I knew it had been a while since I had written in this, but when I saw it has been more a year...well time flies I guess. I tried to get in a couple of months ago, but I couldn't remember my password. Thank goodness Google changed their format or whatever. hehe.
So, I guess to update quickly, I will try and give the highlights of 2006.
I finished chemo (at least the really hard stuff) in February.
I returned to work in March.
Soon after I returned to work, my second niece was born...Bryar Jenna. To celebrate, I made my first trip post chemo to Virginia to see my brother and his family. I was a little nervous that Sage, the 2 year old, would be scared of me...I didn't exactly look like myself. I had no hair, or at most a little fuzz, and my face was really puffy from tons of steroids. But she was fine. She rubbed my "hair", called me "puppy head" and moved on. Kids are great.
June meant another birthday and another mammogram. Not sure how they ended up in the months of my birthday and Christmas, but they aren't the best presents one could have. The initial news was a bit stressful. They saw what they questioned as an enlarged lymph node. Turned out to be two of them hanging out together having a party and when they got mashed, it looked like one big one. SO, they gave me the green light for another 6 months.
The hardest thing over the course of 2006 occurred labor day weekend. My dog Zac had started having problems getting around at the beginning of the summer. I even took him to doggie physical therapy for about 3 months (who knew they had such a thing). Anyway, he continued to get worse. I made the incredibly hard decision to let him go on Sept. 2. It was the Saturday of labor day weekend, 13 years exactly from when I had brought him home from the pound in VA. I cried more over that decision than I did over my own cancer. He was a great companion over the last 13 years...and I miss him a ton, but I know I made the right decision.
I made another trip back east in September, actually my first vacation since all this started. I went to NY for a friend's wedding and hooked up with some other friends from grad school. I decided I could not go to the east coast without seeing my nieces, so I drove 8 hours to VA to see them for 3 days and returned to NY for the wedding. Yeah, I'm crazy, some things don't change.
Then I got more distressing news: the sudden death of my surgeon, Dr. Troy Brinkerhoff on October 1, the first day for breast cancer awareness month. This was a HUGE shock to the entire medical community here in the east valley, not to mention his famiy and patients. He was a great man and great surgeon who had devoted his practice to helping women fight this disease. I couldn't believe it. I really trusted Dr. Brinkerhoff, and the thought of having to start the process of looking for another surgeon was too overwhelming. So I didn't, at least not right away.
In December, I finished the last of my Herceptin treatments. 52 weeks of going to the doctors every Thursday was now behind me. It was AWESOME.
Christmas this year was great...the entire family came out to AZ. It was quite the event with 9 adults and 2 little ones. There was no way we would all fit into my little condo, but the Lord provided for that. Some friends let me borrow their home. They had moved to TX, but their house was still on the market here in town, completely furnished as they had not yet moved their furniture. It was the perfect size, and we all had a really great time. It was particularly awesome to spend an entire week with my nieces, especially since all our visits before were 3 days at the most.
Right after everyone left, I had yet another mammogram, but this time they said everything was stable....I was clean. NO EVIDENCE OF CANCER. It was a great ending to a long year.
Well, that was 2006. 2007 has started off in some pretty interesting ways, but I will share that in the next entry. I hope to do that soon.
This whole BLOG started off to be a way I could work through things and get things out of my head....and I have an awful lot of things I need to get out these days. I have some more to share about what God has been showing me too. I don't know what it was I had to share from the last entry...but I am sure the Lord will remind me if it is that important.
Till then.
in HIM
anne
