Thankful for the good days!

This is the last day of my vacation....I can't say that I am looking forward to going back to work but it will be good to catch up with friends that I haven't seen for a couple weeks. I made the best of my time off...I did some shopping close to home and took time to rest whenever I felt like it. The stupid rash is still thriving but I have just learned to accept it and hope that it will only be driving me nuts for another month! I finally heard from Dr. B.'s office about why I did not get Herceptin with my first Taxol treatment. I have to have another MUGA (heart function test) before I can have the Herceptin. The AC that I just finished and the Herceptin can cause heart damage so they need to see if the AC damaged my heart b4 I can have the Herceptin. The nurse should have set up this test in late December but it was missed so now I will go Thursday morning for the test and they should get the results in while I am getting Taxol on Friday morning. I forgot to ask the nurse if I will have to have an extra Taxol/Herceptin at the end of chemo because the first one messed up so I will find that out on Friday....hopefully that won't be the case! I am still hanging on to the plan of only 3 more chemo treatments, Herceptin treatments every 3 weeks for one year and surgery in March.

This weekend has been a great one! On Friday night I co-hosted a baby shower with Kathleen, it was for our dear friend Heather who is due in February. The shower was at Kathleen's house. It was so much fun to work on decorations, games and favors this week...you all know how much I love a party, especially a party with a theme! We had a great turnout and Heather got so many wonderful gifts for baby Addison. Last night, my friend Vicki and I co-hosted Bunko at my house. We did a PJ Bunko theme so all the gals showed up in their jammies. This was my first time to play Bunko since October and it was so much fun. I have REALLY missed spending time with this fabulous, crazy group of women. Vicki did most of the food and Bret took care of setting up the tables and chairs so it wasn't a lot of work for me. I spent my time decorating the screen porch (it has windows now) in a "winter/snowman" theme so we could all sit down and enjoy our food out there before we started playing. I have included a pic of the Strawberry Hill Bunko Babes decked out in our PJs! Talk about some Hot Mammas!!

Looking back at these past two days I don't think I have felt this happy in a long time. In September and October I was overwhelmed with just trying to cope with the fact that I have cancer and then in November and December I was trying to deal with all the side effects of chemo and the crazy stress that comes with the holidays. This week I was able to work on these parties at my own pace and I felt like I finally proving to myself that cancer cannot take things away from me that I really love and I love entertaining!!! Is there a silver lining to cancer??? I guess I would say that cancer has definetely taught me to have a greater appreciation for the every day gifts that life offers. I am so thankful for the great times spent with my wonderful friends this weekend and that I felt good enough to plan and host these parties...I WILL CHERISH THESE MEMORIES FOREVER!!