Mary Jenkins

You may think you've heard of MJ but I'm not talking about Michael Jordan. No, I'm talking about Mary Jenkins. Mary Jenkins is a big part of our lives now.

We’d been thinking of names for my ileostomy bag. Poo poo bag was just getting too old. I would be outside with Halle and she would be playing with the kids and then she would say to the kids, “Hey, do you want to see my dad’s poo poo bag?”

Well I would tell her that it is a secret and that I can’t show it to anybody, mostly because I don’t want the kids to all start throwing up on our grass. Or I don’t want to explain it to them. Yes children, the inside of my body is sticky out of my tummy. Yes, children that is fecal matter in a bag. No, I don’t poo like normal people, this is how I do it. It would just be a sad strange discussion with little kids.

So I was playing with Halle and Lily downstairs when I asked Halle, “Halle, what should we name my poo poo bag?”

She replied, “Hmm, Mary Jenkins.”

I busted out laughing and then she did too. I’ve tried many times to figure out where in the world she learned the name Mary Jenkins but we have no clue where she got it from.

Cancer update: Yep, if you haven’t heard, I’m still doing the cancer thing. It’s like it’s a part of me now or something.

I’m on my third chemo treatment. The first and second one were pretty spread out because my immune system was too weak to handle the chemo drugs. So we waited, and it was awesome. I finally started to feel like myself. I was eating more normally and starting to gain weight. Plus, eating didn’t make me feel sick like it used to. Things were great.

But of course, my weak body would muster up enough strength and produce some white blood cells and we were back to chemo. From now on though, since my immune system is pretty slow and weak they are going to give me a shot after every treatment. It is called Neulasta and it is expensive. One little shot costs $6K! Thanks insurance for picking that up for us.

My chemo side effects are weird and annoying but there is an end to the madness so I’ve just got to keep pushing on through it.

My taste buds have died or changed so much. Everything tastes so much different and there is a horrible after taste. Things that should clearly taste wonderful do not taste that way at all. And I don’t know if it’s linked to this but my tongue is white. Let the tongue scraping begin.

My throat is so sensitive, especially to cold things. If I put anything cold down my throat it kills and makes me start to gag. It really makes eating awesome.

The cold sensitivity doesn’t end there. My hands touch anything that is below room temperature and they start to tingle. Even if I go outside and it is warm but there is a cool breeze, the tingling comes. So I’ve been wearing some gloves to protect them. I may not be able to save a colon, but I can save some hands.

The nausea is pretty bad and I have to force myself to eat. I’m trying to eat more fruits and vegetables but I mostly end up just eating whatever will stay down.

It sounds pretty bad and for the most part it is. But I’m so glad there is something that I can do to make sure that I see my kids grow up and I get to grow old with Megan. So let’s do this 9 more times and then let’s move on with things.

The letters MJ mean a lot to me. Mary Jenkins is saving my life and I've always loved Michael Jordan.  As the commercials have been saying about Michael Jordan's flu game, “You win from within.”