Thursday, June 17, 2010

Moving into a new frame of mind

June has been a great month so far. I can say that for the first time since she ended therapy on March 12th, that I really feel like we've moved into a new stage or frame of mind. Cancer doesn't come up so much anymore, during treatment we would talk about cancer in one form or another at least twice a day, if not much more often than that. But these days, it doesn't really come up anymore. Over this past weekend we went away to Yosemite, and realized after we returned home that we didn't utter the word "Cancer" the entire weekend.

This week though, was Emily's regular monthly exam. She also will be getting chest x-rays quarterly, so this month it was time for a CXR too. We went into Packard, had her blood drawn, vitals recorded, did the chest Xray. Then we met with Dr. Link and Sadie for Emily's physical exam. We also got the results of the xray and Labs. Simply stated, Emily looks great in all regards. We all have noticed that Emily is losing her Prednisone look and looking much more like her old self.

I mentioned our trip to Yosemite, and besides Emily being done with school is the high light of the month. We decided to go to Yosemite to have a weekend get-a-way for Tracy's 40th birthday. We stayed at a place called the Tenaya Lodge which is 2 miles outside the southern gate to Yosemite on HWY 41. The hotel was very secluded and also very nice. I think the kids would tell you the best part was the pool. On Sunday we drive into Yosemite Valley and rented bikes. We rode the bikes for 6 hours around the valley, stopping to let the kids play in the river and on the rocks. The kids and I had packed a surprise picnic lunch and we found a great place right by the river to have it. After we were done in the Valley and drove back to the Lodge, and the kids swam for 2 hours. They had a nice poolside bar that Tracy and I took advantage of. Emily and Haley each made friends with other kids in the pool and it was so nice just to watch them swim and have fun. On Monday we went to the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite. This is a stand of Giant old growth Sequoia trees. To get there you have to hike a mile uphill, the kids did it, but with a few complaints. After our hike, we had another picnic in Wawona by another river. After some more playing in the river, it was time to pile in the car and head home. We were only gone two days but it felt like much longer. Life for us seems to be returning to the way it used to be......fun.