Normal

It's been a weekend filled with mostly mundane normalcy, which has been nice. Yesterday we dropped Kevin off to tutor (have I mentioned that he is currently tutoring two younger kids in reading, writing and math on the weekends? Their parents rave about Kevin; I'm so proud of him!), and then Michael and I took the other 5 kids to Babies R Us to pick up a couple things in anticipation of the big bedroom shuffle we'll be doing soon (Lilah will be moving into a big girl bed in the twins' room and Finn will be moving into his own - what is now Lilah's - room). Then we picked Kevin up and we all went out to lunch (I'm sure we were one of those families that nobody wanted to sit near). Last night Michael and I relaxed in the living room with drinks and talked for what seemed like hours. And although much of the talk was about his treatment, etc., it was still nice to just hang out together. This morning he got up and mowed the back lawn, and right now he's outside having a catch with Joey.

So, he does seem to be feeling quite a bit better since being taken off chemo a few days ago. And it's been nice to just do normal things this weekend. He will start back on chemo probably tomorrow though. It will be a slighty lower dosage, so hopefully the side effects will be minimized. We shall see.

It's unnerving to realize how well he did throught the first couple weeks of treatment, and then how quick the downward slide was once the side effects came into play. Sitting by and watching what he has gone through over the last week has given me a new appreciation for anyone who has gone through cancer and treatment. It's all been completely abstract to me up until now. You hear things, you read things, you know it's not going to be pretty, but until you live it, it's just abstract. And now I'm sitting here thinking about elderly people who have to fight cancer . . . and little children . . . and it absolutely breaks my heart. I can hardly imagine a child enduring what Michael is enduring - and worse, much worse.

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Many thanks for everyone's continued thoughts and well-wishes.