Day -2 Celebrations

Celebrations! They can be fun, exciting, a sense of achievement. They can also be quieter, a sense of accomplishment then moving on to a next step. Day minus 2 I experienced both.

Saturday, day minus 2. It all seems to be going so fast now. It took two months to prepare for this, getting ready mentally and physically. Preparing to move, planning who will take care of what, etc. Now it's day minus two. The last day of chemo. Today I received Melphalan (alkeran) the M chemo of BEAM. It's now done. BEAM is over. Let the celebration begin. Maybe quietly. It's a milestone if I never have to take chemo again, but my mind can't let that go just yet. It has become such a part of my life. All of the chemo I have been taking talk about side effects and Melphalan has all of the same side effects as the others I have mentioned previously. To me the scariest is the secondary malignancy, leukemia may occur. Yet I feel fine, like I could go to work. I do miss work. The doc says I really won't feel the effects of this chemo regimen BEAM until next week maybe starting around day+5 or so. Then I might not be feeling so well. But today is the end, hopefully. A cautious, quiet celebration.

Thankfully, a real celebration also occurred today. Norah had her first birthday party! Thanks to Anna who was visiting Katy and Mark in Chicago for the big day, she hooked us up to a website so we could watch and listen to the party from our hotel room. They placed the computer on the counter and we got to watch presents being opened. The best part to watch was Norah's first experience with cake. She was so cute. She made a mess but no too bad. She had more fun feeding the cake to her parents I think. Katy and Mark had a houseful of close friends to help celebrate. It was a great party. In her honor, Bev and I bought a small cupcake and ice cream and celebrated along with her here in our room. We toasted when Katy gave the toast. All things considered, since we couldn't be there, it was the next best thing. It was a great party, a wonderful celebration of one year of life already. Amazing how time flies.

My wish is that all of your upcoming celebrations be what you want them to be, loud and exciting or a sense of quiet accomplishment. Each day is given to us and we can't ever get it back. We should celebrate often!