Hope Abounds

Wow. Amazing what one can accomplish when one gets up at 6am.  It was an incredibly good day for my soul. I took Bailey for a beautiful early morning walk. Then I had a bunch of errands to run in order to get prepared for Tim's impending visit - you know, picking up my many varied prescriptions from my many varied pharmacies. I FINALLY got to meet Dawn's sister, Crystal who is a pharmacist at the pharmacy where I get my LDN compounded - we have spoken on the phone numerous times and she has been a big help both with suggestions for supplements that help battle canser and helping me to get LDN in the first place. 
Then I hit the canser clinic to see if I could get to the bottom of this whole flying while being infused with 5-FU. The good news? There is no problem according to the pharmacists there. The better news? I got, AGAIN, the chance to meet Cathy, ANOTHER pharmacist there whom I have spoken to on the phone and who has done an incredible job of lobbying for me - without ever having met me. She was the one who made the case for me getting Avastin in Saskatchewan and she has had many conversations with our contacts at the Cambridge Canser Clinic trying to get me coverage there. Turns out she was quite surprised to see me because she thought that since she hadn't heard from me in a couple of months, that maybe I had received the coverage we were seeking and I had moved to Ontario. Then she took me into her office and we brainstormed some options that could possibly allow me to spend more time with Tim and still get my treatments here. She gave me some great ideas that I am going to explore next week, but more than that, she did a GREAT job of bolstering me about my prognosis. It is hard to explain how it made me feel to have a health care professional who deals with canser patients everyday, look me in the eye and tell me that she truly believes that I can beat this. She let me talk about my fears, that since the tumors aren't shrinking as much as they did the first half of treatment that maybe they are becoming resistant to the chemo. She didn't pull any punches, admitting that it does happen, but if it does we have other treatment options.  I left there feeling light as a feather and I am pretty sure she is going to be on the receiving end of one of the famous "Bender Hugs" on Monday at chemo. 
This afternoon I popped by Dr. Rebalkin's office to have a quick visit with Shelly and Crystal and their reaction when I first popped my head into the office was PRICELESS! It was so good to see them (and Gary) and catch up. They made my day - love you Ladies. (And thanks to Telly for making the suggestion!)
Later this afternoon, Chantelle and I ran into Sonya right outside the coffee shop where we were meeting and got the chance to hang with her for a bit. She is another one of my most positive supporters and always has some little nugget to make me feel good about things. And FYI - the Coconut Mocha Latte from Starbucks MIGHT be the best coffee I have ever had - highly recommended!
Finally, Marlys treated Chantelle and me to a girl's night at the movies. As you might have guessed, we saw "Magic Mike." And although the dialogue was pretty lame, it was worth it to see the girl's faces when a creepy old guy plunked himself down at the end of our row - BY HIMSELF.   
And now, off to bed so I can get an early start again tomorrow...can't wait to see Tim tomorrow!