Live-Laugh-Love

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, I've had two chemo treatments, kidney stones, quit my job, and sadly lost a friend this week.  

February 2 - 2nd chemo.  My dear friend Coleen came with me.  She's always good for entertainment - one of my favorite times with Coleen was when we were wedding dress shopping (she was one of my bridesmaids) and we were in a very prim and proper store and I'm trying on a dress and there are brides and moms of brides.... EVERYWHERE and Coleen is yelling, "just pick a dress, we need to be at the church by 5!)  Gotta love someone that can crack you up when everyone around you is in tears... Love that girl.  Great chemo date.  My dear friend Molly decorated my door and brought us a delicious dinner.  My Aunt Diana and Uncle Keith (although I'm guessing she did the cooking) made us delicious chili on Friday) I feel so spoiled with all the love I'm getting. 

After my 1st chemo, I noticed my urine was really dark (sorry, probably TMI) so I had an appointment with a urologist, including x-ray, which showed Kidney Stones; go me.  My oncologist and urologist are in agreement we will want to treat these until I'm done with chemo - enough is enough. 

On February 7, after 2.5 years at Wireless Advocates I quit my job.  I will miss all the amazing people I've gotten the pleasure of working with over the years, and will also miss eating at Tom Douglas restaurants on a regular basis as well as lunches with MA, Gina and Liz in Seattle :(

My last day is this Monday, and then I will be starting my new job, still a Payroll Manager at TrueBlue.  My main reason for the changes was the commute.  I am driving 3-4 hours a day, and will take this down to 1 hour a day.  That's 2-3 hours of my life back each day, which is priceless.  I am really excited to start with my new team, as they all seem like really good people. 

February 17, 3rd chemo - they can't get my port to do a blood return.  They put medicine in the port that was supposed to fix this, but it didn't.  My Dr. decided to go ahead with the chemo after a couple hours and just took blood from my arm (one benefit of having the port IMO is to NOT have to do this).  Then when the chemo was 1/2 way done, before I got my stylish fanny pack of poison to go, I went to get a x-ray with dye so they could see what was going on with the port.  Before they even did the dye, the Dr could see the problem.  Where the tube should be going straight down in my chest, it is curved to the right which is the issue.  So, I have to go back for surgery Thursday to correct this. My awesome friend Barbara spent a LONG day with me Thursday and made us an amazing dinner and not one but TWO deserts.  I told you she was awesome - all straight from Pinterest.  How cool is she?  When I got home, more love from my ladies - they know me so well. 

Sadly, I lost a friend this week.  I have known Bill for about 10 years since joining St. Johns. Bill played the trumpet when I walked down the aisle at our wedding.  We've hiked and chatted many times over the years.  I admired Bill's intelligence, integrity, work ethic and enjoyed his sense of humor greatly.  We shared a love of our dogs, his meant everything to him and I was so happy to hear today that someone, bless their hearts, has adopted his dogs.  Such a relief to me. Bill had a massive strove on Monday and didn't survive.  He was 53.  I will miss you Bill.