Am I done yet?

People have been asking me if all is well, because I haven't posted anything on my blog lately. And I've had requests for current pictures of myself, so I guess I'd better do something about this!

For starters, the new picture I'm posting is of me standing with my new Friendship Quilt that was made by many loving hands from The Bank of Holland. I was invited to attend their weekly staff meeting today, on the pretext that the guest speaker was someone I would really be interested in hearing talk. So at 7:30 a.m. I dutifully walked up to the training room (where the meeting was) and found a seat...in the front row. I soon was to discover that there was no speaker... that the "meeting" was actually just a way to present Jodi, another cancer fighter, and me with our beautiful quilts. We were both totally surprised and humbled by these thoughtful gifts. It has been such fun looking at and reading all the different patches... they are all so clever and lovingly made. I have already wrapped mine around me today to keep me warm as I rested after my busy day. I feel surrounded by loving hands...thank you again, to all of you.

I really don't have anything else that is new to report. My old experiences continue to be my current experiences, just cumulative in nature now. My poor hands are "burned" again, only this time my knuckles and lower thumbs are involved. I'm going through the peeling stages now, only to have the burns probably begin all over again next week with my "big nasty" chemo. My face continues to get bright red and splotchy for the first week after chemo, so I'm not too pretty to look at for quite a few days. The newest side effect that I'm having is weakness in my leg mucles. I can hardly climb a flight of stairs without my legs screaming at me as if I'd just done one too many leg squats! My walking in the morning has been lessened by this, and riding my exercise bike is out because my legs just can't do it without screaming at me. I can walk regularly just fine...they're not weak that way. I just can't go long distances without getting tired. So in the meantime, I am gaining weight and I don't like THAT at all!

Curiously, I have not lost all of my hair at this point in time, but everything continues to get thinner. My eyebrows need enhancing with an eyebrow pencil, and my eyelashes get a boost from liner...but they're still there! My head is not completely bald...it has teeny baby hairs sprouting on it. What I miss the most in all of this are my taste buds! Nothing even sounds good to eat anymore, let alone tastes good. I'm eating balanced meals, just not much at any time. Let's just say that my journey is a challenge!