Wednesday, March 31, 2021

The world stops ... again

I get my regular mammograms--they say there may be something suspicious, keep a close watch.
Get your mammogram girls!

Bad News

Several months later I feel a lump and call the doctor to arrange a follow up mammogram and an ultrasound. They still come back inconclusive, so it's off to a biopsy. The doctor says, "it doesn't look like anything to worry about, probably just a cyst." So, I was surprised when it came back positive.

Yikes, what now? My personal doctor sets me up with appointments with a surgeon and an oncologist. She says treatment is usually several months of chemo and or radiation. That means we have to cancel all travel this year ... again. The world stops ... again. Luckily, we've gotten accustomed to staying home and we have a wonderful home. All is ok on that front.

Luckily I'm old enough to be on medicare, so at least we don't have to worry about the financial burden.  

I have several friends right now going thru breast cancer at various stages. It's not fun, but it's doable. It's definitely survivable. So I'm not worried. I go to the surgeon and arrange a date - April 8. Then I go to the oncologist ...

Good News!

The oncologist was happy to see me. He likes patient visits where he has good news! We chatted a bit, he looked at the biopsy results and tells me that the cancer is so tiny that the biopsy procedure got rid of most of it. The surgery will surely get the rest, and I won't need any chemo or radiation therapy. Travel should not be a problem!

What a relief. I can breathe again. I have a hard time believing it. We think about our summer travel plans again - put them back on the calendar. 

Bad News

Just as a precaution, since I have a history with asthma, I'm scheduled for a chest xray and visit with a pulmonologist. I breathe just fine - haven't had any bouts with asthma in many years. Should be smooth sailing. 
Not so fast. I'm told the Xray shows a spot on my lung. Once again inconclusive - don't know what it means - but I need a CT scan before they'll clear me for surgery.

stay tuned ...

Good News

I had my surgery on April 8 and all went well. The final pathology came back April 21 and all was clean, including the sentinal lymph node that they removed for testing. I will still have a follow up visit with the Oncologist and the Surgeon, but all looks good. No chemo, no radiation, just a daily pill (Tamoxifen - for 5 years) 
The CT scan for the spot on the lung showed nothing. Maybe it was just a spec of dust on the xray? No one knows, but I'm good to go. We are planning our travels this summer to present seminars at two big RV rallies in Wyoming in July.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

RV Rally - old friends, new friends

We're so glad to have gotten our vaccines in February, that made us feel safe to attend the FMCA RV rally in Perry Georgia. On our way up, we stayed overnight at a Cracker Barrel - that's our favorite place when we're in "just-gotta-get-there" mode. You get dinner and breakfast - and a safe-feeling sleeping spot.

When we get to Perry we go straight to our spot. Most people attending a large RV rally like this are a little lost, but we've done this rally, in this location, at least 4 times: 2018201620142011 . It's beautiful weather and we are quite happy to be here.






We've intentionally lightened our schedule compared to last years, so we're feeling less stressed and can enjoy taking a bike ride around the fairgrounds.
The first day we presented 2 seminars, the second day 1, and the third day 1.  No printed materials this time, we just put everything online and told our audiences to go to a web page to get it. Easy peasy.



It was awkward for people to have to wear a mask, but everyone was a good sport and they set up way fewer chairs for social distancing, but I still think we had at least 100 folks in each seminar. I just love a live audience! We had a good time.

Jim brought 5 lobster from the freezer so we could invite some old friends, Mike and Darlene over for lobster dinner. We also invited a new friend, Meagan. She was parked right next to us in the seminar presenters parking area because she was giving seminars on solo RVing. Check out her cute little camper/trailer in the background.


Meagan also took a little video when she visited our seminar on Google Photos. Learn more about Meagan on her website: HerFineMess.com


On the way home we stopped at Alex's near Gainesville, and were treated with an outdoor music show by Mark Miale . Both Alex and Mark were in my High School graduating class.
What a nice getaway.