Earth Day, 3 sisters & toxic chemicals -- signs of life

The day started early when we set out at 6am for Fargo, North Dakota.  That's 45 miles of Wisconsin, 4 1/2 hours across Minnesota, and a leap across the Red River to get to Fargo by noon.  The scenes along the road were pure Earth Day - fields full of deer, an eagle that was enjoying something dead in the road and almost flew into our car as we went by, and all kinds of hawks and birds rejoicing in the absence of snow...just like us!

The reason for our early morning cross-country trip was Kristi, Leann's sister, who was going in for her first chemo "infusion" today.  Third sister, Sandy, met us with our new t-shirts--all in different colors with "Team Kristi" stamped on the front and "Determined" on the back.  (The word "determined" was something that Kristi came up with, independent of all of us, to set her course as she battles this cancer.) So the four of us all walked into the cancer area of the hospital to wait for Kristi and surprise her with our colorful, new "Team" shirts.  

The last part of today obviously centers around the toxic chemicals hinted at in today's title.  This is really the first direct experience that any of us have had with close family members going through cancer treatment and chemotherapy.  They call the combination of drugs that are given to her a "cocktail" for a reason--beginning with an anti-nausea drug and followed by several more substances sent in to kill the cancer cells.  And the final drug was loaded into a pump that she will carry around in a backpack until Thursday.  It's highly toxic so that if something goes wrong with the pump and any part of it leaks, she has a whole list of precautions to avoid getting it on her or her clothes.  And, of course, as soon as she got home she noticed a drip coming from a joint in the tubing.  It was a little tense for a while, but a quick trip back to the ER, and she's all fixed up again.

I guess what amazes me is all the science and research and drug testing that goes into finding out which of these highly toxic substances works best on which cancers and in what combinations, how to best administer it for maximum effectiveness, and the ARMIES of caring medical people around the world who every day are there to help people like our sister Kristi to get the best cancer care and information needed to make these weeks of chemo a path toward healing and wholeness.  

It was a different kind of Earth Day, for sure!  Go Team Kristi!