Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hearts, chocolates, and a pink ribbon

Hi! I'm back... its been a long time since I've blogged but the events in the past few weeks made blogging seem incredibly irrelovent to me. I am thankful (as I'm sure you all are also) glad Ben took it upon himself to keep up with a few interesting bits and pictures from our travels.

First off, just to fill any of you in who were not already aware about three weeks ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Its amazing how dramatically and instantaneiosly that word changes your life. Being so far has taken its toll in a way I didn't expect. It has took me a while to really soak it all it and get a hold of the facts. It all just happened so fast and throw in a 14 hour time change and trying to keep in contact for the latest updates can get tricky.

At the moment Mom is home recovering from a double whammy surgery. She went in on Mon, Feb 22nd scheduled for a lumpectomy which turned into a partial mastectomy. Part of the surgery includes testing of the lymph nodes for cancer cells and if they are positive they remove them. After the 3rd sentinel node was positive they, as a matter of procedure, removed all of the lymph nodes that go all the way into your armpit.

Just out of surgery she was experiencing an abnormal amount pain and quite a bit of bleeding. The surgeon quickly decided she needed to go back in to surgery and figure out where the bleeding was coming from. They a fair amount of pooled blood and recauterized everything after which all was ok. They could not find a source of bleeding for whatever reason but thankfully it was under control by then. When she came out of the 2nd surgery a mere hour from the first one she was already feeling "better" pain wise. The pooling blood was apparently incredibly painful and extremely rare in these kind of surgery according to the surgeon.

Pre-liminary reports will be out by the weekend as to the stage and spread of the cancer as well as genetic testing. This is definitely a part that affects me but its also very crucial to the way they develop her cocktail of treatments. Its all very personalized which just makes sense when you are talking about pumping you body full of toxic chemicals. Someone her size shouldn't be receiving the same dosage as a 200-lb man, if you know what I mean.

As far as things stand at the moment I(we) are hanging in here in Korea still. I am planning to come home at some point to care of my dear sweet Mom. We are awaiting the test results and the doctors reccomendation for the next step of treatment most likely chemotherapy in a few weeks which is when I plan to make that dreadful 14 hour flight back in time. But its all going to be very worth it. In an extraordinary way I am thankful that I have the opportunity to give back and care for my Mom. I'm thankful I'll get to be there for her when she needs me most as a daughter and friend.

Changing gears... just before the lid came off a new flavor of Koolaide I celebrated my 25th birthday! Actually it was a bit of a sad day, I was incredibly homesick and wanted nothing more then a REAL Starbucks vanilla latte but neither were to be had. However, my sweetest incredible husband had all kinds of little plans and surprises for that day up his sleeve. He started by taking my order for breakfast in bed. I'll just say that when that boy wants to cook up a storm he can do it and do it well! MMMM!!! Still comfy in bed I enjoyed french toast, bacon, and a beautifully arranged fruit plate of starwberries and banana and a cafe con leche to drink. Heaven!

We headed out for a walk and ended up at the movie theater and saw "Valentines Day", how could we not! It was quite cute. Then we headed home to open presents. To my surprise in the freezer was a Baskin Robbins V-day/B-day cake! It actually tasted quite good. That was followed up by a box of chocolates, a teddy bear (that I requested). All in all it was a very nice birthday even for being in Korea.

Ben reading his V-day card and his little gift of a box of Mrs. Fields cookies I found at E-mart.


Posing Korean style with my birthday hat and teddy bear.


My BR birthday icecream cake.


My b-day breakfast in the works.


A beautiful fruit plate... and bacon MMMM!


Part of a little b-day pampering, got a mani at E-mart.



Thats it for now...

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