I am happy to report a pain-free day. Yesterday’s pain was slightly alleviated with a hot bath followed by my use of a hand held massager and topped off with my trusty heating pad. Hans commented that although he was sorry that I was in pain, he was glad it was not related to the cancer. Yahoo — it’s only sciatic pain! Seriously, in the grand scope of things, I agree with his sentiments. Over the course of my journey with cancer, I have learned to accept the “new normal.” Instead of focusing on what we can’t do or hours/days lost to treatment and pain, we relish what we can do and celebrate the pleasant days. Today is a good day!

Krista, Jake, Brenden, Hans and I enjoyed breakfast together at a locally owned restaurant. Good food and lots of laughter. Take-away quote of the morning came from Jake. I was relating how my blog contained my musings/advice. Jake dryly replied, “hash tag Shallow Advice.”

Jake and Krista are flying back to San Diego, Brenden is home in Sarasota enjoying his time off from teaching, so Hans and I are once again empty nesters, save for Roxy, Baxter, foster pup Delilah, Momma Cat Trixie and her three kittens, Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks. Oh, and Max and Madeline. I just got word that Delilah is scheduled for a surgical consultation early Tuesday morning, so I’ll be dropping her and the two older kittens off Monday afternoon. They are lovely kittens and are sure to be adopted quickly. Delilah may get surgery on Tuesday. I hope she can keep her leg, but she’ll thrive as a tripod too.

My sister-in-law., Renee, had heart surgery and my brother texted a picture of her in her hospital bed with tubes and wires surrounding her petite frame to Judith and me. Judith knew that Rick could use some emotional support so she called our brother and had an hour long conversation with him. Considering that their relationship has been chilly in the past, this is a huge breakthrough. It’s nice to think that they will be here for each other even if I’m not. Sometimes I guess it does take a traumatic event to make us realize how much we need each other’s support.