Surgery Over- One in a million

My husband came into the recovery room and I remember looking at him and saying "It's cancer!?" With tears he said yes. I heard him say to someone it was the first thing she said.

Yes, I am one in a million. I have a rare cancer of the appendix. I could have told you I was rare and one in a million but then you knnow that better than I do. Actually God says in the Psalms that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. There are no two alike. Our DNA's are all different!

But I am living proof.

The presentation to the family was very direct and devastating and I slept through it all.

As the Lord would have it my sister's dear friend has been battling with appendix cancer for 4 years and so Martha (my youngest sister could ask questions) The result is My cancer is contained ! great news ! Although the cancer is incurable , it is not untreatable.
This surgery removed my appendix, cyst, and part of the colon. I must tell you that the pain from the colonoscopy is gone and I feel like anyone else that has had an appendectomy.

I will face a future surgery for the cysts in the lower cavity . It is to be a complete hysterectomy with a portion of the small colon removed. The plan is to use a technic found in Maryland of inserting Hot Chemo at the time of surgery and removing it.

Surgery Arrives

October 23rd- The night before my daughter had her 16th birthday dinner without me as I prepped for today. There was much laughter but to her loss too much talk about the surgery.

When I arrived at the hospital with my husband we were ushered into our "suite". I was so sure we would not go on time I told my older daughter to come after work and my younger daughter went to school.

While in pre op I was in a chair and the nurse said she would be lowering the head of the chair. I said fine . I don't know if you can picture this but as the head reclined for some reason-- I held my feet straight out in front of me . Pat was in the room with my husband as she works in the hospital and she said Aunt Becky did you know there is a foot rest under your feet. Laughter followed , joking with the nurse too. Quite the cartoon.

Later after the surgery -- as I read verses in Isaiah about resting in the Lord. The Lord reminded me of this cartoon and seemed to say I'm here to support you all the time and way through this rest on me-- You don't need to support yourself-- I Am your support. and there was that "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh"

God's Preparation

As I prepared for the surgery on October 23, 2008; my daily Bible reading, verses that arrived on cards for my 16 yr.old's birthday, discussions, circumstance etc. also prepared my for the possiblility that this may not be just a routine surgery. I am not God nor am I a prophet, but I believed with peace that the outcome of this surgery would be cancer.

I shared with my husband only a bit to possible prepare him. I shared with my youngest daughter that there is such confusion about God . That just because a person does good does not mean that tough things won't happen. God's promise is that He is with us and will be with us through whatever we face.

I thought the rings were the illustration for my older daughter.

To prepare them further would have been a lie for I did not know- I only had that peace and preparation from the Lord.

Lord of the rings

On Sunday October 19, 2008 My "Lord of the Rings experience took place. I was told I needed to get off my wedding rings . I have not been able to remove my rings for years and new that this Christmas I was going to ask to have them cut off and reset for a gift. I was planning to move the date due to the surgery and trying to figure out where to fit it in with work.

While fixing lunch after church on Sunday, with my lovely older daughter present- my engagement ring came off my finger and within minutes my wedding band with some added effort came off. My Lord said to me I care about every detail of you and I am with you. I found it a great reminder as this adventure unfolds.

October Colonoscopy

I had a colonoscopy on Friday October 10, 2008. It revealed what appeared to be a lipoma ( fatty tumor in where the large and small intestine meet near the appendix. I was in agony after this procedure and went to the emergency per the advice of my primary care dr. to be checked out. The Emergency room Dr. was superb and kept me over night after running catscan , blood test , etc. It was decided by the surgeon Dr.Kim that after utrasound as well that the situation was not life threatening and that I would get all the preop work done and have surgery on the following Thursday, October 23. A visit to the gynecologist on the Friday before revealed maybe a small cyst on the ovary but nothing to be operated on.

VIEW THE YOUTUbe and give your thoughts

Today is the day to present the LATI project that I chose. I learned so muech by doing this project called Mom, I Hate To Read for 5th-8th graders who hate to read. The first part was to provide a brochure with tips for parents/guardians . The 2nd part was to provide reader'[s advisory for librarians. I found this amazing as I learned about lexiles a measure of reading level for books that allows those with difficulty in reading to find books with appropriate material on their reading level.
The third part of my project was a YouTube video for the actual middle school age. After having a forum with a group of Middle School students I learned that funny ( meaning random and bloopers) along with being recommended by friends, having a lot of hits on the youtube site, having a catchy first slide was what made for a good video.
I found a middle school young man, Ian who worked with me to produce Come Here. http://www.youtube.com and then search by Come Here/rats. This video reflects too much input from adults - some feedback has been wrong music; a bit long; first slide doesn't grab you. However saying all that for a first try it was GOOD and Cute And Enjoyable to Watch.
take time and watch it.

It was suggested that a contest be run among the middle school SRC volunteers to see who could produce the best video. This is something for the future.

Also, I like the thought of incorporating videos on the library web patch and have them change on a regular basis. I think once the non-readers were caught they would go back again and again to see what was there. Key KEEP Them Funny and Random and include some bloopers.

35 Resources

35 resources and chose 10 core resources completed Yeah! I could have used more time to work on them and perfected them but my project calls. I did notice when I printed out that the search tools and the one other reference area did not print even though they showed on the screen.

2 references I discovered through this exercise were American's Women History. I found the best way to find it once it is LATI is not available to me is my googling. What I found in this resource were unexpected treasures that are valuable to customers doing biographical , historical reports. It is set up well , easy to use. Don't let the first page turn you off -- it is wonderful. I shared it with a co worker who copied the info and had us share it with all the librarians.

The other reference was Ben's guide to US Government. http://bensguide.gpo.gov It is a government provided website where you choose the grade level.- I chose 9-12 as Maryland requires high school students to pass a government test to graduate. In many cases if the child does not pass it is up to them to learn the material. I found it to be all here in a great format for studying.

I am trying to come up with a system to keep the web resources I've discovered at my fingertips for future reference when needed.