 |
 |
| Make a Smilebox scrapbook |
Hope your holiday season is merry and bright!
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
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.
Well, I finally did it! I switched over this blog to WordPress, mostly because now I can edit all three blogs and not have to switch back and forth between WordPress and Blogger.
The header image is a picture of a flower I took while at the Honolulu Zoo last year. It reminds me of warmer weather (which is a nice change from the cold weather we are having right now).
I’M DONE
With this blog, that is. After 10 months, I really don’t have much else to say. I have grown bored with this format and feel that it just takes up way to much of my time. I will still be following along on your adoption blogs (posting under my wordpress name), but will no longer be posting here. I will be keeping up with my other two blogs, which I find are much easier to maintain. Follow me if you like, but I totally understand if my book blog and my craft blog do not make it onto your Bloglines anytime soon.
Thank you all for stopping by, leaving wonderful comments on all of my posts and becoming my on-line buddies. It has been fun.
Greetings from my little vampire!
Let me just say that I LOVE Tom Brokaw. Having said that, I did enjoy this video which pokes a little fun at him.
Thanks for sending it to me Dad.
Tired of calling some 800 number only to have to press thirty numbers just to find out the information that you are looking for? Check out Get Human. It’s a database of companies and their telephone numbers and/or codes to get a real live human when calling for customer service. Pretty handy…
Have you ever felt all blogged out? I guess this is what I am feeling right now. I don’t know what direction I should be taking this blog thing. I have been going along now for nine months but feel it is getting a bit repetitive. I may decide to take it in a different direction. So, for right now, I will be taking a little break from Forks & Chopsticks.
Having said that, I will still be posting about reading and our book club at The Written Word. See you soon.
Forks & Chopsticks 
Recent Comments