Friday, March 20, 2009

tests today

Today I go in for a screening ultrasound (screen for ovarian cancer) and breast MRI, both due to BRCA2 and family history issues (dad died of breast cancer, dx'd at age 45.) I'm actually overdue for the MRI - should have had it in late December, but the dr's office messed that up. I had a mammogram and ultrasound last week, which turned up many what are hopefully cysts - which is unusual for me.

The problem with the MRI is that they usually always find something (or several somethings) that needs to be biopsied. It's a high stress time for a few weeks until I get the biopsy scheduled and all test results back.

The ultrasound to screen for ovarian cancer is just an attempt. There is no good way to screen for this type of cancer. They do this because there it's felt this is better than nothing.

Risk of getting premenopausal (agressive) breast cancer before age 60 = 80%. Risk of OV cancer = 60%. I'll take a better set of genes, thank you.

As for spring --- it's currently 7 degrees outside. Bah, humbug!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Still here....

wow, a long time since an update. Lots going on over the past few months. But spring is finally arriving to the land of ice and snow ... finally.

It's been in the upper 40's to low 50's, which feels so WARM to us. That's about 60+ degrees higher than it was 4-6 weeks ago! I'm so tired of being cold! This winter has been long and harsh. I think we've had about 300 inches of snow so far.

We are down to our last foot or so of snow in our front yard, and the thick ice on our driveway is finally melted down - there is concrete under there! Just a week and a half ago, we had 4+ feet of snow still! The girls have been riding their bikes over the snow and ice on the driveway for the past few days. And forget about them wearing coats - once it hit mid 40's, they complained about being "hot"!

The girls gave up the computer for Lent, and Wood and I gave up TV. I've read 3 books since the start of Lent, and we don't miss TV at all! Not even Wood, who is a news junkie. Actually, he gave up tv for Lent, but I've been following along, as how can I watch TV if he can't? I'm attending daily Mass for Lent, after dropping the girls off at school before I go to work.

Temps are due to drop back down to the 20's, but it's been wonderful while it lasted. We always get at least 1 last substantial snow in April. Last year I think we got about 36" over 4 days, but at least you know that spring is just around the corner at that point. The kids are going stir crazy, as it started snowing very early this year, and we've been housebound a long time. Ever seen the shining????