No More Chemo

Today Ray went in for chemo for the very last time, we hope forever and ever.  He felt crumby going in, and felt crumby leaving, but it was different this time.  There was a light shinning at the end of the tunnel, some excitement in the leaving, and some relief in letting the door shut behind us.  Finally.  We did attempt, barring Ray's nausea, to celebrate the finality.  

Here's Sandy pulling out Ray's IV/Chemo hook up.  She's a load of fun, and has been good company through all the treatments.

Then Ray got to ring the bell.  You may remember me sharing about the bell that we saw on our first tour of the chemo lounge.  You can read what it says by going HERE.  It commemorates finishing chemo and brings joy to both the nurses and other patients around the room.  We've always enjoyed hearing others celebrate during past treatments.  :)  Click on the video below and hear us all cheer!!

The nurses took a picture of Ray and me at the bell.  :)  *laughs*  Chemo made Ray lose weight, and me to gain.  We'd both agree that for losing or gaining, chemo is not a method we'd recommend.  Ha!!  Now  **finally** is the time to return to an equilibrium.  :)

Here is my happy darling surrounded by the nurses working today.  Sandy, Susan, and Roseanne.  They have been so good to him there, and we'll have to drop by and say hello from time to time!!

Now for some other news.

Ray did talk to Johns Hopkins (JH) this morning during chemo.  They have some dates for him.

May 13:  Meet with Anesthesiologist 

May 20:  Cystoscopy/Biopsy (Re-evaluation of the bladder)

June 7:  Surgery 

I like to think of myself as Wonder Woman -- with the special suit and great body, even.  But the reality is that when it's all emotionally tough, then been swamped with keeping everything going, can prove to be too much.  So any wisdom (all of which comes from my better half),  I do confess we covet your help.  We anticipate Ray's hospital time to last from June 7 - June 14, possibly a few days longer.  While we are gone, we do have friends who are going to be taking care of the boys and getting them to school and back.  But once we are home, we would greatly appreciate a couple of things.

1)  Those of you with children -- if you can, please consider taking our little guys out on some play dates and outings.  It's going to be tough for me to take care of Ray and be his bedside nurse, and also run the energy out of my boys!  Any help along those lines would mean so much to Matt and Danny.

2)  We try to eat healthy, but it's really time-consuming to prepare dinner, feed everyone, and then clean-up all the dishes.  Any freezable meals, or dinners folks could bring would really help things out.  The only eating preference any of us have is an aversion to mayonnaise.  *laughs*  Other than that, we'd deeply appreciate your help there while Ray is in his most immediate recovery period.

3)  I'm super-great at mowing the lawn, and we have a speedy little mower, but if anyone felt so inclined to help us out with our mowing there for a couple of weeks, we'd really appreciate that too.

God bless you for thinking about helping us.

And whoop whoop!! for the end of chemo!