ANOTHER CHALLENGE

This is certainly a post I never thought I would have to write. Life has been busy lately, but good. So let me tell you my story of the past couple of weeks.

We had our Children's Miracle Network crop a weekend or so ago (April 9), and it is always one of our larger crops that I LOVE to do. This year I donated at Vagabond to be raffled to help raise money for the children, and we demoed the Teresa Collins StampMaker; along with some rockin' Viva Decor products (Pearl Pens, Inka Gold, Paper Pens, Glitter pens, etc.), and it was a success! I had the best time working with the StampMaker and rather enjoyed myself. If you've not seen the StampMaker, it is pretty awesome and SOOO easy to use! Personalization to the max! But while we were setting up for the crop on Friday (the event was Saturday), I had to attend an appointment to hear the results regarding a recent run-in with a mammogram and the needle core biopsy. I just had my routine yearly screening March 30th when they called me back and told me they wanted to do a needle core biopsy of an area that looked suspicious. So on April 6th they did the biopsy and scheduled an appointment for my results for Friday that week, April 8th at 4p. (For those of you with nipple piercings, my hat's off to you, I could NEVER do that, because it felt like someone took an ice pick and jambed it in there!) We were due to set up for the crop at that time, so I sent my husband with a loaded truck and trailer on to the crop since we had limited set up time while I kept my appointment with the radiologist. I honestly thought it was a wild goose chase and a waste of my time when I needed to be somewhere else. Unfortunately, the news they gave me was not what I wanted to hear. I have breast cancer. Small curable breast cancer, so God is watching over me indeed!

Luckily (or more like God watching over me) they caught it at a very early stage. It is considered Stage I Microinvasive DCIS, approx.1cm in size. They do not feel it has spread to the Lymph Nodes yet but they will do a Sentinel Node Biopsy to make sure. Normally, this small of a cancer can be treated with Lumpectomy and Radiation. BUT, because of my Lupus and other connective tissue disorders, I am not a candidate to have radiation (I swell up after only 15 minutes in the sun). This means that I will have to have a complete mastectomy, but I can avoid the radiation and chemo (although chemo will be back on the table should the cancer have spread to he lymph nodes). My head is still reeling, it was the last thing I expected to hear.

I had a meeting with the surgeon this week where we talked about options and outcomes. They feel pretty positive about it, they feel it is curable and for that I am eternally thankful!

I meet with a Plastic Surgeon next week to work out the details, and it appears for now that my surgery will be scheduled for next Thursday or Friday (April 28th or 29th) depending on how it goes with Plastics on Tuesday next week. It will be a skin-conserving mastectomy, and for that I am thankful. I had been somewhat concerned that at the end of the mastectomy on the left side, I would end up looking like a VW Beetle in a bad car wreck with one head light looking up and the other down, you KNOW what age does to a woman! [grin] I was assured that they can take both and do reconstructive surgery to make the girls look normal. I'm hoping for a face lift while I am under (heheheheheh), I should ask for a package deal!

It has all happened so fast, it seems surreal, but I'd rather have it over with than to drag it out. So my prayer warrior friends, pray for me next week! My Sister's sister-in-law just went through all this, although her cancer was much more aggressive. She is doing great now and got engaged over the weekend. Congrats Tacy and Golden! She is going with me to see the plastics guy because she knows all the questions to ask. I can't say how thankful I am to have that kind of support!

This whole C thing has messed with my training schedule, but keep watching! We WILL be doing all of the projects seen at CMN plus starting a stamp club (where you can make your own stamps) and a metal embossing club along with our usual projects.

For those of you with special orders outstanding, we are still waiting on a few backordered LaBlanche Silicone stamps and a few other special orders. Email is going to be the best way to reach me as we'll be screening calls for the next couple of weeks. We are still doing classes as presented at CMN. I'll have details up soon. :-)

It goes without saying, Happy Crafting!
~Vicki