17 DOWN, 18 to go...

Tonight I feel like I am at the top of the mountain and tomorrow we will be going in the other direction. I say that because today was treatment #17 with 18 more to go and tomorrow will be treatment #18 with only 17 more to go!
Sonya should be arriving home about now. I got here about 1pm and was greeted by Cayman in the parking lot. He said, "Welcome Back"! We did find out his real name, but I have already forgotten it and he gets a big kick out of us calling him Cayman. Sam, Sonya, and I hung out in the dining room until it was time to go to radiation. Actually, Sonya said Sam had a good breakfast and lunch and then he went up to get ready for his treatment and he lost most of his lunch. After the treatment we went back to the Hope Lodge and hung out in the dining room again. Then Sam went up to the room and rested a bit while I hung out getting people to sign a card we got for the resident who was in the hospital now. It was very neat to catch up with everyone here and meet the new people. Coach has his brother with him here and I hear he played for the Gators! That is funny to me because Coach is a FSU fan. They are very special people though. After a little while all sorts of people came in from the American Cancer Society in Brandon and started decorating the dining room and bringing in all sorts of food. Sonya was debating whether she should stay or not, but decided she better get back to the house. She did miss a great night, but there will be many more times to come. Pop came down and we all took our spot at the table that was decorated with Christmas decor, a bag of gifts, a necklace of flickering lights, a stuffed animal, candles (that were not lit due to rules of the Hope Lodge), etc. One of the guys from the ACS shared with us that he was a resident on the 4th floor here at the Hope Lodge two years ago and now had the pleasure of coming back to serve. He also said he was going to go and bring something special to those on the 4th floor since they were not allowed to attend the special events downstairs. Most of them on the 4th floor receive bone marrow transplants. Then we got to feast on pork, chicken, mixed vegetables, potatoes, salad, and all sorts of desserts. My favorite was the banana pudding! Pop did stay for all the excitement, but he only drank two cups of Arizona sweet tea (which he really liked). He did tolerate one of his new vanilla flavored carnation drinks. The only good thing about that is that it is 560 calories!
Well, enough for now! Toni