| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: |  6.2 |
| Mind: | 6 |
| Body: |  4.6 |
| Spirit: |  7.5 |
| Friends/Family: |  5.3 |
| Love: | 7.7 |
| Finance: | 7.5 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
Well!
Looks like I could improve my mental acuity, no surprise my body needs work (duh) and that my friends/family relationships need development. Actually, it looks like I have room to grow in all areas.
I continue to be fortunate in that every medical professional I’ve worked with (with a few minor exceptions) are warm, caring, knowledgeable, competent people. My oncologist is one of those. He could see how nervous I was, and one of the first things he did was to start at the beginning and have me tell him about what my cancer journey has been like.
I finished with “and so it was more than a little shocking to be told on Friday that I am a good candidate for chemotherapy.” He immediately said: “I’m not so sure about that. It’s one thing I want to talk with you about.”
It turns out that there is a test (Oncotype DX) that is for a specific population of women with breast cancer. This test provides a very specific answer to the question: does she have a high likelihood of breast cancer recurring (and therefore is a good candidate for chemotherapy)? In reading about it, it looked liked I was a perfect candidate (invasive, Stage I, ER+, lymph node negative). But it is very new (just out of clinical trials in 2007) and I wasn’t sure if my oncologist knew about it, and if I really was a good candidate.
He did, and he thinks I’m a ‘poster child’ for the test. Good thing: they (the lab that does this test is in Sunnyvale, Ca, I believe) examine the tissue already removed. I don’t have to do anything. We’ll get the results in a week or two.
IF I DO have chemotherapy, it would take about 3 months with chemo sessions 1x/3wks. The plan is that I would be in chemo for a day, recovering for a couple of days, and then working like normal for a few weeks. So, disruptive, but not horrid. And fairly brief.
I left that office feeling like I’d been given good news, and it was sort of appalling that I felt that way when really all I’d been told was that I’d be waiting for an answer again.
This is one of the cruelties of cancer, your definition of ‘normal’ becomes skewed. I wonder how long it will take for my definition to right itself?
It’s our second update this month, with 11 reviews added. This brings our annual total to more than 100 . . . we’re not yet at 1000 reviews, but that number draws closer.
Our update includes reviews from Daven of Davensjournal. We’re glad to have him sharing his writings with us and look forward to continuing to do so. We have also reviewed a number of annuals — perfect gifts for the holidays. When you add in Christopher Penzak’s Living Temple of Witchcraft, Vol 1, Kenaz Filan’s Drawing Down the Spirits, and others, you have our usual eclectic mix of opinions.
We have a review of the acoustic CD, Light Returning and five books, including the Pop Culture Grimoire, White as Bone, Red as Blood, Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, the Green Wiccan Year, and the Gong Hee Fot Choy Book of Fortune.
Finally, we’ve published a timely article about what 2010 holds for each of the zodiac signs from the authors of Astrology Guide 2010 along with Connie Domino’s article ”Working with Difficult People.”
I have a cold.
A common, everyday, garden-variety cold.
Fresh hell: trying to take an aspirin, water in mouth, and you feel a sneeze coming on. What will win, the swallow reflex or the sneeze reflex?
This is so not fair.
(off to drink tea, I’m already resting gosh darn it*.)
*and no, those aren’t really the words I’d like to be saying at the moment. Feel free to insert your own favorites.
Travel plans, to be specific.
Up in the air: Christmas 2009 in San Francisco, even though my Dad is flying out there as well. I hope to have that worked out this week.
June 10-13th, 2010: Ashland, OR. The OSF will see us there with several friends, watching Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice (among other plays) and staying in a lovely house.
and . . . here’s the big one . . .
October 2nd through 16th: London/Venice. Yes, we bit the bullet and polished off the credit card and purchased tickets. Hotel reservations are being made, and plans laid. We WILL take our annual trip out of the country in 2010. I may be bald, but we WILL go. (That’s what charming hats are for, aren’t they?)
Entering the art installation “Three Gems” by James Turrell, June 2007. The linear structure in the background is part of the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco. (The link takes you to the museum website to learn more about this incredible piece.)
It’s been a good and bad day.
Good, because one of the last procedures I’ll need for awhile was done and I have a lot more freedom. Yes, the drain is gone. I no longer have a tube and hard plastic stuck into my body. Just an ache where it was.
Bad because the extent of my cancer is wider than we thought, and I have been recommended to see a medical oncologist about starting chemotherapy. This was a nasty surprise given that my surgery went so well and everyone felt they’d ‘gotten’ all of the cancer cells. To be clear, I don’t necessarily still have cancer . . . I just MIGHT have cancer cells spread throughout my body.
Yeah — that makes it better, doesn’t it?
I’m learning not to take anything for granted. There is no certainty. I must simply say ‘yes’ and accept.
Thank you for your continued support. It means a great deal to me. I’ll keep you posted on what all of this means.
Although I didn’t have a great night of sleep, I was nicely productive today. Last night (and presumably tonight) have 4 or so hours set aside for work (mundane job). Today I updated Facing North with a couple of articles and a handful of review.
This is a bit of a milestone: it’s my first (non blog) writing since a week or so pre-surgery. It felt very good to finally get my writing cap on. I’m planning on a couple of more review written each day for a few days, and another update (maybe even two) this month. I want to end this year ‘caught up’. Or at least as caught up as I can be.
An acquaintance, Evn (Lover of Strife), usually posts a Tuesday (movie) Trivia, but a bad case of food poisoning kept him from doing so. I had a flash of creativity and came up with my own trivia questions, and offered them to him. He said yes, so now I’m running a trivia game through another person’s blog. (It’s in the comments for “Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” — feel free to join in.) I’m apparently too obscure, but then again perhaps people just haven’t noticed yet.
Yesterday I played “Return to Mysterious Island” which was fun (and is the mother of all puzzle games!) and diverting. Today I’m about 1/2 way through “Aura: Fate of Ages”. Diverting, even though the ‘character’ interaction is HORRIBLE.
A good day.