Reflections From a Country Girl

Darrell Worley sings a song called “Sounds Like Life to Me”.  He gives several instances including a call from his friend’s wife who says her husband – Johnny –  “got off the wagon”. She asks if Darrell could help find him since he had been gone for two hours.  He was, as she suspected, at a local watering hole. The less than sober Johnny explained that things were piling up on him….that he had a sister who has a car that is falling apart, a mother that he had to put in a nursing home and not enough money to take care of the bills. On top of that his wife thinks she may be pregnant again.

Whew.

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Before you get too carried away with the title of this reflection, ponder this. 

For years – since my early 20s – I have put color on my very thick hair.  I spotted my first gray hair when I was 19 and pulled it out quickly.  Before long my hair began getting a gray streak in it – much like that of a skunk. It didn’t take long before my vanity took over and I was determined not to be what many call “prematurely gray”.   

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I’m not sure I told you, but being here in Texas, away from family, and having a newly diagnosed disease has been pretty overwhelming.   Not in  a bad way, mind you, but jut different.  Texas is BIG and though I have not seen much of it thus far, Houston in itself is huge.   I do think Texas does things in a big way – including the cancer center here. 

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Five days in anyone’s week is normal.  We work, we go to school, we enjoy everyday life.

Today I begin five days of my second round of chemo.  It is going to be different.  My first injection starts at 6:30 tonight.  I go to the hospital for an hour to get the chemo as an outpatient.  

This facility is open until 3 a.m. in the morning serving many patients. Some come in for 10 hours at a time. 

Wow.  I imagine they need to bring lots of reading material. 

My wish for you today is that you never take five days for granted. 

~ Joellen

There’s a new reality show – as if we needed one more – that has families traveling across the country in mobile homes.  In one of the segments a family member got inside a “bubble” and had to be rolled through a series of obstacles at a fast pace.

There are reality shows, and there is reality – all of which can be very close to the same thing.  I have experienced that for the past two and one/half months.  

Today I step out of the bubble. 

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