A sunny day

Today was another calm day - it's nice to get a stretch of these in a row, as they will fortify me for the craziness that is sure to follow. This morning after hanging out for a while Tessa & I met Michele & Elliott at "Coffee to a Tea With Sugar" (a great coffee shop locally that has a kids' area with toys and small furniture) to chat and hang out. Caley came to help out with lunch and pre-nap stuff, and then I left them to go have lunch with Gretchen. I actually got home before Tessa woke up, but I was pretty tired, so I ended up having some down time while Tessa - under Caley's watchful eyes - played in the wading pool in the back yard, enjoying the sunshine. Then we enjoyed a wonderful seafood dish compliments of Alice & Eric (thank you!) and went outside to play sidewalk chalk. Our neighbors Christy, Bill, and Noah were out and we ended up having long chats with them and the kids played with the chalk, picked flowers (Tessa's favorite activity) and ran around like happy little hooligans. Then we fed the Rikhof's cats (Tessa helped and thought it was great fun), came home, read six stories instead of the usual three, and Tessa seems to be going down easily. The only thing missing from this wonderful day is Ryan - he's going to be at work really late tonight, catching up and writing his review. Ryan, we (TK & I) missed you, and we're grateful to you for being such a wonderful provider for us, even when you'd rather be playing! Thank you.

The highlight of the day (though today there were many) was meeting Gretchen. We had a leisurely two hour lunch and shared more of our stories, talked about the important people in our lives, discussed cancer's impact on our selves, and more. I felt like I could be very candid with Gretchen, and that was hugely helpful to me. She and I are at very different places in our lives (her children are grown) but that wasn't the point at all, and didn't matter in the slightest. I'm hopeful that she and I will meet again, and I am grateful that she is adding to my journey. The cancer road is long and tortuous, but there are some beautiful sights along the way, and Gretchen is one of them.

Gretchen actually convinced me that the waiter at our resturant was flirting with me. Just so there are no mistakes, know that my wedding ring was in clear view and that I'm not interested in encouraging flirtation, :-), but also know that it was incredibly flattering and gave me a good giggle afterwards. It's been so long since I've been flirted with it actually made me laugh - yikes I must be getting old (or maybe it's just that the only men I ever meet - dads at the playground - know better!) but it was flattering and amusing. It was even MORE amusing when, upon looking at myself in the ladies' room mirror prior to leaving the resturant, I realized that my fake breast (prosthesis) was riding high and definitely not in line with its (real) partner. Now there's something I need to look out for in the future...but lopsided boobs or no, Gretchen and I were laughing about the whole thing in the way that girlfriends do, and it was very comfortable and nice.

Today my OB/GYN, Dr. Peggy Hutchison, called me. She had been forwarded my files, and, sweet woman that she is, she called me personally to talk and offer kind words of encouragement. We will be scheduling my oopharectomy (that might be the wrong spelling/word ... removal of the ovaries is what I mean) for immediately post chemo (or radiation, if I have that). Dr. H will be performing that procedure, which is actually kind of nice, in a strange way. I've never met her in anything but the most wonderful of experiences - pregnancy and birth - and I'm glad to have her at my side in this more painful trial, as she was such a source of strength to me before.

Tomorrow my mom has Tessa, and I will be going to a quick check up with the nurse, Teresa, at the surgeon's office, just to make sure my drain wound etc. is healing okay. Then, I'm off to Swedish First Hill for a MUGA - that's a heart test. The drugs I'll be getting for chemo are rough on the heart, so they're taking a baseline so that when they test me down the road they'll be able to assess the damage. My understanding at this time is that the heart damage done by the drugs is something that is gradual and can be monitored, and it isn't permanent, but of course they'll monitor it closely. Funny - there was a time when a 2 hour medical procedure would have felt like a HUGE deal to me, but these days it feels like nothing, almost a day off. Yikes.

I wish all of you sweet dreams. I send my love!
Kristina