Kickin' Cancer Jedi Style

Karl starts chemo today.  He's sitting in the recliner getting quite the cocktail of drugs.  We're quickly learning a whole new vocabulary and new routines.  The kids and I are wearing our Team Mason shirts.  Karl has to wear a button down so they can access his port under his right clavicle.  Karl is wearing his Golden Lightsaber pin that Kody gave him.  Kody traded a LOT of hot pin sets at the OM World Finals to acquire this one pin for Karl.  It contains a Force we understand!  Hmmm.... I wonder if the nurses can add several thousand midichlorian to Karl's infusion?? It sure couldn't hurt.   Kicking Cancer Jedi Style!

 

So the kids can't come back to the infusion room because they're under 18.  They brought Sonic for lunch and were able to FaceTime Karl from the lobby.  He could show them around via his iPad.  Gotta love technology.  And Sonic delivery.

Karl will be here every other Tuesday for 5 hours or so.  He will wear a pump home that will deliver meds til Thursday.  They will take it off on Thursday and administer a mega immunity booster shot that is so special they want five digits for it.... Yes. Five digits.  We will hit our family yearly  insurance maximum in one shot! Who knew?  Thank You Lord for insurance.  Karl wants to name his computerized pump.  I told him he can't give it a girl's name.  He named it Hal.  I guess that works.  It is delivering poison bent on destroying cells.  In the end, the pump will come off and Karl will win.  The computer will lose.  

Our dear friends Ross and Amanda offered us the use of their family beach home in Rocky Point and we spent last week there.  A whole week of no wifi or phones.  We read books, played a hundred games of Settlers of Catan, watched two seasons of Stargate Atlantis, snorkeled in Cholla Bay, lounged in the water, ate fish tacos, and enjoyed a few cervezas.  It was a magical week where we unplugged from every concern from the past two months.  Long leisurely quiet times with a cup of tea, my Bible, my journal, and a rising sun over the Sea of Cortez.  

We've been so overwhelmed with all the acts of love we have received from all our loved ones.  Meals, cards, messages, visits, packages.  Our friend Eeke made us matching shirts after reading our last blog entry.  We proudly sport them to our doc visits.  Karl and I wore them when he got the port at TMC.  People stopped to read them but I'm sure they made no sense to anyone in the oncology center.  

Karl probably won't lose all his hair but it may thin a bit.  Eugene sent Karl a lovely camo visor with it's own shock of crazy hair.  Can't wait for him to wear that to treatment. He was a little self conscious to wear it today.  

My friend Lucy reminds me of the hope we have because of Christ.  She says true hope is a white hot expectation.. Not just wishful thinking.  Hope that all of this, no matter how yucky it feels like now, will result in drawing us to a more intimate relationship with our Creator.  Hope that we will have all we need to get through this.  Today that's what I thought of when I saw Karl's light saber.  It is white hot.  Take a look at it and see if you agree.  Can you hear the whir of Hope as Karl wields  it?   

To more complicate the mental metaphors we've created.....  We will continue to ride this trail with perspective, gratitude, and trust.  We will keep our eyes up and off the cholla.  And as we ride, we will also swing the light saber of Hope.  Now that is a mental picture that oughta frighten off any mean ole cancer cooties.