Good, Better, Best News!

We landed back in Kingston on Tuesday, June 3rd without incident and, like anyone, overjoyed to sleep in our own bed.    The first couple of days were catch up, unpacking, showering and sleeping.  and sharing stories of our European adventure.

In keeping with my commitment to share medical news first before going off on tangents,  you may recall that previously I mentioned the cat scan on May 9th.  That same day we learned that my back was clear which was a great relief.  On our return I had an appointment on June 10th with the Gyny Oncology team to review the balance of the scan.  My sense was that no news was good news.  After all, there were no phone messages, no calls to contact them on my return, so prayers continue regularly.

Good news, our appointment was on time - no long waiting before being called in.  Dr. Bryson came in shortly thereafter, smiling and asking if I'd received a copy of the cat scan results - no I hadn't.

Even better news, he handed me a single sheet of paper and through his smile said nothing found elsewhere - yay!  After all a year ago now is when we fell down another rabbit hole to find cells in my liver.

I have never been so happy to see the word NO so many times in four short paragraphs - 9 times in fact.

Best news - at the end of the report - a single line 'Impression':  Interval reduction in the size of hepatic metastases!!!  Translation?  The cells in my liver have actually reduced in size since the last cat scan in November!!!!! I think more people than not believe this outcome is more a result of prayer than any medical intervention.

We agreed to leave things as is for now, not to tinker with the doses of the meds and that I will deal with carrying 'Maggie' (my imaginary 6 year old, weight gain of 63 pounds) around for the summer with a further visit in September to review my case.  More good news is that Maggie only increased 3.5 pounds while we were away, and she and I have agreed to get back to physio and gentle exercise now that we're home and several projects have come to completion.

Our friends Shannon and Tony drove from Mississauga to participate in the Relay for Life on June 6th, and that's with Shannon having had a hip replacement in early May, only 5 weeks after her surgery!  We realized very quickly that the Relay was simply the catalyst for friends to make the effort to get together, catch up and reminisce about life, the past and the possible future.  Shannon and I met at the Calgary airport in November 2000, both of us trekking across the country to attend a weeklong fundraising course at the Banff Centre.

 Coincidentally, we both went a few days early and so were destined to roam the village of Banff together exploring the beauty and breathtaking scenery. We attended mass together and got to know one another, the gift of a new friendship taking shape with barely an effort.  Since that time, while we haven't visited one another frequently, there is that magic of friendship of being able to pick up where one left off and go forward from there.


Relationships to me, are one of the special gifts that we are given in this life and while it may seem to take a lot of investment of time and effort, it's the consistency and deliberate effort that marks the sincerity.
 Relationships aren't tasks to be checked off a 'to do' list with hardly a backward glance at what that task even was.


In my last post I talked about the impromptu visit with folks from Kingston at the Buddha Bar Hotel in Budapest and lunch with a couple from Atlanta with Kingston connections.  We could have easily overlooked the email sent to us rather than strike out to locate the hotel and then spend part of a morning visiting, but we both felt it would be a fun thing to do that would create a lasting memory for us all.

On our return home, as things turned out, at the Relay, I walked the Survivor's lap with Mike and Brad, two other survivors, both of whom we met in Hungary!
We have since agreed to hold a reunion with me volunteering to make Paprika Chicken! And since Brad had originally offered to treat for a glass of wine, well I guess he knows what his role will be!

I have been blessed with an intuitive sense of when it might be time to say hello, send an email or pick up the phone for a short conversation.  It might be a birthday wish, often belated, but even then I tell the person, for all the days I'm late in sending wishes, they can be sure that every one of those days included thoughts of that person.

Building relationships can be like a flying bee gently buzzing from flower to flower pollinating new growth with a promise of future beauty in its own little part of the world.

It seems that too many people have become entrapped in their own little worlds, isolated even further with the widespread use of technology.  It's a sad state to not experience the warmth of friendship and the genuine sense of well being achieved by reaching out to someone with no real agenda in mind other than a concern for that person.  Earlier in this post I've mentioned that since receiving the results of my latest cat scan I have felt a sense of euphoria that supersedes any sort of emotion related to the material world.

If it's possible to nurture this newly acquired feeling (for lack of a better word), which I believe is heaven sent, there is promise of a life ahead filled with a peaceful existence unable to be achieved through any earthly power.  The closest I can come to describing it, is that there is a magical column on the left side of my body that embraces my heart and, in a dazzling column of sparkling light, reaches up to heaven with a direct link to God's grace.

 Interestingly, the human side of me, the personal growth work I have yet to do, is on my right side.  If I can focus to the left, especially when I feel the negative pull of being drawn into situations filled with resentment or envy, there will be an opportunity to grow out of and 'unlearn' some of those less attractive traits.

One of the keys to shifting toward the left is pondering the Biblical saying that one can't serve two masters.  Those masters being God and wealth.  As I work this into my thought processes, I'm realizing that wealth doesn't just mean money but rather represents just about everything of a material nature.  How 'immaterial' it all truly is,  and how freeing when one can tap into the mastery of God's grace.  I'm feeling on the cusp of a 'graduation' to a higher level of awareness that must be done on a gradual basis filled with self care, solitude and quiet contemplation.  How peaceful does that sound?!

I write this as I patiently wait for my son Matt to return from Cornwall with his precious cargo - his daughter Ella.  She will be spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and sharing Father's Day with Daddy.  Needless to say the short time ahead will not include much quiet and contemplation.  But it will certainly be fun, doing things that you can only do with almost 3 year olds.

Ella, Azlyn, Ayden

These little people have a way of pulling us all together and creating new and more mature relationships with our own children.   Like someone said, 'if I'd known it would be this great (having grandchildren) I'd have had them first!'.

For those of you celebrating Father's Day tomorrow, may you enjoy time together with family and friends that remind us all of how blessed we are to have one another.

While I miss my own Dad, he has long since gone on to enjoy the life that we all have to look forward to, one without the earthly bondages that keep us from achieving our true potential.

Enjoy the start of summer - hopefully the weather will cooperate - and any plans you might have with  those close to you.

Take care and God Bless,
Until next time,

Liz
"Prayers wrapped in faith and sent with love are the greatest gifts we can receive".