So, what's new?

Belated Happy New Year, Dear Reader!!  I have been remarkably absent from these pages, and recently have started to feel remarkably bad about it.  So, here I am.  And there you are....I think.

/me peers out into the interwebz to see if he can see u

So, what's going on, you ask? And if you didn't ask that, then I just put words in your mouth.  I'm a (wannabe) writer, I can do that, you know.  I can make you ask questions you never thought you'd want to know the answer too.  And because I have the power to do that, I will do that.

/me laughs an evil laugh.

Now, to answer the question.  What's going on?  What's new? What's happening?  The long and the short of it is this:  lots.  Oh wait, that's just the short of it.  Read on, dear reader, to get the long of it.  (I think grammar wise, this paragraph is an epic fail.)

I suppose that some of you are getting curiouser and curiouser about Dianne.  How's she doing?  How's the recovery going?  Things are going well, dear reader, things are going well.  Recovering her strength and energy is a long tedious process, but this is very understandable in light of what she's been through in the past year.  She works hard to do things, and to not let the after effects drag her down...and she does an amazing job of it.  Dear reader, we are so blessed that Dianne is able to do the things she does, and we thank our Lord for being with her.

Dianne now has more hair than I do.  Of course, mine has remained off by choice, and I steadfastly continue to shave it off.  And at this point, I am determined that it will remain like this for a long long time. Dianne, however, has different opinions...she wants her hair to grow back...and it is.  I figure we could have remained bald together forever, but I couldn't find it in our wedding vows anywhere.  Thus, her hair groweth.  And it looks very nice, I must say.

What's in the future for Dianne?  I don't know if we've covered this before, so I'll go over a few things again.  Dianne will continue to get Herceptin IV's until at least May, 2010.  This drug works against the protein factor which made her cancer so aggressive.  So, if there is any cancer left, it won't be affected by the HER2+ disease.  She also is on Tamoxifen for the next 5 years.  Tamoxifen "prevents estrogen from binding to its receptor. Hence breast cancer cell growth is blocked."  (the text in " " is a direct quote from Wikipedia).

Dianne has also had a visit to the plastic surgeon in light of reconstruction.  I am not going to go into any details at this point, because a decision has not been made as to what's going to happen.  I just wanted you to know that the initial consultation has taken place.

Believe it or not, dear reader, Dianne's 6 month checkup is scheduled for February 4, 2010.  This, of course, is 6 months after the last chemo.  But it seemed to have arrived very quickly.  I am hoping to attend this with her, and and soon as we know something, I will let you know.

And that, dear reader, is what's new.  I was nice, and didn't make you answer any questions you didn't want to know the answer to.  I make no guarantees that this will happen again.  Know this: the desire to write again is coming back after a short hiatus.  Thus, I hope to see you again soon. 

(Updates on myself will be in a separate entry)

Cheers.

RK