Cancerversary

This morning I was only thinking about errands and Lake Placid. Tonight I remembered that today was the anniversary of my partial mastectomy. Last year, I went into St. Agnes Hospital early in the morning, knowing I had breast cancer, yet not knowing that it would be in the lymph nodes. I felt that I would be done once I had the re-excision lumpectomy (aka partial mastectomy), do some radiation, and be all done. That didn't happen, but it's all water under the bridge now.

I thought about it tonight because we went to our new synagogue, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation/Ohalei Rivkeh, fondly called SOJC. Tonight they had a free dinner for members and prospective members followed by services. A few months ago, before the new rabbi was here, we attended one of these free dinners and had a great time. This time we helped sponsor it by making a donation, so our name was placed on a table. LOL! We didn't even sit at that table tonight because it was full when we went in. The menu was salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and carrots. I thought it was absolutely delicious! Those meatballs were really great.

During services, this shul has the tradition of stopping and asking people what they are thankful for this Shabbat. That's when it occurred to me that I am thankful I am a one year survivor today. I announced my anniversary and actually got applause from the congregation. It was a nice warm, fuzzy feeling. When I got home tonight, I just had to write that down!

I have included some pictures from last year at this time and one from yesterday at the clown museum. I've come a long way in a year, and I'm very grateful and thankful to be here and celebrating my one year anniversary.

The pictures never show up in the order I click on them, so there's no order to them. I didn't actually have any pictures from the day of the surgery on September 16, so I just chose some representative ones from the year. At the top is a picture of me having dinner out the night before we left Cindy's house. Next to it is a picture of me waiting for the surgery to remove my port. Then there is one of my favorite pictures: me and Lowell watching TV on Thursday nights. You can tell from my long hair that this was before chemo because I had my hair cut very short before I even started chemo! It's post-surgery, by about two weeks, though. For some reason, the last picture I clicked to add shows up next, me with a clown yesterday in Lake Placid. Then there are pictures of me having my port accessed for the first chemo session, my hair just before I got a shave, getting my head shaved, being in the hospital the first time, and a radiation session.

It's been a long year with lots of ups and downs, but I'm here today, feeling good, and very, very thankful! We are coming up on Rosh Hashanah and the High Holiday season. I would like to say tonight to everyone that I hope the new year that is about to start in less than two weeks is a wonderfully sweet, healthy, and happy one for everybody.