Skip to main content

Mathew Prepares for his Upcoming 5 Day I.E. Chemo

I preface this journal entry with a reminder that this is when Mathew was staying at my sister Kathleen’s house and she told him that he could have visitors any time he wanted and was able.

From Mathew’s Journal

4-14-14

Today, the day before my next 5 day round of chemo, Rinpoche and Ralph came to visit.
-It was a good visit although I was nervous at first before they showed up.
-Ralph gave me a small prayer wheel and said it was Paula.
-Rinpoche taught me some meditation techniques to supplement mantra recitation and to help alleviate the suffering of the disease. He also answered my questions about Karma. 
-When I asked him about my dreams he said that was good sign and that it showed the bodhisetta going to help an earnest (don’t know if this is best description, Rinpoche’s was better) practitioner.


Tomorrow is chemo again.
I am nervous of course
 -but I need to be mindful.
I think about the article I read about children receiving chemotherapy. 
  -they were told that it was superhero formula.
   -JLA comics are given to them that have Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman receiving the same superhero formula to cure them of a disease so they can fight crime again.

-I have started to think of chemo as my superhero formula, as childish as that seems
-the truth of it is, is that even as it does destroy my body for a short while, it empowers it too.

-Just two treatments and already a significant improvement.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

About this Blog, A Journey Through Sarcoma

Confections for Cats, A Journey through Sarcoma is a chronicle of my son's journey through Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Sarcoma. It is intended to educate and inspire by using Mathew’s thoughts and feelings, dreams and fears through a variety of mediums; art, music, and writing. Through factual experience, what we learned and what we wish we had known. Mathew’s desire was to give meaning to his journey and in the process help anyone else on a similar path. The last possible explanation in my mind for my son’s health problems was cancer. Even the words “the scan shows a large mass” didn’t lead me to conclude cancer and when the cancer diagnosis was confirmed, I still wasn’t prepared. My Mother is a breast cancer survivor and my sister Elizabeth passed away three years after her breast cancer diagnosis. I thought I knew what cancer treatment and living with cancer looked like, but none of us could imagine or be prepared for how all semblance of routine and normalcy had alre...

When a Cancer Patient Has a Medical Emergency

3 Days in the DRC, Part 1 If you haven’t read my first post about the DRC at Moffitt and how it works, since Moffitt does not have an ER, you can read about it here.  https://confectionsforcats.blogspot.com/2018/04/neutropenic-fever-after-ie-chemo-and.html In summary, the DRC is where an existing Moffitt patient is directed to go if they have a medical emergency.  Usually, we would be there a few hours or overnight (since we arrived at midnight or shortly afterward) until they had a room for Mathew on the ward. This particular visit Mathew stayed in the DRC three days. As mentioned in my other post, the DRC has maybe two rooms with a bathroom; otherwise, one bathroom for about a dozen patients. In Mathew’s case, a patient with a lowered immune system.  This time Mathew was in the room furthest from the bathroom.  When inpatient, we had a routine for getting him to the bathroom. First, he needed the IV unplugged (often quickly) and most times, I ...

The Chemo Bell at Moffitt Cancer Center

Bells ring.  Bells, chime, toll, peal, resonate and resound. Bells foretell, warn and celebrate. The Chemo Bell The Survivor Bell Cancer Centers have one or several large bells, each with a large clapper. They are mounted on the wall and when a patient receives their last chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer they ring that bell. Mathew and I heard the Chemo Bell in the Infusion Center at Moffitt ring one time. Early on our journey. Everyone clapped and cheered. Mat and I stopped and looked at the bell that day and I thought at that time, it was a possibility for Mathew. Bells have a vibration. When a chemo bell rings, when a person survives cancer (even if it’s for a short time) they resound for the rest of us. Their survival reverberates and gives the rest of us hope.  I found another chemo bell on the 5th floor at Moffitt, in the hallway, past the patient rooms.  Next to the chemo bell was a copy of a photo of a patient surrounded ...