Our Day with Nana

Mom and Philip inside Gibbs Cancer Center just before leaving


Today was my mom's first day of chemo and radiation. Thank the Lord, everything went pretty well. Philip and I picked up Mom at 2:30 giving us time to get to the Gibbs Cancer Center by 3:00. A nurse drew some blood as they have to keep track of her blood cell count during the treatment. First was the chemo treatment. Philip and I went in with Mom. The nurse said children are not usually allowed back but "he doesn't look like he'll start running around." The nurse did a good job of inserting the IV catherer in Mom's arm, but I know she appreciated being able to look at me and Philip during the process. She said she didn't want to move her arm and I reassured her it would be ok as I had one of those in my arm for 8 HOURS the night I had Philip!! And I obviously wasn't sitting still during those hours. :) Philip and I decided to go for a stroll around the Center as he got fussy for a minute. After changing his diaper in my trunk, we came back inside to meet the nurse directing Mom down to the radiation area. We had to wait about 10 minutes during which time we talked with a really nice woman also waiting to have radiation. Meeting others battling cancer is actually really comforting as it reminds me that Mom is not all alone in this thing. She was soon called back for radiation which took a little longer today than normal as she had to have extra x-rays. Finally at 5:30, we were headed out to my car. It was a long afternoon, but Philip was such a good baby by smiling at the other patients. He was asleep probably by the time we were pulling out of the parking lot. In the photo you can see Mom was happy and relieved the day was over while Philip was just tired! Four more days like today this week followed by three weeks of only radiation each day. The fifth week will be a repeat of this first week, chemo and radiation. We'll just take it one day at a time.