an auspicious anniversary

Well, here we are. It was 1 year ago yesterday that I started this blog. Go on, look back at the first post. I'll wait…

Right. It started like this: It's cancer.

Sometimes you look back and say remember the good ole days? This is not one of those times. This is a time we look back and say wow are we glad we're here and not back there. This is scary stuff, and we couldn't have gotten through this without all your help. For example, we aren't even needing food anymore. There is no sign-up. And yet it still trickles in. I count chili, soup, and cookies in the last two weeks alone. I guess some people just got in the habit of bringing food and they're finding it hard to stop. Or something.

The results of the mammography are in, and the other side remains clean. And yeah, I went. So sue me. Sorry, but this is definitely not a dentist appointment.

And the Herceptin day yesterday coincided with Veteran's Day, which the kids have off. So we all went! Our great nursing staff got to meet the whole famn damily. And all the kids met our beloved oncologist, who had just added one to her brood herself. Some day we must arrange a meeting with the plastic surgeon so that the kids will understand that men can be doctors too. If they try really hard. :-)

Anyway, there was no way we were about to allow Sammy to stay in the chemo room for more than the meeting time required — he was already asking about buttons he could push — and Jack was wearing his polite-but-bored-silly face, so I spirited the kids away long before the 3-hour Herceptin dose was finished.

So now what? Now we plan ahead. Which is so nice. That may seem strange to you, but think about it. Besides being too scared to plan ahead, our all-too-sobering routine all year has been... deal with this thing. Now. Now deal with this thing... Get through it. Ok now THIS thing... Just get through this week. One day at a time. One week at a time. Get through it...

Enough.

Planning ahead is a luxury we have not had for quite some time. Now, we plan for basketball season. We plan for the holidays. We plan for reconstruction next year. We plan a, dare I say it, vacation. YES. A vacation. A big honkin' vacation somewhere really nice. Maybe next summer or something. Don't get me wrong; we are not fooling ourselves into thinking we are all done. Of course we're not. But it is time to plan ahead. And thank our lucky stars and super doctors we can.