Blessings Abound....

Phil and I are amazed each day at the people and the angels that reach out to us and that touch our lives and bless us.  People we barely know have been more than amazing and then there are those that we have known for many years that just bless us beyond measure.  We try to stay positive and so far I think we have done a pretty good job.  The manifestation of the stress comes out in ways that we don't even realize at times and we have to step back and take a breath now and then.  Others say they don't know how we do it but when you are in the situation, you just start swimming when thrown in the pool of life and really don't think about how tired you are.  You just know that you have to get to the other side.  Little and big blessings never cease to amaze us and we are constantly humbled and grateful for God's grace and wonderful people in our lives.

Day seven of receiving shots for cell stimulation has yet to take Phil down.  He has for the most part worn a red cape and flown through with rave reviews and amazing results.  We have been stressing and anticipating all kinds of residual effects from the monster chemo for months.  We were told there may be vomiting, diarrhea, lack of energy, 24 hour care needed, high risk of infections, etc.  Oh, and let's not forget loss of hair.  The only real pain was deep bone pain and a few bouts of dizziness with some weariness. 

I was able to take a business trip in the middle of the stem cell shots in anticipation of the next round of time that I may have to take off.  After the next round of chemo and the stem cells replaced, that's when I anticipate having to take the bulk of my time off.  They have told us (they meaning, many different nurses and the doc) that the chemo will literally carve away the marrow in preparation for the new stem cells.  The one thing that we are pretty sure of is that Phil will loose his hair.  He is very sad about that but more sad about loosing his eyebrows.  He teased and said that he might glue on his fallen arm hairs for eyebrows.  While shopping in one of the gift shops at the hospital one day while Phil had one of his all day sessions, I happened upon eyebrow kits, yep, eyebrow kits.  Phil was so excited!  Since Phil played football for so long, he was a little afraid of the shape of his head without hair but add to the mix, the disappearance of eyebrows to break the fall, let's face it, a tree without leaves AND bark is pretty bare.  I still think he will be very handsome though.  Gotta love that athletic chin!  Besides, we got him some smokin hats just like Samuel Jackson wears and some colored shades to boot. 

Here's that chin I was referring to.  This was taken last week coming in from yardwork.

March Madness could not have come at a better time and with the success of the mighty Kentucky Cats Phil is a happy boy so far.  This will keep him occupied and his mind off of his ever present and pending cloud that he deals with on a daily basis.  He is more like his old self and has a great attitude.  Of course we can't be sure of anything but with the great results from everything else so far, we are anticipating excellent results.  Stay tuned!