Two chemo agents and one drug infusion took 5.5 hours altogether. You wonder how a body can take that much of an assault. Another targeted drug therapy this afternoon should conclude the first treatment out of six. Lots have gone in to kill cancer cells. Along with that, all this poison also kills the good cells as well. So to combat that, all sorts of other drugs have been injected, swallowed and outfitted i.e. anti-nausea, immune boosters, steroids, ice gloves etc.
Still leaving the ward after a long day at the BC cancer centre, we couldn’t help but feel relieved to complete chemo session one. I had to take a sleeping pill in the middle of the night to combat the steroid effect but otherwise, I feel relatively unscathed. Yes, side effects are supposed to start a little later. But what’s the point of projecting the worst really? 😉
I received this beautiful poem which is so apt for our teamwork going through this journey of cancer treatment with Håkan. How can I ever thank you enough, my sweetest, the most devoted and quiet warrior in you who carries with you such wisdom, patience and ever-growing (if this was possible at all, yet it still is) love and care? I will fight this fight thanks to you, because of you first and foremost, then the rest of us. Thanks, dear Meg for sending this poem to us. You know us so well!
Two in a boat
There are two of them
In a boat,
One reads the stars,
The other finds the way through the storms,
When one navigates the stars,
The other leads through the storms,
And then, at the end, at the very end,
They’ll remember
The sea was blue.
Reiner Kunze (Translation by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels)
