Roots

Have you seen that TV show about tracing your ancestry? I watched quite a few episodes and it really gave me the bug.

I have cousins on my Mom's side of the family that have been tracing the family tree for years, but no one was looking into my Dad's side of the family. I was going through some old files for shredding and ran across some of my Dad's old papers. He had saved a copy of his fathers delayed birth certificate and a letter from a church stating that he had been born in PA and baptised there. I think that is what they give you when you were born at home. Anyway, that document had a witness listed as my grandfathers sister. I never knew my grandfather had a sister! I called my cousin and asked if she knew this info and she was as flabbergasted as me.

So after doing some digging (with the help of ancestry.com), I found that not only did he have one sister, he had a total of five sisters and one brother. His mother had been married three times (she outlived all of her husbands)! WOW!!! So that made me want to dig even deeper. Genealogy is addicting to say the least.

So after digging some more, and posting on a message board asking for help, I have discovered many new relatives, two of which I met in person last week (how cool is that?). I have found out the name of my great grandparents on my Dad's side of the family and visited their graves. And it just continues to mindboggle. I now have pictures of my grandmother Wilhelmina (the one that survived three husbands) and pictures of her other children, sisters to my grandfather.

Life is just full of surprises....

Approaching One Year

Wow! It is really hard to belive that one year is already around the corner. I think I am going to mark the one year anniversary with a promise to myself to make some changes.

I feel like I have let this "life blip" be too consuming of my life, marking off each three month interval of life going to the oncologist. I want it to move into the recesses of my mind versus always being on the forefront. But with that statement made, I am also trying to get involved more on the volunteer side of the disease. Everywhere I go, I see pink ribbons and I rarely see any teal ribbons. So, if I can, I am going to make the teal ribbon visable in my world...watch out Greenville, SC!!!

I think my goal is to get a "Walk for Ovarian Cancer" started for the Greenville area. That gives me one year to accomplish my goal (September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month)...our local chapter does one event....Handbag's for Hope, which is wonderful, but I think we need to do more. Wish me luck!!!!

Six months....

Well my six month checkup is coming up next week and again I am a little wary. I haven't been feeling my best these past few weeks, but don't know whether to chalk it up to stress and tax season, or if my body is trying to tell me something. My belly has been extremely tender and feels like it is huge. I have gained back about four pounds since January, but the only place my clothes do not seem to fit is my waist and belly. I know that is not necessarily an indicator, and it might just be my hormonal imbalance....but I still have this hidden fear that something has spread. I wonder if and when that fear will ever go away...

Three Month followup

Life is good, no let me rephrase that, life is great. Although I was diagnosed with stage 1a ovarian and 1c uterine cancer, the surgery removed it all. My prognosis is fantastic, in my opinion, that I only have a 10 to 15 % chance of having a recurrence. I do not have to undergo any further treatments such as chemo or radiation. I only have to get blood work and have pap smears every three months for the next two years. And if all is good with that, I get to cut that back to every six months for the next two years and then once per year. So I am on the five year plan with my oncologist.

I must admit I was a little nervous for my first checkup...I felt like that blood test would really tell if the cancer was gone. Prior to surgery the CA-125 was 167 and I was praying the first test would be around the normal range of 35. Mine was 6.9!!! Believe me, I was doing a happy dance after that.

So even before this little bump in my road of life, I felt like things happened for a reason. Like people you meet teach you something more about yourself. So this was a big one for me. I had been trying hard to start living my life versus just going through the motions this past year...now I guess I have been given another reality check. About how you just never know what can happen in your life, so time to start living and enjoying and doing.