Going going gone

I started packing tonight.  I am using the futon in the West Wing (that's what my brother calls my spare bedroom) as my staging area.  We might attempt to carry-on all of our belongings so that we don't have to give the airline another dime.  My husband and I are both light packers, and so by default the kids are as well (since we do their packing).  However, we are trying to jam the vehicle booster seats into the carry-ons as well.  This is to prevent the rental car company from receiving another dime.  The booster seats present a packing challenge, and we have accepted that challenge.  Tonight we borrowed a third, slightly larger suitcase from Ian's mom to see if that will fit both boosters.  In the end we might have to check this booster-seat bag, but at least it'll be only one piece and also contain up to 50 pounds of our crap.  Problem solved and money saved!

I can't even tell you how excited I am for this trip.  Those of you who have been here awhile might recall that my mind was on travel the last time I went through chemotherapy.  I was wanting a Caribbean vacation so that I could be warm and sit on a beach somewhere beyond cancer's reach (that particular vacation hasn't happened yet (so expensive!) but we have taken other vacations (to a Minnesota beach and to a Seattle beach)).  Now I find myself with my dreams coming true--I am in the middle of chemotherapy and I get to go somewhere warm and have ample cancer-free distractions.  Including the beach.  It has been such a welcome and uplifting distraction, for which I am deeply grateful.

If it's a distraction for me, can you imagine what it is for my children?  Instead of focusing on when I'm going to be sick again and for how long, every day is Disney Disney Disney.  They've practically forgotten that there's anything wrong with me.

I too have forgotten, because there's nothing wrong with me.  I am rocking this life like it's the only one I've got.  I'm laughing and hugging and working and playing and cooking and reading, just like always.  I get tired more easily than I feel that I should, but that's okay.  I just pause what I'm doing for a little horizontal time.  I can't emphasize enough how rejuvenating it is to lie down for a short while, even if I don't fall asleep.  I'm practically lying down even now.

Finally, do you know what else is going somewhere?  My cancer.  That's right, the firmness in my right breast is almost completely gone, and all of the lymph nodes feel to be reduced in size.  Hopefully the innumerable pulmonary nodules are responding similarly.  Buh bye, now, buh bye!  Bye bye!