Chemo Day, Parenting & TNL

Thanks to ABC (I'm not making this up, those are really her initials!) for joining me at the last moment and keeping me company! And thanks to JA who picked me up, drove me around, & took me home. You guys (gals) are great!

I'm beginning to get the hang of this chemo thing. Today is a "short" day. Only the "vanilla bean" chemo. But I now know that even a short day takes 2-3 hours. So I know that there is no way I'm leaving the hospital before 12:00. So I'm not disappointed.

And I did get my massage today (yay!), from the same woman (also a swimming instructor!) who gave me such an amazing massage the last time (2 weeks ago), only this time it wasn't as penetrating. (how's that for a run-on sentance!?) I'm not sure what she did differently. Still, it was a nice massage. And I felt better than I did before. I am forever in search of relief from all the tension in my shoulders!

Today, a friend of mine (who is also a Young, Religious, Anglo Cancer Patient) -- there aren't so many of us, thank God), was there too. I really enjoy spending time with her. I'm trying to convince her to change her chemo day to Tuesdays.....

Anyway, it was really nice (in that wierd, surrealistic, cancer-ward way) to be hanging out together.

Want to know how small this world is? One of the wonderful massage volunteers, who usually gives me a massage, is also ABC's son's ganenet (kindergarden teacher). And ABC also has three different connection to my fellow YRACP friend. How "Jewish Geography" is that?

[I just noticed that if you rearrange the letters in YRACP, they spell: CRAPY -- which pretty much sums up the cancer situation, albeit a bit crudely. Sorry about that. The letters just jumped out at me! What can I say? I've loved solving anagrams since I was a kid.]

:-}

Anyway, I got home and went straight to bed. (did I mention that I have a cold, again!)

I slept for 2 1/2 hours! How great is that!? Slowly, slowly, I emerged from the depths of my slumber.....

I got up and did some things around the house. We (Moshe, my mom & I) had plans to go out to TNL (more on that below).

Moshe was already on his way home, to pick us up, when my mom told me that my son just asked her why it's taking so much longer for me to get better this time.

That stopped me in my tracks.

I went into MD's room, and sat down to talk with him. We talked about cancer in general (how bad cells "eat up" good cells) and our body's immune system (which he's learning about in school), and about the cancer I had before (DCIS), and about the cancer I have now (breast cancer that has spread to my bones, liver & lungs) .... and we talked about living with cancer. It was a really good conversation. Afterwards, he gave me a kiss and thanked me for explaining it to him.

Then he bounced off to work on a power-point presentation about the mishnah that he is learning. Life goes on..... (btw, he is doing an AMAZING job on this project. I am impressed with my son! He figured out how to do everything on his own.)

Then Moshe arrived, and we left. Despite the traffic, we actually made it on time to pick up our tickets and get great seats!

TNL is "Tuesday Night Live" -- a new initiative from Arutz Sheva Israel National TV and The Ohr Olam Center for Biblical Zionism. It's an English TV show, aired on the internet, celebrating Israel and Judaism.

I wasn't sure what exactly it would be, but it sounded like fun. And it was!

The hosts, Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, are two long-time friends, who have a good time together on stage, talking Torah, and Zionism, and Am Yisrael.

They asked for audience participation and I volunteered. I know what I wanted to say -- about why I made Aliyah, but I'm not quite sure that what came out was coherent. Oh well.

(maybe tomorrow I'll post about why I made Aliyah.....)

Meanwhile, they are taping every other week, tickets are free, and the evening is fun!

Bring a date!


Please daven or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA