amendment - since you all are so nice and want to help...

see below for the third request

WOW! The comments and emails are so great. Thank you. I am addicted to my blog. I run over to the computer all the time to see what new and cheery comment someone has left. 

I'm back to normal today. All that's bothering is the skin on my face. Does anyone know what cream I can use? I have tried Lubriderm and Uremol and both sting like crazy. I've coated my face with vaseline, which feels fine, but has a greasy look, as you can imagine. 

So many of you have offered to help that I would like to give you something to do. Call it a "Friendship Registry", if you will. You know how it is when you get married? You make a list and people actually buy you the items for which you ask? Well, I guess I have certain rights now and I am going to ask for a few things. 

First, I would like each of you to email meyour very favourite recipe. I will post them for everyone to enjoy. I love to cook and to try new stuff. If you are close by, you can make up a meal and bring it over. Spicy, exotic, homestyle, or take out, we are not fussy at all (Christa, how about Swiss Chalet?). If you are far away, remember that Canada Post will deliver almost anything. I have even had cookies sent to me from Brazil. They took awhile to get here, but they were still very yummy. 

Secondly, I would like a picture of everyone who reads this. Just get someone to snap a photo of you and send it to me. Let me know if you're OK with me making a collage of all my friends to post here. I would love to see you all, everyday. 

Thirdly, I think that if I'm going to go through chemo and all the crummy side effects, then you guys should have to do something too. So, here's what I would like - Choose something that you would like to do in order to improve your life. I know that some of you have already told me of changes you are making that will lead to improve your health - a new yoga class, walking every day on the treadmill, but it could be anything. Maybe you will go back to school, make contact with a long-lost friend, or improve your relationship with your children. Choose something that you will be able to look back on years from now and be glad that you did it. Choose something that will make your life better and make you happier. You can share it with me, or not, but in May, when I'm finished chemo, I hope that all of you will be smiling, for me, and for yourselves.

Thank you again for putting up with my bad mood.

Oh yeah - Happy Rabbie Burns Day. After watching Rosalie's and Evelynne's soccer games (both won, scoring a goal a piece), we went downtown to a specialty foods shop and tried some haggis. Here's a fitting poem by "The Bard". Just replace "toothache" with "cancer"!

Address To The Toothache

My curse upon your venom'd stang,
That shoots my tortur'd gums alang,
An' thro' my lug gies mony a twang,
Wi' gnawing vengeance,
Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang,
Like racking engines!

When fevers burn, or argues freezes,
Rheumatics gnaw, or colics squeezes,
Our neibor's sympathy can ease us,
Wi' pitying moan;
But thee-thou hell o' a' diseases-
Aye mocks our groan.

Adown my beard the slavers trickle
I throw the wee stools o'er the mickle,
While round the fire the giglets keckle,
To see me loup,
While, raving mad, I wish a heckle
Were in their doup!

In a' the numerous human dools,
Ill hairsts, daft bargains, cutty stools,
Or worthy frien's rak'd i' the mools, -
Sad sight to see!
The tricks o' knaves, or fash o'fools,
Thou bear'st the gree!

Where'er that place be priests ca' hell,
Where a' the tones o' misery yell,
An' ranked plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu' raw,
Thou, Toothache, surely bear'st the bell,
Amang them a'!

O thou grim, mischief-making chiel,
That gars the notes o' discord squeel,
Till daft mankind aft dance a reel
In gore, a shoe-thick,
Gie a' the faes o' Scotland's weal
A townmond's toothache!