Monday, September 19, 2016

Last week's milestone, and other news...

We are two weeks into high school, and still alive... well, mostly alive - Claire had a little trip to emergency last week after an ankle injury in gym class.  Thankfully her ankle is not broken, but it is painfully sprained.  This renders her helpless for the girls' newspaper routes, so that responsibility rests fully on Cass until her sister is recovered.  Have I mentioned the paper routes before?  Oh no? Maybe because I have been trying to block them out of my memory!?!

This summer I got the bright idea to encourage my offspring to start earning their own money; summer jobs did not pan out as hoped, but local newspaper carrier routes did.  This is where the story should stop: I should have thrown out the flyer and not have helped Claire contact her potential new boss... BUT.. anyway, long story short, both girls have toiled six days per week since July delivering papers and flyers in our neighbourhood and downtown, and they have reaped the benefits of the direct-deposit world.  (this did NOT save me any money at back-to-school-shopping time, just saying)


In any case, none of us are loving the paper routes, but it is a great life lesson.  I keep telling the girls if they work hard and make good choices then this may be the worst job they ever have... and they'll be able to tell their children how they had to SLAVE over newspapers, biking them all over town, in their pajamas, in six feet of snow, UPHILL... BOTH WAYS!


I'm finding it hard to believe that it is the middle of September already.  We are all adjusting to school schedule time again, and the girls' autumn theatre production rehearsals begin again this week.   And at the end of next week I will be one full year post-treatment for melanoma.  

I get to mark this anniversary with a small graduation.  Last Monday I had my quarterly check-up, bloodwork, CT scans and consult with my Medical Oncologist at Sunnybrook.  Pending clear scans this time around, I will move from CT scans every three months to every six months!  

I knew this was coming, but I didn't know how I felt about it until the actual moment when my medical friends said OK then see you in March!  MARCH!! 2017 YAH!  I wished them a speedy Merry Christmas and high-tailed it outta there before they could change their minds.  I swear that was the fastest I have ever made it to my car in the far parking lot.

Sitting in the car for a moment I caught my breath and absorbed the news.  Six months - that is wonderful.  But for a cancer survivor it can also be very frightening.  To move farther away from the safety net which is the Oncologists' close and careful watch, allowing more time for any undetected diseased cells to roam around doing their evil work, can cause some hefty anxiety.  Can't go on forever having 3-month scans, I know... but...   I started the car, blasted some "Victorious" and charged up the 400 Northbound.

Still have to wait about three weeks for the CT scan reports, but we are all planning on them being clear - No Evidence of Disease (NED).  My June scans showed a small inflammation on my right lung so that has had me a bit stressed, but... as my Gramma always says: worrying won't help it at all, so just live on and deal with it if it happens.

One snag - I still have the issue of the tummy trouble, so my Oncologist requested that I pursue the examinations she had ordered in the winter.  Dammit, I'm not going to get away with ignoring it - she wants to rule out any other damage or trouble from the ipi treatments.  I am going to pursue these tests closer to home though, through my family doctor.     

Otherwise living on I am, newspaper routes, theatre auditions, high school lunch arguments, Huffington Post blogging for Melanoma Through My Lens (coming soon!), and continuing to work through my fears toward the goals I have been setting for myself.  

  

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