New date night!

Glen's dresser has turned into my
new medicine cupboard.

After this last week, Glen and I decided we needed a new date night. For years, we've gone out almost every Friday night to eat, to talk, to relax — sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. With chemotherapy scheduled every Friday for the next few months, we decided that Thursday was going to have to become the new Friday. Last week, I felt the worst of the side effects by Sunday night. I have been very nauseous, constipated, and cramping. My stomach has just been eaten up with all the new meds and we have had to experiment with new remedies every day. Although I am no stranger to nausea after our seven pregnancies, this has been a little bit more tricky with the combination of side effects and with the changes in how I am feeling throughout the week as the chemo side effects wear off. By Thursday, I was feeling better than I had the rest of the week, so Glen and I went out to celebrate. We picked up more prescriptions at the pharmacy 🙂, split a sandwich, and sat outside the temple to talk. That was heaven to me.

I thought a lot about the prophet Alma this week and gained a new admiration for this great servant and missionary. In the Book of Mormon, we read the story of Alma, who was a prophet that lived and preached in the Ancient Americas about 80 BC. He traveled to a city named Ammonihah where the people were hard-hearted and were choosing to live wickedly, contrary to God's commandments. Alma labored diligently and prayed mightily that the people would repent, but instead they mocked and persecuted Alma, spit upon him, and cast him out of their city. As he departed and while sorrowing for the people, an angel of the Lord appeared to Alma and blessed him for his faithfulness in obeying what God had asked him to do. Then the angel commanded him to return to Ammonihah and to tell the people of the city that if they did not repent, they would be destroyed!

I cannot imagine how Alma felt at that moment, but what I love about him is that the scriptures record “he returned SPEEDILY to the land and entered by another way.” It isn’t long after Alma obediently returns to Ammonihah that he sees the WAY that God has prepared for him to follow his commandment. Alma had been fasting for many days and when he re-entered the city he was met by a man named Amulek who had received his own vision from an angel saying that he would meet a prophet and that he was to receive him into his home and feed him and that he would be a blessing to him and his family. God had already prepared the way. Amulek was the way and later becomes a tremendous missionary companion to Alma in sharing the word of God.

What if Alma had chosen not to return to Ammonihah? What would have become of Amulek and his vision? What would have become of the people of Ammonihah? Returning to chemo today felt a bit like my city of Ammonihah. I was not ready to get persecuted again as I was just beginning to feel better, but I took great courage in Alma’s example to me to return speedily and to trust in God that a way and a blessing would be prepared for my next week. Glen and I took the stairs to our morning appointment and we felt strengthened in our faith as we climbed.

At 9am we met with a dietician named LeAnn who specialized in nutrition for cancer patients. We talked for over an hour and peppered her with questions about how I can find the best food and liquids to curb my side effects, and how I can best nourish my body throughout this chemotherapy. We ran out of time before I had to head into my infusion at 10am but we are going to follow up with her by phone next week and she is available to us as a resource at any point throughout my treatment. She was very helpful.

One of my nurses, Yvette, took this picture.
So grateful for awesome medical staff!

I was tired and groggy throughout the two-hour infusion. The Benadryl they give me with the Taxol gets me every time. I also received more anti-nausea medications and talked with my nurse, David. Because I am still really struggling with constipation, he instructed me to take half a bottle of magnesium citrate when I got home to clean things out before this next chemo dose hits. This is similar to what they give people before colonoscopies to clear out their bowels, so I imagine the bathroom and I will become good friends over the next few days 😊. If that half bottle does not bring any results, I am supposed to take the remainder.

During my infusion, I spoke with an older woman sitting next to me who was finishing her last treatment for breast cancer but who had just been diagnosed with second occurrence of ovarian cancer. Can you imagine? She was a beautiful woman and she inspired me with her positivity as she loomed a blanket for her son.

We feel blessed and sustained by you daily and know that we can run this marathon one day at a time because of the love of our Savior.