We arrived this afternoon back in Rochester to start the appointments and then surgery at Mayo. Tuesday and Wednesday are appointments with scans tomorrow and doctor appointments and other tests on Wednesday. I will not find out the surgery time until I call a 1-800 number on Wednesday night and get my instructions for time and place. I am pretty sure the place will be St. Mary’s but again will wait for confirmation on that.
It has been an interesting month. Had my last radiation on 11/17, the same day as our 50th anniversary. Saturday the 18th all the kids and grandkids were over for an anniversary celebration. We’re hired a chef to do the cooking which worked out pretty good. Her food was excellent but she got herself a little flustered by arriving 30 minutes late. I tried to assure her that we were pretty chill and not to worry but am not sure she every really relaxed and enjoyed cooking. Her tiramisu tasted good but it looked more like bread pudding because she forgot an ingredient. Jason made a 15 minute video with pictures and all the kids adding their insights to our anniversary which really turned out fantastic. He definitely has the knack for making these videos as he also made one for Jen (Salty Maggie) for her 40th birthday. He even got some clips from her favorite music artist by using cameo. She was shocked!! So Jason definitely has a calling when it comes to video productions.
After our anniversary celebration, the next week was Thanksgiving. I just thought that I would feel fine so we went ahead and had everyone over…little did I know that the fatigue they warned me about would start to increase once the radiation was done. The meal went fine, and we had a good amount of laughs. After we were supposed to go over to Jermar’s parents to celebrate with them — they live right behind us — but I was exhausted and just sent David over.
The rest of the “quiet ….radiation free” time was spent getting ready to come back to Mayo (David has to-do lists 🙂 ) and doing all my Christmas shopping and wrapping. Thank goodness for Amazon because I was not feeling at all sociable to go out among all the Christmas shoppers. Everything came in time, except for 2 gifts, and they are all wrapped and under the tree. Emily is at our house watching Max so she will get those last gifts and put them away. They may not get wrapped…but oh well….LOL
One other adventure we did was join some of our neighbors and went to the Christmas program at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie!! It was amazing!! They had a FULL orchestra and a huge choir. So shocked to see the full orchestra and they were fantastic!! Even had a harp player and a full rhythm section!! Also had a soloist that has performed on Broadway!! After we went to our neighbors, Gary and Connie, for a great lasagna dinner. It was so great to see many of our neighbors. Our HOA is on the small side but all great neighbors that look out for each other. Great to be a part of this neighborhood. Understand when Scott (the previous owner) told us that they would miss the neighborhood more than anything.
Besides these activities how was the last month gone. Well, honestly there are good days and bad days. Some real bad days…that thankfully only lasted a day or two. It is hard to get out of your mind that you would soon be going “under the knife” and wonder what the quality of life will be after….and even what if something goes wrong during the surgery. Hopefully there will be someone that will take care of Max. :-). I didn’t actually think that very often but there would be slight tremors of that type of worry. Even knowing that I will come home in either crutches or a walker adds another dimension to my worry. I know that I will not be able to walk Max each day at least for his poop walk, so I am looking at hiring a dog walker to do 2 walks a day. I think David and I can handle the potty breaks because he just goes in the front yard. And then how long do I need to plan for a dog walker…can I expect maybe a week and then I will be walking on my own. But I did buy a pooper scooper (purple of course) that if for people that can’t bend over. I am looking forward to use that. Do you know that they have scoopers with bags at the end and you just hover the bag under the dog so they do their duty right in the bag!!?? WHAT?? And what if they don’t quite hit the bag, do you need a back up scooper to pick up what has been left? See I can worry about anything.
But then I was listening to a talk on Eaglebrook church and they were talking about letting something go…something in your life that you need to let go to keep moving forward with God by your side. So I decided to try to let go of fear. So I think the level of fearing what might happen if things go wrong has subsided somewhat, so I count that as progress.
Tomorrow the day starts with a CT scan and then an MRI in the afternoon. Jackie and the boys are planning to come down and it sounds like we will make some Christmas treats together. As I told Jackie anything to take my mind off of my worry. :-)
Funny though….I was looking in one of the closets at this house when I was unpacking and up on the shelf was a bocce ball set!!! This whole thing started with me playing bocce ball…so it seemed kind of spooky to see that here. But actually it was good I tore the hamstring them because that is how they found Bob the Blob, that quickly became Ted the Tumor.
Hope all is well…take the time to be nice to someone!
Take care!
Dandy Ventures 