Sunday, February 26, 2012

Yesterday was my cancerversary

Manifesto from holstee.com.  Thought it was worth sharing.....

Yesterday was my one-year “cancerversary.”  It was one year since my bilateral mastectomy, and Dr. Sprawls told me that would be my cancerversary date – the day the cancer left my body.  So now I can say that I’m one year out!  And I’m happy to report that yesterday slid on by without me even thinking about it; it didn’t even dawn on me until this morning that my cancerversary date came and went with no horrible feelings, no “funk, no depression.  It was totally uneventful.  And I can’t wait for the day when I can say “I’m 10 years out,” and “I’m 20 years out!”  Woo hoo!  THAT is something to look forward to! 

Kenny and I celebrated our birthdays last week, and had a wonderful time.  My birthday (the 18th) was very relaxing.  We went to some yard sales in the morning, Kenny worked on the boat for a little while, I did some “retail therapy,” and we came back to the RV to enjoy a dinner of snow crab claws at our picnic table overlooking the Banana River.  Very delightful.  On Sunday, we went up to Savannah for a few days – to celebrate Kenny’s birthday with some very dear friends of ours, Sue and Donn, from our Key Largo days.  They are now certified personal trainers in Sag Harbor (NY) but were in Virginia for a conference.  After the conference, they were going to drive to Merritt Island to visit us – a 900-mile drive!  And then drive home to Long Island – a 1200 mile drive!  And they would only have one day here with us.  Now THOSE are some dear friends!  Anybody willing to drive 2100 miles to spend a day with us……well, that’s just amazing…..and makes us feel so loved.  Anyway, we offered to ease their “pain” a little bit by meeting them in Savannah, thereby knocking 600 miles off their 2100 miles.  They were very thankful, and we had a wonderful visit together and a splendid time in Savannah – a very fun place to spend a few day.  AND, we were able to spend TWO days together (and 3 nights) since they didn’t have to drive as far.  We drove out to Isle of Hope and Tybee Island one day, walked around the streets and shops of Tybee Island, and had lunch at the Crab Shack (a bit of a tourist trap but fun).  Then we walked down to
River Street
(the historic district), which was a nice walk from our hotel.  Took the free boat ride across the Savannah River over to the Westin where we had a glass of wine and enjoyed the view of
River Street
from across the river.  Took the boat back across and walked around the streets and shops a bit.  Had dinner at an Irish pub that Kenny and I had been to many times before, when we were in the Merchant Marine and stopped in Savannah on various ships.  We vowed to return to the Irish pub the next night – for Kenny’s birthday – to listen to the live music…..but never quite made it.  On Kenny’s birthday (the 21st), we started out the day with the complimentary breakfast at the hotel.  And then we had over an hour of (complimentary!) personal training time with Donn.  He showed us all kinds of great exercises and gave us rubber tubing and stretchy bands of varying resistances so we can continue with the exercises at home, which we both need and are very much looking forward to.  Very cool!  Then we took one of the trolley rides around town, learning all kinds of history and enjoying the ride.  Although we had done it before, you learn new stuff every time…..or is it that you forget what you learned last time, so it’s ALL new??!  Nevertheless, it was great fun.  And then Sue and Donn treated us to a delicious (and very memorable) birthday dinner at a really nice restaurant called Boar’s Head Grill on
River Street
.  Sure did hate to see our 2 days with them come to an end the next morning; hated to say goodbye.  We really had a good time.

Our doggies had a great time, too.  We left them with our good friends, Debbie and Bill, and their St. Bernard, Maisey.  They always have a good time at their house.  And they even had a bonus this time – Debbie’s Mom is visiting from New Jersey, and the dogs loved her…..cuddled up with her on the couch and slept in her bed every night!  Sure is nice to be able to go away and know they’re in good hands. 

Getting back to reality on Thursday was a bit of a drag.  Actually, that’s quite an understatement.  It was a REAL drag!  I had 12 hours of typing (transcription) to do on Thursday.  On Friday, Saturday, and today I was buried up to my eyeballs in paperwork; a.k.a, taxes.  I had to calculate the mileage for the 121 medical appointments I had in 2011 – wow! What a job!  I had to remember which park/campground we were living in at the time of each appointment and then figure out the mileage.  3832 miles for the 121 appointments!!  Eeeeh gads!  Ya know?  I think I MIGHT have had 10 medical appointments in the 20 years prior to 2011 (as in, the total 20 years), so it’s really hard for me to fathom I had 121 in one year!  And actually, it’s even more than that because there were days when I would have 2 or 3 appointments at the same place on the same day; i.e., blood work, chemo, followup with doctor, etc.  Mind boggling.  So now that I’ve gotten THAT part of the taxes done, I’m moving on to entering a year’s worth of receipts into Quicken.  Yup, you read that right – a YEAR’s worth.  I did nothing last year…..well, except work and traipse around the county to 121 medical appointments and KICK CANCER IN THE BUTT!!  Now I have the monumental task of trying to sort through this bloody, sky-high pile of receipts.  Okay, I’ll stop complaining about that.  It’ll miraculously get done somehow……  Hopefully before next weekend when Mom and Free and Nancy arrive in Florida!!  I’m SOOOO excited about that!  Mom and Free are renting a condo on the beach for a month – something they’ve never done before – so it’s going to be a lot of fun!  Sister Nancy is coming for 9 days – sure do wish she could stay the whole month, but she has other commitments.  And I’ll be spending as much time as I can at the condo.  Fun times ahead!! 

Let me touch on the only 2 pertinent “medical” issues at the moment.  I’m sad to report that the “eye reaming” only helped for a couple of days.  Now I’m back to tears constantly dripping off my cheeks and annoying the heck out of me.  I go back to the ophthalmologist on Friday, so we’ll see what he says.  I suspect he won’t be too anxious (nor will I) to do any more reaming since it didn’t really help much at all.  Don’t know if he’ll recommend surgery or not.  I’ll keep you posted on that.

The other “issue” is my INR, which I’m happy to report has still been staying WNL (within normal limits).  They kindly let me skip a week last week when we were in Savannah.  I asked them if it would be okay to skip it for a week because it’s a hassle getting it done out of town, and they obliged.  So tomorrow I’ll return to Space Coast Cancer Center for the INR check – keeping my fingers crossed for happy numbers.

I guess I’ve done enough rambling for now.  I’m no longer finishing my blog posts with “You know you’re a cancer patient when…..” because I am NO LONGER a cancer patient!!  YAY!!!  I am DONE with cancer!!!  Double YAY!!!   Oh sure, I still have plenty of follow up visits to go to, etc., but it will all be a piece of cake compared to last year – with the biopsy, the diagnosis, the surgery, the chemo, and the radiation.  That is all part of the past now – it’s history – and I’m moving on.  Life is good and I’m feeling wonderful!  So happy to be alive!  Loving life!  And I love you all!!!!!  Sending millions of hugs to everybody!
My birthday dinner


Campground wildlife -- poor guy looks a little beat up


Dinner in Savannah


Boat ride in Savannah


Sue, Kenny, and Donn at City Market


Kenny, Sue, and Donn with a bronze guy

Saturday, February 11, 2012

One year since Dx!

Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.  – Unknown

Yup, it has been one year since my diagnosis.  I was in a bit of a “funk” last week, and I think I finally figured out what was bothering me.  February 1st was the one-year anniversary of my biopsy, and February 2nd was the one-year anniversary of receiving “the bad news.”  I think I was subconsciously (and also a little consciously) reliving those days of a year ago, and they were truly 2 of the worst days of my life.  On a happier note, 2/1/12 was also our 28th wedding anniversary.  Although the day was somewhat clouded by my thoughts of the previous year, Ken and I went out for a really nice dinner at the Atlantic Ocean Grille on the Cocoa Beach Pier.  We like to go for the early bird special because it’s a lot less expensive, we beat the crowds, and we can almost always get a table by the window overlooking the ocean.  The waitress asked us if we were locals or from another state.  We said we were locals, and I made the “mistake” of saying we were just out to have a nice dinner on our anniversary.  She wished us a Happy Anniversary, and that was the end of that…..until we finished our delicious meal…..and she brought us a “to-die-for” decadent piece of chocolate cake with a beautifully decorated plate (see photo).  What were we to do?!  Send it back?  Hah!  So we ate every last bit of it, and it was heavenly.  I really do try hard to avoid chocolate, caffeine, sugar, flour, etc., but sometimes I just have no will power.  That was one of those times. 

I’m very happy to report that the “funk” only lasted a couple of days.  Now I’m back to feeling very happy to be alive and loving life again! 

Our good friends, Debbie and Bill, treated us to another anniversary celebration at a different restaurant on the Pier last Friday night, which was great fun.  Delicious food, great live music, and wonderful company – a fun evening. 

I’ve been trying hard to keep up a good exercise regimen.  On really good days, I bike for half an hour, walk for 35 minutes, and play racquetball for half an hour – yup, 95 minutes of exercise.  One day was actually 108 minutes because I did some extra biking that day.  It was awesome.  Sadly, I don’t manage to find the time to do that every day, but I do try to do SOMETHING every day….even if it’s just the 35-minute walk.  Hopefully we’ll get out kayaking again one of these days, too.

Yesterday I went to see the ophthalmologist about my watery eyes.  After waiting an hour and a half(!) to see the doctor – could he be Dr. Always Late, II? – he told me my tear ducts were totally shriveled up and closed off (thanks to chemo).  He said he could TRY to ream them out, but he couldn’t guarantee it would work, although he thought it was worth a try.  Frankly, the thought of him sticking “reamers” in my eyes didn’t excite me too much, but I bucked up and said, “Bring it on.”  SOOOO, he used 4 different reamers of varying sizes, starting with the smallest one first and working his way up.  Needless to say, it's quite uncomfortable having something jammed in your eye and reamed around.  But I think it actually helped.  They seem to be watering less.  We'll see.  I have to go back in 3 weeks, and he might do some more reaming.  We'll see how my eyes are doing at that point and go from there.  Surgery is another option – not stents as Dr. Sprawls had suggested – but going in and clipping the tear ducts to open them up, but he said he really didn’t want to do that if he can avoid it.  I concur.  On a different note, I also asked him if there was any type of surgery that might help my damaged right eye (from when I stuck an ice pick in it at the tender age of 4……my poor mother…….).  He said he thought there probably was, but he would refer me to a tertiary center because it would be a pretty labor intensive operation.  I might look into that down the road.  It would be kind of fun to have vision in both eyes – it would probably improve my peripheral vision and depth perception, too. 

On a sad note, a high school classmate of mine, Astronaut Janice Voss, passed away this past week from breast cancer.  She was a really delightful person and very brilliant.  And way too young (55) to die from breast cancer.  On another sad note, the sister of a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer this past week.  It hits me so hard when I hear of people “I know” receiving the bad news or passing away from the disease.  It’s more than my emotions can handle. 

Ken and I have been thinking about where we might go for our “special trip,” thanks to the generosity of my big huge, loving, generous family and friends of the family!  We’re leaning toward St. John, a beautiful tropical island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  It’s a place we had hoped to go for our 25th anniversary a few years ago, but the economy was really bad then, and we just didn’t want to spend the money.  So we went to Applebee’s for dinner instead!  Now we have so many things to celebrate – our 28th anniversary was last week, both of our birthdays are next week, and the biggest celebration is the end of my cancer treatments and being alive and loving life again! 

Well, it’s time for me to call it a day.  Feeling very tired today.  Maybe yesterday’s “eye reamings” wore me out…..that, and working on the taxes today.

So, good night, one and all.  Hugs to everybody!    

Our decadent anniversary dessert!