Friday Late July 5th

Today Linda got an email from her cousin Ruth Ann that was so impactful..she wanted to share it.....

I am certainly sorry to hear about your diagnosis of lung cancer, Linda. I pray that the biopsy will show it to be one of those that can be treated successfully. I know of many of the emotions that you are experiencing, and I have personally experienced many of the emotions, Dave, that you are experiencing. Although each cancer is so different and although each of us deals differently with the diagnosis and treatments, there are many common threads. One is that in a good marriage, the spouse (usually the primary caregiver) suffers the illness as deeply as the afflicted. I can tell from reading the blog entries that this is true in your case. When someone would ask Skip how many treatments HE had left, he would respond with “WE have ___left”.

And, the waiting is so hard. We would always want the day of the test to come, but at the same time, we were apprehensive about hearing the results.

A concept with which to familiarize yourselves, is “establishing a new normal”. You make adjustments to the changes so that the adjustments become the new “normal” rather than an inconvenience or something that you despise. For example, Skip never drove a car again after hearing the results of his MRI---the new “normal” was that I was the full-time chauffer. When it was too difficult to sit in just any chair, the new “normal” was to always sit in a chair with arms.

“The Lord will give strength to His people….the Lord will bless His people with peace.” Psalm 29:11

She is thankful for all the calls, emails, notes on the BLOG, etc., etc.....this one just caught her "head on" in a time of full vulnerability....thank you

Dave