So long 2013 and HELLO 2014..........

So long 2013 and HELLO 2014, I have great hopes for you!!!

See you in a year

It is finished, at least that is how I feel it is. On Dec 23rd at my last reconstruction post op appointment, the Doc stated "see you in a year"...a whole entire year, not another six months or less, but an entire year.

You see this is significant to me for many reasons. I will give a timeline since 2006 (for 7 1/2 years)

May 2006 - Tuki comes home, I am a first time Mom at the age of 42 (BIG adjustment, yet it was awesome, but all first time Moms understand the bitter sweet time of adjustment)

December 2008 - wild child Ve comes home at the age two weeks shy of 5 years old.

July 2009 - I have an active case of Lyme's disease

October 2009 - My feet are hurting me so bad (like walking on glass) that I had to give up running, because I could barely walk, and 20 lbs immediately seemed to have leaped onto my body within 2 months

November 2009 - Mim comes home at the age of 12 1/2 years old, honeymoon lasts only 6 months..and then you can imagine a teenager with emotional baggage

January 2010 - I have developed such severe allergies (sound like a smoker) that I now need weekly allergy shots

ALL 2010 and early 2011 - Thyroid numbers are really high and can't get them normalized, feet and allergies problems are ongoing

August 2011 - I am diagnosed with LCIS breast cancer. Mim has only been home for 1 yr, 9 mos and Tuki is 5 and Ve is 7.

September 2011 - May 2012 - saw many doctors trying to choose my best option

June 2012 - Double mastectomy and first reconstruction surgery with abdomen tissue, left one failed due to undetected chronic lyme disease

July 2012 - 2nd reconstruction surgery to correct left breast failure

November 2012 - My eldest brother dies at 55

December 2012 - Removes issue expander and replaced with left thigh tissue

January 2013 - Confirmed that I was still just as positive with lymes's disease and co-infections as I was originally in July 2010 and it has been creating havoc in my body all this time, thus the many illnesses.

March 2013 - Started treatment for Chronic Lyme disease for six months

March - October 2013  - Lyme disease symptoms start reversing...I can actually start walking the dogs and attempt to start running again but in awful shape

June 2013 - 4th reconstruction surgery attempting to make left and right the same

December 6 2013 - 5th reconstruction surgery

December 23, 2013 - "see you in a year"

and I am feeling well enough to continue the long road back to get into shape...but as I have heard I need to allow for a "new normal" for my fitness level.

My inner peace level is awesome. For years probably since 2008 I have had this inner unrest, weight on my shoulders, can't take a deep breath, etc...and all for really good reasons that one just followed the other and it may have all been compounded by the Lyme disease.......it is finished, it is finished....sounds so sweet to my ears..this has been the best break I have had in years, years YEARS as well, very rested and at peace...I say good buy to 2013 and my word for 2014 is "Better".......better health, better family dynamics, better peace, better love, better communication, just BETTER!

Nothing much

We have been laying pretty low since Christmas.....really low since my face is peeling a little more every day, but doing well. We are expecting visitors Brenda and her kids in a few days, that will get us going. I fear that I can become a real hermit when given the opportunity...and my daughters are also feeling fine with how lazy we have been. Mim had a party she attended yesterday, but other than that nothing. We will clean the house for our guests and then work on 4 more gourd ornaments. We ave several out for Christmas, our first ever, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures of them. Other family members expressed interest in getting them so we will make more before New Year's day in which we will all get together again.

Christmas

Ve turned 10, Sixteen people came to our house for our celebration, we have a TON of snow so it definitely was a white Christmas, my face is peeling from the chemical peel, it was the sanding joke yesterday, and my girls are happy with their gifts and I am touched by Mim's gift to me which was a Christmas CD she had burned for me at school i her Video Production class of how she joined our family and a big thank you to me. It was very touching and one I hope to remember when she and I are at a standstill in understanding each other. It was a good Christmas. My wonder is how come it take so long to make all the dishes but withing one hour we are done eating......

Tonight

The two wee girls and I made our cut out cookies while my eldest debuted in baking 2 batches of puppy chow. We are nearly ready for the crowd on Wednesday. Tomorrow a lot of cooking and baking, Christmas eve service, and then the final touches for our Christmas celebration.

Today I drove to Milwaukee for my post surgery recheck, then I had a touch up on my breast tattoos and finally I had the chemical peel. It was some of the worst driving today that I have experienced in  along time. I went through 2 1/2  gallons of washer fluid. It was treacherous, and I am grateful to be back safe and sound.

Tuki's Rudolph story that includes how wrong bullying is.

Pretty original for a 2nd grader!!

Ve's 5 years home

Ve (codename), my middle child is celebrating her 5 year homecoming day today..5 years already. This is a very significant year since it marks that she will now have been home for as many years as she was in Haiti. She was 2 weeks shy of 5 years old in 2008 when she arrived in Wisconsin on a plane that took her from a country with 80 degree weather to a country and state that was having -30 degree weather with the windchill...just as she adapted so smoothly to the extreme differences in temperature, she has adapted to her new life in our family. Happy Homecoming Ve!!

Today

I am sitting here in the hospital in Milwaukee, recovering from my last reconstruction surgery. It has been an journey. It has lasted 2 years, but now I am coming out at the other end. My friend Barb will be picking me up today around noon, and then I will be heading home. Grandma stayed over with the girls the last two nights since I was at a conference in Madison before I drove to Milwaukee yesterday. They ended keeping me over night since I was vomiting in excess as I was waking up.

I had fat grafting to finish constructing  my breasts,and guess where they got the fat, right leg, right and left hips.. I am oozing now and will have to wear a girdle for 3 weeks, but will come out a slimmer bustier beauty. On Dec 23 rd I am scheduled for a chemical peel on my face..yes, as my sister states..just call me plastic, but I call it making lemonade from lemons and maybe a 50 yrs old mid-life crisis.

Tomorrow is Tuki's first BB tourney..we'll see how it goes.

Our Christmas Tree

We don't go out and cut our Christmas tree, but the girls and I do walk two blocks, pick out our tree and then walk home proudly carrying our tree as though we chopped it from the woods... we accomplished this homesteading  feat tonight in the drizzling rain, so I sit here warm, relaxing, the tree is anchored in the stand, and I smile and breathe in the smell of fir permeating our home...:) sometimes life truly is amazing.

Now it just needs to be decorated