Thanksgiving Dinner

Sunday was a day of fasting, and while the subject of my fasting was obviously my continued petition for healing, I also made it a matter of gratitude.

Today is the last day of my six-week radiation regimen. The day of the "boost". I consider myself finished with Round One (aka, initial treatment regimen), Krista = 1, Cancer = 0. As my dad put it, hopefully I did this "Mike Tyson style", with a total KO punch. (Hey - my initials are "K.O." so why not?) But in any case, I'm coming out of the ring feeling pretty darn good, and I hope the cancer cells are dead and gone, or at least on their way there.

As we broke our fast last night at dinnertime, we had a turkey dinner. It was partly because I was cleaning out some freezer space and had pulled out a turkey earlier in the week. But it was kind of a fitting choice, since it was a Thanksgiving meal of sorts. We didn't do the stuffing/mashed potatoes/etc. like a traditional Thanksgiving feast - just some roasted vegetables and a tossed field salad and some fresh fruit and my husband's famous gravy. But it was still a symbol of gratitude.

I sit here at the end of Round One with more energy and hair than my husband (that's our little joke nowadays). I tolerated this treatment very easily - hopefully more than the cancer cells did.

Last night after dinner I went to Messiah choir practice. For the past few years I have participated in a local choir that performs Handel's Messiah on Easter Sunday. I have also been one of the soloists, and hope to do that again this year. It is one of the highlights of the Easter season for me, and the subject matter is even more precious to me now. As we sat in rehearsal last night, reviewing one of the more difficult choruses, I found myself weeping with gratitude that I could SING my guts out. I remembered the music. I had the pitches. I had the rhythms. This difficult piece was a piece of cake for me. I didn't lose that ability, despite having had cancer and cancer treatments in my right brain. It was something to be very grateful for.

The gratitude list goes on...