Giving Thanks..

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in US. Mostly because it doesn't involve presents, brings families together and involves good food. It is also a good time to contemplate what we have been blessed with in life. As a family we had so much to be thankful for this year, but mostly for being all together around the table, being healthy!

The day actually started out a little rough. The broiler unit in the oven had been out for months, and Dan had not been able to put a new one up to that day. So on Thursday morning at around 8:30 am, as he was trying to pull out the broken broiler unit out, there was a short circuit and it blew off the whole oven AND the stove top! (yes, we know we should have disconnected it from power before messing with it :) ). This meant that I had load our 15lb turkey that had brined overnight, and all other materials in the van and drive over to my father-in-law's house. It was a little of a hassle but we did it! It turned out to be a great dinner, with wonderful free-range (not organic though) succulent turkey, green beans, stuffing, carrots, cranberry relish, homemade apple and pumpkin pies! OK I admit it I was proud of myself for pulling it together. And if this had happened in the past I would have huffed and puffed about the broken oven but having had cancer really puts everything into perspective, hey we'll remember this Thanksgiving as (the girls call it:) the Thanksgiving when "daddy blew up the oven!" :)

Finally after 2 weeks, yesterday we got it fixed and I am so grateful that it was an easy and not so expensive fix.

Since then, our pellet stove and the brand new camping stove also went kaput! More over one of the pipes that takes water to our swamp cooler leaked and seeped underneath the laminate flooring in the family room and caused it to buckle up.. So a few days ago, I was mentioning (OK yes a little complaining) this to a friend of mine and she said "we are getting foreclosed!!!!". So here it is again, a few broken stoves, messed up flooring are really not a big deal. I am so thankful that we have a beautiful house with our broken stoves :)

Health wise I am doing fine. For a few weeks before Thanksgiving I had some abdominal pain/discomfort. Finally I found what was hurting the most and saw the oncologist the day after Thanksgiving. She couldn't find anything with physical examination, although there might be a minor hernia.. She suggested that when I get my CT scan at Houston, they also check my abdomen to make sure. She didn't want to expose me to radiation twice in such a short period of time.

So in less then two weeks I will be in Houston at MD Anderson. Will get my CT scan and then see the oncologist there. Two days after we get back I will have the second mastectomy and will also have my port taken out.

Needless to say my anxiety levels are going up again a little. There is quite a difference between the first mastectomy I had and this one. For the first one I was anxious to get it out of my body, now I am sad - not so sad that I want to cancel it, but sad never the less-. In late February early March I was on an adrenaline rush, now (thankfully) things are much less stressful. On the bright side I am excited about getting rid of my port. I asked if I could keep it, they said they normally do not allow that but I really want it. If I do get it I will put a picture of it on the blog :).
I am also nervous about the scan (although I haven't started to loose sleep over it yet). If it comes back clean it will be a great relief and a huge reason to celebrate :)

Oh, I have enough hair (at least I think so) that I do not wear my wig any more. I think I shocked some people with my Sinead O'Conner style hair, but they got over it. Also yesterday I had a student of mine to tell me that he wrote a song about me!!! That was a first.. He said it was from the perspective of my husband, telling our child about me. I do not know what this dude was thinking, I sure hope that it wasn't a scenario where I am dead. He said that his own mom had ovarian and breast cancers and she is fine. So I am guessing my condition together with his own family situation has brought up some feelings that he may have had for a long time.

OK, I better stop and get back to work, I have so much grading to do it is not even funny. I will try to post soon again. This one will be about Ada.

Thank you for being there for/with me through all this craziness, it has meant a lot..