, my next treatment will be Monday, November 21. 

Thanks to my sister-in-law Ann who went to the treatment with me.   Family and friends are so special, and I'm blessed to have so many of both "loving me through this."  For anyone who missed Martina McBride's video that makes me tear up everytime I see and hear it, here's the link again: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxIt70j_SPk

Carla Tigner, who's in the video with her dad, is a survivor here in Trussville who I've met since I began this journey.  Sometimes when we face adversity, especially something like cancer, we tend to dwell on all the negatives of a diagnosis and forget the blessings that come our way because of the situation we find ourselves in.  I count new friendships that I've made, like Carla's and Susan Morris, who was finishing her chemo for TN breast cancer just as I was beginning, to be a blessing that, were it not for my cancer, I probably would not be enjoying.  Thank you, God, for friendshiips, new and old, and family who are loving me through this cancer journey!!

Game Week of the Century is finally here.  Big game on Saturday.  Unless something changes, Ken and I are going to the game on Saturday at Bryant-Denny.  Pray for us as our seats are across the aisle from the visitor's section in the lower bowl.  I don't know what will be worse:  The LSU band sitting there (like the AU band last year) or crazy, drunk Cajuns.  Somebody suggested that we be sure to take raincoats in case drinks get thrown!!! 

Bill and Gale, wish you were coming down for the game.   (For most of you that don't know this, Bill is a LSU graduate, so there's a lot of good-natured teasing within the Cushing clan when LSU plays Bama or Auburn.  More often than not, LSU gets the advantage, at least lately, but we're hoping that trend changes on Saturday.

One last thing:  While sightseeing at the original Smithsonian (now called the Castle) last week, I stumbled across this, which I'm taking as a good luck charm for this week's game:

ROLL TIDE

Rachel