I haven't blogged for a while because we haven't camped for a while. My husband's treatment for cancer has created a roller coaster existence with some highs of no pain, no appetite loss, good days, and clear scans and some lows of fatigue, frustration, skin rashes, shingles, cataracts, and bad scans. In between, at the top and bottom of the curves, we wait: for appointments, callbacks, test results, prescriptions to be filled, and on hold for all of the above. Anyone who has dealt with this insidious disease I'm sure has had similar experience. There's a reason why you're called a patient, because you have to be.
This is the second fall since the diagnosis. October has always been a special month to us. We were married in October 56 years ago, and although we couldn't afford a honeymoon at the time, we have taken a number of wonderful trips around our anniversary. Since we have retired, we have particularly enjoyed some fall camping trips. In 2015, we traveled through Tennessee to the Great Smokies, to Savannah and Skidaway Island, back to Stone Mountain for a Sisters on the Fly event. and back home through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The next year we traveled with his sister and brother-in-law to South Dakota and then Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, Little Big Horn in Montana, Devils Tower in Wyoming and back home through the Black hills. On that trip, we hit as many Lewis and Clark stops as we could. In 2017, we traveled through Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and immensely enjoyed the waterfalls, parks, and cruises that we found there.
This is the second fall since the diagnosis. October has always been a special month to us. We were married in October 56 years ago, and although we couldn't afford a honeymoon at the time, we have taken a number of wonderful trips around our anniversary. Since we have retired, we have particularly enjoyed some fall camping trips. In 2015, we traveled through Tennessee to the Great Smokies, to Savannah and Skidaway Island, back to Stone Mountain for a Sisters on the Fly event. and back home through Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The next year we traveled with his sister and brother-in-law to South Dakota and then Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, Little Big Horn in Montana, Devils Tower in Wyoming and back home through the Black hills. On that trip, we hit as many Lewis and Clark stops as we could. In 2017, we traveled through Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and immensely enjoyed the waterfalls, parks, and cruises that we found there.
Last summer, until the diagnosis, we fully intended to take another trip although we hadn't decided where. And then everything changed. It has been difficult emotionally and physically for both of us. But I just finished reading a book that I have found extremely helpful. E.A.T.: an Unconventional Decade in the Life of a Cancer Patient by Kathy Bero chronicles the author's experience with inflammatory breast cancer, which has a very low life expectancy. She was diagnosed in 2005, underwent grueling chemo, a mastectomy, and radiation, and is today cancer free. However she credits a great deal of her survival to meditation, reiki healing, and diet. I happened to be reading this book when a decision was made to put my husband's chemotherapy on hold because the drugs he has had to take for the side effects are defeating the purpose of the chemo.
It seems like the perfect time to launch an intense diet of cancer fighting foods, because unlike the drugs, we don't have to worry about side effects. And perhaps with a few weeks that are not consumed with medical appointments, we can gain renewal from our favorite season with some day trips and practicing the mindfulness that Kathy Bero also stresses. I have always been a person who spends a lot of time anticipating events in the future and not enough appreciating the here and now. Time to change that too.
It seems like the perfect time to launch an intense diet of cancer fighting foods, because unlike the drugs, we don't have to worry about side effects. And perhaps with a few weeks that are not consumed with medical appointments, we can gain renewal from our favorite season with some day trips and practicing the mindfulness that Kathy Bero also stresses. I have always been a person who spends a lot of time anticipating events in the future and not enough appreciating the here and now. Time to change that too.
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