My amazing family!!!

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.  ~George Santayana

My family is SOOOOOO amazing!!  I don’t even know where to begin.  As you all know, I’m up here in Maine – at the home of my wonderful parents with my totally awesome sister – to celebrate Freeland’s 85^th birthday and the end of my 11 months of breast cancer treatment, the start of a new year, and all good things.  I’ll tell you about the trip up here in a minute, but first I have to tell you something else.  There were going to be 17 of us here yesterday, which is so totally amazing.  But, on Friday night, Brenda (my beautiful niece) arrived at the door……..with her parents, Jeff and Wendy (my wonderful brother and sister-in-law)!!!!!!  They flew in from Oregon for the big celebration, totally unbeknownst to Nancy and me, and we were SOOOO surprised and so ecstatic!!  Wendy is also a breast cancer survivor and can totally relate to the journey I have been on this past year.  Well, adding Jeff and Wendy to the “guest list” was just a really wonderful surprise.  On Saturday morning, the house really came alive when so many wonderful others of my family arrived – stepmom Shirley, stepsister Becky and her husband George, stepsister Penny and her husband Zig and their son Abe, stepbrother Stuart and his wife Donna and their daughters Emma, Delia, and Lily, and Emma’s friend, Jill.  It was really awesome to all be together, and we had such a GREAT day!  We only wished the rest of the family could have been here with us. 

Now let me tell you about the NEXT surprise, if I can do so without crying!  We were all sitting around the living room getting caught up on each other’s stories, chatting, visiting, enjoying each other’s company, etc. when Nancy “called the meeting to order.”  She gave an incredibly touching and moving and heartfelt speech – that I totally wish I had recorded, but I had no idea this was going to happen – about the journey I had been on for the past year and about how everyone wished they could have helped me more or do some of the chemotherapy for me or taken some of the pain and stress away, etc.  (They all helped me more than they know….with all the love and support and good wishes and positive thinking and cards, emails, gifts, etc…..as did ALL of my family and ALL of my friends).  Anyway, Nancy then presented me with a HUGE card filled with messages of love from family and friends.  They had emailed the messages to Nancy, and she printed out each one and glued them to the inside of the card.  It is so beautiful!!!  And on the inside of the card, there was a beautiful purple envelope (purple is my new favorite color; the card is purple, too!) that said “Open Me.”  I followed the instructions and opened it and found a big beautiful check inside!  I didn’t have my glasses on, but I could see 4 (yes, FOUR) digits before the 2 zeroes at the end – meaning the check was in the 4 figures!  I squinted really hard, and it looked like $1800 to me, and I was TOTALLY blown away!!!  But Penny leaned over and said, “That says $7800!”  OMG!!!!  I could NOT believe it!!  I was dumbfounded and speechless!  I honestly couldn’t speak.  And yes, I was crying!  And yes, I am crying now as I write this.  Nancy explained to me that they all…..and MANY others who couldn’t be at the gathering…..had hoped to chip in and raise enough money to meet my deductible for me!  My Uncle John in Arizona played a big role in this, too, by bringing up the idea with Nancy and Mom and by raising funds on “his side” of the family.  You have a heart of gold, Uncle John! 

The whole thing is just so amazing!  I’m still in shock.  The outpouring of love (and money!) is beyond anything I could ever imagine!  Obviously, they not only met my deductible; they far surpassed it!  And they all said they want Kenny and me to take a trip and do something fun with the “extra” money, which we will definitely plan on doing!  I can’t believe I don’t have to worry about my deductible this year – a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders.  And I can’t believe there is enough money left over for us to take a really nice trip.  I couldn’t have made this journey without Kenny, and he has been by my side every step of the way, so it is going to be awesome to be feeling so good and go somewhere really special……compliments of my incredible family and friends.

I need to take a little break here and compose myself.  The tears are flowing, and everything is a big blur right now.  I’ll be back a little later.

Okay, I’m back now, but it’s the next day (Monday).  I did pull myself together yesterday, but I just couldn’t write anymore.  I have to admit that I cried myself to sleep last night.  Don’t get the wrong impression; I’m not a big huge crybaby, but I’m just so overwhelmed by all the love.  I don’t know how to explain it.  They weren’t tears of sorrow or anger; they were tears of happiness, joy, love, amazement, gratitude…..

The party continued on in full force for the rest of the afternoon and evening on Saturday – so much love and camaraderie in the house.  We played ping pong, we went for a nice walk in 20-degree weather, we drank excellent wine that the Bodycoats and Ziarniks brought, we took zillions of keepsake photos, we had a delicious lunch followed later on by delicious appetizers – compliments of Mom.  And then Mom and Freeland treated us to a superb dinner of lobster and steamers (and Mom made a big pot of beef stew and veggie chili for those who didn’t want lobster – who doesn’t like lobster??!!) with 2 delicious Mom-made birthday cakes for Freeland’s birthday.  I won’t tell you how many bottles of wine were consumed that day and evening, but we all had a fabulous time together!!  It was a VERY memorable day.

Oh yeah, I was going to tell you about our trip to Maine.  I flew out of Orlando on 1/11 – wearing thigh-high compression stockings on my legs and a compression sleeve on my left arm, combat boots on my feet to deal with snow, and a down jacket in my bag.  I really needed to get out of Orlando with all this “hot gear.”  (Compression stockings and sleeves are nice and warm in cold weather…..but they are also extremely warm in hot weather – i.e., Florida).  We stopped in Baltimore, which is where Nancy got on the plane (she had flown from San Diego that morning).  It was SOOOOO nice to see her walk aboard the plane, and the flight to Manchester went zipping by.  We got in around 6:30 in the evening, picked up our rental car, and checked into the Towne Place Suites.  Then we went to the grocery store and got a couple of salads and some wine and spent a relaxing evening in our room.  When we woke up in the morning, it was a “winter wonderland” outside – so beautiful with the whole landscape covered in fluffy white snow, and it was still coming down like crazy.  The only drawback was that we had to DRIVE  in the “white stuff” for 4 hours to get to Mom and Freeland’s house – well, that’s 4 hours on a GOOD day.  We got on the road around 9:00 a.m. after a brief workout in the fitness center at the hotel, and the driving conditions rapidly deteriorated.  Before we even got to Portland (Maine), it had become white-out conditions, and we couldn’t even see where we were supposed to be on the road.  Nancy did a most excellent job of driving and tried to stay behind an 18-wheeler as much as she could – they seemed to be doing the best job of driving.  The speed limit on I-95 was 45 MPH, but we could really only maintain about 35 MPH; on I-295, we could only do 25 MPH.  By the time we reached Portland, the windshield wipers were totally caked with ice and so the windshield was a big huge blur – could hardly see out.  We got off the highway in downtown Portland and had to roll down our windows to try to see where we were going – REALLY scary.  We found a McDonald’s, pulled into the parking lot, and heaved a HUGE sigh of relief to be safely stopped for a little while.  We came to the realization that we could go no further.  So we made a bunch of phone calls, found a motel not too far away, called Mom and Freeland and told them we wouldn’t make it until the next day, and then went and checked into the Residence Inn and didn’t leave for the rest of the day.  First we stopped at the Christmas Tree Shop and picked up 2 decks of cards and a cribbage board!  It continued to snow for the rest of the day, and I think Portland got about 10 inches that day!  We had wanted some snow during our vacation, but we envisioned sitting by the fireplace at Mom and Free’s watching it snow out the window.  Driving in it was NOT in the picture!! 

On Friday (the 13^th!), the roads were plowed and sanded, and we ventured out again.  We met Mom and Free in Camden where they treated us to a delicious lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant for Freeland’s (actual) birthday.  And then we drove the rest of the way to their house after lunch.  It felt so good to finally arrive here! 

I guess I should fill you in on some of the “medical” things that have transpired since I last wrote in my blog…..if I can remember anything…..LOL! 

On January 6^th, I had an appointment with the radiation oncologist and also had to get my INR rechecked.  They are SO nice to me at Space Coast Cancer Center.  When I walked into the waiting room, there must have been 6 other people in there, but they called me back first.  They checked my INR first, and it was 1.8.  Just can never seem to get it in range.  They upped the dose to 6.5 mg and said to recheck it on 1/11 before leaving for Maine.  After they did the INR, they sent me to the radiation waiting room, where another 6 people were waiting – and they called me back first again!  It was my lucky day!  And Karissa told me that when Cathy, the nurse practitioner saw my name on the schedule she was so excited and said, “Oh good!  I can’t wait to see her!”  It made me feel so good.  And Cathy gave me a big hug when she walked into the room!  So nice!  She told me my burns were healing beautifully and I could stop the dreaded soaking! YAY!!!  She said to keep using the Silvadene cream on one small area for a few more days.  Now my burns are totally healed, and I don’t have to do anything to them while I’m here in Maine….or after I get home, for that matter.  I’m done!  And what a marvelous feeling.  I think it took the burns about 3 weeks to heal. 

Kenny says I haven’t stopped smiling since my last day of radiation, and I do believe he’s right!  I feel like a different person.  I feel so good and so happy now that everything is behind me!

By the way, INR stands for International Normalized Ratio.  Several people have asked me that, and I couldn’t remember.  The proper name for the blood test is PT INR; the PT stands for prothrombin time.  The test measures the amount of time it takes for the blood to clot. 

My hair is coming back much better since I had it shaved off again.  In fact, I sometimes even go without head gear now!  I think I had my bandana off for a good part of the party on Saturday.  I still think it looks a little goofy, but I got several compliments on the chic look!

I did have a DEXA scan and chest x-ray at the end of December but can’t remember if I reported on those results.  The DEXA scan revealed that I have osteoporosis in the spine and osteopenia in the hip.  I don’t want to get on yet more drugs, so I’ll be consulting my chiropractor/clinical nutritionist on the best route to go with that.  In fact, he has already given me some good advice – calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, and weight-bearing exercise.  I can’t do the vitamin K yet because of the Coumadin, but hopefully I can do that as soon as I’m done with the Coumadin.

Well, I think perhaps I have rambled on enough for today.  I just want to thank everybody who traveled great distances to be here this past weekend – driving for hours/hundreds of miles, flying from the west coast/thousands of miles – and for making Saturday an awesome celebration!  Thank you to Mom and Freeland for buying my plane ticket(!) and for opening up your home and arms and hearts to 19 people for a day of frivolity and for supplying all the delicious food.  Thank you to everyone who brought beer and wine for the occasion.  Thank you to my most amazing sister for organizing/coordinating the whole event and for putting the beautiful card together, for the incredible speech, and for making this trip with me.  AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR THE HEARTFELT MESSAGES IN THE CARD AND FOR THE EXTREMELY GENEROUS CHECK – FOR MEETING MY DEDUCTIBLE AND WAY BEYOND!!  I am so happy to be a part of this huge, loving, supportive, unbelievable family!  I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for what you all have done for me….and Kenny….now, and during this entire journey.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!  I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

The beautiful snow!

The ugly snow!

Jeff, Nancy, and me -- after Jeff surprised us with his presence!

The Gathering!  Thank you all so much for being here!

Mom and Freeland -- the host and hostess of the magnificent celebration

Nancy giving her awesome speech

My beautiful card

The loving messages inside the card

Shirley and me

Mom, Freeland, Jeff, Nancy, and me

Becky and me

Penny and me

Stuart and Nancy