Halloween.

:thud:

Traditionally for me, halloween is one day of the year where it seems like really nothing goes right. I think it's because between the kids and the costumes and the actual trick-or-treating I go into stress overload.

This year was no exception, but it was compounded by the fact that we were having renovations done on the house that required us to remove everything from the upstairs and I had my PET scan. The renovations involved me having to take apart beds, move dressers and toys and clothing. It was exhausting, especially because Thomas has had to work late and I was stuck doing the work myself. The workers opted to use their saws INSIDE our home instead of out on the porch . They also didn't clean up any of their mess. :huh: I grumbled a LOT this week.

Yesterday morning, when I left to drive Andrew, Amanda and Aidan to school, I had piled all of our belongings into the rooms that where finished. It looked...like this:






Amanda made it to school on time, but because of the traffic, Andrew was 20 minute late and Aidan was over 30 minutes late. :huh: I couldn't really do anything about it....I can't beam us where we need to be and Thomas had to be home to meet the workers when they arrived in the am.

I had lab work scheduled at 9.30am and I just made it there on time after all of my driving around. I hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything (including coffee) in preparation for the scan, and I was definitely feeling the effects of the caffeine withdrawal. :> I took my completed unedited manuscript in with me to read/revise as a sort of symbolic gesture of closure on this whole lymphoma thing....We were having a wind advisory and I tripped and fell up the curb on my way out of the parking lot and into the building. All 100+ papers flew out of my hands and scattered throughout the parking lot. It took me 10 minutes to gather them up with the help of another person who took pity on me. At 10:15 I got the radioactive injections and had an hour to let them take effect....I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep in the chair waiting. They had to wake me up for the scan itself. By 12:30 I was leaving the building....and I was off to pick up Aidan from his afterschool lunch at preschool, gather the last minute halloween decorations, pick up Amanda and Andrew from school and Alex from KidStop and then.....it was time to get ready for the trick-or-treat-athon.

Throughout the day, I pestered Thomas to see if the results of the scan had been dictated....but they hadn't been. I'm spoiled....I have grown used to being able to know the results within an hour or so of the scan. They must have been behind yesterday, but the waiting to know while driving in the car was just terribly nerve-wracking. I realize of course that I am lucky to know as soon as I am, but it is hard to be patient.

In any case, while we waited we were informed that we would have to stay at a hotel that night because the fumes caused by the sealer for the stairs would be harmful.....and.....we wouldn't be allowed on the stairs for 8-12 hours. We had hoped to just stay on the lower level and walk outside to get around the house and into the kitchen in the morning so we had decided not to do a hotel night.....the fumes angle added a whole new dimension....so we had to quickly pack bags and put costume stuff together before they started on the stairs. This is where we realized that 1/2 of Aidan's costume had disappeared into the chaos (see above pictures for questions about said chaos).

I had just made a pot of coffee for myself because I STILL hadn't had my daily coffee....and it continued to sit while I ran to WalGreens and grabbed another costume for him and then dropped Andrew off at his friend's house and Amanda at hers.

I poured a cup of coffee for myself and prepared to drink it....and the doorbell rang. It was the neighbor that I had agreed to go trick-or-treating with.
I ended up leaving my coffee on the table to throw on my own costume and get Aidan, Zoe and Alex out the door.


Andrew: Decapitated Man


Amanda, Aidan(squished in the middle) and Alex as Link


Princess Zoe...this is not her costume..it's her daily regalware

The trick-or-treating took over 2 hours because the neighbor that I went with is pregnant with baby#4 and is due on Monday. She couldn't move very quickly. Her kids, however, could....I was busy chasing the kids in my costume with a hoop skirt (live and learn )and trying to slow them down and we LOST her 4 year old. For 10 heart thumping minutes, we searched high and low in the dark. I was ready to use my cell phone to call the police when she turned up. I seemed more upset by it than her mom...but I think mom was doing good just to be walking with us. I'll have to put my costume back on today and have Thomas get a picture of it.....along with my orange hair!

We finished trick-or-treating, picked up Andrew and Amanda and then headed to the hotel. It was 9:30pm when we settled in and I realized that I didn't have a shirt for Alex or pants for Amanda. We couldn't go back into the house and get upstairs to access it all, so we just decided.....to play hooky today. Today is officially our post-halloween mental health day! No driving....we slept in until 9am.....phew.

And...my scan was clean. :stars: There is no evidence of lymphoma. The lung damage remains unchanged. That is good news and bad news. It's not worse, but it's not better. That, coupled with my EKG changes will warrant folow-up at some point.

Still...with whatever damage might be there, I'll take it.....the cancer is gone....and the rates of relapse after 2 years (from diagnosis) are very low. I can consider this chapter in my life closed..... [/quote]