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And so it begins~


I sit in the second floor waiting room at Dana Farber Cancer Institute while Bruce is taken to a room to pee in a cup and have some blood drawn.  He’d already peed in a jug for 24 hours and dropped that off to be analyzed for funky monoclonal plasma cells. They take his "vital signs"--height, weight, blood pressure.

He’s back soon and we get coffee and ride the crowded elevator to meet our nurse practitioner Mary, who will tell us what to expect of this journey into cancer land. Whenever anyone gets off the elevator, I check the floor chart to see what his or her cancer might be. Awful names! We get off at “hematological carcinomas.” Seventh floor.

The end result of today’s visit is Bruce’s first shot of Velcade and his first two oral chemo pills: Revlimid and Dexamethasone--the RVD chemo treatment that makes Multiple Myeloma quake—we hope.

“One pill makes you happy and one pill makes you small. One pill…something, something…” I can’t help singing this. I’m hoping B’s pills provide the 1,2,3 punch we’ve been told they will to knock down this cancer.

And at 1:15 B is seated in the infusion chair and his treatment begins—the first four-week cycle of a total of 15 cycles. 

I never wear much jewelry, some days none at all. But today while preparing for the first chemo visit to Dana Farber—Day 1-Cycle 1—I put on earrings that were my mother’s--the ones my daughter wore on her wedding day for “something borrowed”; an opal ring that was my grandmother’s; a birthstone ring that Bruce gave me, and a necklace that my son Dave gave me for Mother’s Day. I wouldn’t be alone. WE wouldn’t be alone.
And I brought this journal. Not sure whose it was. My father’s?

It was empty. Now it’s not.


Comments

Diane H. said…
Thank you for sharing the journey you both are making, a journey so many have been on before.
Diane
Ruth L.~ said…
So very many are on this journey...and yet, it is still a solitary one in many ways.
Unknown said…
My thoughts and PRAYERS are with you BOTH. As difficult as this may be for you Ruth, THANK YOU for sharing this journey.
I agree with Sue, unless you have experienced such a journey first hand you can not completely understand but know your friends are with you too!
Godspeed...
Ruth L.~ said…
Thank you, Nancy. It's less solitary when others share the journey in friendship...and I appreciate that. Hugs.
Unknown said…
I know you give Bruce strength and purpose, Ruth. May he live to 95 and take you dancing on his birthday!
Beth Camp said…
You both are beginning a journey that will require courage and stamina. May you be blessed with both. Thank you for bringing us all along with you. I'm hoping you have a good outcome.
Bob Sanchez said…
I will be thinking of both of you, Ruth.
Ruth L.~ said…
Thank, you Gary, Beth, and Bob... I appreciate your riding with me on this journey...or at least reading my views! Makes a difference to be heard.

Gary, When Bruce is 95, I'll be 86 and more than happy to shuffle with him on the dance floor.

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