In It To Win It

My boys are at the age where you should be able to look at my calendar and get an idea of my soccer mom status- minus the soccer in our family, of course.

Instead of loading the kids in the car with their shin guards and cleats, we load up to get mom to her next doctor appointment. Of course, it can't all be blamed on me. My kids don't do sports. One just plain doesn't like it, and the other one tackles other players with his teeth like Dracula. So instead we load up with mom saying, "Hey kids, it's time to go to grandma's! Mom has another doctor appointment!"

While thyroid cancer isn't the monster of all cancers by any means, it nickels and dimes until you want to wave the white flag. My new doctor has told me that since I have "only" had one surgery to remove cancer, I am among the few. I should definitely count on going under the knife several more times before all is said and done. I have recently done CT scans, biopsies, ultrasounds, and blood work to confirm there is still thyroid cancer in my neck. There are also some obscure nodules in my lung that no one can say for sure is cancer. All we know so far is that it isn't aggressively growing so that could mean it is nothing special, or it is metastases of the thyroid cancer.

For now, I have surgery on my neck again in a few weeks that I will have to pull an all-nighter (maybe two) in the hospital for. Super duper looking forward to that. Anyone want to homeschool my kid for a few days while I soak in some anesthesia and painkillers? I would also appreciate prayers because the cancer itself lies between my jugular vein and carotid artery. You might think I am kidding when I say I am going to ask the surgeon if I can see if his hands are shaky that morning. I might even give him a breathalyzer. I'm pretty sure I don't want either of those bad boys severed. Although I will say that my doc made me feel better when he said I can live without one of them. I forget which one. Let's hope he doesn't touch that one. I much prefer to live with both intact.

There are so many other things that cancer patients have to deal with other than curing the cancer itself. I have met with a long list of doctors in the past few years that I am convinced I would never have crossed paths with except for the radiation, and of course the cancer itself. Hence, mom fitting in another doctor appointment. It's commonplace for my kids these days, which has the welcome side effect of them not thinking much of it.

I often think of my niece who earned her angel wings following a short but painful Leukemia battle in May. She is my angel- and hero- as I go through this. I think of her every day but her presence is stronger when I find myself in another doctor's office, half the time with a needle in my arm.

 

 Keepin' in it to win it for you, sweet girl.

 

I love this picture of Kenna and her grandpa, my dad. Dancing on streets of gold now...