Heavenly News!!

I am so Thankful for the GREAT NEWS I got from the Dr on Friday. He told me I was "Mary Poppins". He had said that to me one time before at a previous visit and I said, "Why,...... do you think I am phony?" ..................................aaarrggghh......Karen, you are too quick to put yourself down,.................... besides that..................Mary Poppins was not a phony, ........not really anyway.

His reason for saying that was that he was talking about my test results. He said I was "Practically Perfect in every way".........AAwwww....................

No honestly, he knows how to make a cancer patient feel good. That is probably the MAIN thing he learned in 17 yrs of schooling,

(yes, that is how long his wife told me he had to go to college)

I feel so blessed to know I have another bit of time to enjoy life. I am thinking at least another year, but who knows, maybe 49 more years.

Actually, I don't ever want to die. Dale brought me home a magnet when I first got diagnosed and it is still on my fridge today. It says "I intend to live Forever.......... so far.... so good"

I have heard about being "twinkled" and I think that has a nice ring to it, so that is my goal!!

The next bit of HEAVENLY NEWS was a message written in crayon . It was on the kitchen counter nest to a vase with two little roses in it.

2 years ago when I first was diagnosed, Dale started his therapy by planting flowers. He loves roses and now has over a dozen rose bushes. For the last 3 seasons, he has brought me the first rose of the season, and the last one of the year, and put them in a small vase in the kitchen.

You have to realize that Dale is not very romantic. He is practical. He is kind. He is NOT affectionate, especially in public.

You also have to know that on our first date, I gave Dale a box of crayons, (story for another day) and he used them to write me a letter later that week that came in the mail to me. (OK, he's not romantic, but he was much younger, and was willing to do things that he thought "I" would like), so the crayon message Saturday had extra special meaning to me.

Lately, I have felt a little bit like maybe I am not very pretty anymore, at least on the OUTSIDE,

I know I have become beautiful on the inside, :) thanks to my "cancer year",

but I was feeling a little sad that I am not what I used to be for Dale. I told him how I was feeling, but he didn't seem to pay much attention, I kinda felt like he thought that I was just being a little too dramatic. (and that would be unusual for me to be dramatic.... lol)

But when I got up Saturday morning and found this, it MADE MY DAY, no............It Made my WEEK...........................

probably my YEAR!!

I LOVED IT!!

I am a lucky girl, I know that.

The last few days for sure brought me Heavenly News!!

I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for such blessings!

Time to check for cancer again

Yes, it is that time of year. Since I started chemo in April of 2008, I will have a PET scan every April for 5 years, ( I think).

I have blood tests every few months, and Dr's visits every 3 months to check on everything.

A PET scan looks for cancerous tumors. If there are cancerous CELLS, they cannot detect those. There is NO test for that.

If there were to be a tumor anywhere in my body that is cancerous, it should show up.

I do this tomorrow morning, (Monday April 5th).

I have to eat low carbs, low sugar, and low dairy today. Lots of protein today.

Tomorrow I will go to the test fasting. They will give me a sweet drink that has some kind of chemicals in it, and after one hour of sitting in a recliner with NO stimulation ( a dark room that is perfectly silent), they will put me in a tube for about 30 minutes and ask me to stay PERFECTLY STILL for the whole time.

These things are all difficult for me to do. Luckily, I have some medication that will help me be still. Seriously, they tell you not to even THINK in your "relaxing" hour. Yeah, right.

I am VERY thankful that our healthcare is so wonderful!! and I mean that. I am grateful that they even HAVE a test to look for tumors, and I am lucky to have insurance to pay for it, about 3 thousand dollars.

I will find out the results on Friday when I see my regular oncologist, Dr. Lemon.

I am not worried. I know that I am not going to have any cancer anywhere. But then again, I know I am going to get up in the morning, and go to bed tomorrow night. In reality, ANYTHING is possible. Life holds NO guarantees.

This I do know, whatever happens, it will be OK. I have Heavenly Father and Jesus on my side.