Good-Bye, Uncle Cliff

Today one of my sisters and I, and some other parts of our family traveled to Carmichael, CA to attend a memorial for my uncle. My favorite uncle. He was my mom's only brother. What a man he was.
It was good to see my cousins, who my uncle and aunt adopted when they were newborns. Four of them. They adored their daddy. He was a great dad, still is, because he lives on in his sons and daughters and in his grandchildren, who he cherished.
Now he's there with my mom, their youngest sister, my grandma and grandpa. They are having a family reunion, just as we had one down here. I'll miss him, but he is getting to see the family gone before him and that...is a happy thing.

Well this is one for the books

I know, I am all negative most of the time. I read yall's blogs and somehow I rarely ever find negative stuff. I read over mine and it's always a negative thing, well, with a few positives thrown in here and there. But for the most part, I can't seem to find great happy, happy stuff to write about.
This time I am being purposely negative and you'll like or, or well, whatever...

This time the negative is a GOOD thing...
My biopsy came back today, they called me right away and YES...It was NEGATIVE!!! Woo Hoo! Yippee kyo ky yay or however that is spelled. Who cares anyway? We all know what it means.

So I am celebrating, in my mind, there's a big party going on, with champagne and balloons and confetti, loud horns, the whole nine yards.

Love you guys. You all rock, you were here supporting me and I really appreciate it all!

I'm Tired

I had my appointment. It was not at all what I was expecting, but then it was a lot more than that. Of course, in my mind it was going to be all painful and I was going to be tearing up and trying not to show what a wus I am. The worst of the whole biopsy was actually in my head and maybe what will be in a few hours..after the Lidocaine wears off. (I'm feeling it a little now)
The three people who were assigned to me, doctor, radiology technician and the technician's assistant were wonderful people. I had to lay on my stomach with left arm up over my head and right arm at my side. (Which made me think of those chalk figures you see on dectective shows) This proved to be the most uncomfortable position ever. I found my hand falling asleep and the assistant noticed me wiggling my fingers, so she put one of those squishy balls in my hand to give it something to do, I thought that was great!
The doctor told me about pinches and pin pricks and pulling and some pressure, I felt none of that. Can you say grateful?
The biggest worry to them right now is excessive bleeding, so I have their permission to do NOTHING for the next day or two. This only bothers me, cause I also cannot take a shower for two days...yuck, sponge bath city, which really never did anything for me. I guess it's better than nothing.
I think I am going to use it as an excuse and call into work tomorrow to take Wednesday off and RELAX. I just don't want to go in without a shower.
One of the doctors involved will call me in three to five days to let me know what they found out. The doctor in the city told me 90% of the women he biopsies don't have anything but calcifications. I'm thinking that is the way I'll be going. Nothing big!
I'm just glad this day is over with.
Oh! My OD started feeling bad that no one could go with me. They all had to work. She called in a favor at work and had someone work her mid day shift so she could take me. She and I went to Mel's Drive-In (circa 1950's) on the way home. Late lunch cost me $40!!!!! For two burgers, one shared order of curly fries and two malteds. E-Gads! Oh well, it really was kind of worth it.
More when I get news!
I love you guys!

Happy Easter!

I have an appointment

2:30 Monday. In San Francisco. Which freaks me out more than laying on my stomach on a table with a hole in it for my boob. I HATE going to the city. I always get messed up with the one ways and the wrong ways and the this ways and the that ways. At least the hospital has it's own parking garage. That is always a big deal up there.
I should see if I can find some needle work places close by, so when I am done I can go and do some "just for me" waste my money shopping. You know as a reward for being such a good girl for the doctors and all.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Love you all! Happy Easter, if I don't get back on here before then.

Just a quick note...

...Cause right now I am not feeling much about this....

I got a call from the docs office last week to come back in for another look see after squishing the girls again. It turns out they just needed to squish one, and look at it really close, like magnified like.
So I had my appointment today, and it was really uncomfortable this time, cause they really needed to compress it. Poor girl!
They found some calcification that they don't like. Just great! I have to wait til Wednesday to make an appointment at the Kaiser in San Francisco to do a biopsy. I'm not freaking. My sister had to do this a while back and everything was okay. I had some calcification a couple of years ago, although not checked out this closely.
Say prayers please though, ya never know...
The one thing I really noticed different today is that everyone worked in teams. Last time I only had to deal with one person at a time. This time, they had two people doing the magnification X-rays, and then the doctor AND her assistant talked to me about the next step. What's up with that? Oh yeah... the doctor freaked me out. I was expecting something, I mean this is the second time I have been there. We all sat down in her office, she took a breath and then looked at me in this kind of pitying way. In my head, I was all like, okay, there is something to check out, why are you looking at me like you have to tell me I have six months to live? Geez, I understand this is really serious, but I am not going to start freaking out until they say, "You have breast cancer". Until then, I don't have it.

Learning Photography

My OD, picked up her grandpa's old camera, that he had given me, did some repairs and some cleaning and bought film.
I downloaded the manual for the camera off the internet. The camera is older than my OD!
She's been practicing and teaching herself what will and won't work. She did the first roll and had it processed and the following are a few photos that she and I liked the best. She is also learning to tweak the pictures to make them really stand out.
What do you think?