Driving with Sunglasses

Have you ever noticed how often we have to temper the good things?  Like driving in the bright sunshine with sunglasses.  And now what keeps me from jumping up and down about the sunshine today is the reality that the beautiful sunshine shows up the fact that my windows need washing.  Oh well, Spring is coming.  And with it will come the chore of window washing.  Last Spring I just watched Jerry do the windows.  This year we can do them together (although when Jerry read this he said “What do you mean together?  It’s your turn to do them!”)… what a blessing:-)

Monday was my quarterly appointment at the University of Michigan.  I had had my CT scan over a week earlier so the disk was in my handbag. (Actually I had felt that I was carrying my future around in my handbag.)  When we arrived, it was off to the lab and then to X-ray and finally to my appointment to see Dr. C.  Every thing was CLEAR and she talked to us about future plans.  She is recommending that we have our next appointment on April 26. And at my two-year anniversary, in October, if all goes well, the port will be removed and I’ll be put on a 6 month schedule.  That’s good for many reasons… less exposure to radiation, it frees up the schedule, and points toward more normalcy.

There are a lot of emotions: happiness, gratefulness, relief, continued hope.  But all the feelings are tempered by the circumstances of friends who are going  (or have gone) through the difficult times of their treatments.    Gerry was such a help for our young family when our budget was tight.  Even though her circumstances were meager, she brought us fruit and vegetables from her garden and sewed for each one of us.  (She even made a green leisure suit for Jerry.  No, he doesn’t still have it.)  She lost her battle with cancer during the holiday season, after calling me faithfully to encourage me during her declining months.  Another friend called on Saturday to say that she had just found out her tumor was growing.  On Monday we took our friends, Don and Caroline for a second opinion with a neuro-oncologist at U of M.  They received mixed news.  This specialist agreed that their doctor in Fort Wayne was correct in his treatment plan.  He also said he would recommend some adjustments in that plan that could result in a better quality of life and perhaps an extension.  But I wanted to hear that there was some bold, new treatment that would cure the cancer.  There isn’t.  So that leads to other emotions: like disappointment, confusion,  frustration and TRUST.  In the end, it is a reminder that we are all in God’s hands and His plans are for our good.

The sunshine this week has also produced some unexpected results.  Usually my plans for Spring cleaning don’t surface before Spring.  But I’ve been thinking about what needs to be done and how to go about it.  But I can’t start anything until a Tuesday.  Why?  Whether we admit it or not, we all have some role models we follow in how we conduct our life.  Like Martha Stewart, Oprah, HGTV, Joyce Meyer, our parents, John Edwards, ESPN, Glen Beck,  our Pastor, Sarah Palin, teachers,  Tiger Woods, and the list goes on…  One of my role models is Mma Precious Ramotswe who is the traditionally built heroine of the NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY series by Alexander McCall Smith.  ”A Tuesday morning, thought Mma Ramotswe, is a good day on which to start work on a case.  This was largely because of the positioning of Tuesday: Monday was a difficult day for no other reason than that it was Monday, the start of another week, with the prospect of another weekend as distant as it ever could be.  Wednesday was halfway through the week, and a day on which, for some reason, there always seemed to be rather too much to do.  By Thursday one was getting tired, and then on Friday, with the end in sight, one was in no mood to begin anything.  That left Tuesday…”

Waiting for a Tuesday…

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