Camels, tigers, polar bears… what animal at the zoo would most capture a toddler’s attention?
Could it be a squirrel?
Dee took us to the Alaska Zoo during our recent visit, and Gem was captivated by this little red squirrel.
He didn’t move a lot at first
But I promise he was real
see…
They played peek-a-boo and hide and seek for a while
Then one last peek as we said good bye.
My goodness, you are such an adaptable little girl.
This month has been crazy with Mommy pulling all-nighters finishing up her semester at school, then every day spent at Grandma’s packing her home up for the move to Alaska (finally done with those two items. yay!). And now Daddy is pulling all-nighters to finish the requirements for his degree and grade his students’ papers, not to mention all the work he put into organizing the Conference on Near and Middle East Studies. Then once we got Grandma moved out of her home, she’s been staying with us and sharing a bedroom with you.
That’s a lot of change, and a lot of chaos for a little girl to deal with, and you have handled it beautifully. You just keep finding ways to explore and have fun in whatever new environment or situation you find yourself in.
Hold on to that adaptability. Embrace it. That sense of adventure, that ability to find joy in any situation, the ability to adapt and continue to thrive in new situations, even if they are less than ideal, is the key to happiness.
It is so easy for us to fixate on things we can’t control. But that won’t fix anything, and it just makes you miserable. Focus on the things you can control, and keep up this practice of looking for joy wherever you are. You will find it.
The next few weeks will provide you with many more opportunities to practice adaptability. We’re getting ready to hit the road in a few hours for a very long trip. We’re going to drive through Canada up to Alaska to take Grandma to go live up there. This will be your first trip to Alaska, and the return will be your first flight.
And if that were not enough, as soon as we get back to Seattle, we are moving to a new home, too.
I can’t wait to share this great adventure with you!
I love you so much
Mommy
I’ve spent the past month helping Mom move out of her apartment. Through that process I’ve been taking a moment to scan photographs before packing the pictures to ship. OK, I’ve been taking a little more than a moment to preserve the photos, but it’s well worth the time investment. I love having these photos digitized, and accessible to the family on Flickr.
I made a point of setting aside these photos of my dad from his tour of duty in Vietnam in 1968-69, so I could put them up for today’s Memorial Day post.
Thank you Dad, and Grandad, Aaron, Alex, David, and everyone else that served.
I guess it’s time for another update on the whole kicking-cancer’s-ass and getting-on-with-my-life situation.
Let me e’splain.
No, there’s too much. Let me sum up.
I finished up the radiation treatments and my skin is feeling much better, although it still looks dirty and scaly in a big square-shaped patch across my chest and collarbone. It’s not too much of a problem, although I look like I missed a spot while bathing if I wear a v-neck, or anything with a lower than crew-neck collar. That’s all fine though, and it will fade with time.
I just have a handful of Herceptin treatments left, and I’m done with scheduled treatment altogether! And my hair has grown back enough for me to have bad hair days frequently! Anna, I’ll be giving you a call soon so you can whip my poor confused locks into shape.
My lymphedema is not really under control, so I’m going to have to get (even more) serious about dealing with that, and find some time (and $) for more physical therapy treatments. The swelling isn’t too bad at the moment, but the pain is getting worse, and it makes my right arm essentially useless, even for little things like writing more than a couple sentences by hand. One of the best things I can do for my arm is not lift heavy things, but more on that later. I’ll also need more lymphedema sleeves and gloves (very pricey) as mine are getting stretched out and not snapping back into shape anymore.
The side effect that is having the biggest impact on my life right now is fatigue. It just seems like it should have lifted a bit by now, but it keeps getting worse. Part of the problem: I went back to school full time in January, and that may have been a bit too soon. I was determined, and I decided that cancer had sidelined my life long enough. So back I went. Full time. Why? Because I hadn’t been challenged enough lately? That semester kicked my ass, and by the time it was over, I felt like I just wanted to sleep for a month. (I did manage to pass all my classes, but I have never in my life been so happy to get a C.)
But no rest for me.
Aaron graduates with his Master’s Degree at the end of this quarter (that part isn’t bad, in fact it’s awesome!!), which means we need to be out of the school provided apartment, and get one of our own. So house hunting commences. And packing. And job hunting. And how do you get an apartment when you don’t have a job yet?
Also.
Mom is moving back to Alaska to live with my brother, and somebody has to pack up her apartment (hi). She wants to be completely out of her apartment by next week, then she will live with us a couple weeks until we hit the road to drive to Alaska.
Did you catch that “WE hit the road” part? Yeah, Gem and I are driving up to Alaska with mom! So Aaron can finish classes (teaching AND as a student), hunt for an apartment if we haven’t found one yet, hunt for a job, and finish packing up the house while the baby and I are on vacation. Then we’ll move into the new place as soon as we get back, just a few days before our vacate deadline for this apartment.
I’m really excited about this trip, and I have so many old friends in Alaska that I dearly miss and can’t wait to see again. Most of them haven’t even met my daughter yet. Brace yourself for this blog becoming a bit of a travelogue in the near future. I’ve been known to take a few pictures while on vacation.
and the best medicine any girl could ask for:
There are stairs on the other side of this platform, but she doesn’t care. She does it her way.
Often that means the hard way.
She loves to explore.
she gets exasperated by her dear old mom, with that obnoxious camera
she vacillates between outgoing and shy
and most any problem can be solved by some time in a swing with a dinosaur.
My baby girl turns two today. I guess I can’t call her a baby anymore.
Happy Birthday, Baby. (ok, I’m going to keep calling her baby till she makes me stop, and maybe, accidently, after that, too)
My favorite chemo buddy, Gem, accompanied me to my Herceptin infusion on Friday.
We also brought along a horse (of course), and some coloring materials.
I made several attempts at taking a picture of us together where I didn’t look stoned or have my eyes closed
no luck.
but this picture just cracks me up – what WAS she looking at? And my chins could be used for counting lessons.
We piled string cheese, cookies, apple juice and magazines together and had a picnic right there on the bed. If you have to get chemo, and hopefully you don’t, a picnic in the middle of the bed is not a bad way to spend the time. (Also, don’t try to take your kid to chemo till you’ve had several rounds of chemo and know what you’re getting in to and how much your child can handle. SCCA, where I get my treatment, provides individual rooms for patients rather than bunching them all into on big room.)
About the Herceptin: If you are confused because several months ago I triumphantly proclaimed that I was done with chemotherapy, that’s understandable. Technically I am done with chemo. Herceptin is actually a biological agent, and (thank goodness) doesn’t have the debilitating side effects of regular chemotherapy. But I still call it chemo, because it’s easier than describing the difference. It’s administered the same way and by the same people as the chemo treatments..
The type of cancer that I have is HER2+, which is an extremely aggressive cancer with a high rate of recurrence. The one good thing about HER2+ cancer is the development of the drug Herceptin, which is able to specifically target the HER2+ flagged cancer cells, meaning there’s no wholesale assault on the body. Herceptin does not leave me nauseous, or fatigued, or cause pain like the other forms of chemo.
The big downside to Herceptin is that it is hard on the heart, so hard that I have to have a MUGA scan every 3 months to measure my heart functions. I just recently re-started the Herceptin after having to take a break because of reduced heart functions. The work of the medical oncologist seems to me as much art as science – a delicate balance combined with trial and error. It’s really amazing what they do.
