Feeling Blessed this Veterans Day!

First off, Emily Walsh....wherever you are....email me at pkcorc30@otbnet.com..... I do not have an email address for you.

One week from today will be my last treatment day. Then on Tuesday, I will see Dr. Javle at 8 am and from there, we will head straight for Home Sweet Home! I am done with both of my treatments today and Pat is resting. We had such a lovely weekend and it just flew by.

Saturday morning, I met up with Deb Schonert to go to The Nutcracker Market where they had all kinds of gifts for Christmas....from food to baby clothes to ornaments....to wine.....jewelry....everything under the moon!  Pat went to a gun show at a George Brown Convention Center and we all met up later at the building site of Bruce and Deb's new home to be. We were just going to help them pick up sticks and clean up the ground some...beats sitting in a pop can (our camper) all day. That evening, they treated us to supper at a nice restaurant. It was 9 pm before we got home that night!!

 Sunday came, and we went to Holy Ghost Catholic Church and met up with a new couple who we were introduced by Shirley from Kemah, Tx. This church is twice the size of ours in Olney and we really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we met up and introduced ourselves in person and went to grab some brunch. They asked us back to their house and we visited for quite some time. Very interesting people and full of stories to tell. We enjoyed our visit and plan to have supper one night this week at their house.  We came back to the tin box about two and then got a text from Bruce and Deb to  eat pizza at their house. After finishing the evening with cake and ice cream, we were back "home" by 9 pm.

So, today (Monday), after my first "cooking" at MD Anderson (at 6 am), I told Pat I was beat and went back to bed to sleep 3 hours. I probably overdid it throughout the weekend but I feel wonderful now and my energy level is back up.

I asked the doctors if I could get the treatments in Kemah where MD Anderson has built a new facility and close to where Shirley lives but Dr. Das says the type of radiation with the precise positioning..placement...and beams of this machine makes it the only one in the US at this time. So...NOWHERE else in the United States has this machine......I am thankful for MD Anderson!!!

So, I have had 16 of the 26 treatments that I am getting. I feel better than I have before I had cancer. Why? I can only answer with one word....God.  I am having no side effects from treatment....no nausea....no tiredness like last time I had radiation....I just feel wonderful. When I am at MD Anderson, I run down the basement stairs to where I get radiated....then I run up the stairs where I go to my car. I could take the elevator but why....the energy inside me is crazy but I will take advantage of this energy and be grateful for it!!

So, on this Veterans Day, I thank God for my husband who is a veteran, who is my caretaker, and my best friend.   Cholangiocarcinoma may be planted in the middle of our life, but right now, we are just walking around it...ignoring it as much as possible, like holding hands walking down the sidewalk and letting go only to get past a pole and join hands again.  so we can enjoy every minute of every day, while we can. I try (as much as I can) to think about living and not dying.....God didn't give me this good of a place to be at and to feel as good as I do...to only waste the time boo hoo-ing over when am I going to die. Die.......who said anything about dying? :-)

One last thing, while we were in church yesterday, I felt as if the priest was talking just to me. He talked about life... this one on earth. And...about death. Yes,  we are leaving family and friends, but the priest compared it like this: right now, it is like one grain of sand in the dessert here on earth....but when you go to the "afterlife" it is like a dessert with a gazillion grains of sand....it is just SO much bigger than we can imagine as far as being the best life. I believe it is better than we can humanly imagine....but one thing I know for sure, that is where I want to be....somewhere so wonderful that God created for us. I know this isn't sounding the way I really wanted to present it....but I am not a priest.....so try to "get it" like I did.

So, in closing, I want to thank all of you who have sent cards, facebook messages, prayers,  texts....you ALL mean something to me. But most of all, I thank God...who, as he promised one day when this first started (while at Mayo Clinic) He is Right Beside Me!!  Do you know how good that feels? I do....and it is irreplaceable!

Hugs to you all. Happy Veterans Day to everyone!

Blessings!

Patty