I’m still struggling with the radiation esophagitis that has been the cost of the blessed pain relief I got from radiation therapy for my painful spine metastases.  Mostly I can deal with maximal doses of Ibuprofen, occasional narcotics and avoiding real food.  Christmas has been a challenge on the real food front - I simply can’t resist all the goodies that go with Christmas in New Mexico and all our family traditions so I’m paying the price.  Luckily, egg nog is one of our traditions and is very soothing.  I trust that this will heal up over the next week or so and I can get on with dealing with everything else that lung cancer throws at me.

Aside from the throat pain, this is being a most wonderful Christmas for me.  I am surrounded by my family, enjoying traditions that I’ve been away from for almost twenty years as well as all the traditions I’ve established with my children in that time.  It would be wonderful without lung cancer, but the lung cancer puts a very special exclamation point to all the beauty and good feelings.  I have no idea whether or not this will be my last Christmas, but it will be very difficult to equal its wonder in years to come if I am so blessed.

So I’m going to go back to the fire and egg nog and family gathered in my sister’s living room and just wallow for a while.  I wish each and every one of you joy and hope in this holiday season.  Rest assured that I am full to overflowing with both.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 25th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Lisa's Journal Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.