The Eyes Have It

Masks. Love them or hate them, they are a new part of our society. I'm sure your'e familiar with the old adage, "the eyes are the window to the soul." Well, with mask wearing happening more often in public places, I hope you're keeping your "windows" open.
Masks cover roughly 2/3 of our faces. Sometimes our words are muffled and harder to hear and understand. We are now relying on our eyes to do much of our communicating. So smile under that mask! It truly makes a difference.

I learned this on accident because I wore a mask on purpose.

With Smile

Without smile

 Can you see the difference? Chins up, smiles on! (even under the mask)

A note to you, my friend

Well, this blog has definitely become what I didn't want it to become...a lost, forgotten piece of cyberspace.There have been many things that I have learned, especially during this time of world pandemic and I've been nudged, very gently, that I need to continue to write down and share the things that I learn.  For you? For a friend? For me? Probably mostly for me. But I cannot ignore it any longer. So, my intention now is to share with you several posts that I have been composing in my mind, and writing in journals, for quite some time.  They won't come in any particular order, not chronological, not by subject, but they will come.

And my hope is that you too will learn things on accident, as you read this blog on purpose.

~Gina

This is what cancer looks like

**Note**
This post was started MONTHS ago. I kind of forgot about it but after seeing it here on my "unfinished list" it felt like I needed to still publish it.  It isn't finished. I have yet to tell you about chemo, or the "after-party" But I didn't want this to stay here another day. I want to get out into cyberspace.

What do you think of when you see or hear the word "cancer?" Do you picture someone old or young? Do you picture a man or a woman? You might imagine someone sick for weeks with unexplained weight-loss or bruises or blotchy skin. Perhaps you yourself have experienced a lump in your breast or a tumor somewhere else on your body.

Isn't that the perfect shirt to wear to the day of your cancer surgery?

In Apr 2019 my husband turned 50. Upon having his annual doctors physical, the doc mentioned to my husband that it was now time for him to have a colonoscopy. Being the rule follower that he is, my husband was very compliant and on Oct 30, we took him to the hospital to have the procedure completed.
Following the procedure the attending doc came to the recovery room and, without any fanfare or tiptoeing, said, "You are the exact reason why we want people to have these screenings. We found a mass.  It looks like cancer."

Cancer? Did he say cancer? Yes, yes he did. We went home and waited for pathology tests to come back.

Nov. 1st-our 28th wedding anniversary. We went to SLC for little anniversary celebration for the weekend. That afternoon, at around 5:00 pm, we received a phone call from the doctor. The tumor tested positive. We heard the words "colon cancer" "surgery" "life expectancy." Not a tear free anniversary, I can tell you.

Nov 6th--Our first visit with the specialist. When he walked into the room, Andy and I had been talking and laughing. I think it took the surgeon off guard. He talked to us for a moment, asked, "So, how are you feeling." "Fine" Andy said. "I ran four miles this morning!" Dr. Kim proceeded to explain about the mass that was found. It wasn't confusing information but I think we were a little bit in shock. "So, what they found last week; it was cancer?" my husband asks. "Yes" replied Dr. Kim "Most definitely"

Nov 21--surgery day. According to Dr. Kim, this surgery went as well as it possibly could. Aprrox 4 inches of Andy's sigmoid colon were removed, the reattachment from A to B went flawlessly and Andy was out of the hospital just over 24 hours later. 24 lymph nodes were also removed.
Those were off to pathology for testing and we waited some more.

Post op. He was pretty loop for several hours. That was a lot of fun!

So handsome, even dressed in hospital cotton!

Nov 28th--On this Thanksgiving day, our family walked a 5k together. Andy was just one week post surgery, but he walked the entire distance with us. It was a great day. We had much to be thankful for!