Hey, y'all.

So I decided to open up my blog and make it public. I mean, who the hell is going to care about my measly little blog anyhow except those people who care about me? If I find it causes a problem, I'll make it private again, but in the mean time you should be able to find a service (like Boglines) that will send update notices to you when I update the blog, or just use the new link on the left side of the page.

And speaking of updates..........here's the latest poop. My second surgery is scheduled for Thursday, September 18th. I could have gotten in much sooner, but I specifically wanted to wait until the kids were back in school which will just make it much easier on me. And I also specifically asked for a Thursday, so that I would be able to rest all day Thursday and Friday while the kids are in school, and through the week-end. The surgery won't be as long this time so I am hoping that the anesthesia won't take as long to get out of my system and that by Monday I'll be able to do things like tie my shoes without needing a 3-hour nap afterward! The surgery is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. (ugh!) so the kids will be spending the night with friends on Wednesday night who can get them on the bus and off to school for us. (Thank you, friends!!!) And my friend who is the nurse-anesthetist is going to sign up to be there again for the surgery, so Yay! for that, too.

And speaking of the kids..........feel free to weigh in with your opinions on something. I'm reconsidering telling Boy #1 what is going on. (Sorry, the blog is public now - don't necessarily want to use their names.) I wasn't going to say anything at all to either of the kids, but the more I think about it, the more I think that R. could certainly handle this. My sister thinks I should be prepared with a book or pamphlet or something that I can use as "back up" in case he has questions or doesn't believe that I'll be alright in the end, but I'm having trouble finding something age-appropriate that won't scare the crap out of him. KidsHealth.org has a page about Breast Cancer, but it talks about being "sick" and how "many times, especially if a lump is caught early, women with breast cancer go on to live full, healthy lives after treatment." Now, first of all I'm not "sick", plus he's smart enough to infer what the opposite of that second statement would be and I just don't want him to think about it that way. (I'm going to die from something, but it ain't gonna be this, and I don't want to scare him.) I dunno; feel free to share your thoughts. And if any of you have a resource for me that's not scary let me know. (Hmm......maybe I'll write my own children's book about it.)

Otherwise, things are going well. The kids are gearing up to go back to school (and they're excited about it too - little nerds!), soccer practices have started, and I am SO not ready to be the "scheduling queen" again but someone's gotta do it!

Off to start filling out school calendars, already..........

Well, scratch Bloglines.

Dale and I tried subscribing to the blog via Bloglines and it didn't work. I've come to find out that it is because I have it marked as a "private" blog - only invited members can view it.

You'll only be able to subscribe if I make it a public blog. I'm debating about that.

So how useful is a blog, really, if you can't get an automatic update and have to remember to keep searching for it and checking in on it? Comments? Suggestions? Ideas? I'm open to them all.

Maybe CaringBridge was a better idea. We'll research that this week-end.

Later, taters.

Bloglines

Bloglines is a free service that makes it easy to keep up with your favorite blogs and newsfeeds. (And I'm quite confident that MINE is your favorite.)

www.bloglines.com

I haven't tried it yet, so let me know if it works. You should be able to subscribe to my blog and get a notification when it's been updated.

Ciao!

Well, crap.

Not whining. Really I'm not. But...........

I spoke to the oncologist today. There is one small area on the pathology report where the margin was not clear. So that means back to surgery for me. The oncologist conferred with both the surgeon and the radiation oncologist and they all agreed that, while the area is quite small, it would be best to get it all out before moving on to radiation. They're the experts, so I'm not going to argue.

Surgery will not happen for probably another three weeks, hopefully after the kids are back in school. At least I know what to expect now and it was pretty much a breeze last time.

Dinner's ready. Gotta run!

Welcome!

Hey, friends and family. Welcome to my new blog which, from here on out, will be known as "The No Whine Zone".

I’ll be using this blog as my “Survival Journal” so that I can keep you all updated with what’s going on since my DCIS diagnosis. As you are all aware, I'm gettin' up there. So, what with everything that's been going on with me lately, I can't for the life of me remember whom I've updated and whom I haven’t, who knows what and who doesn’t, or even sometimes who the heck even wants to know. Hell, I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast most days so I’m sure you can imagine my dilemma.

So here we are. Let’s start with the latest news which basically is that there is no news. Heh. I saw the surgeon for follow-up last Monday (August 4^th) and he said the incision was healing nicely and that everything looked good. He had the pathology report and does not think that any additional surgery will be necessary, but the oncologist (Dr. Eisenberg) will likely be making the final call on that after possibly taking my case back to the tumor board. (And, seriously........can't they come up with a better name for it than the "tumor board"? Sheesh!!!) I called the oncologist's office for follow-up to find out the next steps but they hadn't received the pathology report yet. They are going to get it and then Dr. Eisenberg will call me. Personally, I don't see any point in having an appointment with him until they know what they want to do and the nurse tended to agree. So, I'm still waiting for the final "all clear", but I don't doubt that I'll get it. In the mean time I have to have a chest x-ray and bone scan done this coming Friday (originally scheduled for last week but postponed due to “equipment issues”) – both procedures are standard operating procedure according to both the oncology nurse and my sister. Woohoo.

For now, I am still restricted from lifting more than 20 lbs. until two weeks after surgery (which is tomorrow. Yay!) I have started exercising lightly in a regular sports bra; anything more strenuous and I have to wear the special bra they gave me after surgery. No golf, though, until 3 weeks after surgery. (The unkindest cut of all!) The surgeon said I could remove the steri-strips myself after 2 weeks if they haven't come off on their own and I broke down and did that today – they were driving me nuts! And up until this past Thursday I was still tiring easily, but for some reason that just seems to have magically gone away. I even went to work at a client site that day and I felt pretty darned good. I'm sure that was just an after-effect of the anesthesia and other good drugs that Marna gave me (thanks, Marna!) and it all just had to get out of my system.

So that's the poop for now! I have no idea when the oncologist will call me and, in fact, have very little faith that they actually will. So I figured I would just call them once a week and pester them until they realize I still exist and, until then, I'm not letting this interfere with my normal routine too darn much.

Stay tuned...............