Charlcie

There has been a nice diversion from thinking about my biopsy scheduled on Monday . I was in contact with Matthew Zachary from the amazing website I'm Too Young For This and The Stupid Cancer Blog earlier this week. His website and blog are amazingly wonderful, irreverent vehicles for the young adult cancer fighters and survivors. I love the whole concept….you don’t have to tip toe around cancer. Meet it square on and kick it in the butt! ~~WARNING: Shameless self-promotion ahead~~ Anyway, Matthew and I emailed about me contributing a blog post, and I am thrilled to say that it was posted to The Stupid Cancer blog yesterday. Here’s the link: http://imtooyoungforthis.blogspot.com/2008/12/will-you-come-into-my-parlor-said.html I really love the whole blogging and social media arena and am thrilled to have mixed that together with the cancer world. Cancer is like a fraternity/sorority except you really don’t really want to belong to it. However, once you do, it’s a whole new communi...

My biopsy is scheduled one week from today. Surprisingly, especially after the "we'll call you in 5-7 days" talk, the office called Christmas Eve to schedule it. I will do this thing on Monday, January 5th at 9:15 AM. Every day that it gets closer, I get the "ready for it" and "are you kidding me?" feelings at the same time. Seems familiar from this summer. Alot is riding on this biopsy for me as you can imagine, and my gut tells me to just get ready as it doesn't look good. However, as I have blogged about before, I know the deal, know the doctors involved, etc. Those of you who know me, know that is good. It's helps me to have as much information as possible, as it does most of us. If it is good news, I will be pleasantly surprised. I'm not feeling well at all today. My "cancer cough," as I affectionately (NOT!) called it back in August-September, is back. I honestly think it is just a "cold cough" but the last time I ...

Today is the day...eldest daughter is finally 16 years old! When my kids have a birthday, I find myself reflective of the day they were born, and this year is no exception. She surprised us on the day she was born in two ways: ultrasound at eight months had predicted a boy, and she had a full head of red/borderline orange hair! She has kept that red hair to this day, and now it is a beautiful color. The great thing: she loved to smile as a baby and still does today. She is a great kid, and I am very proud of her!

I hope everyone had a great holiday week! We had quite a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, enjoying it all. In follow up to my Christmas Eve post , I have to share about the National Cathedral service. It was really moving, really wonderful. It was grand and elegant yet warm and comfortable all at the same time. It was a great moment of reflection. I am grateful to my MIL who secured the tickets months in advance for us all! Last night we celebrated the two almost 16-year-olds' birthdays by taking the family plus a few friends to the local Japanese steakhouse . We had a great chef in both food and entertainment not to mention the great company. I promised in a previous post to explain the two 16-year-old kids who are not twins....I brought Kenzie (and 11-year-old Morgan) to the marriage, and her birthday is December 28th. Chris brought Christian, and his birthday is January 1st. It was quite funny when we realized this while dating, that we both had a child of the same age, only fo...

Hi all...Happy Merry Christmas Eve! Hope everyone is feeling the spirit of Christmas. I am...stressing just a bit about hosting Christmas Eve dinner but feeling better about it all. Need to get the ski stuff out of the front living room, boxes out of the dining room, ask in-laws to bring another table as we are expecting 11, vaccum, oh and cook. :) Some of you have asked about my doctor's appointment yesterday. First, thanks for checking on me. :) It was somewhat uneventful as "the doctor I don't like" said, "Yes, you need a biopsy," which I already knew from the radiologist. I was anticipating a fight as somehow I thought he was going to say something like "Let's watch and wait with this." Not sure why I thought that, but that wasn't what he said at all. He gave me an order for the fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. This is a needle without anesthesia to my thyroid (did this first in July 2008...old pro at it now) and then that questiona...

Feeling guilty that I'm not feeling more grateful and in the Christmas spirit today like I was on Friday . Feeling more like "I have/had cancer (whatever this in-between state I am in is called...) and don't feel like being festive!". I'd rather go back to bed but have kids to get off to school (their last day before winter break), presents to wrap, food to shop for, etc. Just not feelin' it. Any of you, cancer or not, just not feelin' it? I'm hoping to have a big turn around sometime today or surely on Christmas Eve. It feel selfish and guilty to feel this way, but I'm allowed some of this right? As long as I can get out of this funk before Christmas.... "Doctor that I don't like," his office called yesterday, and he wants me to go to his office to talk about the ultrasound. Going to do that late morning today.

What a great weekend we had! Christian finally landed on Friday night after four delays and about eight hours in the Indianapolis airport. We are glad that he is here....great to see him! He's here until the 27th. On Saturday we went to Chris/Morgan's basketball game, which was their first win of the season. After a quick Chinese buffet lunch, we then realized that we had to evaluate ski gear for five people. After checking our own ski box, begging, borrowing, and a trip to the local sporting goods store, we figured out snow pants, coats, gloves, etc. for five people without breaking the bank four days before Christmas. This was good! The next issue was who was going, who was not. Between our two vehicles, we have 12 seats, and both of us planned to drive. As a result, we let the kids invite friends. Morgan invited one friend then the rest were Christian and Kenzie's friends. They were all great kids, and we had an amazing time! Liberty was good...not crowded at all, and I ...