Today is my first day of no chemo in approx. 24 weeks. Whew! I feel so free! I went into work to clean my co-workers teeth (they’ve been sooooo patient while I’ve been dealing with this! Shout out to my peeps at Trade Winds Dental, the best dental care team in the world!) then my parents took me out for a special lunch, just the three of us. Yummy! Gumbo’s on the Georgetown square. My favorite tarragon chicken and the best chocolate custard I’ve ever had! So nice to spend time with them on a no-chemo day!!!!
Halloween was a hoot. I wanted to boys to remember Halloween, not sick mama, so we first planned a pumpkin carving party Saturday night with our new cul de sac peeps , neighbors, old time peeps and family. It was chaos and the finale was an outside movie with a projector on our garage. My neighbor and I decided Young Frankenstein would be a hoot for everyone to watch together. And it was. For us…. I don’t think anyone else enjoyed it by we laughed and laughed. Then I got tired and went to bed in the middle of the movie, right after all the kids realized they didn’t get it and went off to play. Ahhh well. Such is life with cancer girl J
Halloween night was so much fun! The boys wanted a Lord of the Rings theme, with Logan as Legolas (my coworker thought I was calling him a leg-less elf and was very confused…), Parker as Gimli the dwarf, then they wanted me to be Gollum… I told “my precious” children hell no, but did dye my hair blue and dressed as the tooth fairy. Again the cul de sac peeps had the right idea: we put all our candy in several huge bowls, lined up chairs, brought out the wine, and sat while all the children came to us. Did I mention we sent off our own children with the dads while we manned the fort? I felt it was well done. Then I got tired and went to bed.
This weekend is the Race for the Cure and we’ve got tons of people going. My work started a team, The Balled and the Beautiful, a delightful play on words because yes, we dohave one man working with 4 lovely women, and both he and I are, in fact, rather bald. Perhaps slightly in poor taste, lol, with most people just thinking we cannot spell. Anyhoo, should be fun and more importantly, we’ve raised a lot of money and awareness for our cause. Thanks team!!!
Me? I’m doing great. I don’t know how long it takes to get the rotten effects of chemo out of my system, but I keep telling my body that I feel great and I think it believes me most of the time. My biopsy on my thyroids was not cancerous, whew, and while the nodules are ginormous and they don’t know what to make of them, they are. not.. cancer… which is good by me. I will see a specialist soon. Because I googled my large, dark spot on my leg, I was convinced I had melanoma, but that biopsy turned out fine too. I go next week to have a spot on my eye biopsied at their recommendation and see my surgeon to discuss the final plans for the surgeries at the end of the month.
Thanksgiving is at my aunt's house in Bastrop again this year because a. she loves it, and b. I’m lazy, and c. we LOVE going there! We’ll come back that Friday, get a Christmas tree and decorate the house like crazy for Christmas. The boys need it for normalcy and also we didn’t do it last year because we moved over Christmas. So I plan on over-the-top Christmas decoration weekend then surgery on Monday. Mama says she will stay and take care of me, goody, so I should plan my menu accordingly. Mom? I think I want/need beef stroganoff and corned beef and cabbage. So surgery the 26th, I take off December from work and have Christmas, go back to work in January and start the 6 weeks of radiation. That’s the plan.
I love you all and all the support. My cousin send me the most wonderful card with a great picture of mom and me when I took her to the Virgin Islands decades ago, where we were still young and pretty, and then she also sent me the most beautiful picture of her mother. I write this with tears in my eyes because that woman is gone now and I will never get the chance to tell her how much her support and phone calls and numerous letters meant to me. She had sent me a package filled with thank you cards she had collected over the years from her own battle with breast cancer. She told me that people like to get them better than just an email. I’ve almost used them all up. And you know what? She was right. I miss that I will never get the chance to know her better, but watch out Audra! You are on my radar now and WE WILL NOT LOSE TOUCH AGAIN!
I cherish my family and friends so much. Everything you all do, no matter how small, I appreciate. I may not make a big deal of it, but going with me to chemo, writing my blogs, all the cards, emails, facebook comments, little gifts, my pretty little butterfly, the hats, scarves, crosses, all the post-chemo dinners and even just your thoughts and prayers. They all helped me through this. We still have a ways to go, but I am ready for what comes next.
Oh! And I’m so excited that I get to do my Black Belt boot camp and test before surgery! I have no idea what my restrictions will be after boobs are gone, so I am going to rock star my test! At least in my own mind….
1 comment:
Shermance. You are quite the good narrator. So proud of you and so happy that you've gotten thru the last months, humor intact. That will never change! You are inspiring to me. Keep up the good work. My thoughts are with you. Much love. -Potter:-)
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