"Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'?"

For those of you not familiar with the phrase, imagine a family coming out of a storm shelter to view the wreckage of a tornado and dad says, "Don't see anything the matter here, Ma. Ain't it grand the wind stopped blowin'?."

This is sort of how I have been feeling the last two days about Nanc's condition. The treatments are over for another 10 days, no more trips to the hospital, no hydrations, no needles, no major nausea - basically the wind has stopped blowing.

However, there are still certain effects of the chemo that would be easy to overlook. Let's see, there's the neuropathy, the hair loss, the totally wacked out taste buds, the fatigue, the inconsistent bodily functions and more if I could take the time to catalog them all. It would be easy to let up on our attention to these and to what we need to do in order to lessen them for now and for future treatments just because she's feeling a little better.

Diet, exercise, hydration with electrolytes, and lots of rest over the next ten days and the next round will be that much easier. Especially if combine these things with everything we've learned over the last 5 weeks.

It's all about little steps. We're not talking about a 14 oz. porterhouse, mashed potatoes and cheesecake followed by a 5 mile hike. It's enough that the oatmeal tasted good, (she ate a whole bowl along with a couple of slices of a fresh peach,) walked half way around the block, and did it all without feeling like she was going to puke. And she was able to actually put in a few hours of work.

It's the little things that give hope - that make her feel like "Hey, maybe I can get through this thing!"

xoxo