Whenever Lee and I were given his schedule for chemotherapy last March, we were aware that our chance of having any beach time was almost a zero. We resigned ourselves to that fact and determined that we would place our priority on the treatment plan and put everything else on hold.
In the beginning we prepared ourselves for all the downsides of treating a malignancy, especially one that inhabited the only breathable lung that Lee has to survive. With our new schedules and all the treatments, we settled in and accepted the realization that this would be our first summer in over twenty years with no beach vacation with our family.
Well, it seems that our "Miracle Man", named Lee, surprised us once again! The previous report that I shared with you showing the shrinkage of his tumor allowed us the opportunity to once again have our traditional beach vacation with our children and grandchildren. Even though we have for the past eight years been unable to fit all 24 of us into our beach house, we have managed to work two beach trips to accommodate all. We are trying to do that again this year.
We spent the entire week of the fourth with the Kanipe kids and most of the grandkids. Now that the older ones are married with children of their own, we find that the division is necessary once again because even Lee's children and grandchildren are now too large in numbers to all gather under one roof. We are hoping for an opportunity to do the same during the middle of August when we will meet with my daughter's family.
So........how was our week.......... I just want you to know that for a full week, Lee and I were treated like royalty. All the meals were planned and prepared by the children. We are so fortunate to have daughters-in-laws who are amazing cooks. In addition, the sons and grandsons had an all-day excursion of deep-sea fishing and returned with enough mahi-mahi, and mackeral fish for quite a few meals during our week. Lee and I, meantime, were quite lazy. We spent a lot of leisure time catching up on some books we enjoyed reading, and some great porch sitting. Lee always enjoys visiting all our neighbors and was especially glad to continue his tradition of sharing the big box of home-grown tomatoes we always bring. All the others enjoyed sunny days on the beach with picnics. Unfortunately, my lame knee and Lee's skin cancer kept us away from that area.
I was able to continue the "girls" tradition with lunch at the Frying Pan in Southport, followed by a movie. I had to eliminate our usual shopping excursion due to the knee, but I thoroughly enjoyed their sharing of purchases when the three of them returned loaded with Belk bags after a 7-hour trip. I was rewarded with each of them modeling their purchases for my pleasure! It reminded me of the times when my daughter would do the same as a teen! It was a delightful evening.
Once again, we were able to celebrate all those July birthdays, which has now become a beach tradition since we have four of them. Lee thoroughly enjoyed the boys fishing stories and especially has boasted as he has shared the pictures. Aaaah, the joys of being a Grandaddy!
There is one small downsize to our week. Lee began to have some pain in his right side (donor side) on the drive down to the beach. Remembering that he had lifted a 40 lb bag of dog food the day before we departed, we decided that he probably pulled a muscle. He did say that it only hurt when he took a very deep breath. Even though I remembered this as a classic symptom of Pleurisy, and mentioned it to him...........well, you know Lee...........wait and see.
And we waited the entire week. The pain did not go away, and since he had no fever and all the other possible symptoms I did not keep insisting Urgent Care as I had in the first day there.
We arrived home on Saturday and the following Monday we contacted his lung coordinator at Duke and she arranged for him to have a chest x-ray when he returned on Wednesday, July 11 for an oncology appointment.
The results of the x-ray showed a mild, more inflammatory than infective, Pleurisy. He is now on a two-week regime of one oral antibiotic. So far he feels good and today is out and about with a visit to his truck's dealership to try to get his horn repaired. He has learned to get any tasks accomplished before the "third day" post chemo.
We also returned home to the generosity of our good friend, Ted Cable who brought over an abundance of vegetables from his garden which included green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. I now have pickled cucumbers on my kitchen counter: 4 quarts vinegar pickles (Lee's favorite), 2 quarts bread & butter, and 1 quart dill spears! We are enjoying the tomatoes in all their variations! Thank-you Ted!
It is amazing that in spite of all the changing, and sometimes chaotic happenings that surround us, we are blessed with friends and family who make that extra effort to bring us back to normal again. We are truly blessed and we continue to be thankful each and every day.
More Later......................................................Brenda
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