Life is good, now and forever!

The reason it has been a while since the last post is I have been living life like a regular person. Well, mostly...I did have surgery on October 1st. A single mastectomy and lymph node removal. I have been healing up just fine. Still enjoying life, tasting food again, sleeping better, loving the change in the seasons, spending time with the grandkids, and planning a future with my awesome husband.

Had a "cousins day" in October. We went out to Cub Lake at Natchez Trace Park. It was one of our first cool days and no one was there. We enjoyed being outside and spending time together.

Even on cooler days it is almost impossible to keep the Littles out of the water!

Forgot to put Keira's hair back.

Aela in her creative mode. She is building her own town.

Again with the water!

So now for the latest health update. After the surgery the reports came back from everything they removed. We, of course, wanted all traces of cancer to be gone, but that was not exactly how it worked out. The good news is the chemo destroyed about 80% of the cancer cells in all the reports. So, I asked the oncologist, "When do I get to say that I am "cancer free"? He said, "Well, unofficially you are currently cancer free. We have removed all that you had in you." YAY!!! However, I may currently be Cancer-Free but I am not free from cancer. There is always a chance that the surrounding areas may contain some little sneaky cancer cells that could develop in the future. So now we do radiation. We have to do our best to lower the percentage rates of a cancer comeback. The chances of being revisited by the cancer cells is roughly 20% without radiation. But it drops to around 7% after radiation and Hormone Therapy, which I have already started.

I go to Jackson on Monday to get a map of the radiation sites established on my skin. I thought maybe I would be getting some tattoos but they said it would be magic marker. I felt a little disappointed that they couldn't put some little hearts as markers. After that I will begin six weeks of daily, very precisely aimed radiation. This is, I believe Phase 5 of my cancer treatment. It could cause me to have a "sun burn" in the radiated areas, but that will tan an go away after its all done. It could also cause me to be fatigued, but I think not! I told the "Radio Doc" that I don't plan on it.

The hormone therapy is just taking a pill every day for the next ten years...yes, its for ten years! But it is a tiny little thing that goes after the hormones in my body that are trying to help the cancer cells, and we just can't be having that! I started taking them about two weeks ago and so far there is no side effects. On the outside of the bottle it says "May cause Drowziness". I laughed and told Den that I was going to be drowsy for the next ten years! I could have achy joints and almost as a kind of joke, I am supposed to start hot flashes again. Lol...crazy! The good thing here is that my hair is growing back!!! WhooHoo! I have been likened to Annie Lennox. For those who don't know her, she is a crazy woman with really short hair who was famous in the 80s for the song "Sweet Dreams are Made of These".

Perspectives change when things like cancer come into your life. I have an appreciation for the time given on this earth, however, I have begun to focus on the journey after this physical body is done. My faith has given me a sense of strength and peace. I believe that I will only leave this earth when God says its time. And that, my friends, is what I hang on to. God has this! I am pretty much just along for the ride. I give myself to God and trust that what his Word says is true. I will draw as close to Him as I possibly can and whenever I do I obtain a sense of freedom that can only be described as joy! Crazy isn't it, how suffering can bring peace, freedom and joy. But, you know what, that is just like God. He has his own set of rules and once we begin to learn them and follow them everything falls into place. (I hope my children are listening!)