Good morning. I just completed a survey as part of my participation in a Moffitt ColoCare 6 month survey and I am feeling quite fortunate right now. Fortunate because I was able to answer a confident “NO” to so many of the questions about my condition (ie. I’m not bed ridden) and my general health (Besides having colon cancer, I’m pretty healthy haha). One section dealt with the emotional and physical support available to me and it made me particularly happy that I could answer that I was totally surrounded by loving and supportive family and friends. How hard this journey would be if I was traveling solo!

It was also interesting to answer the questions related to the past week only. I haven’t had chemo since December 22nd so my answers were much different than if I took the survey in late December. Happily, for now at least, most of the terrible, horrible and generally distasteful symptoms are caused by the chemo, not the disease. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not back to healthy active Deb but I’m not suffering either. General weakness beats the hell out of shooting pain!

The next part of my participation involves poop collection. There are lots of detailed instructions so I’ll deal with that later.

Brenden and I enjoyed lunch together at Bento Box sans Abby. Next stop was to pick her up at her daycare center. The programs they at Smarty Pants are well though out and developmentally appropriate. The building is pretty new and the design of the center is amazing. The daycare is family owned and I enjoyed chatting with one of the owners in his beautifully decorated lobby. The room looks like a Broadway set designer had a hand in it. Bren and I took a smiling Abigail home and enjoyed a nice walk and play time.

Back home by 3:30 pm and time to look into reactivating my real estate license. I let it expire because I was unable/uninterested in taking the 14 hour continuing ed class which is required every 2 years. Cancer tends to push things like renewals to the back of the line. Anyway, the great thing is that it’s all online and rather then slog through the presentation, I can go directly to the test which consists of 30 questions. And guess what? At the bottom of each questions’ page is a “Hint” which takes you to the slide with the answer. How does anybody fail this test?

Tonight was a special treat when our friend and soon to be wedding celebrant came over. He brought an East Indian dish he made with his trusty One Pot == delicious. Almost makes me want to start cooking again….almost! The underlying purpose of the evening was to discuss the ceremony and we had quite an emotional meeting of the minds. Together, Hans and I explained our feelings for each other and related some stories that Bob will undoubtedly use in his oration. Bob is a wonderful writer and speaker and we can’t wait to hear what he is going to say. Meanwhile, Hans and I still have to write our individual vows and are debating whether to share them with each other before the ceremony or not. I’m thinking not.

Time for bed. Tomorrow, Becky, Judith and I are going to have a “trial” makeup session,,..