Well I think we are starting to see the bulk of the chemo symptoms subside this week. We are hoping for a little normalcy after fighting a hard two week battle of nausea, dehydration, severe head aches, light and sound sensitivity, appetite and taste changes, bone aches, and hair loss… to name a few. Katie has been amazing through all of it, taking every physical discomfort in strides. Chemotherapy is a term that we have always heard in casual conversation but like most things, you never really know the full extent of it until you go through it yourself, or watch a close loved one battle through it. Now we are very sensitive to the term chemotherapy when we hear it being talked about, its almost like when you buy a new car and now you see that make and model of car everywhere on the road. Now when people mention that they are battling cancer or have a loved one receiving chemotherapy treatments, we are very concerned and try to look for opportunities to extend any comfort.
We continue to see the guiding hand of the Lord in all of this. We recently learned that one of our closest and dearest family members was also diagnosed with cancer this past week and will more than likely begin their own round of chemotherapy treatments. Considering that no one on either side of our families has been diagnosed with any aggressive forms of cancer that would require chemotherapy treatments, and that now within two months Katie and one of our family members have been diagnosed, shows that the Lord is aware of the need to have others to “mourn with those that mourn”. Our hearts ache for them. We know now a little more fully why we experience hardship in this life, to lift up others and have empathy.
This past week is yet another example of the kind of selfless service people are capable of. It is hard for me to keep up with all of the experiences we have been having. As you can imagine, money has been a slight worry for us. While currently we have sufficient for our needs, with the looming hospital bills bearing down and the fact that our car has now decided to have problems, my stress level as the provider for the family has been increasing. I recently, through the inspired inquiry of a close friend was able to receive a phone call from a good samaritan that allowed us to possibly secure a vehicle to replace our current “car project”. Like most things lately, I have learned to try to not stress too much about the things that don’t really matter. My wife recently commented that lately “this experience has taught us to see the things that don’t really matter start to drop out of our lives, and the things that really do matter start to come into focus”. I have learned lately that the best way to minister to someone is to take care of the things that don’t really matter, house cleaning, car problems, yard care, meal preparation… get that off their plate and allow the family to focus on the things that really do matter.
This past week Katie and her sister were able to spend some time canning peaches from our backyard, even in the middle of her chemo symptoms, you would never be able to tell she was hurting. I came home early from taking our older boys on an outing and caught Katie cleaning our house and decorating for fall, she was in big trouble, even at the behest of her close family, you can’t keep her down. It has been a frustration for me, but it is also one of Katie’s hallmark qualities that I love about her.
We start another treatment of chemo next Monday, we are excited that this will be round 3 out of 6, starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. We are confident that things are working, we have faith that everything will be all right in the end, its just a tough road to travel. One of my favorite speakers of all time, and an Apostle of the Lord once said “He expects us to pray and trust and be believing and not give up, and not retreat, and not panic, and not jump ship when something doesn’t seem to be going just right. We stay in, we keep working, we keep believing and trusting, following that same path and we will live to fall in His arms and feel His embrace and hear Him say, ‘I told you it’d be okay. I told you it’d be alright.’” –Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
That kind of faith hope and confidence in things we cannot understand fully keeps our family going.
Daniel Spencer Smith 