alice is in great shape today

i have got to make her a Tshirt with “i (heart) chemo” – she feels stronger and full of energy, though i should say the steroids she’s getting intravenously do have their part in that

she was up early (as she usually is) – at 2:30am – (that’s more than early, isn’t it ?) – spent a few hours on internet and went for a walk around the floor – patients are encouraged to walk regularly to prevent embolisms – alice is good about this, and of course feeling renewed strength also encourages her to work her regenerating muscles… at the end of our last walk i told her I was starting to get tired ! 🙂

alice tried bribing the head nurse with tootsie roll lollipops today : we’re in the smallest room on the floor – and although it’s still nice it just has a small window (that looks onto a construction site) it would be nice if we could get some more natural light… so hopefully when another room frees up we’ll be able to change… until then alice will continue leaving tootsie roll lollies in the head nurse’s office 🙂

we have been meeting some other patients on the floor – most are battling against cancer – one man we met this morning just found out by chance he had cancer and is lucky he can fight against it early — but typically for this kind of patient chemotherapy is much harder to deal with – it’s like going from a pain level 0 to 10, mentally and physically

alice has been fighting for this treatment for a year now – and she has gone through so much pain with this illness that having this chemo just feels like the most exciting long anticipated hurdle. the kind of hurdle where you pull your sleeves up saying “bring it on !”

and it’s like going from a 10 she wondered if she’d ever come out of, to a 2-3 that’ll pull her through to 0…. of course in the coming days the pain and discomfort will probably increase… but it’s just a rite of passage for alice

so she’s full of energy, and her spirits are high – and the nurses here are just fantastic – and come in regularly to check on her and talk

during alice’s last walk a physical therapist introduced himself and suggested helping alice – he’s going to come by the room tomorrow – apparently they are just starting now this new physical therapy program that she’ll be able to benefit from – more on that tomorrow

thanks again for all your wonderful messages… for alice and for me too – i feel very cared for and very grateful for your words

thank you