Monday, March 24, 2014

All's Well that Ends Well

I finished off my last post after our trip to Cincinnati and mentioned the rest of the month was not so good.  I had gone to my primary care doctor the middle of January and since I had lost so much weight and was having some stomach problems, and he ordered a bunch of tests and had me make an appointment with a gastroenterologist.  Meanwhile I had an appointment with my gyn. for my yearly appointment.  When I went to her she ended up leaving for a delivery and so I made an appointment for a few weeks later.  

Then I went to the gastroent. and he ordered a colonoscopy and endoscopy.  I went back to my gyn. on the 13th, and right away she felt a large tumor in my pelvis.  I went and had an ultrasound the next day and they found a mass the size of a five-month fetus.  She told me I could be relieved I did not have to have another colonoscopy and endoscopy.  She recommended an oncologist, but it took me two weeks to get in to see him.  He scheduled surgery for St. Patrick's day, so I had to wait a couple of more weeks.  I had the surgery last Monday, and they removed a tumor the size of a football and did a complete hysterectomy.  He did not see any malignant cells outside the tumor, but he took some lymph nodes and tissue to test, because the tumor itself had cancer cells inside it.  I was glad to have the tumor removed but still pretty worried whether the cancer had spread.  As I was being discharged Friday, the doctors came in and told me they had gotten the lab reports back and there was no sign of spread.  Now I can plan the rest of my life.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Where am I Going, Where Have I Been?

It's been over a month since I posted.  February started out great, but ended not so great.  We went to Cincinnati on the seventh for Stephanie's second birthday party and Julia's christening.  We had the car packed full; I found a little kitchen for Stephanie that really was not as little as I thought it would be. Wayne had to take it apart to fit it in the Jeep, then reassemble it when we got there.

We were about an hour out of St. Louis when I realized I had forgotten the christening gown.  I had made it for Stephanie but it had a stain on it so I took it home to get the stain out.  So there we were, in Illinois and the traffic going in to St. Louis was backed up at least ten miles--there was a truck on fire in downtown St. Louis.  Needless to say, Wayne was not turning back.  I called our neighbor, who had a key to our house because her daughter was watching the dog, and left a message asking her to unlock the house and I would get a hold of Amy and ask her to overnight the dress to Cincinnati.  I had also made a dress for Stephanie that was with the christening gown.  She called back and said she was not busy and she would send it.  It got there Sat. afternoon; what a relief.

So the weekend went well.  John and Chellie had not gotten married in the church, so their priest said they would have to have their marriage blessed before he could baptize Julia.  So they got married at noon, and afterwards we went to their friends Polly and Bill's for Stephanie's party.  On Sunday we went to a nice restaurant for brunch, and had the christening at 1:30.  It was really a fun weekend; Kate and her two came in from Boston because she was the godmother, so it was fun seeing them again, too.




The rest of February to follow in the next post.