Gratitude feels easy to come by this year.
It's been nearly 10 months since the day I woke up from a my colonoscopy to hear,
"you have cancer."
Today, I have 10 days left of chemo pills.
Homestretch.
Gratitude.
Last
week I made another trip down to Dana Farber, to meet with my beloved
surgeon for a check-in. I am always happy to see him. After chatting for a bit and then doing an exam and he said
everything looked great. The appointments I have in Boston are in addition to my
regular appointments and labs with my local oncologist in Concord at Payson Center. Once
I have completed chemo, I will continue seeing my local oncologist for the
next month or so and then in February I will go back to Dana Farber for a
set of scans and a colonoscopy to make sure that everything is
copacetic.
The
early season snow has been a treat in NH. The four of us got out for
some great cross country skiing the day before Thanksgiving. Robbie and I
have been gearing up to coach our local Bill Koch nordic ski league in our
town again this year. It's fun to think about being out in the
snow with all the kids again soon.
We
headed up north to Maine for Thanksgiving with Robbie's family.
Unfortunately because of my compromised immune system, I decided I would
not spend Thanksgiving with everyone, since it takes place in an
enclosed space with lots of, albeit beloved, people. This is my m.o.
these days. When I can't avoid being around people (like last week when I
got to see Flo in her school play of Rikki Tikki Tavi) I wear a mask,
but I wasn't sure how to pull off wearing a mask for Thanksgiving
dinner. So, Robbie's parents kindly took the girls up to Damariscotta, Maine to be with everyone
for Thanksgiving and Robbie and I spent a little time on our own
together in Portland, which was a gift for which I am also
thankful. Flo and Bea were treated to an equally excellent time with
their cousins, sledding on the hill from Aunt Sarah's house down to the nearly frozen lake and then piling into sleeping bags for one big cousin sleepover.
Next
week I will put my mask on again to get on the plane to DC where I will
be for a few days to do some advocacy work in the interest of encouraging my
NH representatives to vote in support of the repeal of the medical
device tax. I am looking forward to what I will learn from this
experience. If you would like to read more about it you can information
at:
💓 No more pills! Congratulations, Juliana!!!!💓
ReplyDeleteI hope the trip to DC went well.