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(日本語は後に続きます）

The only thing on my calendar was to go to the Christmas Eve church service at 5:30 p.m. Since the afternoon was bright and warm, I took a walk before going to the service, and ate a whole Klondike bar (!) to replenish the calories.

When we arrived at the church at about 5:15, I started feeling a stomach ache!
Oh, no! Not again!! The dumping syndrome snuck up on me, and I could not sit on the pew for no more than a few minutes into the service.

I ended up lying down on the couch in the room behind the sanctuary, listening to the distant sound of choir and reading, and frequently going to the bathroom trying to throw up.

Rats! This has been the story of the year! I over estimate what I can do, then my body tells me “not too fast.”

The only compensation was that the pain did not last more than an hour and a half this time. By the time I was in the car to go home, I was fine, and cooked dinner for the family afterward.

The battle with dumping syndrome seems to go on for a while longer.

**

In the morning I received a call from the woman whom I met at BWH last week. She called me while waiting for her grandchildren to come for the Christmas get-together at her house. Her stage was III, and she was going to have the J-tube inserted on Tuesday.
I hope that she enjoyed the moment!

She also told me that her colleague at work helped her print out all of my blog so far!! There are a few blogs I frequently re-read to get encouragement and to understand where I am in the whole scheme of treatment and recovery. I hope that my blog will become one of those resources for her.

Because she told me that she printed out my blog, I went back to the beginning of my own blog and read a few entries. I am grateful that I kept the blog. There were so many moments I would have forgotten unless I wrote the blog. Reading these entries bring out the moments and emotions vividly.

What a year this has been! I weaved a very rich story this year, which was strange in a way but universal in another, difficult but blessed. Or, should I say that I was meant to weave…