Saturday, February 6, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday, February 5th was my 68th birthday. That is just almost impossible for me to believe. Where have all the years gone? The experiences of this last year have given me a new perspective on age and birthdays. There's an add that the American Cancer Society has on TV that says something about how they are the reason for happy birthdays. I couldn't agree more. I have come to the realization that each birthday is a gift and I'm going to enjoy each one of them. My daughter, Amy, told me that if I had been diagnosed 100 years ago, I probably wouldn't have seen this birthday. That is a scary reality. I think also of how very thankful I am that I found the cancer and went to the doctor as soon as I did. Most breast cancers are slow growing, but mine was an invasive ductal carcinoma which was pretty aggressive, and I keep having nightmares about what if I hadn't gone to the doctor when I did? What if I had waited even a month or two? This cancer could have been a stage 3 or 4 by then, and my chances of survival would be much less.

Anyway, I had a wonderful birthday. I was able to spend time with many of the people who mean the most to me, and I literally ate my way through the day. My sister-in-law, Joan and her daughter, Cynthia, met Pat and me for breakfast at the Village Inn. I had my favorite breakfast of Strawberry Crepes, bacon and hashbrowns. Joan was my brother, Jack's, first wife, and even though they divorced many years ago, we have stayed very close. We're each others "sister", and we see each other a lot.

My daughters Amy and Erin, and my "niece" Lisseth took me to lunch at the Joy Luck restaurant. We had a wonderful visit, and my granddaughter, Callie, age 18 months, was our entertainment. She is such a character. She kept us all laughing. She is learning so many new words, and she is such a social butterfly. She is a joy to be with.

My sweet Paddy took me to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sego Lily. We had a very nice evening, and the food was delicious. I had salmon and Pat had seared ahi tuna. The Sego Lily is in our little town of Bountiful, and has been here for about 4 years now. It's so nice to have a classy restaurant to go to without heading to Salt lake City.

I didn't get to do any shopping, and our friends Jan and Jerry Burgess cancelled there plans to fly up from California to help me celebrate because I wound up having to have a drain put back into my abdomen. The one drain that hadn't been removed came out on its own about three weeks ago, and I started retaining fluid. Dr. Agarwal tried to aspirate it three different times and couldn't, so they reinserted a drain. Now I'm dragging this thing around. This is a lot different than the drains I had after the surgery. This one even has a place where I have to flush it out twice a day with a syringe of saline solution. It's not very comfortable and no matter how I try, I can't really disguise or hide it. They won't take it out until there is less than 10cc's being drained on a daily basis for several days. I think Dr. Agarwal was worried about an infection, so I'm glad they did this, but it really does feel like a step backward. The recuperation from this surgery has been a lot slower than I expected. Most of the problems I've had are with the abdomen. I've decided that anyone who has a tummy tuck just for cosmetic purposes is crazy. I'd do sit-ups constantly before I would do this.

Well, I've blathered on enough for tonight. I had a great birthday and I pray this year will be a good one. I will keep a positive attitude, and I will attempt to laugh a lot. "A good sense of humor cures almost all of life's ills."

Sunday, January 3, 2010

2010 - Onward and Upward!

January 3, 2010!!! Today is my son, Mark's 26th birthday! That is difficult to compute. He is my youngest and my only son. How did the time fly by so quickly? He's really becoming a great young man and a very independent soul. It took him a while to figure out what he wanted to do in life, but now he'll graduate with a BA degree in photography this spring. He already has a blog and a business sight set up on the internet and gets hits from all over the world. I hope he will be successful in his chosen field.

I saw Dr. Agarwal this last Tuesday, and I got rid of two of my drains. I still have one that doesn't want to quit. This reminds me of last year when I had one drain from my mastectomy that would not quit. The doctor finally just took it out when it was time for my chemotherapy. Dr. Agarwal seemed to think everything else was going well. I'm still on Ibuprophen a couple of times a day, and the main pain I have is in my abdomen. Everyone said that would be the most difficult part, and it is. I'm still walking very slowly and I can't stand up completely straight. I can't pick up anything heavier than five pounds. So, Pat has taken on all the heavy work.

My goal for the month of January, besides recuperating, is trying to get some of the stuff purged from our closet and kitchen that we just don't use anymore and is just taking up space that we don't have. It amazes me how quickly stuff piles up that seems so important to keep at the time, then just sits there.

I also plan to do some reading while I recuperate. My daughter, Amy, gave me the Sarah Palin book for Christmas, so I'm going to read that, and the book that my Book Club chose for this month. It's nice to have some times when I have to stay close to home and just relax.

The first decade of the new century has come and gone. I still remember ringing in 2000, and now it's 2010. So much has changed in all of our lives. 9/11/01 was and is the most devastating event I can remember in my life, and when I think of how it has changed all of our lives, it is frightening. I pray that we, as Americans, will never forget what happened on 9/11, and will realize we are at war with people who hate us and our way of life, and will do whatever needs to be done to destroy us. We must remain vigilant and stay strong against this evil. I pray that this new decade will be the one in which we defeat this enemy, and we can once again live in peace and safety.

Okay, I've given my lecture for the year. May 2010 be a good, healthy and happy year for all of us.