5 Years Later

January, 2008

Today I had the appointment my "local" oncologist decided to call my 5 year visit.  Though officially the last bit of c-wicked wasn't removed until January of 2008, since I don't go back until late spring, today's meeting was close enough for both of us.

He's relaxed my schedule a bit -- no MRI this time (though I swear I could hear the banging as I did other tests in radiology), just a traditional mammogram and chest CT.  I think they over-medicated me on my steroids for the ct (I had a tiny reaction in my very first CT so they're super cautious), but that was the biggest issue for the day, and it simply resulted in my napping all afternoon to ease the jitters other than cleaning the desperately-needing-it kitchen.  Ah well, that's what children are for... :)

Despite hitting five years and dreaming of a day in which I'm not the most famous patient at my onc's office (perhaps an exaggeration, but literally, 3/4ths of the staff I interact with know who I am and hug me on sight, so I'm taking star-status and running with it), I'm not really released out of his care.  I'll continue visits twice a year, perhaps for eternity.  We're going to back off of the MRI for upcoming future, and substitute a chest x-ray.  On the other side of the calendar, I'll continue to have chest CTs for a while.  Ah, the life of a celebrity... at least all of this takes place slightly more local than Mayo - a forty minute drive isn't nearly as bad as the two hour trip (though not having the infamous Mayo Itinerary to navigate with gave me pause today... never thought I'd miss that bloody thing).  Regardless, until May, I'm totally free of it.  

November, 2012

------------------

Most of you know how important the LiveSTRONG message has always been to me, especially so in the last 6+ years since I was more personally affected.  Though I'm seriously disappointed in the choices Lance Armstrong has made in his professional life, the efforts he has put into the foundation he formally led remain at the forefront for myself and millions of other cancer patients and survivors.  6 and a half years ago, I thought my days were far more numbered than I had ever imagined, but the materials from LiveSTRONG convinced me that I was the navigator here.  Maybe the ocean would be rough, and over that I would have little control, but I was the one steering the ship.  Every time I saw -- and continue to see -- those little yellow bracelets, I felt my support system coming alive around me.  LiveSTRONG is bigger than Lance.  But it is because of him that it exists, and for that I will be forever in his debt.  Trash his cycling reputation all you like -- check that, he did a reasonably good job of that himself -- but I believe when he has to stand in front of the pearly gates he should be judged not for the yellow jersey he wore, but for the yellow bracelet he stood behind.  

And that, my friends, is about as political as I get.  

Have the loveliest of Thanksgivings next week.  I'm so very thankful for all of you.

Carpe diem.  -- Trela

Moving On...

'Cuz we moved.  Like 6 months ago.  If you missed it, we moved off of the acreage we lived on for the last 9 years in December in favor of a newer (like the daughter is older than this house...) place in the small cityopolis about four miles away.  It wasn't totally random -- the kids go to school in this place anyway, and we've been THRILLED with the teachers.  It's also where one of our clinics has been located for about 6 years now.  And, realistically, it was the compromise between big city and acreage.  And I love it.  A lot.

Cancer junk out of the way:  6 month check up was in mid-May, but because we'd done all of the "hard" tests in November, it was just a blood draw and check in with my fab local doctor.  Who is, apparently, now on a billboard.  Yep, he's fab.  Anywho, everything was fine, I'll see them again mid-November for a chest CT and mam (which is a step up, they're "relaxing" by just doing a mammogram, NOT an MRI).  Then we'll talk about slowing things down.  That might be a light at the end of the tunnel...

So, I took this year out of the classroom to work as an Instructional Coach in my building.  Same boss, same peeps, totally new role.  Basically another teacher and I stepped out of our teaching gigs to "coach" teachers.  We'd pop into classrooms, observe for a bit, help out, interact, etc, and then give feedback on the whole deal.  We varied in our focus -- sometimes it was assessment (which is truly what our training is in that caused this job opening to occur), sometimes engagement, sometimes modeling, sometimes small group learning... it really depended on where our brains were at, and frequently, what that teacher was looking for.  Overall it went well, I think.  Not everyone was appreciative of our presence, sometimes questioning our skill set (we're NOT administrators, and at least I never plan to be), but between us we've got about 25 years of experience running our own pretty engaging classrooms, and that's what we fell back on.  The good comments usually outweighed the bad, but it's tough to be criticized when you're just trying to help.  Really.  In the end though, we both REALLY missed teaching.  Not grading so much, but teaching, so we'll be back in the classroom for a block a day next year (it ends up to be two periods, but the same kids).  I'm only an English teacher, so that meant we had to teach a Literacy class... he was primarily a math teacher before all of this.  I've been most comfortable in the upper middle school/early high school classes for most of my career, but he was a 6th grade teacher.  So, compromise:  my content (though truth be told, he's an excellent literacy teacher as well), his grade level.  Me.  And 6th graders.  I'm sure it will be fine.

In fun family news, Ki's soccer team took 1st place yesterday in the area's Soccer Cup.  It's his first year playing, and it's been a fabulous way to get us more connected to the little town we now call home.  They've been a great group of families to hang with, and I'm sorry that most of the players are just that little bit older than Ki and won't be on his team again.  Regardless, he now LOVES soccer, and has even convinced the little sister to play next year.  That should be entertaining....


Little sister finished her first year in dance with a recital a few weeks ago.  I think she was more excited about the sparkly dress and makeup than the actual dance, but she worked pretty hard in the last few weeks leading up to the recital to make sure she had all of her steps down.

And the hubs -- well, when we see him, he's doing well!  Work is crazy busy for him (like always)!  When he's not at work, working, he's home, working, as we're trying to get our basement officially finished.  We've tackled more of the detail work ourselves than I originally planned on, which means it's taking a bit longer, but we're pretty happy with the results so far.  I'm not sure what we'll do when it's done... oh yeah, the yard.  Sigh.

carpe diem.  -- Trela

Family 16 x 20

Blank Project Canvas Print

Get personalized Halloween invitations at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Gold Star -- The Aftermath

A few weeks ago I received an email from a web design/copy company asking me to answer some questions because they were hired by the McElroy Trust to revamp the Gold Star Teacher website (phew, because it needed it). I answered my questions and sent them in and truly didn't think much more about it. A week or two later I received another email telling me they really liked my writing style and wondered if I'd be interested in writing a blog article to debut on the the newly designed site.

Since I've never written a blog before, I was nervous. Ha. (Actually, I WAS nervous about this one since people actually asked me to write something BECAUSE of my writing style... that hasn't ever happened before).

I noticed tonight the website is up... my blog is about teaching, of course, so if that doesn't thrill you and you're just here to check up on me that's cool too. (I'm fine, we're in the middle of a blizzard, Cav has a fever, Eric is playing on the computer, Ki is pouting because I won't let him play on the computer anymore, the dogs are in snowy heaven romping around outside.) If you ARE interested and perhaps only check in on this blog to read my witty words, I'm sure this entry disappoints, so you should try this instead:

www.goldstarteacher.com

Carpe diem. -- Trela

Merry Christmas!

From the four of us to all of you, the happiest of holiday seasons!

Carpe diem. -- Trela

Mayo Mindgames

Let me start out with my favorite writer: "All's Well That Ends Well." Hold on to that thought so as not to go into panic mode (which I frequented today... not fun).

This morning I had my scheduled breast MRI, not normally a freak-out occurring for me, but for last September's trials and tribulations. If you don't remember last September, well, I think those are song lyrics, but trust me, it's not worth revisiting.

Based on that historical event, the MRI freaked me out a bit. After a missed attempt on my IV we finally got the ball rolling and spent 40 minutes trapped in a tube. Yay. From there I moved directly to a chest x-ray (mostly because I missed my August appointment, oops). We had breakfast in the three hours we had to kill before heading to an appointment with yet another breast specialist (our third in five years). She delivered the repeat/rewind September news: the "mass" noticed in September was in fact smaller, but there was another suspicious area on the other side that they wanted to take a second look at. To give her credit, she realized immediately that our staying overnight was going to be a pain, so she called around and was able to squeeze us into the ultrasound. I literally had to take off my gown before an exam even happened in order to make it to the ultrasound on time. The tech couldn't find the suspicious area (I thought a good sign!) and the radiologist who came in to check her work was the same doctor who'd flagged my MRI. She was almost apologetic... said she wished she could flag the MRI with a note that said, "I'm not worried, but...." The ultrasound showed absolutely no abnormality, so yay, back to the specialist's appointment. She and my oncologist worked out a schedule and she "released" me from the Breast Care Center's care. On to oncology..

Pretty uneventful here... essentially we'll be backing out of my quarterly chest x-rays, not so much because I've graduated, but because the tests don't really see what we need. The new plan is basically to continue the breast MRI (which is actually to look at my non-existent left side, not the right, which we previously thought) once a year, and to do a chest CT once a year. That's still ultimately less testing, but it's the freak-Trela-out kind... ah well, what can you do? Sounds like I'll have an appointment every six months for the next two years, one at Mayo (MRI) and one more locally. At that point, we'll have hit five years... then we re-evaluate. Of course I'm discouraged to not be dismissed from care, but as we discussed at one point in the appointment, I'm no longer a priority at Mayo (it took three months to get this appointment, when I was first diagnosed, it took three days).

It's sometimes good to be unimportant.

Carpe diem. -- Trela

I Am a Terrible Blog Writer

My frequency would get me fired if this were my job. :)

Life is going pretty well for our clan these days. Work keeps me ever-occupied, and in the rest of the time I have the three people I live with who keep me out of trouble. Kile is thriving at his new school in Jesup, and Cavanaugh has taken his absence at montessori as an indicator that she is now in charge of the entire world as she knows it. Eric is busy at work and just finished his stint at National Boards at Palmer last weekend. It makes for a long weekend for him, testing the almost-graduates, but I know he enjoys it from a professional perspective. Not nearly as cool as my conferences, though, I get to attend a 90/90/90 conference with some of my co-workers in LAS VEGAS in December. Definitely looking forward to that.

Certainly a lot to be thankful for as ever this Thanksgiving. With an MRI looming I can't help but look at Cavie as a four and a half year old indicator of my progress. I feel great, and have no worries going into this appointment (which of course is actually freaking me out that I just don't KNOW something is wrong). I'll update after the appointment on the 30th. Hoping this will just be my new annual appointment and for the rest of my life I'll be able to hold the Mayo.

:)

carpe diem -- Trela