The Sweetest 4 words in the English language right now

I've mentioned before what the worst 4 words in the English language are to me. But I just got an email that contained the sweetest 4 words:

PET Scan is clear

WOO HOO!!!

While that's good news anytime, it's especially significant this time. You see, this marks 2 years cancer free, which means my sweetie is officially considered to be in remission!!!!!!!

It's been a rough couple of years to get to this point, but the important thing is we are now here!! There's going to be a (probably noticeable) spring in my step as I head out of here tonight!!

WOO HOO!!!!

Prayers Needed

My mom is having surgery today. She has a tear in her rotator cuff that needs to be repaired & a bone spur on the shoulder joint that will be removed at the same time.

This is a first for my mom as she's never had surgery before. I told her that if she wanted to take a page from my playbook, I would have preferred that she take a dance class. :-)

If you've got a moment to send up a prayer or to keep a good thought that everything goes well for her, I'd appreciate it.

Thankful Tuesday

Some things are just too good to wait for Thursday to roll around. This is one of those things:

My SO's most recent PET scan was clean!! There is currently no evidence of cancer or cancerous activity!!!

Despite the fact that rain is actually physically falling outside, it seems like a very sunny day from where I'm sitting!

Thankful Thursday

It's been a while, so I'm long overdue for a Thankful Thursday post. I'm going to keep it short & sweet. Right now, I'm thankful for:

• Health -- it really is so precious.
• Friends
• Being able to be there for those friends and for the confidence/trust they put into me in allowing me the opportunity to be there for them

Thankful Thursday

It's that time again -- time to take a moment to focus on gratitude and the things for which I'm thankful. This week, I'm thankful for:

• Getting the chance to get out with the camera and get creative for a bit. It felt good to rekindle my joy in photography and I'm very happy with some of the shots I took. Thanks, too, go to Will, a professional photographer from Colorado who I met as we were both shooting pics near the Capitol. He was kind enough to offer suggestions and pass on bits of his knowledge.
  


• Getting to see my nephews this upcoming weekend. The older of the 2 boys is 4 years old, so Christmas is pretty magical to him this year. I love getting to be part of that.



• Getting to spread a little holiday joy. Each year, we take a group of dancers to the Armed Forces Retirement Home's holiday party. It's a chance to dance with and for the veterans, spend some time talking to them, and in general, just spreading a little goodwill. It's one of my favorite holiday traditions & will take place tomorrow evening.



• The wonderful massage I got last weekend. As a dancer, I beat my body up on a pretty consistent basis. Last weekend was no exception since our gig on Sat night was 7 hrs long and we were dancing on a marble floor. I was most definitely sore after that!! But, since this wasn't the first time we'd done this event, I knew to expect being sore & scheduled a massage for Sunday. My last 3 massages really didn't do much to help; they were nice, but my muscles fight back/require a bit of convincing that they need to release & the past couple of massages I had never reached that point. This time, however, was different -- I went to a new place & this new massage therapist was fantastic!! I'm still feeling the benefits!! And, since this place was considerably less expensive than the other places I'd tried, not to mention more conveniently located, you can bet I'll be going back!!
  
  
• The adorable ornaments I got from Mindi. There's a music clef that represents my dancing and a beautiful bird that can either be hung conventionally or can be clipped onto a tree branch as if it's perching. Pics will be coming as soon as I change the batteries in my camera. Thanks, Mindi -- They are perfect!!
  
  
• Hearing that the package I shipped for my neices and nephews in Vancouver, BC arrived yesterday. Last year, it didn't get there until the 2nd week of January, even tho I shipped it around the same time. There's a strike going on in some of the Canadian postal system, so I was worried this year would be the same, despite being told 5-10 days when I shipped it. Glad to know it made it!!

So, that's my list today. What's on yours?

Thankful Thursday Friday

Traveling this week has left me scrambling to catch up, so I'm a little late, but thankful none the less. This week I'm thankful for:

• Being home -- I like traveling, but I'm always glad to come home.
  
  
• Those things Washington DC has to offer like great museums, wonderful theatre & arts, etc. I'm reminded every time I go away how many nice things this city/area offers.
  
  
• My dogs --it's so nice to see how much they've missed me whenever I go away. Makes me feel special. :-)
  
  
• A great cadre of volunteers --without their help, we couldn't run the dances we offer. This is especially noticeable this week since I was gone for much of it and couldn't have managed the details even if I'd wanted to.
  
  
• My dance partner -- who did keep things running while I was gone. Teaching classes or filming a partner-based dance show is not easy to do solo and he had to do both this week. Thanks, darlin', you're a gem!
  
  
• Making 2 new friends at work -- this trip, I was paired up with 2 ppl I'd neither met nor worked with before. Given the nature of the trip, one spends long hours (14-16 hr days, or even longer) as a team, most of the time in one car, so there's no getting away from one another if personalities clash or you just aren't a good fit. I was paired with 2 wonderful people with great senses of humor. Within a very short time, we were laughing and joking with each other as if we were old friends. It made the very long work days a lot nicer than if we hadn't really clicked.
  
  
• Being healthy -- Last time I had to do this type of work assignment was a couple of years ago. I was not well, so those 16-hour days really were trying. This time around was a MUCH better experience.
  
  
• Our veterans. And the troops currently serving our country. They deserve our thanks & more! Take a moment or 2 this upcoming Tuesday to at least honor them, if not doing something to actively thank them.

Props to Tiburon for the great new autumnal graphic & the original idea for the Thankful Thursday posts. Feel free to take the idea and the graphic and play along.

Thankful Thursday

Yeah, I know it's not Thursday, or even Friday anymore. It's just been that type of week, but as the old saying goes, 'Better Late than Never'. So, in no particular order, this week I'm thankful for:

• Gorgeous weather. It's really been spectacular around here lately.


• NOT being named Employee of the Month....wait a minute, first you were & now you're not? And you're happy about that? Yup! Turns out the award I'm getting is much bigger than that. It's part of the annual awards for my division, so it's a much bigger deal than I originally thought.


• Having a big training class for work that I helped plan, organize, and execute come off without a hitch.


• Acupuncture. I have a great practicioner who helped me delay that surgery for at least a couple of years. I hadn't seen for a little over a year (just before my surgery) but went back this past week. 2 sessions and I already feel better/less run down/feel like things are more balanced or clicking on all cylinders. I have no clue how it works, but it's definitely given me great health benefits and I now swear by it!

So, how bout you? What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday

It's late, but I'm actually going to get this in on Thursday this week. (Yay!) This week, I'm thankful for:

• Being healthy/able -- I may be sore & tired from a pretty heavy dance rehearsal schedule as we hit the final stretch before this next big performance, but isn't it nice that I *can* dance, not to mention walk. How much harder (and different) life would be if I didn't have the physical ability to do so.
  
• A mild August -- I had to break down and turn on the AC this evening for the first time in nearly a month. (It's getting humid here as the precursor to Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hannah rolls in.) It's been wonderful to have the windows open and get the fresh air, not to mention it's been very helpful on the budget to not have to run the AC!!
  
• A good public transportation system -- Last time I filled my car's gas tank was in late July. I just now dropped to slightly below 1/4 tank and will have to think about filling it again soon.
  
• The political conventions being over -- yes, they are important, and yes, I've been paying attention, but enough already!!! No matter which party one might be supporting, there's really a limit to the partisan speechifying and rhetoric that one can take!!
  
• Puzzles -- sudokus, cricklers, mah jong, crosswords, etc. All of them. I love having a small diversion when things get crazy-busy or I get stressed. By using different parts of my brain, it helps me blow off steam & clear my mind so I'm better able to focus.

So, how about you? What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday Friday

It seems that this making-a-Thankful-Thursday-post-on-Friday thing is starting to be a pattern. Oh well.

Things I'm thankful for this week include:

• Seeing my friends from Sweden again. They were in town for the weekend to judge a dance competition. Since we weren't competing & weren't involved in organizing or running the event, we actually got to just spend social time with them. It was a lovely visit and we'll hopefully see them again soon.
  
  
• Feeling a whole lot better this year than I did this time last year! AS the old saying goes, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything!
  
  
• A 3-day weekend. (Does anyone find it ironic that we celebrate the concept of working by NOT working?)
  
  
• The dancers working on this upcoming group performance. We had rehearsal last night & it was wonderful to see how much progress each couple had made since we last met. They clearly had put in the time & effort to really get this routine down. We were able to make sooo much progress & it's starting to look pretty good. We've worked with other dancers before who never bothered to do the "homework" that was necessary, so it was slow-going and at times very frustrating. It's so nice to be working with people who understand what it takes to pull something like this off & who are willing to give us that!!

So, how about you? What makes you thankful this week?

One Year Ago....

At this moment one year ago, I was on my way to the hospital. Nervous as all get-out Scared witless, but trying not to let it get the best of me. My surgery was scheduled for 1:15 pm & I had to be there 2 hrs before...I had had my pre-op appt one week before. I was dealing with pretty severe anemia, but had responded well to a new form of iron my doc had prescribed. He also wanted me to take another drug, but after doing my own research, I decided the side effects/risk were too high & said no. The pre-op blood numbers would be where "the rubber meets the road" -- if I had been right, my Hct and Hgb would be high enough to go ahead with the surgery. If I'd been wrong, I'd either need to have a transfusion in order to proceed or it would have to be cancelled & rescheduled. I hadn't gotten a call telling me something in my bloodwork was amiss, but was pretty nervous about it, so it was a BIG relief when I asked my pre-op nurse what my levels were & to hear for sure that they were high enough to go forward.

They had taken me back into pre-op very shortly after I arrived & checked in with admitting. A few minor preliminaries & then all that was left was to wait. Luckily, they let my SO come back, so I had someone to talk to/someone to help distract me. 1:15 pm came & went, with no sign of my doc. About 1:40 pm, a resident came in & introduced herself. Followed shortly thereafter by a med student, my soon-to-be OR nurse, my surgeon and the anesthesiologist. It's surprising how quickly one of those hospital cubicles/bays gets crowded!! After 15 mins of poking & prodding, answering questions, etc, we were good to go. The anesthesiologist announced he was going to get started. I remember handing my iPod and my glasses to my SO, but nothing after that. He says we were downstairs for another 5 mins or so after that, during which time we were still conversing, but I have no memory of it.

The next thing I was aware of was PAIN. Intense pain. Pain like I've never known before. (I told my doc the next day when he came to check on me that I could cross being a magician's assistant off my life's list since I already knew what it felt like to be sawed in half!)...I wasn't really expecting that much pain. Yes, I knew that it'd hurt, but I hadn't expected to be in that level of pain, figuring they'd keep me pretty doped up so I didn't feel that much pain. Only thing I can figure is they needed to bring me back to a certain level of awareness before they could administer anything else. Once they realized I was aware, my OR nurse touched my leg, called my name & told me it was over. I don't remember a lot of other details, but I do remember that he was surprised that I not only knew who he was, but remembered his name.

I have no idea how long I was in surgery vs how long after that I came to vs how long after that I was in post-op. I'm virtually blind as a bat without my glasses or contact lenses, so I couldn't bring anything into focus even if I had been able to (and I'm not sure I could have). I do know that it was after 6 pm before I was taken upstairs to my room, so there's a 4+ hr window. My SO made sure I'd been transferred to my room, that he had told me the details as reported by my doc (and written it on the white board in my room so in case I wasn't really "with it", I'd be able to read it later), given me back my glasses & iPod, etc. He then had to take off to teach our dance classes that evening. He was supposed to come back afterwards, but when he called after the classes were over, I told him to go on home & get some sleep instead. I'd had 2 friends come by earlier in the evening & they both have since told me that they are amazed I even remembered they came, so I'm guessing I looked pretty awful.

I was supposed to be released 2 days later, but I spiked a fever that morning, so ended up staying an extra day. 6 weeks later, I had to go back to work. Luckily, I don't work in the main bldg & my boss was kind and kept it quiet that I was back for the first week to give me time to get caught up on emails/voicemails and to gently ease back into work. It took 3 months until I could start trying to build strength & I'm still not back to where I was pre-op on some things, but it keeps on improving, so with work & dedication, I should get there.

So, here's to a better August 27, 2008 than August 27, 2007!! Of course, I wouldn't mind the 6 weeks off work option, but not if that's what it takes to get it!!!

Thankful Thursday

I never got the chance to stop long enough last Thursday to make a "Thankful Thursday" post. It really is nice to spend a few minutes focusing on the good things around me, so I'm not going to let another week slip by without making it happen. This week, I'm thankful for:

1. The Olympics. I love the pagentry, the excitement, etc. I was completely enthralled by the opening ceremonies; I only wish I could get my dancers to be 1/2 as precise as the 2008 drummers or the people inside the boxes that created the "Great Wall" or the tai chi masters who made perfect circles, etc.
   
   


2. Great weather -- usually August is pretty unbearable around these parts. This year, however, we've had GORGEOUS weather. Thanks to low humidity, I've had the AC off and the windows open for the last week. It's been delightful!
   
   


3. My foster dog did get adopted and is doing really well in his new home. In fact, he's blossoming; ya see, around others, Harley is a submissive dog. If he were a human, he would have been the kid that always had the "kick me" sign on his back. In his new home, the only other dog in residence is a 12-yr-old blind Bichon Frise who follows him around like a lost puppy dog, so for the first time in his life, he gets to be top dog. As a result, he's really coming out of his shell & gaining confidence......People often ask me why I do rescue. Now ya know. His time was up at the shelter & if we hadn't taken him, he would have been euthanized. Instead, he's got a great new life, is finally becoming the dog he always had the potential to be, and his new family has filled the void that was left when their previous dog passed away. It's a win-win all around!!
   
   


4. No staff meeting today. 3rd (or is it 4th now?) week in a row! Gotta love a boss who doesn't hold meetings just to hold meetings!
   
   


5. Getting assigned to a really interesting new project at work. When I had my performance evaluation with my boss last week, we spent a lot of time talking about what type of things I enjoy doing/find interesting/would like to work on. This new one is definitely a good fit & a nice affirmation that he was listening to what I had to say & wants to make that happen for me.
   
   


6. A clean PET scan....I've mentioned before that my SO battled lymphoma last year. At his last PET scan, there were a couple of "spots" found. The good news was they weren't showing hypermetabolic (i.e. cancerous) activity, but they were definitely there. The docs didn't know what they were -- best guess was damaged tissue that resulted from the chemo or radiation, but it was possible that they could be the start of the tumor coming back. The decision that was made was to "wait and see". If they either showed cancerous activity or had grown by the next PET scan, then they'd go in and do a biopsy. (Since that would involve cracking the chest wall, not something one would really want to do.)
   
   The good news is that the PET scan was clear!! Not only had the spots not grown/weren't showing hypermetabolic activity, they had actually SHRUNK!! Most likely, they are evidence of collateral damage from the cancer treatment, but unlike what was first thought, the damage may not be permanent as it appears that his body is doing its best to heal itself!!
   

So, how 'bout you? What things are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday

Every week, I take a few moments to stop the world & focus on those things that have made my life a little nicer during the week. It's a great way to ac-cen-tu-ate the positive (as the old song goes) since it's too easy to spend more time on those things that are negative or going wrong, than what is going right. It's also a great way to remind myself not to take things (or people) for granted. This week's list includes:

• Cell Phones -- My SO is overseas for work this week. His office gave him an international cell phone, so we've been able to talk pretty much daily despite the 8-hour time difference and being 2 continents apart.
  
  
• Ranier cherries -- I LOVE these things! Yeah, they are on the expensive side, at least around here, but they are sooooo good!
• Being pain free -- I taught a Salsa/Mambo class this week & for the first time since my surgery 10 months ago, doing Cuban motion didn't hurt!! I think all the work to build my muscles back up must be finally paying off. Woo hoo!
  
  
• Finding out my best friend's mom (my 2nd mom!) does NOT have cancer!! She had a couple of scary-looking lumps found during a mammography a month or so ago & had a biopsy done last week. The report came back earlier this week that they are not cancerous or otherwise worrisome!! WOO HOO!!
  
  
• My new toy -- it's soo much fun!! Now if it wouldn't tell me that my "Wii Age" is significantly older than my real age. Ok, so I'm not the greatest at hitting virtual tennis balls inbounds (at least I hit them!) And maybe I don't hit baseballs out of the park (at least I make contact & a base hit is perfectly fine by me!). I haven't tried the Wii Fit yet; hopefully that one will deem me to be significantly younger than my actual age & the 2 will average out.
  
  
• Lilies -- after weeks of teasing, they've finally burst into full bloom. I have bright sunny yellow ones and some white ones that are just exquisite.
  
  
• Hearing my best friend sound pretty excited about a couple of potential opportunities that might be coming down the pike. Go get 'em, BG! It's great to hear you be so animated again; I've missed that!

So, how about your? What are you grateful for this week?

Thankful Thursday

With being away for the holiday weekend and then the shortened work week, it's hard to believe it's Thursday again. But, it is, and so it's time for this week's Thankful Thursday post.

In no particular order, things I'm thankful this week include:

• My friends from Sweden arrive this afternoon. I can't wait!!
  
  
• Seeing friends over the weekend I hadn't seen since last Memorial Day.
  
  
• Sleep....after not getting much of it at all over the weekend, getting caught up on a good night's sleep is wonderful!
  
  
• Being a lot healthier this year than I was last Memorial Day weekend. This year, I was able to enjoy my weekend; last year it was more of a "survive" the weekend.
  
  
• Getting to take some master classes with world-class dancers this weekend. Soooo looking forward to it!

And how about you? What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday!

It's that time again. This week, I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

1. Health -- This time last year, someone very close to me was in the middle of chemo. I was also dealing with my own issues, eventually leading to major surgery last August. We both are doing so much better. I'm not 100% back yet as far as my strength goes, but I'm probably about 95-97% or so, so I'm not complaining!
   
   
2. Finding out 2 friends of mine have quit smoking -- one has been smoke free for 9 months now. The other for almost 5 months. I'm so happy for them & so proud of them!
   
   
3. Spring flowers -- a walk at lunchtime near my office showed daffodils and tulips in bloom. The cherry blossoms reached peak this week. The magnolias and redbuds are blooming, as are the dogwoods. The weeping cherry trees are to die for right now. It's just a gorgeous time to be in the DC area.
   
   
4. Having dogs I can take anywhere -- one of my dogs is a certified therapy dog. She & I visit a local nursing home as part of a local pet therapy program. Another of my dogs will be once I make the time to take him to the certification program. Each of them has gone with me to various events, both this past week and on previous occasions. They have both spent the time winning friends & influencing people. It's great to be able to take them, as well as to not have to worry about how they'll handle the situation.
   
   
5. My bus buddies -- see post below
   
   
6. Chocolate -- good, European, high quality chocolate. That's hawt! (See below)
   
   
7. Security -- even though the economy is tough right now, I know I'll be ok. No, I'm not wealthy & it's not likely I ever will be. However, I have a roof over my head and I don't have to worry about not being able to afford groceries or not being able to cover the utilities this month. A lot of people can't say that right now.
   
   

So, what are you thankful for? (Props to Tiburon for the idea and the banner.)