My New World # 6: Marching toward Evaluation Time

I am taking my final infusion of Round Two as I write this today.  These six to seven hour chemo treatments are a great time for writing these posts, catching up on a little reading, listening to my chemo playlist, watching  television.

I have discovered some great television shows, unknown to me before, and some interesting streaming services.  A couple of friends and I are sharing our TV finds with each other, and others have been supplying me with reading materials.  Going to read more pages today in Dr. Weill’s  “Spontaneous Healing” and Roger Olsen’s “The Essentials of Christian Thought”. ( In case that name seems familiar, he is a Rice grad and a prof at Baylor.)

My chemo playlist is of course a compilation of my favorite songs, and  I appreciate the suggestions I have received from friends and think of them as I listen to their songs. Some are made for dancing (or, in my case, marching) and those keep me on pace in my morning walks or when I walk the chemo halls pulling my rolling IV with my new Boise wireless earphones at full volume.  Others are for my quieter, more reflective moments, when I am just loving the music.

I want to share my very favorite song by my favorite artist:  Listen to Bon Jovi’s “Welcome to Wherever You Are”, and, friends, turn the volume up as Bon Jovie needs amps!

AND THEN, August 15 is a very, very important day for me as I will have a CT scan to evaluate the last 8 weeks of treatment.  I would appreciate your prayers and good thoughts as I learn if the treatment is being effective in keeping the cancer at bay.

Thanks for being such a support to me over these last few months. Your visits and wonderfully supportive messages have made a huge difference in my ability to persevere through this process.

AND MY BEN,  he was a musician, a performer as well as a composer.  He also invented a musical instrument, the glass harmonica.  This is a portrait of him performing on this incredibly difficult instrument to play.  He performed all over Europe (in his charm crusade) and taught the vivacious Marie Antoinette to play as well. Beethoven and Mozart wrote pieces for the harmonica almost a hundred years later.  I saw one at the Houston Museum of Natural Science & History about 10 years ago in a traveling Ben Franklin exhibition, and wonder if there is anyone alive today who could actually get sounds from this glass/water/metal contraption.