The Gray Peach

Yesterday, a lady saw me from behind in a parking lot and said “Oooo! I love your pretty hair!” I didn’t expect someone to be talking to me, so I said, “Pardon me?” and turned around. She repeated herself, but when she saw me from the front, I think I detected her next thought. I believe it was something like, “Wait. That isn’t her hair at all, is it? Oh no! What do I do now?” I just smiled and thanked her . . . and I had to laugh at the thought that if she saw my real hair (I was wearing my red wig), well, my “pretty hair” would never have formed as a thought in her mind.

Yes, I do have hair. It’s about a half inch long (basically, peach fuzz), and it’s completely gray! Yep! I’m in my mid-40s and am completely gray. When we lived in Georgia before, Eric would sometimes lovingly refer to me as his “Georgia Peach.” He now refers to me (still lovingly . . . lucky for him) as “The Gray Peach.” But, at least hair is growing! I am VERY thankful for that.

Of course, I don’t know if I’ll get to keep it for very long. We are heading to MD Anderson in Houston on Sunday to get another opinion of my situation. While I won’t get an official recommendation from my Emory doctor as to whether we should do the stem cell transplant until the first week in October, we talked to my MUSC doctor, and he and Eric thought it best to get an opinion from “the best” in cancer treatment in addition to the Emory doctor’s opinion, just in case they may have different ideas. So, we have been told to expect to be at MDA for up to a week for all the testing they will want to do. I’m not looking forward to the long drive or the pokes, prods, and scans. However, November will mark 20 years that Eric and I have been married, so I’m just going to consider this our anniversary trip. Who needs a dream cruise to Alaska when we get to spend a romantic week visiting a cancer hospital, instead? :-) At least we will get to celebrate over some good Mexican food!

I ask you all to continue to pray for my family, for full healing for me, for the doctors to have wisdom in their recommendations, and for us to have wisdom about which recommendation to follow, in the event the doctors’ opinions vary.

In the meantime, I am in good spirits and am hopeful. When I first found out about the possibility of more and very intense treatments in my near future, and that if I didn’t do those treatments there is a good chance the cancer will return and if so, will likely be incurable, I was not mentally prepared. I sat around for days in disbelief and with a cloud of darkness hanging over me. But my wise and wonderful husband tearfully reminded me that no one is promised another day. So, as long as God gives me breath, I need to live like I’m still alive, not like I’m already dead.

That helped to knock me out of my funk, and I have been focusing the last couple of weeks once again on the gift that each day is. Especially, on this calendar day, when we all remember the terrible events that ended so many unsuspecting lives and forever changed the rest of ours, I am thankful for the gift of today! I pray we will each live like we are alive, whatever our circumstances. As long as we are alive, there is always hope! And once that life is over, if our hope has been in the One who breathes life and conquered death, there is STILL hope!

• “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118:24
• “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
• “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7

Hopeful for all of us!

“The Gray Peach”