Yes, I let the holidays sweep me up in the tide of good tidings.  Before I got caught in the undertow, I did go up for an MRI and a visit with Dr. Surgeon, who I guess I’ll call Dr. Follow-up now.  I am visualizing her hanging up her surgery hat before she enters the exam room when I’m there.

SO Dr. Follow-up came in smiling, commented on my curls, told me I looked well.  She also said that the CT scan looked great… (I’m thinking, yea, but I’m here for the MRI follow up).  Then she said as she was showing me a piece of paper in the chart “This is a short report….”  “Short reports mean that no malignancies were found, and that’s exactly what we want!”  She did an exam of my chest wall, and of my healthy  breast and proceeded to ask me how our trip to Alaska was.  She’s a keeper.

I have oncology and radiation oncology follow-ups next week.  And so it will go.  At some point I suppose I’ll decide that I don’t want to keep on doing follow ups with 3 doctors, but for this first year at least, I’m following all recommendations for such appointments.  After I’m 1 year from my last treatment, I’ll think beyond my nose, AND I will go back to giving blood.  (The red cross told me that they only require that people who have been diagnosed with cancer be 1 year out from the last cancer treatment, with no further cancer detected.)

We had a wonderful day on the mountain yesterday, it was about 50 degrees, the warmest in our 10-12 years of hiking on Jan 1.  We ate clementines and threw the peels over the edge, sending old mojo into the abyss and setting our sights on the year to come.  The kids made a tiny snowman.  We spend the better part of our day around loved ones, nourishing our bodies with some great food and nourishing our hearts with love and laughter.   Here’s to putting 2010 to bed.

The splendid view from the top!