The past couple cancer-free days

Thursday is a blur in my mind.  I know Kendall & I saw Dr Keedy & I know she told us the scans were clear, we could get the port out, my counts suck, its okay to do scuba diving, fine to start very slowly exercising & to see her again in 3 months.  Beyond that I'm not sure what happened that day.  I will be honest, I cried for a couple hours after I left the doctor's office.  I don't know why - I haven't cried much on this journey - a couple times when I got really frustrated at not being able to do what I want.  I guess it kind of all hit me on Thursday - now that its sort of over - at least the urgency & immediacy is over.  There is still the chance the cancer can come back of course, but I am not thinking about that right now.

So, Thursday was an emotional blur.  I didn't make it back to work after the doctor as I had intended but Kendall & I did make it to a dinner with many of my colleagues that evening.  It was so nice to have good news to share with people!

I can tell my counts are still really really low - last night I was pretty much a dishrag.  I am going to have them checked again on Wednesday before the port removal procedure - mostly to make sure the platelets have come up enough for the surgery to be safe.  I'm not worried about the platelets, I'm quite sure they will be up.  The red count maybe not.  It truly takes longer after each round of chemo for it to come back to normal.  Dr Keedy said I could get a transfusion but I don't want to go sit in that recliner again ever so I said no thanks, I'll wait.

Here's more good news.  I walked around the block which is half a mile on Monday night and Tuesday night.  Talk about a feeling of accomplishment.  Oh my goodness, I felt like I'd climbed Mount Everest (not that I know what that feels like).  Thursday I walked about half a mile at EB's cross country meet.  Yesterday I walked probably half a mile with Lorraine.  So that makes 4 out of 5 days this week!!  I will probably endeavor to walk around the larger block which is .75 miles starting today.  So, gradually working my way back to fitness.  Dr Keedy said once I can walk a mile 4 or 5 days a week its okay to go back to the gym but not to try it before then.  I thought that was good advice.

I have decided to return to Medi Weight Loss, where I got the help, advice & support I needed to lose 75 pounds last year.  I am going back on the 26th.  I was going to wait until January to tackle weight loss but I decided that I need to do it now.  I will recover faster if I lose the chemo weight and I will also feel better about myself if I lose it sooner than later.  So off I go - excited about that.

What else?  I'm super excited to have the port removed.  My good friend Cori is visiting next week & she has kindly agreed to take me to the surgery & drive me home.  I think Kendall is happy about that.  Yet another good friend going out of their way to help me.  Gosh I'm so lucky.

I got an absolutely beautiful ring in the mail from Maryann, aka Mom, yesterday.  Its so gorgeous, I cannot wait to wear it.  She also wrote me a beautiful poem which of course made me cry all over again. 

Emilia turns 12 on Friday.  It doesn't quite seem real that 12 years ago I was about to have her.  Her birthday gift is our scuba certification, lessons & equipment.  I think she is going to have a couple friends sleep over on Friday which will be fun.  The miniature terrorist, aka Eriana, told me this morning that at school they went around the circle & said who they would like the group to pray for.  She said she wanted them to pray that her mom would be okay and not have to go to chemo anymore.  She asked for that on Thursday, probably about the same time we were finding out that yes, MOM IS OKAY! 

Speaking of okay, there is still significant swelling and what they call 'stranding' in the surgery site in my left groin.  Evidently just because the scar is healed doesn't mean all the stuff inside is back to normal.  Dr Keedy said this is probably a big contributor to my left leg swelling.  It could take another 6 months to heal, or it could always be that way they aren't really sure.  There is clearly NO visible cancer there anymore, that has been taken care of by the surgery, radiation and chemo.  But the musculature isn't repaired yet.  I'm going to ask Dr Holt to show me this on the scans & explain to me more when I see her in December because I'm curious about it.

Well I think thats the update from Nashville.  I'm traveling for work Monday & Tuesday.  Yay!!!  Hope everybody has a wonderful, peaceful & relaxing weekend!!  Don't forget to let us know if you can make it on 9/30.