Happy Thanksgiving!

We took Sandy to the bike path park today to walk and smell and hunt. He loves this park because he can roam pretty much where ever he wants. You just have to watch out for bicyclists coming up behind you. Sandy likes to chase bicycles----so you have to keep an eye on him or he'll take off after them. And today was no exception. One group had 2 kids in it and that was just too much for him to resist. He did OK while they were passing us, but when they were down the path, he took off and wouldn't come back. This brought out the plastic spoon that we've had to start using on him. That took care of him for the rest of the walk. The spoon makes a lot of noise on his rump. He does not like it when Daddy uses it on him. Only been carrying it for a week about, and it has made a huge difference in his minding ability. He's 11 months old this weekend and it's time for him to start being obedient for his safety and our sanity.

Color Palettes for Everything!

I went to my plastic surgeon this morning to do the pre-op visit. He's studying and surmising about what he needs to do to take care of the "bottoming out" going on and trying to make the 2 breasts as symmetrical as possible. Dr. Hodges leaves the exam room and Amy, his assistant, brings out the paint color palette to choose the color I want for my aerola tattoo!!! What a hoot that was. And there were dozens, literally, of colors to choose from for all shades of skin types. I chose Flesh 5, which will hopefully match the paint already on the other wall. It was just like going to Sherwin-Williams!!!

Happy Birthday, Aubrey!

I never get tired of looking at this photo of the now 10-year-old little girl. This photo just captures Aubrey at her best. Those doctor's kit red glasses certainly make a fashion statement!

Happy birthday, Aubrey Blair! We love you!

Granny & Granddad

Once More With Feeling

We went to see my plastic surgeon this morning for him to check me out before I get my tattoo in a few days. I had become concerned about the placement (or lack thereof) of the right breast implant. It has shifted downward somewhat and to the right. Professionally it is called “bottoming out.” The last time we saw Dr. Hodges he asked about it because it had shifted at that time, but it is really noticeable now.

It was funny, he comes in the room and opens my gown and says, “How much weight have you lost?” Proudly, I could say 35 pounds and he then asked how much more do I plan on losing. Another 15 pounds. He looks at the breasts and says that we need to do another surgery to build a pocket inside the right breast to keep the implant in place. He will do that with some internal stitches. He is also going to replace that implant with a smaller one and given that and my weight loss, he’s going to insert another size implant in the left breast so the breasts are more symmetrical. He will also do the tattoo after the surgery for the areola on the right breast.

Fortunately, they just had a cancellation for December 8, so that Monday we’ll have day surgery at 9:30 to get this all corrected. He said I can’t drive for at least 5 days, no playing with Mr. Sandman, no work, no lifting so that those internal stitches have time to heal up. Thankfully I’ve built up some paid time off this year, so it will be paid for. I’m disappointed that this isn’t all going to be all over by the end of 2008, but. . . .

Afterwards I went to Medical City to get another unigram on the left breast that still has breast tissue inside it. That mammogram is clean as a whistle!!! I walked the films upstairs to Dr. Laidley’s office, because we go see her in the morning for a 3 month checkup. And that clean mammogram is excellent.

Holiday Inn Implode

Last Sunday they imploded an old Holiday Inn Express here in Dallas to build a new development area. the video and sound are pretty amazing.

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=301640&shu=1

Love Letters in the Mail

Every so often one of our grandkids will send us a letter. Recently we've gotten letters from Aubrey and then Kora. I'm saving all of them in a 3-ring binder. They always ask about Sandy and about how we're doing. And best of all, they always send a neat picture they've drawn and colored for us. Just brightens up your day to get real mail in the mail box the old-fashioned way!

My Mohawk Resists Change

Apparently my post-chemo hair has a mind of its own. On October 25th, I got a perm from my hair stylist. As always you can't wash your hair for 2 days afterwards. So Tuesday morning I get up and am looking forward to washing the perm smell remains out of my hair.

Much to my surprise, when I got out of the shower and started toweling my hair dry, there were no curls on the top of my head. That's just where my mohawk is that I had as a baby and where my hair came back in after chemo. Cute. So yesterday I went back to my stylist and she rolled the top again and resaturated it with perm stuff. Boy, do I have curls today! We'll see how this does. My hair has always taken perms great and curled so pretty. My perm days may be over.