Shaving my head and . . . . another postponed treatment

I spent the week of July 4th in Utah visiting my daughter, grandson and sisters. What an exhausting trip. My son Cris and I took the train from Sacramento to Salt Lake City. About a 14hour ride that was very uneventful. The train is relaxing but you do need a good supply of reading material or DVD's to watch. No WiFi during your ride.

This past week made me remember how important family is. It is sad that we so often take each other for granted as we travel through our daily routines. Family is there when we need them and sometimes when we don't want them to be. Time passes quickly and one day you have cancer (or some other eye opener), you suddenly are forced to slow down and really remember what is important.

I completely enjoyed spending time with my sisters last week. Recanting our childhood memories is always enjoyable. Our childhood was HORRIBLE but we always had one other and made good of what very little we had.

My nieces have all grown up and each can tell me about how much fun they had with their “Aunt D”. I wish I had been there more. Each have grown into such wonderful young ladies; so different from each other. Just like sisters and cousins should be.

Two of my beautiful nieces

We had a BBQ to celebrate life and shave my head. I was completely done with the constant hair loss. What a mess. This bald head is much easier than the stringy mess I had begun to hide. We all bonded over tears as my son shaved my head and again as we made keepsake lockets from my hair.

Yesterday, I enjoyed the cool morning on my patio. It supplied me with a relaxing place to enjoy coffee, read the paper and capture my thoughts about the past week. I had been a little melancholy with the anticipation of chemo today, so relaxing was a good item to have on the list. Robert was golfing with his friends and I would meet up with them later for some tapas at a beer garden in Sacramento.

I received a call this morning advising me that my blood counts were once again too low to have chemo. In addition to my white count being too low, I now have a low red blood cell counts.  I tire very easily and naps have become a normal daily routine. My body does not seem to recover quickly in the two week time span between treatments. Chemo is rescheduled for next Monday and I will be discussing options to boost my recovery rate. There are a couple different shots I can have that will help cell growth. Not looking forward to the possibility of having to take this route. The side effects are bone and muscle pain, something I am already dealing with. 

REMINDER: This is just a bump in the road of life and all will be well very soon.