Bloom Where You Are Planted

There are two reasons for today's post title.

First, the literal reason:

THIS FINALLY HAPPENED!  We have lived in this house for 3 years now, and every time we were going to start tackling the landscaping (the fact that there was none), something else would take priority or some other life event would interfere.  All winter, we were planning that we would get the front of the house planted this spring ... and then it seemed like we would be putting it off yet again.

But after I felt well at the end of the first cycle, I was hopeful that we would still be able to make this work.  I made sure to have my plant list ready so that we could get started as soon as I was feeling well again.  So this past weekend, we took a trip to the nursery on Saturday and picked out 3 fothergillas and 1 viburnum (pictured), 5 paw paws, and 1 sweetbay magnolia.  Then we spent most of Sunday working in the yard and got everything in but the paw paws.  We still have a long way to go, but this is almost more of a symbolic victory at this point, and I am pleased with how it looks.

Second, the metaphorical reason:  I received several beautiful gifts this weekend (thanks Patty and Family Strides!), one of which was a little journal with that phrase on it.  For whatever reason, that is really resonating with me right now.  (Maybe because of the spring planting? I don't know.)  This is not the ground in which I would have chosen to be planted, but I am beginning to embrace it.  There are riches in this soil, despite the rocks.  Granted, this is much easier to say at the moments when I am feeling well as opposed to the moments when I am lying on the floor crying because this feels too hard and too unfair (that was the previous weekend).  But still, I think that I am starting to see how I can bloom not in spite of this, but because of this.

If that wasn't enough positivity for you, I've got more good news.  All of my counts were normal again at my nadir visit last Thursday, so they've decided that I don't need to keep having them.  That means fewer blood draws and fewer appointments that I have to go to, which is a big plus.  It also means that my body is continuing to handle treatment well.

The second round has just been all around better than the first.  I know I only really have two data points now (which makes a straight line!), but it looks like there is a pattern emerging that will hopefully hold (or improve) for the rest of treatment:  week 1 is pretty much a wash, week 2 is okay but tired, and week 3 is mostly normal.  I can handle this.

Round 3 starts on Tuesday.  Almost halfway done.