post chemo 1 day 12 - a good day

Nov 20 2010

Katherine left today. It was SO GREAT to have her here! I can’t believe I didn’t have the energy to ride along to take her to the airport! It seemed marginally “okay” for Evan to take her without me UNTIL they went out of the driveway. Bummer.

On the positive side, I am on the verge of stringing together 2 good days in a row…well, starting the clock mid day Fri through Sat evening is technically 1½ days and that’s close enough to 2 days. My friend Joan came by today with the cutest brimmed cap in pastel plaids and a tiramisu cake. How fun is that!! And my nap was a solid sleep, not restless at all. I’m declaring this a good day.

The paragraphs below are excerpts from an email I sent to friends of ours and Ken and Katy’s. So if it begins to sound familiar, you were on that earlier email and might as well skip the rest of this blog.  

Ken and Katy jetted home safely and Katy is settling in to rehab. Ken was so smart to add the medical transport benefit on his BCBSTN coverage years ago when the opportunity was offered. I encourage all of us to learn from Ken and investigate getting this benefit for domestic situations. I have always gotten "medivac" insurance when we tour in Europe. I haven't considering adding it when I just go to visit Katherine in Switzerland. I will now!!! And I'll get it for domestic travel. Good grief, this kind of thing could happen to us driving through Pecos TX!!!!  I worked for BC many years and never worked a medical transport claim so it was really interesting for me to get to set Katy's transport in motion. And I'm here to tell you that it is a piece of cake!!! It is probably that this benefit is not a BC or Aetna benefit per se and I’ll end up with AFLAC or something like that. I’ll let you know.

There is another thing we learned during this Katy’s stroke and my chemo ordeals. It is important to continue collecting and nurturing good friends as we get "older." You never know when you will get to share another opportunity for friendship and to make more memories. I wasn't very useful this time because my chemo started right after Katy's stroke. Evan did the "heavy lifting" and shuttled back and forth between Katy at Baylor Plano InPatient and me in Baylor OutPatient Oncology, which are just across the walkway from each other. Ken managed extremely well for a week and was really exhausted by the time Kirsten got here. That's another thing we learned from this event. Bring in the young people when you get too tired. We even put poor Kirsten on a rickety trundle bed in the sewing room and she coped well. I had a bad 1st week of chemo and it was good to have our daughter Katherine come home to review my medical situation and "take charge." It was like living in a dorm for a night or two and you know what....it was just fine!!!  Except for me, everybody took care of themselves. We didn't run out of coffee or cereal or bourbon. And it gave us an opportunity to be with Kirsten again. We haven't gotten to be with her as an adult. Great young woman!!!

So the message here is that it is great to have friends and we have been privileged to love and share with Ken and Katy again. It is the love that counts, not trundle beds or serve yourself menus or overly excited poodles under foot.