Today was such a great day for the kids. The American Cancer Society held a big Christmas in July party at the firehouse in Point Pleasant Beach- food, games, prizes for the kids, a dunk tank, waterslide, an acoustic band, and ...omg...HOHO. (Melody calls Santa "Ho Ho")
It was for kids with cancer and kids whose parents have/had cancer.
Santa arrived in a fire truck, along with Frosty and Buster. Buster is the nondescript yellow monster creature for the Lakewood Blue Claws, a Phillies farm team that is based in Lakewood about 8 miles away from here. Minor league baseball.
Santa gave out gifts, as per the child's letter to Santa, that needed to be sent in in the beginning of July- Both of my girls got gift cards for Barnes & Noble and Target. And I won a gift certificate for a local Italian Restaurant too. It was nice to see the kids have a great time, forget about reality for a second, and connect with other kids who know how they feel.
I met a woman who had gotten through her trip through breast cancer-ville, and was just getting over her operation for cancer of her thyroid. She had a scar across her neck. We started talking and I found out her cancers were completely unrelated to each other, and she had seen the thyroid cancer on an MRI she was getting for her breast cancer. She had 2 sons, 1 little boy was 3 and the other was about 8. She was Vietnamese, with no history of cancer in her family at all. She came to his country and started eating large amounts of chicken and fell in love with pizza. She is convinced the American Diet gave her the cancer, and she told me how the Vietnamese diet where she is from has no cheese or any dairy at all.
Funny.
It was nice to meet someone going through the same thing, I'm usually kind of shy when it comes to meeting new people at events and things, especially when cancer makes you feel like everyone is staring at you.
We talked about the Gerson diet too, people diagnosed with terminal cancers turned their lives around with the raw diet and other fun things like coffee enemas. For years and years they are living past the doctor granted "expiration date" of months and weeks.
Who knows- but it's looking like a good plan of action after this chemo stops.
We had a great conversation though, she went through everything I am , and we had a nice bonding talk involving our periods, fingernails, and chemo anxiety.... what you usually discuss with strangers, of course! I hope I get to see her at the next event.
Today I had my first baseball bat to the leg and knee bone pain. This is going to be fun :)
New chemo Taxol tomorrow. As always , the eve of chemo anxiety...... Kids are at Grandma's and I miss them both very much. and Mark is out recording tonight so I'll be by myself. Time for game day attitude adjustment, meditation and early bedtime.
