One Less Thing To Worry About

...Work I go! Today was one of those days that nothing seemed to go quite as planned, but it all went perfect in it's own way. It started with me getting all antsy because we were almost late to radiation (Huge rainstorm after a huge snowstorm on friday, totally makes sense!), only for radiation to take me in 45 minutes late, which made Jason late getting me a lunch and to campus, costing him a half-day of work. Then, I went into work at 1, had a good meeting, sat and talked with a coworker, prayed with our administrative assistant, and then tried to get "reoriented" this afternoon. They've got tasks for me to do! Woohoo!! You know those stories of those guys who retire, and then they die three days later because they worked for so long and made work so much of themselves, that they must have subconsciously not had much to live for if it wasn't work. I thought I may be one of those people. Today has me convinced. Just being there gave me energy, purpose, and a s...

Well, today was the day I got a little backlash from all my "fun." Friday night I was naughty and stayed awake WAY past my bedtime. (I blame the "break" from my radiation for all that energy!) I think it caught up with me because I slept a lot last night, napped all this morning, and have still felt tired most of today. I rallied though, and it's a good thing I did, because today, my Aunt, two cousins, and I saw the one and only HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS!! It was awesome, I laughed so much I gave myself a headache! =)  I watched the all-star dunk-off on TV last week, and I feel like the globetrotters should be invited! It was so sweet to see my cousins get excited, and then for them to come home and practice their "trick shots" out in the snow with their garage hoop. I come home to Jason having made Lamb leg (Yummy) and brought me smoked salmon for my bagel schmear for breakfast! (Delicious) He finds ways to do the "little things" even in the...

Since I've come out about my cancer, a lot of cancer stories have found their way to me. I'm reconnecting with a girl from high school who is an 8 year survivor of lymphoma, talking to another guy from high school who's two year old son is battling eye cancer, spoke last night with another guy from high school who moved home to be the caretaker of his mother with stage 4 colon cancer. Another story, is the brother-in-law of the mother of my cousin Christian's BFF, brain cancer. The mother talks with my Aunt Lisa, and so I'm hearing the stories, and even got an opportunity to suggest my FANTASTIC doctors, because this man has brain cancer and is local. He has an egg-sized tumor in his frontal/temporal lobe. Sound familar?! Deja Vu anyone?! The strange part about this, is he has the same size and location of the tumor, but his symptoms are way more severe than mine. His seizures have caused him to lose consciousness, to bite off his own tongue, the doctors have told...

So, Jason took me out to eat tonight. The first time I've went out, like OUT out, for a nice dinner since my surgery. I had spicy Thai food and everything, it was amazing! And then, because Jason and I are such partiers and night-lifers, we went to Hannaford for some groceries, and then followed it up by an evening of some very strenuous TV watching! I am happy to say that cancer has not changed our habits at all! This is definitely a prototypical Friday night in the Joanette-Wong residence. In addition to TV, I had a couple of good chats with some long-time friends. It's nice to have time to do that kind of stuff. Last semester, I had gotten so bad that I had actually gone a full three weeks without talking to either of my parents! What kind of child am I?! I didn't make time for people I love, hence, poor Jason. A lot of this has to do with how much I "wrap myself" into my current surroundings. When I went to undergrad, it was my entire world, when I went to...

So, apparently even radiation gets snow days! The weather is so bad here that I called into my doctor's office and won't be going today. This will definitely change the day, and made me laugh as it reminds me of the days I was like my little cousins and crossed my fingers for a free day to play. Now, I didn't pack my snowpants when I moved to my aunts house, but I get a day of less driving, more free time, and more ENERGY! I even splurged and had coffee, send your sympathies to Jason, as he didn't go to work and I'm going to bug him to entertain me. Oh, btw, yesterday I went in for my bloodwork to test out my first 10 days of chemo, and my white counts are good, so YAY! I'm not just beating nausea, I'm keeping my immune system too. Woohoo! My phlebotomist and I traded as many "terms" we could think of to call what he does for a living. My favorite was vampire (I LOVE TWILIGHT), his was flee, which he hadn't heard before (surprising). He drew ...

I have a confession to make. Last semester, I had been feeling for the past few months a little burnt out from my work, like what I was doing was a little unnoticed, or that I wasn't being as effective as I thought. This caused me to come home stressed out, walk in the door and immediately start venting to poor Jason, who is SO even-keeled that this onslaught of emotion as soon as I walked through the door might have given him PTSD. Burn out is dangerous, especially for perfectionists like me. I felt guilty about how I was feeling like I wasn't doing well enough, and so my first natural reaction to this was to work HARDER, LONGER. Hence, poor Jason. As far as my feelings that I wasn't being effective, or going unnoticed, there is no room for doubt now.  It is quite possible that I may be the queen of an entire hive that I had no idea was "my hive." I should have guessed though. My boss, Karla, always told me that "honey gets the bees." I can't c...

Let me start by saying: HEY! HI! and to give you a little forewarning. I've been hesitant about writing a blog. First I was like, YES, absolutely, then I reconsidered, and then rethought my reconsideration regarding my concerns and so on and until now, and I am here. This blog is mostly for me to process this ordeal, and possibly to give some of my family members' ears a rest. I hope it will keep all those who have been reaching out to me and want to know how I'm doing a way to hear about it as often as they like. So, again, about that forewarning. I will be writing this as if you were my mom, brother, dad, boyfriend, best friend, cousin, old high school BFF forever, etc. If you and I are not that close, and you start feeling a little uncomfortable about my candidness, please, do not worry! In my mind you and I are that close. That's one of the funny things about cancer. It has almost completely removed my filter between stranger and friend (a filter that was never re...