Summer is flying' by!!

Summer is flyin' by!  Thankful for the strength to enjoy trips and guests!
Sutures stay in another month
Weight is holding
Eating everything-lots of everything - praying I'm not gaining weight because I am walking, not the cancer
Walking a lot - yay!
Good energy
Hair continues to thin (burnt my scalp)
Eyebrows and eyelashes thinning also
Don't need to shave much - hahahaha!
Becoming more aware of when I get stressed and trying to control it in positive ways(not very successfully!)
Had my usual pre-chemo blood draw on Friday - I hope I pass :)
Chemo Tuesday
Enjoying puttering in the garden
I feel alive and healthy (oh that it were so!)
So thankful for time to create memories

We had a wonderful trip to San Diego last weekend.  We took the train down and walked over 4 miles each day!  The trolly tour of the city, Seaworld, and the aircraft carrier Midway were all wonderful!  Seaworld was not busy so we got to talk to a lot of the trainers and enjoy the shows!  The docents at the Midway were wonderful - great to hear their stories!  It truly is a floating city.  Had a wonderful time with Todd - so thankful he won this "staycation" for us at the auction!

I came back to a Wed morning appointment to get sutures removed.  Let me explain -- the sutures put in when my port was placed were to be the absorbable kind.  Unfortunately, I am special (1 in 300) and my body does not like the sutures.  We think it is encapsulating them and pushing them out.  They rise and fall through the layers of my skin the way a toddlers teeth rise and fall in their gums.  When they are almost through the skin, it feels like when you have a sliver and don't realize it until something brushes over the sliver and you get that needle like sensation.  My oncologist sent me back to get them looked at and removed.  After a very funny, in retrospect, appointment ( I was asked 3 different times by 3 different people - "who put in your port?"). My response each time was, "I was not wearing my contacts and did not read the doctor's badge, but it is probably in my records!"  It was like a 3 ring circus --but all were kind!  Eventually, the doctor who put it in, came and explained all this to me.  The other possibility is that the sutures that are poking up are not the disolvable ones, but the 2 non disolving sutures that are used to anchor the port to my chest wall - wouldn't that be grand!  In that case, they would have to go back in and re-do those stitches.....Praying that is not the case!  In the mean time, if they break the skin, he told me to cut them off (like anyone but a surgeon could cut a thread that is barely protruding from the skin!) or I could pull them out myself!  Oh well- we'll wait a month and see what happens...

As an unbelievable Christmas gift to me, Todd had our landscaper come in and totally redo our side yard.  They came in and removed almost everything, amended and tilled all the soil, totally redid the irrigation system, putting in drip emitters, put in nicer, softer grass than we had (we had let it die due to the drought),and then they planted a wide assortment of blooming perenials and small bushes.  We are putting some finishing touches on it and playing with a seating arrangement and that kind of thing --- but it has been such a joy to me to watch the birds and butterflies!  Before, with the grass dead and not nearly as much blooming, there was not a lot of bird traffic.  We just were watching orioles, bluebirds, and goldfinches as well as a few I did not recognize!  What an gift!  I am thrilled! 

Tomorrow morning I have another blood draw for my integrative doc - I couldn't do it Friday, because it is only collected Mon-Thur, but no one told me that..... This kind of thing happens so often and is wearing! The more players you have, the more things can go wrong!

Despite the wonderful time we have been having, we don't forget too often that there is a Beast lurking within me....It hangs over us like our personal raincloud.  It's been a year and a half since it came back...Praying I break all the statistics!  As my friend said, " there are no statistics for Christine Moritz!" Thankful for those words of life to replay in my mind...
We cling to reminders like Ps 141:8 which says
my eyes are fixed on you O sovereign Lord, in you I take refuge- do not give me over to death --
and
Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation' I will trust and not be afraid.  The Lord is my strength and my song -- he has become my salvation!

I am so thankful to be the miracle that I am -- stage IV patients do not walk 3 miles and do all the things I have been blessed to do. Each one of you is also a miracle - don't wait for a death sentence to be appreciative of it and take care of your body -- it needs good food, a balance of work and rest, and a thankful heart!  God is good -- all the time!  All the time, God is good!

Thanks for checkin' in!