Living The Dream

Three weeks have come and gone once again and I have so much to be grateful for!!! I’m still feeling perfectly whole, so physically strong and truly holding on to a great state of mind! I literally am a walking miracle because of God’s goodness. And, yes, God is still just as good even if I weren’t doing this well! But I am and for that I’m profoundly grateful!

These past weeks we’ve been in high gear to get ready for another Canadian Wilderness trip. It’s been 5 years since our last trip there because of C-vid and cancer so we are more than eager to get back to our favorite place!  I’ve finally finished dehydrating and vacuum sealing dozens of meals, snacks and beverage packets! We gathered all our gear for a canoe camping trip of a life time in Quetico Provençal Park. I’ve been prepping for months to have this go smoothly. We’ve had lots of date nights talking details of it all, including the pleasure of shopping for more lures!! Now we are embarking on the long road of getting there and once we enter the Park, the world might fall apart but we won’t know it because we will have zero communication with the rest of the world unless we run into other canoeists with any news. 

Although we will be tent camping and going from lake to lake via our new Northwind Northstar 16’ canoe in September, we also are planning on spending time van camping & mountain biking in October in the UP Michigan to see fall colors, so we have to bring food and gear for both months! So much planning!!!

One of my 2 portage packs weighs 32 lbs and I’ll hike on trails forged by native Canadians, French fur traders and wild life hundreds of years ago!

Thankfully I got to see my daughter and her growing family in the last couple weeks and I got to have time with my son as well! This little one steals my heart every time I’m with her. Being a grandma is one of the greatest joys I’ve ever known!! 

I also had the gift of time with one of my nieces who was in a horrific car crash and by the grace of God, she walked away without a scratch!

For fun lately I’ve done a bit of mountain biking, canoeing and spent precious moments with some of my friends. All these opportunities to be in the presence of such loved ones is something I see as a gift from God! 

Finally, for all my family and friends who are concerned about my safety on this trip please know that I’m in my happy place with the love of my life doing what I love most…so I’m living, really LIVING and I’m not going anywhere until it’s my time! So until then, go live your life too! Love Jesus & love others! 

Enjoy this song in the meantime…Hold On To Me

Until next time…fear not, love well, be gracious to yourself, and believe. 

Yes Lord! Yes Lord! Yes, Yes Lord!

I’ll keep this short and very sweet…🥹

Just got this word from my oncologist!!! Praising Jesus my Healer all day, every day!! I had a PET scan 2 days ago and today at my infusion appointment the doctor went over my results. I asked Dr. Johnson what percent of people diagnosed with metastatic stage 4 HER2+ breast cancer go beyond the 3-5 years prognosis that I was told was my best prognosis back in 2022 and he said it is only 1%! But considering most people have to change infusion medications after just one year because the cancer outgrows the medications and because mine has been so successful, AND there's literally zero evidence of any active cancer from my recent PET scan, he said I'm one of the 1% that will likely survive a lot longer than 3-5 years!!! So praise God my test showed No Evidence of Disease again!! Tears of joy 🥹 streaming down my face as I’m humbled by this great news. I do not take it for granted and I’ll continue with my whole food, plant based eating life style, zero alcohol, taking my daily ASEA and high dose melatonin supplements, exercising, keeping a positive outlook and mostly a faith that gives me all the hope I need!

Also my echocardiogram was awesome this time! 60% ejection fraction and -21% longitudinal strain which is perfect!! So no heart damage from the drugs that I get every 3 weeks!!!

Pictures Worth A Thousand Words

This is truly more about my story in pictures than words! Plus I’m writing in reverse meaning from most recent going backwards in time. Today, August 7th, I drove to Columbus, OH for 3 appointments. First was the dreaded, all-telling PET scan! Back in 2022 I had my first one that showed metastatic breast cancer in my breast, lungs, bones, liver and lymph nodes! The second one was just 6 months ago when my oncologist called with the wonderfully shocking news that there was NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE! To explain why I still get infusion treatments every 3 weeks (and will for the rest of my life), it’s simply because my diagnosis is stage 4! So whether or not cancer is seen on my scans, I will get treated for breast cancer. Doctors say it’s because they don’t know if there are rogue cancer cells lurking around that could misbehave that just don’t show up on PET scans. 

This blog is a bit more lengthy… 

Above, Michael the traveling nurse injecting my radioactive juice for a new PET scan. 

Dinner at Northstar Café with friends from where I used to work as a dental hygienist before medically retiring. Although I’m now permanently retired, I’m glad they still make time to see me and maintain friendships. 

Another special surprise this week was Chloe, also from where I used to work . She called and was able to come by and we got to hang out for a couple hours before I had to kick her out because I was literally falling asleep as we talked. The day before, my BFF had a gallbladder attack so I was up at 4:45 am to head to her house and be with her kiddos. 

Here Liz is after having that gallbladder out! God is so good and she had a successful surgery. 

Her daughter Zoey, the budding floral designer!

Since my friend Liz sells flowers during the summers and she wasn’t able to make her usual bouquets on the day of her surgery, her daughter Zoey and I had so much fun arranging these gorgeous flowers and surprised her mom and dad with setting out 3 bouquets for sale!! 

This week is like many others where I’m regularly dehydrating and vacuum sealing meals for our upcoming Quetico Wilderness trip. This week I finalized all lunches for John and me equaling 54 bags filled with fruits and nuts for me along with meat sticks and M&M trail mix for John! 

LillyMae is my BFF’s daughter and she recently returned from a month in Colorado so we got to have her stay with us a few nights. She loves bike riding too so we rode along the Little Miami River trail and stopped to enjoy the solitude while pausing and listening to Gratitude and spent a few moments worshiping our Creator before the mosquitoes forced us to get back on our bikes and move!

Update on the WonderVan…this past week John started permanently screwing in the custom cabinets! Thankfully my Chinese son, Alex was there to help him lift it in!

The rest of these photos are of the activities that Charlotte and I enjoyed for her 2 weeks of staying with me. Here we hiked Clifton Gorge in Ohio. 

A taste of disc golf, thanks to my friend Jodie who generously gave her some golf discs!

A friend’s friend, Pam, met up with us to get her granddaughter together with Charlotte for a play date and I discovered she is a silver jewelry maker. She graciously offered to teach Charlotte how to make several unique pieces for her mom, aunties and grandmas. 

Hiking and finding a black walnut shell and thinking she came upon a pig’s nose!!

We did lots of cooking and Charlotte made her very own peanut sauce that’s so scrumptious!! It was perfect for dipping her homemade spring rolls in!

Hikes to waterfalls and watercolor painting!!

Yes, I put her to work and taught her how to mow the lawn! 

My dear friend Doni gave her the gift of a very special garden tea party plus she gave us a tour of her garden filled with hidden gnomes and secret fairy gardens!

My friend Liz who owns Under The Pines Flower Farm showed Charlotte how to put together bouquets from the flowers she got to snip!

This little dude was my saving grace for 2 weeks as he befriended Charlotte and exposed her to country life vs city life! That meant lots and lots of time getting dirty in the creek and turning over rocks looking for salamanders, frogs and crawfish! It also meant helping his mom, Liz with picking flowers. 

We had a picnic at our creek too!

These exercise rings were the favorite activity in John’s shop where she would swing and play for a long time as I worked on helping John with the van build. 

Wizard anyone?

This was her first bonfire and toasted marshmallows!

While Alex came and stayed for the first couple days, we had the unexpected visit from my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter for a day!!! This grandma’s heart was full!

That has been the past few weeks and now I’m waiting the PET scan results which I’ll share hopefully in a few days once I find them out. I’m trusting and believing and holding on to this hymn.. It Is Well With My Soul!