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."