Last week was a roller coaster for me. On Thursday April 3rd, I had my new chemo, Cisplatin, along with the other compliments of medications. I took my anti nausea pills that day and evening, but didn’t get any sleep. I showered at 4:30am, took another pill and was picked up by my sister and her husband for our surprise visit to Mother Theresa’s beautiful home in Siesta Key, Florida. You see mom was turning 80 on April 5th and Dawn (my sister) and I had plans since last September to surprise her and spoil her for her birthday weekend. We hadn’t planned on my cancer returning, so it was quite a chore to convince mom to stay in Florida until April. My family was joining us on the 9th of April so that’s when she thought I was actually flying in.
When we arrived at the airport we were both tired and I wasn’t feeling great. Unbeknownst to me, Dawn walked right up to the attendant at the gate and said, “my sister has cancer and doesn’t feel well. Can we board early please?” I was amazed as the attendant told me that he supported me and “the cause”, pointing to my pink ribbon embroidered on my rain jacket (didn’t even realized it was there) as he said, “right this way ladies”.
As we settled in our seats before the hundreds of other passengers waiting to board, Dawn said, “you really need to play the “C” card as much as possible.” I agreed and thought, if I hadn’t shaved my head, the guy wouldn’t have believed Dawn. It goes back to something I wrote in my book which touches on the fact that there are many cancer patients out there whose treatment does not outwardly affect them so no one really knows what they are going through.
We continued playing the “C” card and on my own, I went to the rental car counter and was welcomed by a young woman who immediately offered me an upgrade to the size of my vehicle for free. This stuff does work!
The surprise for mom went off without a hitch. We showed up at her door with a dozen red roses. I called her on my cell and pretended to have had a long day (it was 3:00pm by then) but said Dawn and I had sent something down for her birthday and it was being hand delivered. The people delivering it were at her door now. She asked how they got into her building (tight security in her complex but I have a key) and I told her that we had worked it out with another resident, but it was important not to keep these people waiting at her door. She opened the door and there we were. She cried a happy cry!
The roller coaster continued as I was sick that evening and the next day, and my sister contracted a migraine on Sunday and had to move her departure back a day. So I told mom that we were testing her to make sure at the age of 80 she could still take care of her two children. She passed with flying colors.
