Knee Deep Blog

It's the One Year Annivesary of My Breast Cancer Surgery

 Breast cancer, surgery, chemo, radiation, and life have been on my mind this week. Sunday and the Super Bowl marked the exact year of the lumpectomy.  It seems that the continued shift in emotions are still there.

I do admit to being grateful to being able to eat and drink a couple glasses of wine that evening with a few friends instead of being doped up and nauseous due to pain killers, learning to drain the lymph drainage bag, and consuming many Cheetos because they really did make me feel better.

Going down memory lane...here are a few of the post surgery posts

The original surgery update

My excitement over the genetic test results

My favorite post surgery update regarding the amazing discovery that Cheetos cure nausea

1,000 O’Clock – Eli’s Learning to Tell Time

Eli has the full week off from school. A friend said, I don't remember having all of Thanksgiving week off – and I don't either but he has it. Tim and I are precariously balancing home and work this week to support it. Unfortunately we planned some over lapping appointments which reminds me that we'll want to be more thoughtful over Christmas aka Winter Break.

So Tim took off at 8 and I have Eli this morning. I had a quick 30 minute call at 9:30 and told him not to interrupt me (in my office). We went over to the clock and I showed him it was 9:21 and that I would be back upstairs at 10. Off to my call I went.

As I was getting ready to wrap the call I heard, Mom, mom it's time it's weird. And I wrapped my call and came up.

The first thing he said was, it's so weird, I looked over and it was 1,000 o'clock but it's not that time any more.

I wanted to laugh but didn't. Instead we walked over to the stove and I showed him the two dots. See you cover the last two numbers here and it shows ten. That means ten o'clock. Then I covered the ten and showed the two numbers on the right. Then you only look at the last two numbers and you can see how many minutes. What does it say? "o" six mom. Yes, that's right. So when you look at them together you say, it's ten "o" six.

And you know what Eli, it really does look like 1,006 from far away doesn't it. No wonder you thought it was 1,000 o'clock. Perception is everything.

Breast Cancer the Continued Silent Soliloquy

After waiting close to an hour and a half I was finally escorted into my oncologist's office.  My examination room was still open and a nurse was pulling my charts up on the computer in the room - outside the office three of the admins were trying to figure out how to spell soliloquy and looked my way.  In that moment I had no idea how it would play into my appointment and the discussion of my continued breast cancer treatment.

Ebay Here I Come

Although I've had a plan to sell some things on Ebay for a while they simply sat in my office longer than I had hoped.  Call it a learning curve or something like that because it seemed so much easier to buy and have things show up at my door.  In fact, now I think I've hooked my six year old Eli on Ebay.

So finally yesterday afternoon I listed items in nine auctions.  There are literally hundreds of dollars of Xerox Phaser 860 solid ink which some people may be getting for bargain prices a small Plantronic phone which sold overnight - my first sale yahoo!  So I'm hoping that it's worth my time and effort, which is yet to be determined, and I know that it's worth saving it from the landfill.

Eli also wanted in on my first Ebay adventure.  We, or should I say I listed some of his no longer loved, but still in great condition Diego Rescue Center and Jeep, Dora and Littlest Pet Shops.  I'm glad to see that his obsession with these has passed.

Rave for Home Depot Customer Care

OK, I generally don't rave in public, and feel like I must.  This rave is for Latoya X76489 who works for the Home Depot Customer Care - Hampton Bay Fans.

I exuberantly bought a ceiling fan at a rummage sale that I just knew would look perfect in our sunroom - plus we had just experienced all that sweating a few weeks earlier so it sounded like a great idea at the time.  Then it sat, sat and sat some more and now it's 54 degrees and raining.  My husband asked if it was actually going to go anywhere.

Eli Loves Lemon Sorbet

Eli really loves lemon sorbet.  In fact there's something about lemon sorbet that makes him loose all self control and not only lick the bowl but ask to lick yours too.

What's interesting is that it doesn't happen for any other sorbet or ice cream flavor, only lemon sorbet.  I first noticed this phenomenon last summer.  We were eating sorbet on our deck after dinner. Eli said, I'll be right back and went into the house.

Michele's NFL Debut

Here it is....a few photos from my NFL debut as a photographer.  It almost looks official.  Of course I had no idea my photo was being taken, that's because Harry is an actual NFL photographer and he caught us from afar on his zoom.

It was very fun to open FaceBook and see few of the literally hundreds of photos I know I took during the day. I love the one of me goofing with the coaches headsets which of course I wasn't suppose to be doing. I swear I didn't tell anyone about the Seahawks secret plays that shut out the Jaguars.  I can hold a secret.  I promise.  Corinne of course played by the rules and refused to be naughty and simply laughed at my antics. 

  Here's my impromptu shot with Harry Scull Jr as he was walking off the field at the end of the game...he gave me the secret code of "take my picture" which I did, because I'm a good photographer's assistant.  Truthfully it happened so fast I wasn't even sure it was in focus and I smiled when I saw it on Harry's FaceBook photo album.

Getting out of the box is good in life.  Now it's about remembering to do it more often and with zeal.

Here's a link to the original post.

Bye Bye Tamoxifen - Shifting Gears

It's almost been a month since I said bye, bye tamoxifen and decided that although it's suppose to stop additional breast cancer, it was creating problems elsewhere - so I was complete and ready to be off it after less than a year of taking it.

I had spent quite a bit of time doing research and being the true forum voyeur to see what others were doing, what they were thinking and potential other paths.  What I learned is that "we" have such a great FEAR of being diagnosed with breast cancer again that most of us do what ever our medical oncologist has said is the "right thing" to do without questioning their wisdom or why despite additional studies and choices tamoxifen or the estrogen inhibitor of choice was chosen for you.

Things That Make Me Smile - Folded Laundry by Eli

Last night Eli was finding ways to procrastinate changing into his PJ's and begin reading time.  In the moment, little did I know the benefit I would receive...all of his laundry neatly folded. 

What makes this a big deal is that it's the first time he's ever folded a thing in his life.  He's kind of a funny kid in that he definitely notices when there is a mess, but has no interest in cleaning it up himself.  In fact just 15 minutes earlier I was helping him put away a pile of Pokemon cards that were on the floor and trying to teach him (again) how to use a rubber band.  I mean who would have thought that it takes quite a bit of dexterity to use a rubber band, and for a six year old adding the twist and second fold is almost impossible.  We had quite a few good laughs.

For One Day I Was A NFL Professional Photographer

Now had you ever asked me if I have ever dreamed about being or becoming a NFL professional photographer I would have looked at you and said, you mean my husband?  But sometimes opportunities show up that are just too good to turn away and you've got to grasp the opportunity by the horns, hold on and yell loudly - yee haw this could be a dream! Yesterday I had such an opportunity at the Seahawks vs. Jaguars game in Seattle.

The opportunity goes back to an old 20+ year friendship from Western NY, a phone call, and saying yes.

Kids and social pressure to fit in aka spiderman is not cool

 It's still bugging me...the newly purchased spiderman with muscles costume that's sitting in the closet and will now stay in the closet this Halloween.  Why?  cause Eli was told that spiderman is "dumb and baby" and he's only six.

Here's the background.  As you know the retail stores begin each holiday 4 to 8 weeks prior to the holiday.  Eli has been invited to a bunch of fall birthdays so we've spent a lot of time in Toys R Us and Target with Eli picking out what he thinks his friend will really like.  Of course he would like to be much more generous than mom allows, but that's another story.  So we've had the opportunity to see the Halloween costumes for quite a while and he's been very attracted to spiderman with muscles.

Frugal me of course refuses to pay $29.99 plus tax for a costume that gets worn a few times during a short period of time.  So I asked him a bunch of questions, such as why he wants to be spiderman and what other ideas he had.  Eli is pretty single track once he's made a decision and was very clear that this was the halloween costume of choice.  So I was in a bit of a dilema would I cough up the money or not?