Grateful

Wow I am truly overwhelmed today, with gratitude, for everything in the past day or so.  I sincerely appreciate the calls, drop-bys, offers of help, and deliveries of stuff today and yesterday.  I can't even express how helpful it has all been, whether by email, text, phone, or in person, I have had so much assurance, that I am almost starting to believe that things will be okay over the next few weeks.  You are such amazing friends thank you thank you thank you!

Snow removal today was huge - several people arrived throughout the day to plow out the driveway, one of which I was aware had already been gifted to us by my very special you know who you are. :-) Thank you!  And to the others, thank you also, I will track you down at some point and figure out who you are?  LOL 

(umm... that's my car...)

Food - oh wow thank you! I have been feeling so worn out from the treatments, that my usual hobby of cooking seems to be taking a break at the moment, I have no desire or energy to shuffle around the kitchen after covering silly other little basic tasks like waking up.  Thanks to all of you who have heard me and brought stuff by.  The girls extend their thanks too!  yummmm  Pea soup with smoked turkey, fresh fruit and veggies, cauliflower soup with cheesy garlic croutons, chicken and quinoa soup, pecan pie, pasta casserole, pork chops in gravy, cupcakes, omigosh all SO delicious! AND stuff for the freezer too! And healthy, mostly hehe!

Another act of kindness today happened at Sunnybrook but affects me in a huge way:  this morning on my parole call I spoke with the nurse about my last CT scan (Oct 27) results which I was reading online for the first time this insomniac morning around four.  

I read the paragraph written by the radiologist about my neck CT, and noticed there was description of problem lymph nodes on my left side as well as the right. They describe the nodes with measurements in millimetres, yuck, they're not supposed to be that big.   I know the surgeon examined my neck with ultrasound when I met him, but he didn't look around my left side very much. I could have been reading the report wrong, but I brought it up to the nurse on the phone as I would hate to have my thyroidectomy plus central and right nodes removed, only to find out a few months from now that I need to have another surgery because they didn't get it all?

The nurse OFFERED to print the report for me and physically walk it to my surgeon today and bring it to his attention - I was blown away, as they are awesome down there, but this was above and beyond what they normally do.  Not only did she do that, but she CALLED me back this afternoon to confirm that she did actually take the report to my medical oncologist and together they took it to my head and neck surgeon.  

Do you know how many phone calls and voice mail systems I would have had to endure to have that happen without her help?  Oh geez I thanked her so much... she is the one from up here; we were talking about small towns this morning and I was gushing about how lovely our snow day is today and how fortunate I am to have such wonderful support around my family.  She said she was raised in Goderich and misses that feeling not living in a small town now. 

I do love this small town, and I love a good solid snow day like today, but this has to have been the best one in my history.  I had someone ask me today how the heck I can get any rest with everything going on here, as I should be taking it easy leading up to my surgery, and it's a good question! But I have been able to rest easy today (between visits) with all of your help. 

Oh shoot one more thing (will I ever post a SHORT blog??) - amazing news for Claire:  I spoke with her leader at the upcoming theatre production, and while we were chatting about play rehearsals being cancelled due to weather tonight, I gave her a heads up about Claire's ankle.  I explained how upset Claire is that she may not be able to be in the play as she wouldn't be able to swing it all with no weight-bearing on the broken tootsie 2 1/2 weeks from now, and she said not to worry, they will figure out some way to make it work!  

Claire and Cass are "wood nymphs" in the play and this lovely lady told me to hug Claire and tell her not to worry she would NOT have the play without Claire being on the stage.  Yes here I am blubbering again... she told me that their costume designer is a genius and if they have to decorate Claire's cast as a tree stump and wrap her crutches with "vines" then that's what they would do to have her participate.  Claire is happy - happy tears all around. 

So... full bellies, warm and cozy not drifted in anymore, and our eyes leaking out... we may be a bit of a mess over here, but we are a happy mess.  Thank you my friends, how can I ever thank you?