Giving Thanks

It is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend as most of you know.

This year I have plenty to be thankful for.  I am thankful the someone figured out how to replace bad hips; that I live in Canada and didn't have to come up with thousands of dollars to pay for a hip replacement. I am glad I chose to live in a city that has a new state of the art facility for hip & knee replacement - even though it is on the other side of the city, I didn't have to travel from another city to get here.

I am glad I have friends that were willing to give me a place in their home (and even give up their bed) so I could get a bit stronger before being on my own. They are being so good to me, they are even taking my laundry to their house to do it for me and still helping me in the shower. I don't know how you ever repay that much kindness, but, I intend to try my best. Neither of them want their names plastered on the internet, so I will leave it at that.

I am healing quickly and feeling like I could take on the world! Of course, I will wait the specified healing time of 6 weeks before trying anything stupid, like walking without the walker or the crutches! Lord knows I do not want to have another surgery on the same hip because of something I did.

That is what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Well, that and breathing and having a roof over my head and the usual list :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gratitude Monday

I'm taking a page from my cousin Leah's book today and talking about gratitude.

I am grateful to live in Canada, where an elective surgery for replacing my hip with an artificial one is covered by health care.

I am grateful that Alberta Health Services & the Red Cross have a program called STELP (Short Term Equipment Loan Pool). So that I can get a walker and a bathing seat and grab bar for the tub, along with a raised toilet seat and handles to go with it, all without paying for it. I can then return it all in 3 months or less when I am finished and the next person can use them.

I am grateful to have good friends that are willing to take me to hospital and bring me into their home afterwards, so that I have help for the first few days after my release. They have already been helpful, running around with me to get the various pieces of equipment that I need, sitting in the Dr.'s office to learn what is going to happen with the surgery and afterwards. They will continue to be helpful for the next couple of months also, helping me with grocery shopping and whatever else I can't do alone.

I am grateful that my wait for surgery isn't any longer than the Dr. originally said it would be. Oh and here is an article on where I am having it done.

I am going in on Friday and probably won't post for awhile. I will let The Bag Lady know how things went, so check out her blog for news.

In the meantime, have a good week everyone!

My bout with cancer

May 15th, 2006, I went for a mammogram. I had a lump in my breast that I thought needed to be checked again. I say again because in April of the year prior to that I had had a benign fibrous tumor removed from my right breast. While checking the incision, I thought I had felt another lump and mentioned it to my surgeon. She found the lump and did a fine needle aspiration in her office. (By the way, I learned later, don't do this!) It came back negative. Rather than sending me for a mammogram, she had me go to the hospital, where she proceeded to do a blind (no ultrasound) core biopsy. (Again, don't do this!) Never in all my forty some years of having tests done have I had to call the Doctor to get results - I didn't hear anything, so assumed all was well.

So, as I said, I went for a mammogram about a year after this as it felt like the lump was bigger. My G.P. didn't tell the clinic that there was a lump, so I had to return that afternoon for the ultrasound core biopsy, which gave them time to get the results from my surgeons test a year prior. This is when I was told don't have a fine needle aspiration or a blind core biopsy. Well, the surgeon, had missed the lump and gotten scar tissue! But, I never got called!

Two weeks later, I get a message from my Dr.'s office to make an appointment to see him. I call and set one up for two days later. I get a message the next day asking if I could call about my appointment. I call and they ask if I could come in that day. Well, now I don't need to go in, I know what he is going to say.

I am right, I have breast cancer. He has set up an appointment for the following week with ... you got it in one, the same surgeon! So, I tell him the tale of discovering this lump and how I am not really happy with this surgeon (he has nothing on file from her!), but, he suggests if I can, she is the fastest way to deal with this! He will try to get me in elsewhere if I really want. Well, I am really not happy, but by the same token, I think, it may well have been benign last year anyway and then I would have ignored it this year.

So, I get home and my first thought is to call my best friend Emily - then - I think, I can't! Her husband is dying of cancer, the last thing she needs is me bawling on her shoulder! So, I call my sister ( she would have been first if it weren't for my being broke and the call being long distance) and bawl on her shoulder. I had done really well, right up until I had to say the words to someone else.

So, I had the surgery on my breast on June 5th. They took just the lump and a lymph node to test. The lymph node, upon close examination proved to have a trace of cancer, so, they went in and took lymph nodes from under my right arm on July 5th. My sister came down from G.P. to babysit me for both of the surgeries and then ran me about the city right after getting me out of hospital. These were both day surgeries, the first I was in for about 6 hours, the second they kept me for closer to 10 hours. Woohoo! Gotta love medical care these days!

I went through chemo and radiation, but, I will save those experiences for another post.

Good Morning.