Our agenda for the day was to cook the ham in preparation for lentil soup. To meet up at Meadowbrook Hall (Dodge Brother widow’s estate) for the Festival of Lights. Then return to Kelly’s for drinks and pizza. Here are some photos of the grounds and interior of the mansion. I toured it several times with out of town guests when we lived in Michigan.
It was relaxing Christmas morning since Kara had done so much of the cooking the day before. She set out snacks and we awaited our company. Kelly and Kristin came first followed shortly by Bidkar, Ally and baby CeCe who hit the ground running but wanted her shoes off. (This proves problematic when she leaves because she starts hollering “no shoes” because that means she is leaving.). The stragglers were Pat, Cassie and Mitchell. The unwrapping began and after a few hours we stopped for dinner, then finished up. We filled two huge garbage bags of wrapping paper in the process.
I hope you are all where you want to be with the people you want to be with … because it is Christmas Eve!
I had Monday and Tuesday to finish up our packing and prepare for our departure. Nancy and Marena both stopped over on Monday for visits. And I had my nails done Tuesday. Tom and Susan on Sunday suggested we come to their house Wednesday so we would be close to the south airport and not try to navigate the interstate from one end of town to the other at rush hour since our flight was a little before 8 o’clock.
We left at 1:00 and it took a half hour to go under 5 miles until we passed our mall. After that it was smooth sailing. We arrived right after 2:00 and left to have lunch, when we returned we visited until about 5:30 when we left. Traffic was light to the airport, the shuttle bus actually stopped and backed up to pick us up, and TSA was just a 5 minute wait. We were at the gate way in advance.
Our flight was full but we traveled exactly on schedule. We gathered our things at baggage claim, went upstairs to Departures which was empty at 11:00 and met Kara and Bill parked at the curb with no one else around,
Kristin was due in so we waited just a bit in the cell lot and then gathered her up in the same way and headed for Troy, it was 2:30 before went to bed.
Thursday was CeCe day! It snowed a bit while at Kelly’s but it was warm inside with all that love.
She loves Grammie’s house and has the run of the family room when she stays! She is talking more and can be a bit dramatic. There is a small step down into the family room and her entrance is to jump, fling her arms out with a loud "Tada" and then clap for herself. She especially likes cookies. She is never "standoffish" around us. She has 12 grandparents and we had to find a "different" name for her to call us since so many were already taken. We settled on Lolly and Pop but she says Pops!
Kara had us all for dinner but a good bit of it came from Picano’s restaurant. She had so much made already for the holidays - cookies, bread, dips, peeled vegetables, dishes out, etc.
Uodate: We are waiting on genetic marker info; ultrasound shows no involvement in lymph nodes or left breast. And so we wait.
Right now my surgeon and the MDA tumor board are going with lumpectomy with reconstructive surgery and lifting of the left breast so I have symmetry. I can handle that; however, the follow up with radiation, chemo, med infusion, and pills is daunting.
But so many have been kind in reaching out to us. I will try to keep you updated as things roll out.
To give the motorhome a run and put a load on the generator, we booked a campground in Bryan, TX for two nights. It is about 75 miles away so not a great distance but enough to accomplish our mission. When we were set up, we went to the Bush library to walk the grounds. We visited the gravesites of George, Barbara and Robin. Then we attempted to find Kyle Field. We could see it but we had a devil of a time reaching it. There were so many one way and closed streets that we about gave up. But we made it!
Our good friends, the ones who invite us to Hilton Head, drove down from Austin for lunch and to visit. We really appreciated them taking the time to come. Later we made the obligatory trip to Walmart.
The weather was going to be bad Saturday so we were up and on our way home by 7:40 am. We avoided the high winds and a tornado but did hit some heavy rain. We topped off the fuel and drove to storage. While Ted unhitched the car I grabbed the bags on the couch where I packed the few items we had brought along. Ted backed into our spot, under my direction, and we were home before 11.
We went to church as usual and were informed the dispensation from attending Mass on Sunday is being removed starting January 2. We only stopped March-June 2020, then making reservations and wearing masks, we returned even while traveling both summers and while wintering in the Rio Grande Valley.
Sunday we drove to SE Houston to see our friends Tommy and Susan’s totally gutted and newly renovated home. What a superb job! We then had lunch at Maggiano’s. Wonderful food and you can buy another dinner to take home for $5! We enjoyed ravioli and meatballs and spaghetti then ordered two lasagnas to go for $10! They are in the freezer for another day!
I had my magnification mammogram and the radiologist suggested a biopsy OR just come back in 6 months for another mammogram. I opted for the biopsy. I had moved this second mammogram back a week because of our trip to OH and MI and now it went back another week for a biopsy.
As we started to leave the next week they called and said they had no power so they moved it back another week! I was getting frustrated. My friend is a friend of head of radiology at MDAnderson who has a satellite 2 miles from us and it is just two years old I think. Immediately the breast cancer navigator called me and asked how she could help. She had me at MDA the next morning at 6:30 am.
I was given another magnified mammogram and a biopsy. Unfortunately, results were positive for cancer. Such a whirlwind of activity started. They use a system MyChart and everyone, including me, can see everything done on my case. Every conversation, every follow up, every test, every appt., etc.
I saw the surgeon for 1.5 hours! I met with the oncologist to discuss meds afterwards, again 1.5 hours. I had an ultrasound that found no lymph node involvement nor in the other breast. Great news!
Genetic testing was discussed. If I have it we may make a different choice in surgeries. But I want the info for my 3 daughters, 3 granddaughters and our great granddaughter.
This Tuesday I will speak with the geneticist, the tumor board will meet to discuss my case and my planned 1/25 surgery will be finalized. MyChart shows I will meet with the plastic surgeon two weeks before.
So now we wait and pray. I am allowed to fly to Michigan for Christmas. Three months in the valley is out this year due to weekly chemo for 3 months followed by an every 3 week infusion of Herceptin for a year followed by a pill every day for 5 years!
So our plans to stay busy are a 2 night stay in the motorhome at College Station just to run it and put a load on the generator. We will visit our friends visiting in Austin and some who live in Chappell Hill. Christmas week in Michigan, a quick trip to Mission where we would normally be going for 3 months and then all the appts start again prior to surgery.
I thought 2020 and 2021 were sh*t shows! Apparently I am going for a Trifecta!
I haven’t written much the last few weeks. We were both very tired once we returned from our whirlwind 3,000 miles.
We did have to make another trip back to Livingston to retrieve the newly found primers. Then Ted delivered John’s articles to him at the gun club and Don stopped on his way home to Nacadoches for his part of the loot. I don’t know if Ted checked with Brenda about how it went with the dealer Ted sent to buy everything else.
Thanksgiving was fast approaching so some cleaning and shopping needed to be done. Kristin arrived on Tuesday before. I had the table set already and the groceries in so we didn’t need to do that. We were going ”informal” this year. We started out with just us three but ended up with six!
We had dinner at Joe’s that evening then drove to Hockley to visit the Gullo Family lights. It is 5 acres of beautiful lighted displays with lovely Christmas music playing.
Wednesday we did our meal prep. We were in great shape Thursday morning and just stayed out of the way of Emeril aka Ted as he prepared the previously dry brined turkey headed to the oven. It was excellent.
Our Israeli neighbors joined us for their first authentic American Thanksgiving turkey dinner. And our neighbor Nancy, whose husband had been in the hospital and chose not to come, filled our table. All was terrific except the part where I knocked the bottle of red wine off kilter! The tablecloth, a napkin, a chair seat and the rug all got hit. We cleaned up a bit and then earnestly worked on it after dinner. The linens came perfectly clean. The carpet mostly but the chair seat did not fare so well. It will all be ok until spring when I will decide what if anything more can be done.
Kristin and I chose to see the Van Gogh Immersion production while she was here. Ted and I visited Arles, France in 2012 and stood right where Van Gogh would have to paint so many of his famous paintings. His 15 months there were the most prolific of his life they said. It was awe inspiring to see these creations come to life in such dramatic fashion. I took several short videos but I can’t get them to load so here are some photos. It was a great girls day out. I
Off to the airport we went on Saturday and what a mess outside though Kristin said it was not bad inside. She was through Security and enjoying a massage chair outside her gate before we ever made it home.
I had to return for a magnification mammogram due to calcification deposits. They show up as little white dots on the X-ray and are not uncommon in older women but they wanted a closer look.
The rest of the week I spent burning up my credit card getting all the Christmas gifts to Kara’s. I am not sure where she will go with all of it but they have a huge basement. It can all sit there until I arrive to wrap them.
Our Giving Tree at church had a list of general items to be distributed through Catholic Charities. I ordered four girls’ puff jackets, 4 hooded sweatshirts and 3 dozen pair of men’s white socks for the prison ministry. When two huge boxes arrived, I determined the order had been duplicated! I put all I really wanted in one box and took the rest back to Macy’s. Then a few days later two more sweatshirts arrived in separate packages. Off we went to Macy’s again. I hope they are done sending me things now. We also stopped at the post office to mail Kristin’s two make up bags back to her. Some things never change.
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