Musings on the last day of March

I think I am gearing myself up mentally for that whole anniversary reaction bit.

My mind is going places where it hasn't been for sometime.

As I was driving home from taking Rachel to school this morning and running through my "to do" list for the day, it hit me that this was the last day of March. I tried to remember what the last day of March 2006 was like. I remember that we were coming out of a bit of stress as Howie had recieved a "lay off" notice earlier that month. March 31 was supposed to be his last day, but he was swept up by another group within the company, given more $, and ended up starting his new position that day. That notice was what sent the wheels into motion. I made appointments for all my so called routine check ups before we needed to start COBRA (which never happened either).

By now, we all know what happened next. It started quietly. My body was rebelling against me. First, my blood pressure was elevated at my gyn appointment. That made it so I could get in to see my internist much more quickly. Turned out it was probably stress related as that went away. Then, I went for my pelvic ultrasound. I had a small ovarian cyst we had been watching for years thanks to a family history of ovarian cancer. The cyst was no longer small and surgery was up for discussion. That discussion suddenly took a back seat once my mammography results were in. But, I'm jumping ahead. The mammography films did not occur until April 2006. Back in March 2006, I was still happily living in the land of the benign. I knew before the end of April that my life had changed. It was April 18. It wouldn't be confirmed until May 1, when I was officially diagnosed. But I knew when before I left the radiology suite on the day I had the additional films and the sonogram left no question at all.

Is there a point to this? I'm not sure. I do know that up until this morning, I was considering making a call to my oncologist about my hip pain. I kept telling myself it's related to all my dance classes. I didn't go to any classes at all last week. All I did for exercise was walk and clean the house (a small miracle on the latter). The pain persisted. When you live in Cancerville, every pain is a possible met (foci of metastatic disease). But, after a full week off from dance classes, my hip pain is gone. Doctor cure thyself. :) And yes, I am going back to dance class anyway. After all, tomorrow is Salsa day! When my hip start hurting again, I'll know just what to blame.

Salsa is a million times more fun than cancer anyday. :P

March in a nutshell

Guess who is 11? Hard to believe it was already 11 years ago that we were carrying this 18 inch munchkin around in our arms. I think she's 4 1/2 feet tall now. I forgot to write it down at her annual check up. Either way, all I know is that she is rapidly approaching my height!

The photo was taken at the Cinderella dinner at the Grand Floridian in WDW. Rachel is actually wearing TWO tiaras in that photo. The birthday tiara is part of having your birthday at that particular dinner. The other, smaller, more Rachel-style tiara was part of a birthday present from Grandma in Florida. Rachel had wanted to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique since it was first announced. It never really fit into our plans and I admit the price was a turn off for me. Grandma was more than happy to enlist the fairy godmothers in training at WDW and make Rachel's wish a reality. She went for the classic princess look, which is why she is wearing make up and has more hair gel than she used to wear in a year, back in the days when she wore gel to dance class.

And, here's the whole crew. I actually got into a photo! I might even be in more, but I haven't checked the PhotoPass yet. This is Rachel and I with my mother-in-law, just after we arrived in the Magic Kingdom. Howie decided he'd rather hang out at the resort and go for a long run instead of spending a day in the parks. Rachel is holding Violette, the elephant her friend Elise gave her for her birthday. Rachel made a photo diary of Violette's adventures in Florida for Elise, so the elephant appears in almost all our photos from this trip. I am holding My Pal Mickey who was not feeling very well on this trip. He needed a little surgery (new battery) and we neglected to have the procedure performed, so he spent the rest of the time in my bag.

Otherwise, March has been filled with routine doctor appointments for both Rachel and I. Nothing out of the ordinary. I am still working on the whole weight loss thing, but not very successfully. I must be building one heck of a lot of muscle is all I can say! I am still taking at least two 90 minute ballet classes a week, sometimes three. Most other days, I get in at least 30 minutes of cardio. With all the calories I am burning, the weight should be melting away. But it is not. I am not hitting my 2 lb a month goal. Lost 2 lbs in January and 1 in Feb. I regained weight on vacation, as usual and I am going to rack up a 0 lb loss for March I suspect. Not a good trend. I started keeping a food diary again to see if I could make some adjustments. I decided that perhaps my pastic surgeon was correct and that I am not eating enough. I was just hitting 1000 calories a day. I've loosed up and I'm now back in the 1200-1500 range (aside from that week on vacation). Not seeing any benefit at all yet. I'm planning to try to add another exercise class or two (Salsa-cise!) starting next week and will see what that does. I suspect I am making progress inches-wise, but silly me has not done those measurements.