So….it’s been a while.  It was a crazy but mostly good week.

I have now declared myself one third of the way through the Treatment Plan.  I happen to be pretty proud of getting this far relatively unscathed.

My sister in law arrived last Monday, just in time for Chemo Round Three on Tuesday.  That went fairly well, at least as well as having poison pumped into your veins can go.  I had already suggested that she work on the garden in the front of the house.  There were dead plants there from last year and weeds.  I just did not have the energy or desire to deal with it.  She LOVES to garden and is really into planting and landscaping.  A win-win!

Wednesday morning we went out to a local nursery to pick out plants.  It was our last chance to do this before the crappiness settled in later on that day.  I basically told her to get whatever plants she wanted. She had already cleared out the dead stuff and weeds on Tuesday while I rested at Spa Infusion.  We picked out a bunch of plants and she started digging that afternoon.

The pic above is the finished garden area.  She was thrilled to have a project to work on which happened to be one of her passions, thrilled to be out in the warm sunshine, and thrilled to be able to cool off in the pool.  In other words, her nine day here was like a vacation.  lol  She worked on the garden almost every day…we ended her stay with planting sunflower seeds in two large containers by the pool.

I will say this.  The anger and disappointment I felt with her at Christmas has completely disappeared.  I was almost sad to see her go today.  It was a giant relief to have someone here to just take care of things.

The icemaker broke in the fridge some time on Wednesday so I had to call the repair guy.  I also decided to have some other stuff repaired at the same time.  I explained all the repairs to her before I went to lie down on Thursday.  The repair guy showed up a little early so she closed the bedroom door (which I slept through) and then showed the guy what all needed to be fixed.  I didn’t get up until it was all done.

I joked to someone that I totally needed to get me a wife.  🙂  Yes, that is what it felt like I had.

We also made some stepping stones Saturday evening.

Yup, those are some shells from the beach trip last October.

I went back to work Monday and managed to work partial days this week.  Yesterday I decided we needed to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather so I bagged work and we went to some local gardens to wander around.  It felt good to get out and enjoy life after feeling like crap.  

All in all it was a very good week.  There were some negative things but I’m trying to look at the big picture and we’ll just leave it at that.

Next up will be radiation some time around the end of April.  Not exactly sure how that will go but I am trying to remain cautiously optimistic since chemo went rather well.  I am hoping for a break after radiation some time in June so I can get out of here for a long weekend and visit the folks up north.

But for now, I plan to enjoy a short break from treatment even if that only means sitting by the pool and reading a book.  🙂