Grace Week

Just got back from a long walk with Sugar. With VBS this week for our family (Ben's last year attending and Becca and Ben both helping out), I went on several  long walks with friends. Today, as I noticed Sugar's tongue closing in on the sidewalk as she panted her way home, I realized I was fairing better than she was. Granted I didn't pull and try to chase everything that moved, but we kept a pretty good pace for the hour we were gone. It always feels good to be at this point where I've earned back the conditioning that I lose during my hard week of chemo. Yesterday I got my weekly herceptin infusion, and my blood count is retuning to a more acceptable level. So far, I haven't caught Nathan's cold, either, so it's been a good few days!

Last night at a dinner Walt and I attended, I put a bit of salad on my plate. Salads are one of the things I miss eating. By the end of my last chemo cycle, I discovered I could eat raw vegetables again. The bitter taste was gone. So, last night, the salad looked so good that I thought I'd try it. It tasted as good as it looked. While everyone else went back for seconds on ribs, I went back and loaded my plate with salad! Today, though, I woke up with a very strong metal taste in my mouth, thanks to the herceptin, so I'll have to wait a few days before salads will taste good again.

Some people have asked me if I'm dreading my next treatment. I tell them that I'm really trying to focus on today and not think about that. I feel so good now that I try to fill in as much as I can in these days. I really like this verse in Matthew:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:8

Why add to the burden of today by borrowing trouble for tomorrow? What joy is lost because I'm not living today? I've been calling this my "grace week" as it is a gift to feel this good, and I don't plan on wasting that by worrrying about tomorrow. From now until next Thursday, I'll focus on the new foods I can eat (yeah!), the long walks I can enjoy, the laughs I can experience, and the simple knowlege that when I go to sleep tonight, I'm going to wake up feeling good. Sweet, pure, lovely grace.