September 5- Can you get cancer in your toes?

Today was another long day which started with a contrast injection at 8:45, then I had to return to the hospital at 12 for a whole body bone scan.  This only took about 30 minutes but revealed what I had already suspected, tumors in both femurs, lower back, right hip and of course the now famous left knee.   Next stop..Dr. Nichols for what they call “mapping out”, a process where they lay you on a table and in my case place hips to feet on a large square bag filled with what looks like little beads of foam.  Next they remove all the air from said bag which forms to the shape placed on the bag (hips etc) and then the form is permanent and labeled with my name for future radiation.   Now the fun begins…they line your body up so that the rays which are cross sectioned stream across the areas needing radiation, then they take actual tattoo ink and a very tiny but none the less painful needle and permanently marked both my hips and just above the pelvic bone.   Apparently the beams will go through my body so that there is no need to flip me over!!    2 hours later and in a great deal of pain from every bone south of the navel button, I was finally free to leave.  Once the doctors decide which tumors to zap and in which order (apparently this is important) I will return for 10 treatments for 10 days straight (I assume weekends are out) and wrapping it all up will be another bone scan to see what was accomplished.   Through all of this I just kept thinking how blessed I am that none of my organs have been sought out and attacked  by George’s little minions.   If I had known George was going to be so ungrateful I never would have given him his own blog!!   But…there it is and so on we go seeking to destroy what seeks to destroy me and my body.

Even after all of that I was not going to be detoured, Marty and I planned and did in fact have dinner out, something we rarely do.  It was nice to be free of television, dogs and distractions around the house.  Final stop before home?  Walmart because when you have 3 dogs you need 50 pound bags of dog food and I needed pretty me up stuff too!!  Home at last, cloths changed, ibuprophen dutifully and desperately swallowed, I put up my feet and pondered the events of the past 2 days.   There are still moments when it’s hard to believe that I have cancer or that it’s only been 9 months since learning about George,  but the cancer seems to be spreading faster than I had anticipated and it scares me at times.   I never forget that no matter what happens from day to day God has the final authority but I wouldn’t  put my fingers in my ears if he wanted to lay it all out for me!!   Having said that I ask myself this question: What kind of testimony would I have if I knew how things were going to go?  I do know the ending, at least mine…sitting at my saviors feet after  he calls me home.  That’s good enough for me.

Until then, we fight cancer and praise God.