March 5, 2007

This has been a roller coaster week with my health and our family’s transitions! At my chemo appointment on Monday I talked with a nurse about some strange symptoms I was having, and they decided to do some testing. Turns out, I had a urinary tract infection and was put on Bactrim for 5 days. I don’t normally get these kinds of infections, so I’m not sure why it happened now. It’s so hard to tell if symptoms come from chemo or something else when you feel bad all of the time. The good news is that my UTI symptoms went away immediately after starting the antibiotic! The pain in my neck and shoulder has gotten better with treatment, but I still need to take a pain killer every now and then if it starts bothering me. I’ve also had some nausea this week and still struggle with bowel problems. I have medication for each of these issues, too, and I think I’m getting closer to having the right amounts to take figured out. I’m still struggling with the coughing that started with the recurrence, and it seemed much worse yesterday. I tried to sing during church, but that was pretty much a lost cause.

Mark and I closed on our purchase of the hardware store in Markle on Thursday and went right to work from the bank. I took vacation days on Thursday and Friday to be with him during the first few days, and we had a blast! We had a steady stream of customers each day, even though this is supposed to be the slowest time of the year, but we weren’t swamped. Mark has the gift of service and an incredible knowledge of all things hardware, so this is a perfect place for him to be. We are still in shock and awe that our awesome God has led us to this opportunity. There’s no way we could have accomplished this purchase on our own, and we’ll never be able to run the business on our own merit either. We truly feel like little Davids in the hands of a mighty God, and we’re filled with joy and anticipation over what He has planned for us in Markle. Mark and I were talking Thursday night about our exciting day, and he commented that “the only thing that would make this adventure better would be if I were able to work with him every day”.

One of the many suprises from our business adventure has been the way so many unexpected offers for help have risen up. Our dear friends, Sherry and Tony Johnson, have stepped up in a big way to help with our accounting and bookeeping functions. Sherry has been at the store helping us set up our books and entering transactions, and she’s a great teacher even when we are being dense! Their son, Blake, also came in to help so he could earn some volunteer hours for FFA. He’s been a great organizer and hard worker in the store. It already looks better, newer and cleaner!

Today is my fourth treatment, and it’s my off week for Valpedine. I’ll only have the Herceptin (like I had last year), so it should be faster and not cause the nausea that I’ve been fighting. I’m looking forward to the week and grateful for the extra strength and health to make it through. I’ll talk to the nurses about my cough…hopefully they can give me some ideas for keeping it under control. My ribs and chest actually are sore from all the coughing.