Happy New Year!

A lot has happened since my last posting on the 16th. We were prepped and ready for my surgery on the 21st. Everything was done for Christmas, the house work, laundry, groceries, packed and dog arrangements all done and I was on the clear liquid diet for the surgery, everything was ready. Whew! 8:30 pm I get a call from the doctor, they postponed my surgery!@#@! Well I guess this was a sign from God that it should not be that day, after the insurance mess and now this. In retrospect God does work in wondrous ways! On the 22nd we received over 2 feet of snow, yep the dreaded "nor'easter" this pretty much shut down the whole mid-Atlantic area. I cannot imagine Mike trying to get me home after such an intense surgery with all the snow. I think about a possible accident, or how bad it would be sliding off the road after being released from the hospital, especially without extra pain medication.....did I tell you God is awesome. I think sometimes life's inconveniences are truly unnoticed miracles!

22nd of December was my official last day at Moon, funny how you think that loosing a job that encompassed your life for 8+ years I should have felt sad, devastated or even angry. I only felt relief. Relief that I did not have to deal with all the petty issues that seemed so important a few years ago. Relief that I would not have to "play" nice to the office manager that was such a control freak. The last few years of my employment she would take great delight in being as rude, nasty and down right mean. so I say Good riddance. I will not miss the "drama" there. She thought she was doing the ultimate rotten thing to me. But I had the last laugh. It was more of a blessing than she knew. I fear if she would have known that I would still have to drag myself in there day after day for the degradation that she so delighted to make me endure. I feel like a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders!

Kale flew in for Christmas! It is always such a wonderful gift to see any of the kids. We had a quiet Christmas and then spent the 26th at Mom and Dad Gentiles for our family Christmas party. It was such a wonderful day! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Krystal, Cory, Ethan, Bryton, Teresa and Gary there as well. Krystal and Cory bought us a web cam for Christmas. What a wonderful gift, to be able to see each other and watch the kids grow!

I had my surgery on the 29th at Johns Hopkins, it was tough but I made it through. They removed 4 more tumors, originally they thought there was only one large one, but after they opened me up there were 3 more. So all of my right inguinal and femoral lymph nodes were removed. Wow did I tell you how bad it hurt and how bad it hurt..it hurt really bad! So I spent New Years Eve and New Years Day in the hospital. (they were awesome 5 stars) I totally recommend Johns Hopkins! After a quick course with the Physical Therapists to learn how to adapt to being home and the challenges this surgery brings. Mike brought me home on Saturday the 2nd and I have been celebrating small achievements. Things like putting on my own pajama bottoms without help, eating solid food, getting into the bathroom on my own and best of all getting to take a shower. Wow you don't appreciate things until you cannot do them. I will find out in a couple of weeks the pathology and if there are further treatments that I need to fight this horrible beast called Melanoma.

All in all this year has started out with a bang! Some who look at things with a distorted view would be very pessimistic, but I have nothing but optimism for tomorrow and the next day. I know God has an adventure in store for me and I can hardly wait to see what the next page of my story will bring!

Happy New Year to you! 2010 is going to be great, buckle in and get ready for the ride!