Reality Hits You Hard.

This is day 3 of chemo round 1.  After returning home on day 1, I felt tired and went to bed early.  At 2 a.m. I woke up feeling very nauseous, but did not throw up.  I came back to bed and broke out in a cold sweat feeling awful.  Woke up Scott, who took great care of me.  Luckily we had filled the "just in case" meds.  They worked great.  They cause drowsiness, so I slept well the rest of the night, and have rested a lot since.  I've continued with the meds every 6 hours to avoid any more incidents.  Scott stayed in town and worked from home to make sure all was fine.  Last night was great, so he was able to attend his out-of-town meeting today.

So far, chemo feels like the first trimester of pregnancy or the flu.  It may be more similar to pregnancy, since the duration is 9 months, the first 4 months are the hardest, and in the end, you get a new life that's bald and hopefully cute.  My mouth gets dry.  Eating crackers is not the solution to keeping something on my stomach--that was awful, like a wad of chalk in your mouth.  Nothing sounds good to eat, but I'm making myself eat healthy foods.  We set up a dinner plan on Monday, during our weekly Family Night.  Courtney cooks on Tuesdays, Scott Jr. on Wednesdays, and Heath on Thursdays.  They can't purchase take-out unless they spend their own money, so this will be a great opportunity for them to develop some new skills.  Courtney started it out well last night.

As I begin to experience how the chemo will affect me, I'm realizing this blog needs some humor in it as well.  Laughter is so helpful in relieving stress and anxiety.  We now use a phrase at home a lot, "Reality hits you hard, bro."  If you need some humor in your day, I'm posting two links, the original, and the songified version.  We were using this phrase early Tuesday morning.  Original Interview    extended version made into song.

My friend Tammy shared this BYU Devotional address given in March of this year.  

What Happens When Life Gets One Degree Colder?  text version, or Video version.

It's 28 minutes long, but inspiring when you have time.  The text version can go faster.  I download things to my phone and play them at 1 1/2 speed so I can listen to more in shorter amounts of time.  Thank you for your prayers for our family.  They are strongly felt.  We feel God's arms warmly wrapped around us as He supports us through this new adventure.