November 25, 2000
- I am thankful that I am very healthy for a woman of nearly
60 because I need to be strong for my younger son, age 19, 6'3", 30 pounds
underweight, battling cancer.
- I am thankful that I can leg lift 275 and pull 75 lbs (so
far) so that I can help bathe him, and lift him, and help the nurses see
to his care.
- I am thankful that I am smart and technical so I can program
his air therapy bed when it leaves the nurses in confusion.
- I am thankful that I am intelligent and a quick learner so
that I can track and check on the drugs and therapy he is receiving and
be sure of consistency from nursing shift to nursing shift.
- I am thankful for all the strangers and friends (in the thousands)
that have sent us their prayers because the doctors did not expect him to
wake up from the attack of spinal meningitis he sustained while neutropenic
from the chemo therapy for his T-cell leukemia (ALL).
- I am thankful for email for keeping me in touch with outside
support while I live through this ordeal because I must stay strong.
- I am thankful that research studies found drugs that raise
the survival rate for this type of leukemia to over 90%.
- I am thankful that I have a computer-based job (content development
for technical training) and that my employer allows me to work from his
hospital room when in crisis.
- I am thankful for a caring older son who can spell me from
the hospital room (and be just as attentive) and lend a second voice in
support to his brother.
- I am thankful I have had 19 years of this gentle, intelligent,
funny, artistic, gifted child in my life.
- I am thankful that I still have him with me, that he woke
up from 9 days in near-coma they did not think he would survive, speaks
and knows where he is, and is, in spite of being painfully thin and weak
as a newborn, willing to keep fighting this evil.
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