Good Luck?

As many of you know, I seem to have bad luck. Not that there is a cloud over me, but what can go wrong, often goes wrong. This fact has also been the source of great amusement to many of you, and me, because it just doesn't seem possible. But let me tell you: it is.....

So, I am on a run of good luck and that is pretty damn exciting! Because I am unused to having it, I find the it a startling and fun trend!

Here are a few highlights of cool things that have happened: 1. Up in the middle of the night, I wrote in, for the very first time, to a question posed to the viewers on CNN. And they put my comment on tv, noting "Sally, who is up early in Spokane, Washington...." Cool! 2. I actually won a gift card in the Albertsons' (a grocery store chain) monopoly-type game. Who actually ever wins on those? 3. Some of my weekly labs are trending up. (Some aren't.) But this is a first. 4. I was invited to go to Vegas for a few days with some friends. The dates had already been selected. And they coincide with dates I was there three years ago when I ran away after being diagnosed and told I would die. I leave Saturday for a little in-your-face trip.

Now, if I get lucky in Vegas, I will really have to start thinking about these new coincidences! But good things and surprises are always fun. I like it. I need it!

Good News! (Yes, REALLY!!)

It has occurred to me that the main reason I get anxious before certain doctor appointments is not because of what might happen to me there but rather what I might hear there. My Good News column is pretty sparse. My Status Quo and Not So Good News is a little heavier.

However, the seas parted and the light shone on me recently! My Infectious Disease doctor (Follows my immune system and vulnerability, gave me the AIDS analogy) called with awesome news: My immune system numbers have gone up! It's not something that one can control or do something or anything to boost, the numbers just are what they are. My new number is 439. Can you believe it??!! From 39 to 439! Holy cow!!I no longer have to worry about dying if the person next to me sneezes!

439 is a great improvement. He cautioned that what goes up can come back down, and that number is a measure of that day only. I am still a far way from the low end of normal andmy AIDS analogy has me as HIV+. Yet this is a huge shift. And I will take it! Take it and run!

Time Off

Knowing I would have my Mom and my Godmother Denise here this week, I limited doctor appointments, tests, procedures, related calls, and all other things medical to the extent possible. Alas, even with that effort, there are and will be a little spill into the visit. A couple calls to my cell from one doctor, an ultrasound, an MRI, a minor procedure...... You get the picture. This leads me to the main point of: How do I get a vacation from my body?

The answer to this question has been alluding me for a while. We all try to get little get-aways from our lives now and then. A weekend, an evening, a trip, company here for us, and so forth. I wish I could just step out of my body, leaving all its issues and problems behind and get away from myself. How do you do that? I mean this question in the most literal of senses. I want time off from being a professional patient and cancer survivor!

The Boys Are Back!

At a little past eleven o'clock last night, our boys, Brennan and John Paul, came down the ramp and back to us after flying home from Denver. They left last Wednesday to visit my step-sister and her family in Castle Rock, CO. And what a trip they had!

I will have to write more, and include pictures, when they are with me so I can turn their hyper excitement of tales and adventures into words. Let's just say that their Aunt Jackie and their cousins Adam (18), and Erin (16), and Ali (16) are the most awesome people ever!!! They went to games (sports), movies, putt-putt, cool and delicious restaurants that we now must open here, and visited their cousins at their summer jobs, and, and, and, and! Two very happy boys lucky enough to have such a generous and cool Aunt, and three cousins who have tons of energy to keep them entertained to the hilt.

My sister and I had not always had a full relationship. We never lived in the same home so really don't have that shared memories history. But as I often find out, it seems, that once you grow up, marry, and have children, there are suddenly a lot more things in common and to fuel the development of a new relationship. So in addition to gaining that, we have found that these cousins will only be close if we create the opportunities for that. And here Jackie's generosity has made this both possible and happen. Thank you, Jackie! Couldn't and wouldn't have happened without you.

Today they slept in until 10:30 which normally never happens. They are spent from fun! And the excitement continued today as my Mom and my Godmother Denise arrived this afternoon for a visit. Spoiled and blessed!!!