Not giving up hope

Well, my dear "sister" who has cancer, has stage 4 cancer. It's incurable. She has a brain tumor, and a spot on the liver in addition to all the other places mentioned in my previous blog.

HOWEVER.... her team of doctors plan to treat agressively and they are optimistic that while they can't "cure" her... they can buy her YEARS instead of months.

Since I work for a company that deals with recurrent cancer, I read a LOT of research articles about it, and it really is possible to live for years with metastatic cancer. Our company president's wife has had metastatic breast cancer for 5 years!! She gets chemo every single week. (low dose). She is the first person I have actually met in person who has survived so long with metastatic cancer.

There is hope.

There is always a rainbow.

Plus, my dear "sister" has a very positive attitude and is facing this with courage and humor. She has named her brain tumor "Bob" and now she can blame everything on "Bob" when she messes up. LOL.

They are taking care of the brain tumor via surgery and radiation. It's quite small, so they want to deal with that first. It will never be gone, but at least it can be virtually non-existent if it is small enough.

Right now, she is in denial. And she admits she is in denial. And I sure don't blame her at all. But she has hope to cling to, that this won't be her last Christmas, and that she will be able to accomplish the things on her "bucket list".

I wish I didn't live so far away.

Anguish

Someone near and dear to me is facing a challenge. In her words, " My cancer has recurred. There is a huge mass at my mastectomy site, multiple axillary lymph nodes, one nodule in my lung and a mass in my chest cavity. The huge mass has integrated into the chest wall and has begun destruction of my third and fourth ribs. That information is from the chest CT only. I had the core biopsy done today. Bone scan and brain MRI on Wednesday and PET scan on Thurs. We go back to the oncologist on Friday. We won't know any results before Friday when we talk to him."

She is younger than me..... and has 4 children.

What can I do? Well, the company I work for deals with cancer treatment. Especially recurrent cancer treatment. I gave her a contact and hope she is able to get in and get treatment.

Winding down

This has been an amazing year.
Met my George, fell in love, got married, gained a daughter-in-law, watched my work go from dead to hopping, lost 30 pounds. (gained 20 back.... lost 17 again)....

I am blessed. I am happy. I am strong. I am content. I am feeling very positive about the future.

I love my family. I love my life. I love my hubby.

Showers and Weddings

So Bryttan is a Kramer now. The day was beautiful and everything seemed to go smoothly.

There's not really much I can say about it.

The wedding was short. The sealer began by saying this was the second marriage he has ever done.... and I guess he didn't know that it is tradition to talk to the bride and groom for a bit.

So he just married them. Bim Bam Over and Done.

Mmmm Karin made these cupcakes for the shower. I wish I could have had some. They look yummy. But I am on a diet.



Now the year is almost over. The holidays are upon us. George and I will be spending the week between Christmas and New Years in Texas visiting his family. I am excited to meet them.



Well, that's about all I have to say at this time.

So goodnight all.

Yes it's true....

I HATE SHOPPING!

It's not that I hate spending money.... if you gave me a wad of cash I STILL would not want to go out and shop.

I need to go find some things for the wedding and I just don't WANT to do it. I need shoes and a shrug and maybe some gloves to complete my "ensemble".

Don't wanna.

Now... I LOVE internet shopping. Sit and click. OOOH YEAH.

But I hate Christmas shopping. I hate grocery shopping. I hate all that. I want to go to Michael's craft (wherever that is??) because I am looking for Christmas design mini bread pans. They are ceramic and darling and I want them to use for gifts.

If I don't hurry, they will be GONE. (If the store even has them in the first place). But I just DON'T WANNA!!

I'm pathetic.... I know. I just hate shopping. I always have.

Tick, tick, tick, tick,

I took Michael to get his temple clothing today. He and Bryttan get endowed on Saturday and married the following Saturday.

I'm so proud! It was funny though, the lady waiting on us was extremely short..... and her head barely came to Michael's belly button. She had to have help to measure him as she can't reach his shoulders... unless she had a step ladder. LOL

I think this time.... it's REALLY gonna happen!!! LOL

brides and showers

Bryttan had her bridal shower yesterday. Got a lot of cool stuff. Karin and Angela did a great job of decorating and doing the game. I usually really HATE showers... of any kind..... but that one was fun. I loved the game Karin had. I'm going to use that myself if I ever have to throw a shower, or help somebody with one.

So...... George moved out of the compound in Lihue, and into the bossman's house. It's a really nice house, has security cameras and everything.... there's 12 guys living there and the compound is now empty. It looks like he may be there til mid-November.

Which would actually work out well. He wanted to take a month to 6 weeks off over the holidays so we can go to Texas to visit his family. And so he can just relax and not have to work for a bit.

And he wants to do some stuff here on the house.

He has several offers already for other jobs to go to at the beginning of the year, and I think he may take the one in Arizona. A huge 900 unit Marriot is being renovated. It's a TWO year job... but he will be closer than Hawaii! Anyhow, we will see how it works out.

Truthfully, long distance marriage is working fine for us. We miss each other, but we talk several times a day and it's just great.

He's such a good man. I love him dearly.