My Survivor Tattoo is growing

With moving and, well just life, I'm a little late adding to my survivor tattoo. I should have added butterfly #6 in May, but better late than never, lol.  For those of you who are new, or may have forgotten, the chinese symbol means "to live" or "to survive", then I'm adding a butterfly each year.



Butterfly #5 has a 5 in it (Thanx again Leeanne for designing it!), it's also bigger than the rest because I was given about a 20% chance of living to see that butterfly, so I really celebrated, lol.  However #5 seemed to be out there dangling alone, so we took care of that this year.   We added a lazy path which I think really helps him connect more.  I have the path made out of semicolons ; because I'm a semicolon, lol. :)

I decided to turn my survivor tattoo into a travel bug on geocaching.com so we added the tracking code for that.



Tada - butterfly #6, pooping out star #9 - the stars represent how many years Dennis and I have been married. :)  This butterfly is back to the smaller size - he's a smidge bigger than my pinkie nail.  They all look a little messy right now, they're really fresh. :)

Macro Monday Me

Do you know how hard it is for a right-handed person to take a photo of their own right wrist? lol So, this is my butterfly number 5, representing surviving the first 5 years after cancer treatment. My friend Leanne designed it for me, she's awesome! There is a "5" in it, see it? Before taking this photo I didn't realize it's still peeling, lol. Macros are fun!



This is my survivor's tattoo. The Chinese symbol stands for "to live" or "to survive", to do "survivor" would have been three symbols. From there I'm adding a butterfly for each year of survival, and a little blue star for each year of marriage. I'm now up to 5 butterflies and 8 stars - these 2 anniversaries are 1 day apart so it makes it easy to do.



See that's how it's all together. I think I need some dots from the little butterfly to the big one to help tie them together more, and I'm thinking about a little scrolly thing at the head of the big one to kinda finish it off. From now on the small butterflies will be added to the other side, spiraling up my arm. Heck, even if I live to 90 I don't think it'll reach my elbow. Can you imagine a 90 year old lady going into a tattoo parlor!? lol

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign MckLinky. :) MM started on Sept 29, 2008 - THANX to all of you for helping make it such a fun start to the week!

I think I see a heart in this rock, and that's one of my favorite shapes!

Cancer Survivors Plaza

Celebrating 5 years

While we were on our trip we not only celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, we also celebrated my 5 year anniversary of being a survivor of stage 3 colon cancer. 20% chance they gave me, I beat that!





Yay!!! We grabbed some cupcakes and headed to White Sands National Monument, that's a huge sand dune I'm jumping on. :0)





Maybe, I should finally call to get my portacath removed. I have been hesitant to get it removed for fear the cancer would come back right away. But we've made it 5 years and I don't think I need it any longer.



This was taken the night of getting it, it should be a lot cleaner any day now. Just waiting for the peel, then I'll get a better photo of it.  Do you see the number 5, my friend Leanne designed it for me. :0)  Thanx again Leanne!

a neighborhood rabbit

We all have things that bring us comfort, it's important to surround yourself with those things while going through chemotherapy ~ they will help get you through.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.  May 25th will mark the last day of this project, and the 5 year anniversary of the end of chemo and becoming a survivor.  I beat the odds!

sunset

Make up your mind that when your cancer is gone you're through with it.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

5, 5 years

5!  I wonder why five years was picked as a guideline.  Why five as opposed to three years, or seven, or any other number.  As I'm counting down to my five year anniversary, I feel like I'm getting ready to put cancer in the rearview mirror, miles behind.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

the robin and the worm

Make sure you don't miss the signs, don't ignore them thinking they will go away, get to a doctor and get checked out.
~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

drawing straws

I never thought I would be the one to draw the short straw.  I always thought cancer was one of those things that happened to somebody else.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

weave

A realm of emotions playing over and over, weaving a path to understanding and acceptance.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

church

We find faith where we can, hope follows and we become stronger, able to withstand far more than we ever thought we could.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

ruins

I cannot stress the importance of maintenance enough.  Your body needs food, exercise and regular check ups.  Don't neglect yourself!

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

puzzled

If you don't look at the whole puzzle, but simply a piece at a time, it is easier to work it through to the end.

~ You can see the explanation behind this project by going here or see the all posts in this category by going here.

Oncologist's Visit

Well, not sure where to start with this.  Let's see, blood work is fine, reminder it has always been 100% fine, my cancer never showed up in the blood.  CT Scan is fine, well pretty much. . . First Dr Onc told me how awesome it is that we've reached this mark and that Dennis is in charge of my 5 year party in May, lol.  He says now we'll do blood work every 6 months and I think that's pretty much it.  I figure if I'm having a problem I will just call, I know he'll take me seriously and check on things so I'm fine with this plan - feels good really.

Then he goes on to tell me that the scan does show a nodule on my thyroid.  But that many people have nodules on their thyroids so that in and of itself doesn't mean anything.  He says the best way to look at it is through ultrasound and he's trying to decide if we're best to look at it right away or if we just watch it a little longer.  He's looking to me for the answer on what to do.  So after he has explained things I ask if it was there in previous scans.  Well, he doesn't know, he did look back and see that I had a regular CT scan in 2006 at Mayo and he can request it from them.  I told him I brought those in during my first visit and they made copies but I could bring my disc back in.

So, I go home and I'll find my records and hopefully I do have the disc with that scan - we can't use the PET/CT scans to compare, it has to be a plain CT scan.  But if I don't have it then he'll get a copy from Mayo.  After Dr Onc reviews the scan from 5 years ago, we will know where to go.

My decision is that if the nodule is apparent in that scan (my guess is it isn't since I've never heard about it before and I think Mayo would have mentioned it) then we can just wait, I'm cool with waiting.  If Dr Onc reviews that scan and sees nothing on my thyroid then I think we should do the ultrasound now.  Hopefully know which way we're going soon.