The First Day of the Rest of My Life – Laughter – October 2, 2019 – Day 32

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. - Erma Bombeck

Day 32 is now just about history. It was a somewhat busy day. Radiation was first. Then a meeting with the radiation doc and his nurse. Then off to a chemotherapy session across the lobby. Result? All good.

Carolyn drove in from West Virginia to sit with me through the chemo session. I appreciate her taking/making the time to make that long trip over the 7 mountains and through the 7 valleys to be there. She brought some food for both of us and that was not only thoughtful but very helpful. I was actually getting hungry.

But, most of all, just having her presence is comforting. The infusion of the chemicals/drugs into my system doesn't hurt. I actually don't feel, taste or smell anything. I, of course, have extreme confidence that it is providing a positive curing process and not doing any harm to my already sick body.

Sitting not too far from me was a fellow we sat near a couple weeks ago. His wife was with him. Jerry the patient and Betty, his supportive wife, are both nurses themselves. Unfortunately, Jerry is not responding well to his chemotherapy. He had a very bad reaction to it so they had to take him off chemotherapy and focus on just using radiation at this time. I guess they were basically flushing his system to stop the reaction.

But, sitting on the other side of one of the nurses' stations were Tina Kibler and Deborah Wolford. Carolyn and I met these two women at my first Chemo session. They had wonderful attitudes. Tina, the patient, is a 75-year-old with a really interesting back story. She is dealing with breast cancer. Tina truly believes laughter is the best medicine with a solid positive attitude and outlook on life. Deborah is her daughter.

The two of them kept everyone in stitches in our little cluster during that first chemo session I had. I had hoped that we'd reconnect . . . and we did. Unfortunately, we had a nurses' station between us so we had to converse over the sink. But, we all had fun and laughed heartily.

The first time we met, Deborah turned Carolyn onto an interesting word game app for her phone. Carolyn loves word games and has been addicted to Words with Friends for at least a couple of years. But, this new game has really grabbed her. She has become addicted to this new game.

The bottom line is, that Tina, Deborah, Carolyn and I had an enjoyable experience dealing with the very serious process of having chemotherapy. Thanks, Tina and Deborah. And, Jerry and Betty, we are sending positive thoughts and prayers your way.

Live free and be happy. EH