Laurie White’s Blog

Okay, so last Friday was National Wear Red Day, a day to wear red “to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness.” (From the Wear Red Website, of course.)

And, having a red dress that gets out rarely (it was originally a Pentecost dress, because heaven only knows Pentecost is at least as worthy as Christmas!), I wore it.

And I ended up feeling like a traitor to my disease. I mean, last Friday, I didn’t own anything pink, and after all, that’s the breast cancer color and how dare I wear something for some other disease. I should be bedecked in pink, shouldn’t I? Okay, maybe the almost bald head and carrying around a plastic bag, just in case, might be some sort of indicators that I have some involvement in breast cancer, but still…

Of course, it’s amazing how these woes get answered. The women of St. Francis presented me with a prayer shawl Sunday. It’s the first they knit as a group and every time I pull it around me, I feel the love and prayers. And it’s pink and it’s perfect. And it seems to go with everything. At least, when I really need it, I don’t care about how it goes with my outfit…I’m sure it goes perfectly.

And since chemo has gone differently this time, I do need it. I hardly felt the effects of treatment for the first 4 days, but on the 5th day, I crashed, hard. I couldn’t make it through church and was in bed before Charlie even knew I was home. Day 6 is usually stronger, but was rough. Today is day 7 and I woke up feeling better, but it didn’t last. Okay, so I expected to be 100%. I’m never 100% any more and should be thrilled that I really do feel better, but again, that would involve a reasonable person.

And really, is someone who sees a dress as disloyalty all that reasonable?