Happy Father's Day

My own father passed away in August of 1988. He was 62 and died of a heart attack in the hospital while waiting for his scheduled by-pass surgery two days later. I still think about him all the time. He was a brilliant and complicated man. Our relationship was great, then strained, then great again. I'm glad it ended with the good times. He got to see both of my children. Lowell was 9 when he passed; Evey was 1. Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Now for my husband and the father of my children: Happy Father's Day, Mark! I love you so much it's indescribable. I also think we made some great children!!

For his special day, Mark wants to see the new movie, The Green Lantern, then have the vegetarian chili for lunch at Pollo Campero/Fresh Appeal at Downtown Disney. After that, we are going to do some wedding shower shopping at the World of Disney. I'm also going to buy him a Disney cell phone cover. (I already ordered him a new laptop, which hopefully will arrive tomorrow.) Once our shopping spree is over, we are heading to Animal Kingdom. I told him to pick any restaurant he wanted for dinner, and he picked the Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. It should be a lot of fun. Best of all, because I was allowed to unwrap my arm and wear only the compression sleeve and glove today, we are going to go to the pool this evening after dinner. Yay for a great day!!

We had a lovely time at the shul yesterday, and I ate too much at the catered luncheon afterwards. They had nothing but carbs and fats! That's hard for both me and Mark to do. We split a garlicky, cheese-filled hot bagel that was incredibly delicious. I had a little bit of the caesar salad, eschewed the angel hair pasta salad because it had too many olives all over it, skipped the artichoke/spinach dip and French bread even though it looked yummy, ate a fair sized portion of baked ziti, and a medium sized portion of cheese tortellini. We also ate hunks of fabulous challah, and I found the dessert table, which was very, very naughty. They had shortbread cookies, which I love, so I took one raspberry filled shortbread and two chocolate covered pretzel rods. Oh, my, chocolate-covered pretzels are one of my weaknesses.

At least we also went to the gym in the afternoon. I did my weight routine for 22 minutes, then walked on the treadmill for 25 minutes at 2.5 mph and a 2.5% incline. I burned 140 calories.

Last night I unwrapped my bandages. She said try to keep it on until Sunday, but the fingers were getting ratty like always, and the elbow was poking out. I figured it wasn't going to do much good for me over night, so I took it off at 11 p.m. WOW! She is GOOD! My hand was normal looking. It's unbelievable how great the compression system works when it's applied correctly. I really do need to learn how to do this right. Today I'm wearing the sleeve and glove. I am hoping that they will keep me looking normal until I see her again Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, I can shower every day! What a luxury that has become.

Yesterday I received a beautiful and touching email from one of my online cancer support lady friends. She is now also an email buddy because they put her in a different group from me this session. Her email said she had gone back to June 25, 2010 and read all my blog entries up until the time she met me in the cancer group, around the time I started chemo probably. She was touched and teared up reading about what I had been through. Really, she moved me to tears reading her email. I will be sending her a personal email right after I finish this public blog entry.

She also inspired me to do the same. I went back last night and reread months worth of blogs. Wow! So many adventures happened in those months; however, I read one thing that I had forgotten. The day after the surgery, the surgeon came in to the room to report that he had not been able to find the sentinel node and that he "took all the lymph nodes out." Really? I know the pathology report said there were 15 nodes, with cancer in one of them, but I had not remembered that he said ALL of the nodes. Well, shoot! No wonder I have lymphedema.

Over the last few days of wearing the extra big wrappings, I think I'm coming to terms with this condition a little bit. I'll like it a lot better if I can get skillful at the wrapping myself because I see what a difference it makes. I cannot allow it to get out of hand, and it's not going to ever go away. No one can cure this because the lymph nodes are gone and aren't coming back. I have to be sure that I do all the right things to keep the swelling down, to prevent cellulitis from occurring, and to preserve the use of my hand and arm for the rest of my life. These are BIG DEALS. I think my pity party is over. I'm ready to get on with the management phase with a cheerful expression.

Happy Father's Day to any other Dads out there who may be reading my blog today. Enjoy the day.