Chemo Sabes

We have been overwhelmed with the support of friends, family and strangers, near and far, over the past few months. I can't begin to tell you how much your letters, emails, flowers, gifts, phone calls, and comments on the blog have helped us find the humor, patience and strength that we have needed to get through the last six months with grace and courage.

This past Thursday was the first time since December that I did not have to show up at the hospital for my biweekly infusion. Several people have heard me joke that in a way, I have been grateful to chemo for giving me the gift of an uninterrupted block of time every two weeks to catch up with my girlfriends. But I know that nobody loves hanging around a hospital watching people get stuck with needles, so I wanted to single out for thanks the women and men who surrounded my aqua recliner at St. Luke's with love and support. To my "chemo sabes" Sarah, Molly, Mom, Dad, Sabina, Jessica, Anne W, Anne G, Laura, Katrina, Sophia, Katherine, Sivan, Jeanne, Anne M and Michael, thank you for your company and your stories, for the lunches, snacks and little care packages you brought, for distracting me when it hurt, for putting up with my drug-induced narcoleptic episodes, and for making the time go so quickly. I wish I had remembered to take photos of all of you, but as the security guards at the hospital will attest, I was not to be trusted with cameras or other valuables, as I seemed to leave something behind almost every week! I am also grateful to the doctors and nurses at St. Luke's, especially Caitriona, Marianne, Sarah, Dr Grossbard and Dr Rosenbaum Smith, for their great work and good humor.

And to everyone who volunteered but never got on the official chemo roster (Anne T, Annelise, Rachel, Michelle, Emily, Ursula and many others I am forgetting) I will keep you posted on post-surgery visiting hours at our apartment in late April, where we can commandeer more than two chairs at a time without feeling like we are taking over the place!