Real Food -

Yeah! Hurray! We did it!

I'm talking about eating real food.....an entire meal. Now it doesn't sound like much, unless the last time you ate a complete meal was last July. In my head, this was the marker that would indicate I was really on the mend.

It actually happened last Friday at lunch. Faith said let's get something to eat. All the way to the restaurant I'm thinking what can I order.....it's too late for breakfast so oatmeal is out. So I had a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy and corn. And I ate most of it! Now it didn't taste right, but it wasn't bad. I thought it was unusual to have beef gravy on turkey, but with my taste buds, it didn't matter.

I was nervous that this might be a fluke so we tried it again on Saturday. I got away with ham and eggs and hash browns. I've eaten two meals a day ever since. We are on our way. Just don't pass the desert. I don't taste sugar and most sweets that don't taste sweet don't taste very good.

We saw the doctor on Monday. Overall it was a very positive day. Specifically, there's no surgery on the table and we've moved to a long range appointment schedule to monitor our progress. The doctor says he relies on what he can see and feel and he liked what he saw and felt. The radiation doctor likes PET scans. So, between the two, we think we have good sentries at the gate.

This doctor says the healing starts now. I told him it's been slow and God didn't give me a lot of patience. He said he didn't have a lot of patience either....except for people like me. Imagine that. An oncologist with a sense of humor.

He also said the healing was a really a process. I think that's a fancy medical term for slow. I've learned that this healing process is not on a continuum. It's been more like two steps forward and one step back, something I found frustrating until I learned to expect it.

We won't see this doctor again until after the PET scan. And we know the cancer treatments are over until then. In addition to the scans, we also will get chest xrays and some kind of thyroid test on a regular basis. This is all good news.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. The power of prayer is stupendous.