The eve of

my great adventure. I leave in the morning for Salt Lake City. I'm very antsy. I've been postponing several things, but can't postpone some of them any longer. Like pre-registering at St. Mark's Hospital. I don't know who, if any one, reads my blog, but I've set up a private page on Facebook for Don to post updates. The insurance company authorized a 3-day stay. The letter said 5/27 which is Sunday.

The beginning

One of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music. Maria begins teaching the children to sing & finally starts singing:

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi

Five years after my breast cancer diagnosis, we were finally getting out from under the financial burden (I thought), only to trudge back into the tunnel, still with thousands of dollars of bills outstanding. I haven't had a mammogram for almost 2 years.We have to spend $3,500 per person or $8,000 per family before our insurance kicks in to pay anything. Cache Valley Specialty Hospital is still pursuing us. I have 4 new summons from a law firm in Cache County.

I have been bleeding vaginally since before Christmas. I waited for the new plan year to start on January 1 & then waited another 4 weeks to make an appointment.for Jan. 29 with my nurse practitioner (Nurse Practitioners of Preston or NPP) for a physical.

To be continued...

More cancer

The title of my last entry was quite appropriate, Blog for Sale. I have been trying to decide whether to start a new blog, horn in on Mother's Caring Bridge blog, use this blog or one of my other blogs. Another option is not to make a record of my latest cancer diagnosis at all.

I have stage 2 ovarian cancer. Now, I can hear the groans, "Cancer!!" Read the statement again. I have STAGE 2 ovarian cancer. STAGE 2! Stage 2 is still ovarian cancer, but it's not late Stage 3 or early Stage 4 when it is too late. There is a better chance at Stage 2.

I called all of my mother's sisters & told them. I told the last aunt I called that was the last personal phone call I was making. I didn't care who she told. My family & my mother knew. My employer knows.

Nick was in the car when I hung up & said with a laugh in his voice, "What? You're not going to announce it on Facebook?" He was being cheeky. I said, "No. I'm going to face it, not Facebook it." I've been struggling with going public with this. Public as in blogging about it.But then, if it is all in one place, I won't have to keep repeating myself.

I took Don out to the Preston Cemetery to break the news to him. It was the day I found out for sure I had more cancer, April 10, 2012. We didn't know much more than that at the time. I decided, with the wedding coming up, I was not going to actively pursue treatment. Don said, "I think we've discussed this before." I replied we certainly had discussed it before, I was just refreshing his memory.

I no longer want the epitaph, "I told you I was sick." Back in 2001, when I went in to have the acoustic neuroma removed, I told him I wanted "I told you I was sick." on my headstone. I had said for years I had a brain tumor & no one believed me. Of course, it wasn't a "brain" tumor, but it was a tumor & it had popped out of the ear canal & was pressing on the brain stem.

So, what color of awareness ribbon stands for ovarian cancer? According to Wikipedia, it shares the teal ribbon with a dozen other diseases & causes. It's definitely not as well known as breast cancer's  pink ribbon.

Blog for sale

I definitely need my eyes examined. I've known this for several months. Today I was waiting for a traffic light & through the intersection there was this 2-story building with a huge banner on it:

BLOG for SALE or LEASE

Below that in some indistinct red letters was a word & then in a larger size was a phone number. I couldn't read the numbers, they weren't big enough for me to see at that distance. I knew it was a phone number because there was a series of 3 numbers, beginning with a 4, a dash, 3 more numbers with a 1 in there somewhere, another dash & then 4 more numbers. Utah's area code, except in the middle of the state, begins with 4. I sat there waiting for the light to change & thought it was weird someone was trying to sell a blog. And of course, as I sat there processing this, I realized the O was a D. What it REALLY said was

BLDG for SALE or LEASE

Okay, that makes sense: bldg not blog. With my hearing loss, I mishear a lot of things, but now I can't even read the large print.

Ambiguity

Sunday I went to Sacrament Meeting because Don said the choir was going to sing. It was a new song, And the Father Will Dance. Both Don & Don-Mike sing in the choir. Since Don & I are the ward librarians, we spend class time in the library & I always take something to do in the library, because it gets boring sometimes.

Sunday I had grabbed a notepad to make some notes for next year's DUP. I am the captain for the next 2 years & I want to send a letter to all of the members of our camp. The first speaker was Abbey Child. Abbey is a senior in high school & the youngest child of Robert & Karen Child. I have known Karen since she was a baby. I remember her dad getting up in Fast & Testimony meeting telling about her being born. She says she is sure it was her younger brother Forrest, because I would only have been 5 when she was born. But Karen has been our visiting teacher & now we are Karen's visiting teachers.

Anyway, Abbey was talking about things her mother has taught her. She said her mother has taught her the four CTR's.

1. Choose the Right
2. Choose the Redeemer
3. Choose to Read
4. Choose to Remember

I thought how profound they were & had to write them down. So, I wasn't prepared to take notes. I did have a notepad in my lap, but needed to find a pen or pencil, anything to write it down with, barring sticking my finger with the safety pin in the handle of my purse & writing it in blood. After I found the writing utensil, I hurriedly wrote 3 things down, but didn't get the fourth R written before I had forgotten it. I listened to the rest of her talk, then after she sat down, I wrote a note to Don, "What was the fourth R?"

He thought a minute, then grinned & said, "Remember." Argh!! He was right! It WAS remember! I could have taken his answer as telling me to think & remember what it was, rather than, "Here is the answer, 'Remember.'"

It reminded me of  a joke I heard recently of a blonde trying to find out what the texting acronym IDK stood for. She asked everyone & always got the same answer, "I Don't Know." Rather than understanding that was the answer, she reached a breaking point & cried, "That does it! Nobody knows."

Another time I had read a trivia question that I wanted to share. I KNEW Don would know it. I take things very literally - sometimes. I asked Don, "What is the #1 quoted line in movie history?" Again, he thought a minute, grinned & said, "This could be taken two ways, but, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.'"

One view of Don-Mike's reception

Don-Mike & Amber's reception was Saturday, May 5, at the Whitney Church. About 5 o'clock, I ran into town to see if I could find the paper I had bought for the guest book. We'd been there since 2 p.m. My idea was to have people sign square pieces of paper & then put those papers in a scrapbook with pictures from their engagement, wedding & reception.

Burkley Balzar & one of Audrey's girls at the guest table ~ Photo by Melissa Owen Bodily

 ~

So, I missed the first part of the reception. It started at 6. Luckily I had purple & navy blue cards to start out the reception. I brought lime green & white paper when I came back.

When I got there, some of the first people I saw were Grant Douglas Morgan, Kim Morgan Yamashita & their 3 adorable children, Noah, Isabel & Ben.

Isabel, Kim & Ben Yamashita. Behind Kim is Carl Cordingly. Behind Ben is my uncle Jim Anderson, sitting with Keith & Onda Taylor & Donna Anderson. In the line, far right corner is Don-Mike.

 I snagged the picture above from Kim's blog  The next two pictures are also from Kim's blog.

Isabel took this picture of Mother (Grandma Detta) & Kim & Grant with Kim's phone. It's a little blurry, but not bad.

Grandma Detta with Noah Morgan, Ben & Isabel Yamashita. Kim notes that Isabel is wearing her Easter outfit.

Noah stood up next to me & he is almost as tall as I am & he is only 8!!