Our Caribbean Cruise!

Dave and I went on a FANTASTIC vacation November 9 - 18. We went on a eastern Caribbean cruise. It was a gift to us last Christmas from the wonderful people I work for at Orbit Irrigation. We has so much fun and made so many memories. It took me nearly a year to get better from cancer go-round #2 to be well enough to go, but we made it.

We met Vern and Linda, John and Donna our excellent dinner companions, Betty from Maine who we helped into the ocean at Grand Turk, who called us her angels. We passed a lovely afternoon swimming with Betty in the Caribbean Sea and learning about Maine. Vern and Linda were from Cape Cod, and John and Donna were from the Chicago area. What fun to meet new people from all over.

We shopped (Dave bought me a blue diamond ring), won a kising contest at Margaritaville in Grand Turk, for which the prize was two free drinks. You should have seen the bar tender when we asked for virgins. He made us daquiris instead of margaritas. We ate LOTS of good food, but on a happy note, I only gained 3 ounces on the cruise. I don't know about Dave...I don't think he officialy weighed in or out.

Thanks so much to Orbit for giving us this experience. Now that we are fighting cancer go-round #3, and the doctors are saying the outlook is somewhere between six months and a year, I can't tell you have thankful I am that I was well enough to go, that we had the opportunity, and that we got to experience first hand an amazing part of the beauty of this world God created for us. When I see Him, I'm telling him THANK YOU, up close and personal.

Here's my baby, Caitlin. I can't believe she's going to be a blushing bride in a few months. We've had fun shopping for wedding dresses. This was the winner!

We tried on many dresses before we found "the one". It was actually a lot of work getting in and out of the lace, frills, lace-up backs, tight zippers and all. But when she tried on the right one, she knew it. "I never thought I'd pick a cupcake dress," she said--her name for full-skirted, beaded and bedecked creations. But it did look perfect on her. Here are some of the also rans and a couple of detail shots of the final choice.

My friend Sandra took me to Thanksgiving Point last May, to help stave off the chemo doldrums, It worked!

In a few more minutes it will be my birthday--August 14. I am so grateful to be another year older. Might sound weird, since I will turn 49 in ten minutes, and as we push the 50 threshold we tend to go into deep denial. But stay with me, and I'll tell you why.

Last August, Caitlin and I went to London and Paris to celebrate her graduation from high school. On August 1, my new granddaughter, Genevieve was born, and on the 2nd,we took off for parts unknown. It was a glorious 12 day trip, thanks to the kindness of my Dear Hubby, David. This was on top of the flood disaster last reported on this blog.

So we have this amazing trip, come home, and it's time for those wonderful quarterly tests that those of us who live in Cancer World have as part of our lives. This time the news wasn't good. The ovarian cancer was back metastized to the bowels, appendix, peritoneal lining. thanks to the kindness of my wonderful friends and neighbors, we moved back into our remodeled home just before Halloween. On November 13 I went in for more surgery. It was a biggie. Twelve days of hospitalization and dragging around the IV trying to begin recuperation. I finally came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day. Here are my brothers and sisters and spouses in my front yard on that day. If I look a little drugged, it's because I WAS!--but we had a lot to be thankful for.

I kept on recuperating through the holidays, then starting in January went through six courses of IP chemotherapy every three weeks. It was cistplatin and taxol delivered through an IP port in my abdomen, followed the next week by taxol only through a port in my chest. My worst day on my first go round with chemo in 2005 was 10 times better than my best day on this. For the next six months life consisted of puking, trying to drink enough water, going to the hospital for blood transfusions. After the fourth IP infusion, my kidneys shut down and I had to be hospitalized for that. I had to finish the chemo through the chest port only. So it's been two and half months since my last chemo. My hair is starting to come back. I can eat again...although it was a lousy diet, I didn't mind losing 45 pounds because of the chemo. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, though.

This is how I got to know my new granddaughter, Evie. I was too sick and weak to hold her most of the time, so we'd put her by me on the bed. This shot was taken in February, after two chemo rounds.

In April, my family and friends supported me in raising money to donate to Huntsman Cancer Hospital through a program called Hometown Heros. We raised $4000 as a team of eight. We walked a 5K on a cold Saturday morning...well OK, my team walked. I was pushed in a wheelchair. Not a bad ride, and I didn't throw up once on the route. It was exhilarating to be cheered across the finish line by those lining the route.

By May my hair was gone, but I had eyebrows left. Being too sick to work in my own garden, friends would rejuvenate my spirit by taking me on outings to public gardens. This was taken at Thanksgiving Point when my good friend Sandra took me for a tulip outing.

So there you have it--why I am happy to be 49. It means I'm still here...and I'm grateful to be getting my hair back and slowly getting back to normal. My friends and family have stood by my side through it all--from Dave who was with me every minute of every hospital stay, my sisters who traveled to be by my bedside and clean up after my puke, not to mention cleaning my house, my kids who were just always there, my mom and her husband, Jerry who worked in my yard doing spring clean-up, brought me gifts large and small, and friends and neighbors who showed up with food, flowers, books, gifts of time and labor. One dear friend, Paula, has come every weekday morning all summer long and pulled weeds and dead-headed flowers--it's due to her diligence that my garden looks as good s it does this year. I LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Happy birthday to me.