Change of surgical venue!

Just one quick change, but a very good one, in my opinion - Instead of going to Enloe hospital in Chico, where I had my hysterectomy almost 2 years ago, I will be having this gnarly biopsy at Feather River Hospital up in Paradise, where my Cancer Center is. This is really what I wanted all along, *because* my Cancer Center is there, with all the doctors and nurses who were there through chemo and radiation with me. It's my comfort zone.

Instead of arriving at 8 for a 10:00 procedure on Tuesday morning, I will be arriving at about 6 for an 8:00 procedure. Early morning, but it gets me home earlier, back to my own bed.

So, I'm very pleased with this change, I will have Dr. Mazj within screaming distance, and I'll feel much more comfortable with the entire thing. Every tiny bit helps.

Thanks, everyone, for your support.

My friend JC summed it up quite nicely, I think: "Be annoyed at yet another necessary medical procedure, this time to confirm you're OK." Amen to that!!

Major news

First of all: DON'T PANIC! But..

Some time ago, I think shortly after chemo, one of my CT scans found some tiny, unidentified nodules in my lungs. At the time, I saw a pulmonologist, Dr. Batin, and after chest x-rays and a pulmonary function test, he decided I was fine. They were so tiny that they couldn't be biopsied, and Dr. Batin told me that if it were HIS lungs, he wouldn't waste a minute worrying about it. So I didn't.

I just had a CT on Monday, and my Medical Oncologist (chemo) Dr. Mazj called me this morning to tell me that unfortunately the nodules have multiplied and grown.

There are enough of them, and they are large enough now to merit a biopsy in everyone's opinion.

The odds of them being cancer are small. That's the important thing

to remember. Small...but it's there. It's far more likely (according to Dr. Mazj) that they will be some sort of inflammatory disease or something else that I can't remember.

Tuesday morning, the 19th, I'll be going to Enloe hospital here in Chico at 8:15 for a CT-guided lung biopsy.

Apparently I will NOT be under general, I just found out, but will be awake, with sedation and local anesthetic, having a needle through my chest wall guided into the lung by CT and a needle aspiration biopsy to remove enough cells to put under a microscope.

The procedure will start at 10 and take maybe a half hour. I'll then spend about 1-2 hours in recovery and having a chest x-ray to make sure all is well before they let me leave. I'm then to be in bed-rest-recovery mode for a couple of days.

It's all rather sudden and I'm not even sure what I need to do to prepare!

And yes, I'm scared. :o(

But, I will get through it, just like I always do, and the support I get from all of you is a big part of that.

Thank you, and I love you all. Stay tuned for the updates!

Long time, no blog!!

Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote anything here. The Christmas season was kind of a strange one around here this year. Many random things to report, maybe in some sort of order. Maybe not.

For one, my grandmother passed away early in the morning on Christmas Eve. We

expected it to happen, but that didn't make it any easier. I wasn't as close to her as I would have liked, mainly because of the distance between us, so the loss was not as big for me as it was for my father and brother, but we went ahead with our Christmas plans all the same. Dad & Chris drove up that afternoon, and we all had a nice, low-key time.

I think it was the best thing for all of us. We had a nice big dinner on Christmas Eve that made us lots of leftovers to munch on, did the traditional present-fest in the morning followed by a giant omelet in the morning, and then we each just crashed into our own piece of the couch.

Daddy was able to curl up in the recliner and nurse his flu (as if he did

n't have enough to deal with!) and nap when he wanted, Chris took a bike out and explored the lovely city of Gridley, we watched bad tv and grazed on cookies and cake and generally vegged out together. I really, really wanted Dad here with me during that time, and I'm really glad he was.

The funeral was held on New Year's Eve, but of course I wasn't able to go. By that time, not only did I have all of my usual health shit, but I'd caught Dad's flu and taken it to the next level, and I was SICK. In bed for 6 days kind of sick. It was horrible.

I'm feeling so much better now that I'm damn near giddy!

Let's see, what else...Somewhere in there, I found out I was going to be a great-grandmother again. Another girl, of course. I think that's all that the younger generations of the Irwin family produce! We'll be up to 5 granddaughters and 3 great-granddaughters and one lonely grandson.

Stella came home from puppy boot camp. She did incredibly well there, but transferring that learning to behaving at home is turning into quite a task. On the lawn at the kennel, she does everything she's supposed to, on and off leash. Home? HA! She's testing us...But I think we'll get there as soon as she realizes who is an authority figure. That would be all of us, and she's pretty fuzzy on that so far.

Today, I saw Dr. Davis for my 2nd follow up and was told I'm healing perfectly. WOW! Isn't that one a bit different in my life? I'm scheduled for a CT

on Monday and have an appointment with Dr. Mazj coming up as well as my monthly visit with Andy, so by the end of January we should have a pretty good picture of how my overall health and post op are going.

The only thing I got dinged on was carrying heavy loads. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 10 lbs for another month still-- the little cooler bag of Gatorade I carry upstairs every night is 13lbs. Oops. Lloyd's stuck lugging all my stuff around for a while longer. After the next month, I'm restricted to 30 lbs.

So...........I think that's about it. I have to confess that I'm sitting here looking at my Christmas present (the main reason that I haven't been blogging or been on Facebook) and it's calling me away from the computer again. ;-)

My darling husband got me an Amazon Kindle, and it is now superglued to my hands most of the day. I love this thing! I've finished 3 books just since Christmas, and that's with not reading anywhere near enough to keep me satisfied. It's comfortable to hold, easy to read, and so much like a book that I find myself flicking at the top right corner, as if trying to turn a page. This has got to be one of the best presents ever. Ever!

Sooooo....I'm gonna go read now. =)