Updates & freebie

It feels a little hectic just now. Went with June to see surgeon for pathology results. Not good. Cancer was found in the biopsied lymph node and she's been moved to stage 2. Now in addition to the mastectomy, there will be an axillary (underarm) node dissection. The possibility of radiation and chemo is greater now. Also, there is a "spot" on the same arm where she had skin cancer surgery previously. That surgery got complicated; a quarter size place in her forearm did not heal properly, went into staph infection and ultimately required another, deeper surgery during which additional cancer cells were found. Took about 6 months to get that cleared up and now the diagnosis of breast cancer. Skin cancer typically doesn't metastisize so I'm thinking now that maybe she had unknown breast cancer at that time and now it is spreading throughout the lymph system. Maybe I'm just catastrophizing, but she has been seeming so frail for the last year or so and I just have a bad feeling about this. I sure hope I am wrong. My Red Hat group let me re-schedule the meeting that was planned for the day we visited surgeon. I was able to convince June to come to the luncheon at Red Lobster on the new date and the ladies were so nice to her. As we prepared to leave, our co_queen, Doris, invited June to join our group and told her even if she doesn't want to join, she is welcome to come with me any time. Then Doris hugged June and told her she'd be praying for her. We took some photos of our Pink Hoot that day and I'll post as soon as I get a chance to download to the computer. I'd made a little fascinator with pink flowers and bow for June to wear and it looks so cute on her white hair. Tomorrow she will see our pulmonologist to get his okay for surgery. Like me, she has COPD so being put to sleep for surgery must be approved. As it is set now, she will finish up pre-op and get approval from her internist on 7/7 and surgery is to be 7/13 or 14 at Norfolk General's Breast Cancer Center. I volunteered to stay there overnight with her but the surgeon said it wouldn't be necessary since they have a special post-op section where there is a nurse for every two patients. Much better than in other areas. Will see how it goes.

Why the baby face? Just something cheerful. Husband is preparing to go on vacation or should I say staycation? He usually takes a week that includes our anniversary. We both have doctor appointments scheduled that week and hadn't planned on doing anything much. But today we were talking to his favorite cousin who lives in NJ. She's a little older than us and has health issues too. She was saying she'd like to see her aunt (my MIL) soon because the woman is in her late 80s and might not be with us much longer. Next thing I know, my husband offers to go get his cousin and bring her down for a few days around 7/4 and take her to visit with MIL et al. Got to set myself up a schedule to scramble and do some things before she arrives. It's looking like July is going to be a busy month & I'll be unpredictable in posts. But all that said, here is some more of Manly.

http://www.4shared.com/zip/Rhz2dc1lba/ws_Manly_zip_8.html?