Phew!

OK, I haven't written much lately because I've been holding my breath for a week. My back has been hurting me for a while. Probably a month. It coincided nicely with going back to work, and so I just figured it had to do with not being used to wearing my prosthetic breasts all day and my back was complaining. But then one night when I was laying in bed realizing that Advil wasn't going to touch the pain I had, I had this sudden thought. A really scary one. My kind of breast cancer likes to come back. And it comes back in very particular places. It generally comes back in the liver, lungs, brain or SPINE. And, I knew that night that I was calling the oncologist the next morning. And I did. Saw his PA, had a nice conversation and scheduled an MRI. I had the MRI on Tuesday and got the news today. I have a bulging T9 disk in my spine that is unhappy. No cancer. WAY GOOD NEWS. So I'm just getting more decrepit, not getting more visits from the cancer fairy (that I know of). That made tonight even more nice.

We had a block party at my next door neighbor's tonight. I made a poster, and she put out a jar, and there was over $100 collected toward Jenny's fund for her 3-Day walk. AWESOME! Thanks to all who shared food, and friendship, fireworks, and money. Your generosity is appreciated.

I'm working on a couple of big projects for school right now so I'm kind of up to my eyeballs in paperwork. Such is the life of a special ed teacher. At least I'm gainfully employed and doing something that helps people. I like that about my work. I definitely make a difference for some students.

Tomorrow I'll write about spirit week next week and what that looks like in rural America.