January 31, 2011 - My Heroes

I had a horrible weekend with nausea that just wouldn't stop, but my friend, Janice, suggested alternating Zofran and Phenergan to get ahead of the nausea and keep it at bay. I tried it last night, and it worked! I cut my Phenergan in fourths today to take every few hours --enough to take the edge off but not enough to wipe me out. It may take a few days to get over this treatment, but I am thankful to friends who give me good suggestions to help me like this. I was pretty desperate.

I've mentioned my friend Teresa Albritton Berry here several times, and we have a lot of history together. We traipsed across Europe between our junior and senior years of high school, worked together at her daddy's steakhouse, had sleepovers, shopped together, ate together and laughed and plotted and planned together as we went off to Ouachita where we were roommates. We shared many ups and downs, and although we've been apart geographically for the past 28 years, we have stayed tied emotionally along with a group of about seven other close girlfriends. (And there are stories about each and every one of those girlfriends, too, but we are like the Ya-Yas, and those stories cannot be divulged.)

One thing Teresa and I have shared over the past couple of years that I wish we hadn't, is cancer--she as a caregiver to her husband, David, and me as a breast cancer survivor still in treatment. Today, David lost his battle to cancer, and I am certain beyond certain that he is in heaven rejoicing as I type this.

My cell phone rang this morning while I was sucking on crunchy ice pieces at work, and I saw the name, "Teresa Berry" on the caller ID. I hesitated before answering because I knew Teresa would be telling me David was gone. What I didn't expect to hear from her were strong words of encouragement and hope for me. She told me that she knew how hard the struggle was when chemo caused nausea that was hard to control, because she had witnessed it firsthand. She told me that now, at this time in my life, it was all about me, and to just focus on getting well because I WOULD get well, and that the end was in sight. She also told me as we both cried that she didn't want David's death to discourage me in my journey as she knew it might. She wanted it to spur me on toward the prize at the end--being cancer free.

I thought I knew Teresa, but I never knew she was so strong. She and David are my heroes tonight.