More blessings...

My day starts early, even though it's my day off, I have so much to do this weekend and want a little "down time". I am excited because we have an updated software at the office for filing our claims and scheduling patients. What can I say, I'm a computer geek. It was supposed to take them four hours to install and after 8 hours yesterday, we agreed to complete the installation today. Having missed several hours here and there put me behind in other areas of work, so it was the perfect opportunity to catch up.

I am walking through the house in a daze, it is 7:30 am. I am finding that I am sleeping better, perhaps it is the emptying of my mind at the end of the day or pure emotional exhaustion.  Frank is in the home office getting ready for the day. I look on the counter and see an envelope from my "other mother" Auntie Lee.  I believe I have mentioned her before. Lee has been our family friend for 55 years. She and my mother have stood by each other through thick and thin, ups and downs. She has been the truest friend in every sense of the word to our entire family. Her "kids" are our ages (which is why I call them kids. Ha Ha)  and whenever we get a chance to get together, we pick up right where we left off. Mom and I were visiting Lee when  Dad passed away. I couldn't think of a better place to be at that time. We can always be ourselves, no pretense, good mood, bad mood, sad or happy.  There is a life long bond that has always touched my heart. In the envelope was a generous gift, I start to cry, with all the running around, gas, eating out, medicine, this is another blessing. Frank and I are very lucky to have amazing careers, and as with any other person, when something like this happens, we are never really prepared. We have our pride, but several friends have said "if something is offered,  you can't stop that blessing or the people that want to help out". So we count yet another blessing.

One of my purposes of this blog is to help others in the event they find themselves in a similar situation, this is why I must be 100% straight with our new reality.  Having said that, I finally decide to deal with a discussion that I wasn't really sure how to handle. As parents it is up to us to do our best to protect our children to the best of our ability. Protecting them also entails teaching them to learn how to live  independently,  the "birds and bees", having the best possible grades,  choose a career, how to take care of themselves. We don't expect we must think about their future as a parent. Do they want children or not? One of the possible side effects of Chemotherapy is sterility. This is not written in stone, but it is up to us to ensure that if he chooses to have children the possibility is there for him. It is hard to approach a 16 year old, they don't want to (thank God) think about being a parent. This is when you must be "clinical" instead of emotional.  Let's just say, I have learned a little more about "banks" than I ever wanted to learn. An education I never thought I would get. Enough said. But, should he decide to have children, the option is going to be there for him. Of course, being me I did tell him that NOW, we can have a say in whom he marries. He was NOT amused. Ha Ha!

Did I say I "may" be emotionally exhausted. I wonder why? We had a wonderful family dinner with our "other" son Drake. Zack continues to have fun hanging out with his friends, he is now focusing on trading or selling his truck. It is too much work and money to fix it up for driving and now with the treatments we don't want him to get too overwhelmed or tired. He will start home schooling soon and we want his energy to go towards that. Tuesday is coming too soon, but that also means that we can mark off one treatment off the list.