THE MOST WONDERFUL SURPRISE VISIT :)

And that "most wonderful surprise visit" was from my Sister, Pam!!! She flew in from IN last Wednesday so she could go to Chemo #2 with me; and there's no way ... I mean it's impossible ... to tell y'all how wonderful it was to have her here. I'm telling ya that the Good Lord put her here in Davie at the most absolute perfect time!!! Her presence warmed my heart and kept a smile on my face :) Mr. Gene, of course, enjoyed seeing her as well :)

I gotta tell ya that she is absolutely gorgeous too!!! She's 2 years older than me, but she looks 10 years younger; and that not's an easy thing for a "little sister" to admit too (LOL). Anyway, this is the one and only picture I got of her while she was here ... she's on the left and my wonderful, life saving Sister-in-Law, Betsy is on the right, who I'm sure you will agree is also gorgeous :)

I was so happy that they met cuz they sure spent a lot of time on the phone together during the whole "brain thingie."

Betsy hand delivered some delicious homemade lasagna on that day, some homemade turkey soup and the most absolutely awesome "Scrapbook of Love and Support," which I will share in another post. You'll need to have your tissue ready when I get that one done :)

Round #2 of chemo was last Thursday and it took a whopping 5 hours. They were overloaded with gals fighting this wicked disease ... I've had the pleasure of sitting and visiting with some of the most precious souls you'd ever wanna meet during my last 2 treatments; and they truly try to accomodate the patient's family. In spite of the overload, they allowed Pam to stay with me the entire time. My chemo Nurse, Kathy, who is an angel here on Earth, just works her way around the "visiting folks" with a smile on her face :) Such a blessing!!!!

Pam got to stay till Sunday morning, so we had lots of time for visiting afterwards; and she took such good care of me!!!!!!!!!! She fixed us 2 delicious meals (chicken and rice ... tenderloin, mashed taters, green beans and fried apples), did the grocery shopping, drove me on some errands, took me back to Dr. T's office for that "dreaded N" shot and took me to pick out some scarves for this bald head of mine. Unfortunately, everyone in Davie was out shopping that day, so we were back home quite quickly. The economy is awful down here in FL, but I swear, you would think things were booming based on the crowds that were out.

Now for the bestest news ... she says she'll be back; and I am already looking sooooooooooo forward to it :)

On the medical front, it's probably safe to say that chemo kicked my butt the 2nd time around. It's strange really cuz it seems like it puts you on a roller coaster ride heading only downwards. It starts out really slow and then "wham bam," you're going at the speed of lightening. At least that's the way my body feels. The main issue I think would have to go to fatigue ... OMG, I've never been sooooooo tired in my whole life. That probably wouldn't be so much of an issue if it hadn't been for the steroids for the "brain swelling" trying it's dangest to counteract it all, so rest hasn't come easy. The "plumbing" seems to wanna shut down completely too (so sorry for that visual); and a couple of days ago, I started getting some pretty uncomfortable sores in my mouth ... way deep inside near my throat ... "Rootbeer Floats" help (LOL). The nausea has been much, much better than Round #1. They think that was due to the brain tumor. I did have to pull out my Compazine Script yesterday; but that's OK cuz that stuff really does work :) I'm also having a lot of discomfort in my knees, legs and hips, which I believe is from the "N" shot (can't remember the whole name) that they give you the 2nd day to build back up your white blood cells.

I went down to Miami for my follow up visit with the "amazing" Dr. Wolf on Monday (thank you Paul for driving me!!!!); and I have to say it was the strangest Doctor's visit I've ever been to. He walked in, asked how I was feeling, took the staples out (ouch) and then sat down to look at my chart. He was not a happy camper cuz his girls had not ordered a CT Scan, so within a matter of just a few moments, I was whisked off to that machine and back in seeing him. He walked in, said the "ventricles" (whatever the heck they are) looked good, that I could stop taking the medicine straight from hell (thank you Jesus), not to get my head wet till the next day and that he'd see me in 3 weeks for a MRI and visit. He proceeded to stand up, took my hand and said "take care sweetie." (LOL) His front desk couldn't get the MRI coordinated with him "being in the building" until November 3rd, which was AOK with me :)

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. Sure hope all is well with all of you and we continue to thank you for your love, support and prayers :)

"And now these three remain: faith, hoPe and love, but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)