Tattoos Are For Brave Girls, Too

It has been a BUSY 17 days since my last blog!  My house was for sale, sold, and is up for sale again. I have 2 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy under my belt without many side effects except for fatigue and a little bit of hair loss.  I am getting ready to move in with my daughter Ashlee and her family.  I have done so well in Physical Therapy that they are talking about me driving again and lowering my PT hours.  And I even have my first tattoo.

Radiation is not as scary as I thought it was going to be. I go in, get hooked up to my Silence of the Lambs mask, they play my Tom Petty to relax me, and 5 minutes later I am finished!  It is amazing that they can treat the cancer in your brain in less than 5 minutes.  I close my eyes the whole time I lay there because I really don't want to see what's going on around me...  I am pretty relaxed, and I don't want to be freaked out by anything I see.  Not that I could open my eyes if I wanted to, because the mask is so DOGGONE TIGHT!  It just smashes my face.  They connect my helmet to the table that I am laying on and strap my legs in.  So even if it did freak me out I couldn't escape.  So it is better just to relax and listen to Tom Petty.    

Since I last wrote here I have had a couple of very important appointments.  One with the radiologist, and one with the oncologist (both of which I really like and respect).  The radiologist informed me there is another tumor not far from where they removed the first tumor.  This didn't settle well with me, because I thought that they had got it all out.  But he assures me it is so close to where the main tumor was that it is very treatable and not near as a high grade tumor as the one that was removed. So, that is something that I needed to know but they didn't want to alarm me thinking another one was already growing.  They think this one has been there for a while, maybe even for many years.  It will be treated with the radiation and chemo that I am already taking.  I am thankful that it is in the same area and treatable, because many of these tumors are not treatable and just have to be observed over time.  So, many things keep on being positive on my side.  I am not sure how I would have reacted if he would have told me it wasn't treatable and they would just have to observe it.  At least I know that it is being taken care of.

Radiation can really fatigue a person.  I have noticed that with myself.  I fall asleep in the car when riding.  And just this morning as I was getting ready for the day I noticed more hair come out - more than the average.  I thought I had prepared myself for that, but I did shed a few tears.  I don't think any woman wants to lose her hair.  And now that my incision has healed, when I run my hand across my head I can feel the path of my incision and my head is not nice and round anymore.  It is a little lumpy.  I feel like I have a valley running from the front to the crown of my head.  A scalp with less hair and lumps is not a good combination in my opinion.  

Ashlee and Pete and their kids and I found a cute house to rent not far from Columbian Elementary where I work and where Kemper and Tallis go to school.  In fact, this weekend they are moving in.  I am holding back for a few weeks because I still need to sell my house.  I am going to let them get settled in first and then I am going to move in.  The kids seem very excited.  I am not sure if they are as excited as I am though!  It has been a while since I had company living in my house and I am very excited about it.  The house is big enough to have everyone over and we plan to do that frequently.  Maybe Thanksgiving will be our first big Thompson party.  I am really looking forward to it.  

I put my house on the market last week.  I had 2 offers in a day and a half, one of which I accepted. But in the end it just didn't turn out to be the right people.  So it is now for sale AGAIN, with an open house on Sunday.  If you know anyone in the market for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house please send them my way.

My Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist have mentioned that I have surpassed my goals, and they are thinking it could be time to cut back my hours.  That makes me very happy.  They even talked about me driving again and possibly going back to work on a reduced schedule.  Driving again would give me a lot more independence that some days I feel like I could handle, and I would love to enjoy a little more independence.  I miss my little friends at work and miss having a purpose to get up every day. I think I am ready to start the new challenge.  The doctors think I need to wait a little while longer to determine how more radiation will affect my body.  I just hear from other people that radiation really takes a toll on you, and I don't think I have reached that peak yet.  So, I think I will give it a couple more weeks before determining if I am ready to start back to work a bit.

My daughter came to me and asked me if I would be willing to get a mother/daughter tattoo.   I didn't answer her right away, because I was shocked at the request.  So she replied with, "I guess that means 'no', right?".  Then I replied, "Not necessarily!".  We talked about it a little and decided we both needed something that had a lot of meaning to it.  We agreed to get tattoos that said, "Be Brave", because you couldn't make it through this without having some braveness in you.  Tonight was our tattoo night, and of course, Ashlee went first upon my request.  The look on Ashlee's face as she got hers made me aware that it was going to h-u-r-t!  Her face does not lie.  I knew I had to do it, I couldn't back out.  But tonight I realized that I think my daughter is a bit braver than I am, because I think the look on my face was a little more frightful...  Family members poured into the tattoo parlor to see the mother/daughter event, and even Jody Chase, a high school friend, came and got a tattoo also.  Thank you Jody and Ashlee for holding my sweaty palms!  You made the pain a little more fun.  

A fun filled weekend of showing off my tattoo, attending my grandson Keegan's first birthday party, having an open house, and getting Tate my dog back starts tomorrow. It is gonna be a great weekend! It's time to cut this short because Tate is gonna wear me out!  I better get some sleep to get ready for it all.