Ned Henry February 11, · nedhenry.medium.com
11:30 AM — Woke up late. My foot is still throbbing, Don’t know what to say. Don’t want to write just to write something.
3 PM — Today’s selfie. Still have some hair. Chemo tomorrow. Jack is driving from Chicago and is near Indianapolis now so he has a long drive ahead. He cdecided to drive to keep us Covid safe. We both tested negative this week. He felt like the flight would potentially expose him to Covid at the airports, plane ride and car rental buses on both ends to risk it. He should make it in to Atlanta late tonight and he will stay at a hotel 2 blocks from my house. It will be so good a have some family with me for next couple of days. I know I haven’t written much lately and I now found out that there are a couple of folks who do look at this every day to see how I am. My foot is still numb and painful and I am fatigued. Energy has been so low lately that all I want to do is sit around and watch TV or listen to music. They say fatigue will get worse as I get further into treatements. Not looking forward to that. I have 4 more to go. Not sleeping well due to my foot so I feel sleepy all the time it seems. Never feel well rested and ready and raring to go. Cancer is just not a fun thing to deal with. I had no idea before what folks go through with this disease. I have new respect and compassion for anyone who goes through fighting this disease.
Yunus didn’t show up for tutoring yesterday. I don’t know if they are going to kick him out of the program and give me a new kid to tutor or what. I hate to think of a 14 year old refugee who grows up in this country just to wash dishes his whole life. He needs to become more mature fast so he can begin to see that he is building the rest of his life NOW. He’s been in the states for some 6 years now, so his English is good but he must take school more seriously if he has any kind of chance to build a life for himself. I will be here for him if he calls or contacts me, but it doesn’t look like he will be staying in the tutoring program. He’s used up his last chance a few times now. I wanted this to be a triumph for both of us. Or at least to be able to help him a little bit more on his way in this new land. So sad. He’s just another kid who will get lost in the shuffle. And when I think of all the refugees all over the world, mankind’s inhumanity to mankind creating political or religious persecution it all just seems so hopeless. And I really have no concept of the depth and breadth of this reality for so many people. My foot is cold but I sit here in a nice warm house with a roof over my head while I watch the cold rain through the window. How lucky am I to have just one little problem with my foot. And to have doctors that will try to make it better.
10 PM- Jack is still about an hour North of Atlanta. He’ll get in and go straight to the hotel and check in and crash. We’ll see each other in the morning. It will be great to have him with me during the chemo tomorrow. What a long day driving for him just to stay Covid safe for both of us. I’ll get back to wanting to write more in the coming days. For now though, I’ll just let it come as it comes.