Changing Seasons

The buffet area set for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the cooler weather, the fall colors, and baking desserts that come with the season - molasses cookies, apple cake, pumpkin bread and more. The smells of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air and the warm colors of Thanksgiving decor always put a smile on my face.

This year I will have to forgo most of my Thanksgiving baking, but my daughter put out a lot of our Thanksgiving decorations so our house has the comforting look of fall. The above photo shows our buffet table nicely decorated. The one below is the mantel above our fireplace. Cara has a good eye for grouping items together!

Fireplace Mantel

My husbands family will be providing most of our Thanksgiving dinner this year. His Aunt will be making several side dishes and his Mom will be providing us with desserts. We are looking at buying a smoked turkey for the first time. I can't cook or go over to anyone's house but we will still eat well this Thanksgiving. God is good!

This past week I found out that my surgery will be December 11th. Right now it's to remove all the lymph nodes under my left arm. The surgeon, however, wanted to do a genetic test to see if I carry the genes for breast cancer. If I do, I have a 40% or higher chance of having a second breast cancer. If the test returns positive, I have to decide if I want a mastectomy or double mastectomy. This was a surprise, as I was first assured that I wouldn't have to go through removal of my breasts since there wasn't any cancer found there.

However, my insurance may not pay for the $4000 test. In that case, the doctor took the cancer history of my family, at least all of it I could gather. After reviewing the multiple Aunts, Uncles and grandparents who have had cancer on either side of my parents families (and there are a lot of them) but finding that none had breast or ovarian cancer, the genetics doctor thinks that it's less 5% chance I could have the gene. So she recommends that if the insurance doesn't pay for the test, that we just not have it done and I make my decision based on the facts I have at hand.

Bryan had asked that if they remove the breasts isn't there still a chance I could get breast cancer? I hadn't thought of that. The answer is yes, there could still be breast tissue left behind that could become cancerous even after a mastectomy. So I could lose my 'girls' and still end up with breast cancer. 

Another thing I found out is that when they take out the lymph nodes under the arm and do radiation under there, you are more likely to get lymphedema, a build-up of fluid in your arm, which I will have to watch out for for the rest of my life. There isn't anything I can do about it except go to the doctor or ER - every single time - for help. I never knew this!

After this visit to MD Anderson I felt I had information overload. I had not expected to have a lifelong condition to deal with after surgery. Nor did I know I was going to be faced with a mastectomy decision. On top of all that, my son's Crohn's flare he had been having for the past two weeks was getting really bad. And trying to do a long-distance communication with his doctor in the Woodlands seemed to be getting us no where.

So last week was not a good week at all. Thankfully, my son's doctor finally called late Friday afternoon and ordered blood tests and called in a prescription for a temporary medicine that has helped Caden in the past, although Caden had to ask for the medicine himself! This medicine has a lot of bad side effects on Cade, but at least he got it and it finally started working. He has an appointment on the 20th to see his gastroenterologist and we'll see what he says about Caden's future.

As for my own future, I feel right now the only surgery I will do is the lymph nodes. However, if my insurance does cover the test and it comes back positive I'll have a very difficult decision to make. I guess I'll have to deal with the lymphedema if/when it happens. I have to be tougher than I ever knew.

My life has radically changed this year. I would have enjoyed last years holidays a lot more if I'd known they were the last normal ones I'd ever have! My son, Caden, was feeling bad this Halloween and was thinking of not attending a church function and said he would just go next year. I told him next year he could be in chemo and not able to get out and enjoy the season. We never know what life has in store. Enjoy Thanksgiving this year. Go ahead and put up those decorations, bake the goodies, get out and meet people. Next year your life could change who you are to the core.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there,
buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
James 4: 13-14