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| Make a Smilebox scrapbook |
Hope your holiday season is merry and bright!
Other than being a bit tired (and sore, did I mention sore?) everything went well with my lumpectomy yesterday. They removed three lymph nodes and it looks like there aren’t any cancer cells in them! My oncologist did say that they will be doing further testing on my nodes over the next week and sometimes will find cancer in them that they don’t catch during the surgery, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will be all clear! If they don’t find any, then I think I will be classified as having stage 1 breast cancer, which has something like a 95% curable rate! YEAH! I still don’t know what course of treatment I will be having, but will find out in the coming weeks. I have decided to blog about my cancer journey, in the hopes that I can help other people with this disease cope. If you are so inclined, you can visit it here “C” is NOT for Cookie.
Howdy! I don’t know how many of you still check this blog (I’m listed as having over 50 subscribers on Bloglines even after all this time – incredible) but wanted to give you an update on my crazy summer.
If you have been following this blog (or my book blog) for a while now, you know that cancer has played a part in my life in recent times. My Mother was a breast cancer survivor for thirteen years, only to have developed another type of cancer earlier this year and pass away in June. Three of my cousins have also had to deal with breast cancer. Now, it’s my turn.
Last week I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The official name is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma and it is the most common form of breast cancer in this country. I am being treated at a leading cancer hospital in New York City and have the utmost confidence in my doctor. I don’t yet know what stage cancer it is, but my doctor seems to think that we have caught it at a very early stage. I will not know my course of treatments until some further testing is done.
This in many ways comes as no surprise. As mentioned above, I obviously have a family history of the disease. My Mother was 52 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. One of my cousins was 31. I am 35 years old. The statistics are also clear – one in eight women in the U.S. will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Of course, the timing could have been a little better. After my Mother passed away at the end of June, two weeks later I went in for my yearly mammogram to find the small mass deep in my left breast.
Even though this has probably been the hardest summer of my life, I also feel lucky to have the support of my father, sister, husband and that I have two young children to keep my spirits bright. I am also very optimistic that my cancer can be treated and that I will be a survivor too.
As fellow adoptive parents, your comments and visits to my blog have always meant the world to me, therefore I decided to be honest and share my story with all of you. I also hope that in telling you about my diagnosis it will inspire you to schedule a mammogram (yearly after the age of 40 if you don’t have any family history of breast cancer).
I will still be leading a normal life (or for what some people may call a “New Normal”) and will continue to write book reviews on my book review blog! I’ve also thought about starting a new blog chronicling my journey with breast cancer, but haven’t yet set it up. If I do decide to go ahead and blog about cancer and you would like to follow along, leave your e-mail address in the comments and I’ll be sure to let you know if and when it is set up.
Alright, I am not even going to look at this blog to see how long ago I posted (but I’m sure it’s been a LONG while – OK I peeked – it’s been like three months – YIKES)! Lots of stuff have been going on around here and I have been busy with two kids on my heels. I’ve been spending most of my on-line time over at my book blog, now reviewing books sent to me by various publishers and authors. For a bibliophile like myself, it’s a dream!
It will be a year next month that we traveled to China to get Maya – a year filled with wonder, happiness and amazement. My oldest has just about finished Kindergarten and has also learned to read. Maya is a running, jumping, somersaulting twenty month old who is now starting to say more that just Bye Bye and DaDa. It’s also been a time of worry and heartache as my Mother is still very ill.
I’ll be keeping this blog up for a while longer, but feel that having an “adoption” blog is kind of obsolete at this point, so one day good ole F&C will be deleted. In the meantime, let me show you what we will be doing for most of the summer…
Thanks for following along on our journey to becoming a family of four. Have a wonderful, happy and safe summer. Peace.
I was so excited the other day when I found out that the new issue of a national digital scrapbooking magazine was out and was even more excited when I actually got to see my digital layout in the magazine!
I just started digitally scrapbooking in September, after over five years of paper scrapping. In November, there was a call to create a layout of an important object in my life and so I threw together a page all about my kitchenaid mixer (gotta love a kitchenaid)!
I right away showed my daughter Leah the page and she yelled “we’ve got to show someone” right in the middle of the bookstore. So cute!
My Mom is currently a patient at a well known hospital in New York City. She isn’t able to receive any visitors under the age of eleven, so I thought she would like to see a few photos of her grandkids (with my Dad) dying easter egg yesterday. Here you go Mom!
First, let me say thank you so much for all the wonderfully supporting comment on my last post – all of your prayers and good thoughts made a difference and now my mom is resting at home. She has an illness we hope to be able to manage and will now have to take things one day at a time. Thank you again for your support.
Remember in my Valentine’s Day post I mentioned my mother not feeling well? On Friday night she was admitted into the hospital with some sort of infection. Right now we still don’t know what is wrong and are waiting for the results of her blood cultures and bone marrow biopsy. Needless to say, we are all worried…
So, it would be greatly appreciated if you guys could just keep my family in your thoughts. Thanks.
Leah made this card for her grandparents today. My mother is under the weather, so we figured this is the best way to send our love! Hope everyone has a happy Valentine’s Day!
It was one of those weekends where everything fell right into place. It started on Saturday which was a planned girl’s day out. Myself and three of my good friends headed into New York City to see Legally Blonde on Broadway. It was a perfect feel good show, with upbeat music and funny dialogue. Click on the below clip to see the beginning of the show.
After heading back over the Hudson river, we all had dinner together and enjoyed the fact that there wasn’t a high chair or snotty nose at our table.
On Sunday my almost six year old daughter and I went to Chinese school and then hit the bookstore afterwards for some mommy/daughter browsing. Last night I sat down to watch some football goodness and was thrilled by the HUGE NY Giants win last night (yep, I’m a die hard Giants fan, having had it drilled into me since I was a toddler)! It was the perfect (and very exciting ending) to a great weekend!
Sorry I’ve been MIA around here – I have been spending a lot of my free time reading, so I update my book blog much more often. Stop on by if you have a chance – I will be hosting a book giveaway there in a couple days.
For more Legally Blonde fun, click below:
Forks & Chopsticks 
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