Rising Up: Friday is a good day.

Welcome!

This is totally an experiment. I know about blogs, I've read blogs, and I can write, but I have never attempted to blog myself. I guess I've never really felt like I had a compelling enough story. Well, I'm not sure I would use "compelling" to describe our story now, but I do know that since my diagnosis of cancer, Jon and I have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of love from family and friends all over the world. Many of you have questions and like to know what's going on in our world - medically and otherwise, and we are happy to share. Welcome to the "Rising Up" blog of the JOWT Friesen family!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Friday is a good day.

And I only worked two days - not even including parent/teacher interviews. But I am tired and looking forward to the weekend. I did enjoy my days. It's a good reminder of why I became a teacher in the first place. Kids make me smile - whether they are 3, 8, or 14. Plus, I work with some great people and am privileged to be able to call them "friend". I will work Tuesday and Thursday next week, and I'm thinking next Friday's PD day would be a good chance for me to collaborate with my replacement, providing they have one by then.

Dr. Dabbs office called today with a surgery date - December 7th. She wanted to operate 2 weeks after our last appointment, and the 7th is 2 weeks and 1 day. Can't complain.

Owen had a "better than good day", according to Bev, his childcare provider. I loved hearing that! Mom has been staying home with William for a few days and I think they are really getting to know each other. Owen and Mom are bonding as well - Owen has been sleeping downstairs with Mom while Jon and I "retrain" William to sleep through the night. He had been sick for more than a month, then fevers, a flu, a bout of teething, and more colds again, so we had gotten in the habit of reacting in the middle of the night when he called out for a drink or comfort. That's fine, but now that he's not sick, he's still thinking he needs to have that drink (or more), and screams his little lungs out when we don't immediately respond. Not needing Owen to wake up in the night, we decided (after Grammie offered) to let Owen sleep downstairs in the other bed. So far, so great. It's a great arrangement.

I have such wonderful girlfriends. They are such an encouragement to me. You know who you are. :)

I think Mom and I will take Owen to Camrose tomorrow morning. Apparently the Festival of Trees is happening, and Cindy is planning on taking her boys. I've never been, but I've always been curious. William can nap in the morning, giving Jon some time off. It think it will be a great way to boost some Christmas "spirit". I have nothing else to do BUT wait to be hit by the Christmas wave - I am done all my shopping!! The last parcel arrived today. Done before December. That has to be a bit of a record. Okay - maybe I'm not QUITE done. Still have to get stocking stuffers...

Happy weekend!

1 comment:

KimNovember 26, 2010 at 10:32 PM
Keep it up, Trish. I love reading about your days. It almost makes me feel like I am there with you. Love you!
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A Bit of Our Melanoma Story

A spot on my left forearm grew from a freckle into a raised mole the size of a pencil eraser. It started changing when I was pregnant with William (early 2009), and didn't cause much concern because doctors will tell you that pregnancy does strange stuff like that. Anyway, after pregnancy it started to pinch itself off, and eventually it ripped off (and BLED!) in February 2010.
It grew back within months with a darkish rim around it. I assumed the darkness was just from where the skin had been ripped. In June of 2010 my mother (again) requested that I get it checked out (again), so I did. In July, my doctor decided that another doctor should remove it. That doctor was not available until September 2010. They removed it and performed a biopsy, and we received the results in the first week of October. Malignant Melanoma. The mole was 3.8 mms deep (Breslow's measuring stick) and was ulcerated. This in itself put me at a stage IIB.
Things have just been happening so quickly since then - we have had many appointments with our melanoma specialist, Dr. Salopek at the UofA, and our surgeon, Dr. Dabbs at the Misericordia.
On November 9th they performed a Wide Local Excision and a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy. The WLE is simply them making sure they got all the tumour the first time by taking a 2cm radius around the mole. It has resulted in a 6 inch scar. The SLNB is a biopsy of a couple of prominent lymph nodes in my underarm to see if the cancer had spread from its original site. Our results came back in on Monday, November 22 - lymph nodes did in fact have cancer in them. That means we are now awaiting another surgery - a Radical Axillary Lymph Node Dissection - to remove the rest of the lymph nodes under that arm. It also means I have been moved to stage III cancer.
I have a CT scan on Dec 1 to double check that the xrays and ultrasounds from last month were accurate - that I do NOT have any growths elsewhere in my body at this point. After this next surgery I will be starting a drug treatment called Intron. I have lots to learn about what this drug will actually do. I think that gets us caught up!