What? Now? Right now? I'm not even laying down.

Let's see... where to start? It's actually not that interesting.

I do have to correct myself - it was a "mole" I went and had checked out (4 of them), not a birthmark... but birthmark sounds better to me. Like it's not my fault, I was born that way. Even though, I wasn't born that way, the moles just came on their own accord, I guess it's still not my fault... what?

My appointment was easy breezy lemon squeezy. It was scheduled for 2:15pm. I checked in at 2pm like a good girl. Took my time going up, grabbed a seat and started to read my book. Boom! They were ready to see me. It only took a few minutes for the doctor to come in so really, everything started right on time. I showed him the marks and he looked at them all, stopping at the one on my stomach and saying "yeah, we better remove that one".

I said "okay". And he left the room for a minute. I thought to go and get the nurse to schedule an appointment or something - but noooo. He came back in with her, advised her what to enter into my records while he jotted the area with alcohol. Then he said, "I'm just gonna give you a shot to numb the area..." (what? now? right now? I'm not even laying down.) "You'll feel a little sting, and that will be the worst of it. And then I will take this razor blade and scrape it off." (WHAT?!?! You'll what?! Can I have a blindfold at least?)

But he was right. I turned my head to look at the nurse while he did what he needed to do. Before I knew it, she was applying antibiotic and a bandage and I was ready to go. He said they will send it in for testing and they'll get back to me with the results - but he's not worried too much about it. So I guess, neither am I.

I didn't stop by Oncology. I thought about it... but really didn't know who in particular I would be going to see. If I had a bag of candy with me that I could have dropped off, that would have been different. Maybe next time.

First follow-up...

Tomorrow I have my first follow-up appointment since I've completed my chemotherapy...

I received a call from Kaiser about a referral. She asked me if I wanted to schedule the appointment. "Sure. What's it for?" I had forgot I was supposed to go in for a blood draw shortly after my chemo ended. My magnesium or something was low. I never went in. But this call wasn't for that, it just reminded me of that. The referral was for dermatology. Dr Azar thinks I should get some of my birthmarks checked out. I had actually been advised of that once before and I guess I blew it off. This time, I decided not to.

So, tomorrow I will go back to the medical center and get things checked out. Maybe I will stop by and say "Hi" to the Oncology peeps. It's been a while... Do you think they'll remember me? I wonder if the hospital smell will bother me as much as it had back in October...

I also have my first colonoscopy scheduled. Yay. I'm so excited. (In case you can't read it, that was sarcasm). I'm a bit nervous about it, but (or should I say - butt) I guess that's normal. I'll be getting that puppy done on February 5th. In anticipation of getting spectacular results, I am planning a celebration weekend. Yay! (That was real excitement :)

Thought I would mention, I've started a new blog. It is not nearly as factual as this one. No blood counts. No medical termonology. I decided I would keep this one more about the "big C" and the other one is about fun stuff. Mostly eating, cooking and other stuff I do for kicks. Anyway, if you get bored and want to check it out - it's posted at http://wholelottahappy.blogspot.com/.

Cheers!

Good bye 2008...

Wow! What a year. And I made it through... all the way to the end just in case you were wondering :)

You may have noticed my postings have slowed down. Life seems pretty much back to normal and I am enjoying that.

I've been back to work full-time over a month and things are going well there. I am very happy to still be employed, although very aware that Sun will be cutting a lot of their workforce this year. I've decided that worrying about what might come in that realm is out of my control so have opted not to give it much thought or energy other than to just keep doing what I do.

Physically, the last thing that was bothering me aside from fatigue was the neuropathy. While I wish I could say it's gone away completely - I can't. But... I can say that it's either stopped getting worse, or I've become more used to it. Either way, it's not bothering me as much as it had been. I don't have to wear gloves all the time and I don't ever get to the point where I feel like crying about the pain either. And, I've been able to grow my nails out. Little things bringing me back to normal.

Overall, I had a great year full of blessings. I am, however, ready to say good bye to it and move on to an even better new year. I've never made New Year's resolutions before in my life, but have been thinking about some things I might like to do... Take some classes (cooking, dance, sewing) , drink more water, read more books, take a trip, have another wine tasting party, be one year closer to being cured.

Sounds good to me... let's get started.

Sometimes...

Sometimes, life knocks you down. And sometimes, life knocks you out... for a bit.

Looking back, I feel like I got knocked down back in March. But I was able to get back up, and all in all, felt like I only had a few scratches at the end.

Last weekend, I got knocked out.

So, you might ask me how I'm doing - and the honest answer is - physically, I am doing GREAT! It's been two months since my last chemotherapy treatment and I am back to work full time and really happy about that. And although I probably won't be able to do more than to say "I'm okay"... I still am hopeful. I still believe. I am not angry. I do not feel like God is doing this to me. And I am soooo thankful for my friends and family... and sometimes, even strangers.

Speaking of strangers, I had a plumbing emergency this past weekend at my duplex and a very nice guy came over and did the work. I was a total mess and he was really sensitive to that. And after all was said and done, he said he was sorry for what I was going through and then offered to work out a payment plan with me after the holiday season to make things a little bit easier. Boy, he had no idea what has been going on, but that was sure a nice thing to do. Anyway, the least I can do is plug his business as he did a real good job there too...

Bill Contreras
FlashPoint Heating and Residential HVAC Solutions
3644 S Nepal St
Aurora, CO 80013
720-940-4469
sales@flashpointhvac.com
www.flashpointvac.com

A month gone by..... already?

Guess what today is... my one month anniversary of being chemo-free. Well, at least my last day of chemo was October 10th when I disconnected my infusion pump (banana phone) and had my central line removed. Who knows how long the stuff sticks around inside me.

Boy, this month seemed to fly by. I've been at work for two weeks now and it's going well. I am only working part-time, 4 hours a day and that really worked out to be a wise decision. My hands are aching by the time my shift is over and I am still pretty tired when I get home. I think if I were to be working full time right now, I could probably handle the fatigue - but not sure what I would do about the neuropathy. Still praying that it will eventually go away or at the very least, that the pain would lessen.

Anyway, that's all. Just a quick update. Life is good.