Update after Christmas and New Year's

I'll start with one of the highlights of our holiday...having time with John's grandchildren last Thursday! We thoroughly loved our day with them   where we got to take the girls ice skating for their first time,

continued a little tradition of going to a bookstore and reading their favorite stories.

Then we celebrated Christmas lunch with them at Pies and Pints and took them Christmas shopping!

Such incredibly sweet, loving, joyful bundles these two are! So thankful we got to see them and spend hours with them!! John's grandson, Jack, seemed to love his new trike that Poppi and I got him, too!

With the New Year ringing in, not much has happened medically other than an appointment with the lymphedema therapist, which went more gently than I expected. I still do stretches and home therapy on my arm's cording to continue relieving the tension on that tendon in my left arm caused by the surgery.  And I found a great use for that Whipped Neem Balm that Ann Post generously gave me  back in my bald days. Now instead of rubbing it on my head like a crystal ball, I rub it on my dry skin after swimming and to help facilitate the home therapy exercises I am doing where I stretch my skin. Unfortunately, my lymphedema sleeves have not arrived yet, but thankfully, I don't have lymphedema symptoms yet either.

I did start a class at the Springboro YMCA last week and have been 4 times now! I am certainly the youngest person in the class, but I figured that would be the case given the name of the class alone: Arthritis Water Aerobics! Perhaps it's not the coolest moniker, but it is ideal for my condition. Mary Oberle, my lymphedema therapist, suggested water exercises to prevent lymphedema because of the constant water pressure. And, I admit, I actually like and I think it's helping! Anyone who knows me, knows I pretty much avoid exercise in gyms. Actually, I pretty much avoid exercise, period. But now that I have medical conditions where water exercise would heal my physical pain, I am more apt to doing it.

I also changed my radiation oncologist yesterday from Dr. Huth to Dr. Jordan Kharofa. The only reason is due to ease of driving to appointments. My breast surgeon recommended Dr. Huth as one of the best she knows and my sister, Karen, worked with Dr. Kharofa in Wisconsin and highly recommended him. Fortunately, the doctors both work together for UC and both come very highly recommended, so I selected the one where I won't have to ever drive to downtown Cincinnati but rather I'll only have to drive to West Chester's Precision Radiotherapy office.

Physically there is continued healing from my breast and lymph node surgery as I can now sleep on my left side without much discomfort. Unfortunately, my rotator cuff aching is more noticeable...probably from the water aerobics. So I need to find a balance between gentle stretching and over exertion.

As for New Year's, I had the pleasure of spending it with the Pieniazek family! It was perfect for us both. God knew what Liz and I both needed that evening.

Plus spending time with those adorable kids of hers is like a healing balm and gives me renewed faith that there are intentionally trained, exceedingly respectful, politely obedient children in the world and tremendously courageous, always consistent parents that take that training so seriously that anyone who is fortunate enough to spend a day with them understands the difference. In fact, I've never seen anyone take parenting more seriously in my life. Liz and Jordan far exceeded anything I ever did as a parent and it's like breathing in fresh air to see how she continues to carry on the baton of well-trained children 24/7 even with the loss of Jordan. Seriously, she needs to write a book!

For now, I continue to physically heal and wait to start radiation. My first appointment for a consultation will be Monday, January 9, 2017. Most likely I'll have 6 weeks of treatment. Unfortunately, I'll have to stop water exercising once I begin radiation since water dries out skin and radiation will require me to practically not bathe my affected skin in anything other than castor oil and Miaderm!

Spiritually, there are some new things I have started in 2017 and am finding it really good. Also, we plan on starting to attend church on a regular basis again now that I'm healed up from chemo and surgery! This will be a welcome change to be with our church families again. John and I are reading from a devotional book I got as a gift from Megan Lubbers and my heart continues to pray for the persecuted church and invite others to do the same as I'm going through the FOXE book of Martyrs by Voice of the Martyrs. Also, God has put some specific people on my heart to be praying for so this has been good to be on my knees, literally, for those whom he has put in my life to do so.