On the road again and other updates

I am currently in a hotel room in Northern Idaho. I haven't been on the road for work since I got sick. It is nice to be back out there again but I also feel a bit out of sorts. Given the last few weeks, it is nice to get away even if I am working 9-10 hour days.

We bagged out of women's fitness walk due to the lightening and rain. We had my 5 month old niece with us and didn't want her out in it. So we went to lunch instead.

And here we are ten years ago!

We also had a wedding in our backyard last Saturday. Al, the boys and the wedding party did all the yard work and house work so I wouldn't have to stress about it right before leaving town. They made our yard look so romantic. I will post pictures when I get them.

Next week I will have my quarterly lab work done and will talk more with my doc about tests. Sounds like I need at least a chest x-ray at least once a year if not more often or if not an MRI.

Who is your Suzy? Who inspires you?

Suzy was Nancy Brinker sister who died of breast cancer and inspired Nancy to create Susan B Komen for the Cure. Tell the who inspires you to make a difference in breast cancer awareness, research and treatment. Submit your 250 to 350 word essay (and optional photograph) telling Self magazine about someone in your life who has been affected by breast cancer and how that person has motivated you to make a difference in the fight against the disease. SELF editors will choose the finalists, then participants will vote to determine the winning submission.

http://www.whosyoursuzy.com/index.tbapp

I don't know. Ask so and so...

So it has been two years since my baseline mammogram and a year since an MRI before removing my healthy side. Now no one seems to know for sure what I should be doing for an annual exam. They should still check my chest wall to make sure everything is still clean. I did have a chest x-ray in the spring that was clean. They have to come with something because a mammogram is useless for me now. I am going from doctor to doctor and they are all "thinking about it." You would think there would be a standard level of care for women who no longer have breasts.

Back to "normal"

Last night I returned to our Friday night bowling league for the first time in two years. My game is still lacking but it is about spending time with friends and winding down from the week. I have missed it. And I will have to take a break in a few months when I have another surgery but hopefully that will be a short break.

Also last weekend we went out to celebrate my birthday. Most of my friends were able to come out and join us. I got to do one of my favorite things for the first time in years - singing. I love to sing and the shower and the car just don't fill the void. Then my girlfriends all sang Happy Birthday to me. It was so great!

(I was going to post a picture of them singing but it is on the computer that quit working this afternoon!)

My sister, my birthday

My sister has posted a wonderful entry on her blog about my birthday lunch today!

http://jillboandscottie.blogspot.com/2008/09/happy-birthday-jenn.html

She is right about my response. I was depressed about turning 35 in 2006 and 6 weeks later I was told I had cancer. I will never be depressed about becoming older, only depressed if the party isn't big enough! :-) I am now celebrating being here another year for my kids, my spouse, myself, my friends, and all the other I hope to impact in the years to come!

Don't forget

Friday night is the Stand Up To Cancer event.

Danica we will miss you.

We have lost another brave young mother to cancer. She was waiting for a bone marrow transplant when she passed away this morning. She was a single mother of 3 young children.

http://danicamartinez.com/

Under Armour Power In Pink

The 2008 Under Armour Survivors are out. I wasn't selected as one of the three winners but I was selected for the "additional survivor stories". Check it out! These women (and one man) are amazing!

http://www.underarmour.com/powerinpink/

"Trinity"s and tadpoles

Over the long weekend we took the kids camping at the base of the Trinity Mountain. We went with some friends who spend a lot of time in the area and we did a day trip to the Trinity Lakes. (For those of you who don't know, our daughter's name is Trinity and her daddy has been promising her all summer that we would go to the lakes.) We started at Little Trinity Lake first. There were little frogs everywhere along the bank. The kids must have caught about a 100. I am a huge frog fan so I enjoyed watching them hopping and swimming around and my kids chasing them. Then we went up to Big Trinity Lake. There was hundreds of tadpoles. So the kids caught about 30 of those. (We now have a glass tank filled with frogs and tadpoles!) Before we came down from the mountain we ran into a lady who works with Alvin and our friend Scott. She was camping with her little girl who is about 6 weeks younger than my daughter. I went to introduce the two girls so they could play and it turns out her name was Trinity as well. So the two Trinity girls met at Trinity Lake. They were going to head home but decided to join us at our camp and the girls had a wonderful time. It was a memorable weekend for all of us!