O Give Thanks...

Yesterday I had my 4th treatment of Chemo.  I found out that my white blood cell count was good, but my red blood cells and my platelets were low.  The platelets were 75,000 and they should be 144,000.  Since my white blood cells were high enough, they decide to go ahead and give me my treatment.  However, they told me that I need to watch for bruising, bleeding and severe headaches.  They are going to have me come back next week to check my platelets.  If they have not increased enough, I may have to have a blood transfusion, but hopefully not.

My CA-125 was preciously at 316 and went down to 298.  I have to say that I was very disappointed.  I know it's going down in the right direction. The doctor said that from now on it will not have the big spikes in number in going down.  I told him that was not good enough for me.  If we continue at this rate, I have 3 times more and if it only goes down 20 each, my CA-125 will only be around 240.  Not good enough at all seeing that the normal CA-125 blood count is 0-35!  My nurse continues to tell me not to run my life by these numbers, but it is so hard not to!  I guess I do need to be grateful that it at least went down!

I went to the Provo Temple after my chemo to try to let go some of my frustrations.  It felt so good leaving this Telestial world behind and walking into a Terrestrial environment.  The new film is so excellent.  Eve in this film is so REAL!  I love her reactions to things.  It makes me tear up almost every time.  It really makes me think about what I would feel if I had been in that same situation.

After the session I was praying in the Celestial Room.  I then sat there for a while pondering and then picked up the Old Testament.  I turned to several pages of scripture, trying to see if the perfect scripture would jump out at me and help me feel better.  The first 3 were nice scriptures, but didn't hit the spot.  The last one did.

"O Give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:  

because his mercy endureth forever!"  

Psalms 118:1

After reading that scripture, I realized that I did have so many things to be grateful for!  As I left the temple, I did something different this time.  I stopped at the place where you write names to be put on the prayer roll and this time I wrote only things that I was thankful for in my life.  When I finished, I put them in the little box and left.  I wanted those words of gratitude to be on the altars of the temple for 2 weeks, just like the names I ask to be prayed over!

One of the things I am grateful for is my HAIR !!!!!  I can't believe I still have it.  I don't understand why, but I am not complaining!  I have noticed that it is thinning, little by little.  So I have come up with a plan - to make it last as long as possible.

Here my wet hair is just after washing it.  You can see the balding spots.

Below is my hair just after blow drying it - but still shows my balding spots

Here I am after having used a brown hair crayon and colored in my scalp.  Thus giving me the look that my hair is much fuller than it is!  Pretty cool huh!

I'm so happy to have ANY hair!!!!!!  

Here I am ready to go to church and thankful for a head of hair!