All Clear!

I hadn’t written about this because – well – there just has to be a limit at some point and I think I’ve passed it.

Gerry had a colonoscopy yesterday – he’d been having some (how do I put this delicately…) bad symptoms that needed to be addressed. I had been gone so much this summer, and so involved in family trauma over the past year, that I feel I wasn’t doing the nudging I should have been doing. Finally he made an appt for the procedure and had it done yesterday. All signs are very good – although some ulcers were noted – no polyps and no signs of the dreaded CC.

Gerry’s mother and father BOTH had colon cancer, so it’s something that’s on our minds. It’s actually what finally did my own mother in. I hadn’t realized how deep down I was storing all of this worry about Gerry until he came out from the exam room – looking a little frazzled and very tired – so I could drive him home. He showed me the amazing images they took and printed out for him, showed me the ulcers, and told me the good news that he seems, for the most part, pretty darned good. Amen.

My cousin is also doing quite well with her chemo. She had round 3 last week and she seems to be some kind of amazing superwoman who still has relatively normal blood numbers even with so much poison in her system. She’s lost her hair and is thinking of being Uncle Fester for Halloween this year. I love her so much – she truly is as close as a sister.

I was supposed to make a chemo cap for her – but every time I start to knit something it just looks like poop. I finally finished one hat that I’m sending to her tomorrow, but it doesn’t look great to me. I’ll keep trying. Funny how doing something that’s REALLY important (definitely more important than having a sweater in some old magazine) is so hard!

I just finished my first home class in a long time – I love my students so much – tonight was a slight, spare class. Just 3 – but a nice start to get back into the teaching realm again. Thursday I have a class with 17 students at the South Orange/Maplewood Adult School. Yikes. Just before class I got a frantic call from the head of the Adult school asking,

– “Where ARE you!”

– “At home…”

– “But your class is starting now!”

– “No, my class at the Adult school starts on Thursday.”

– “Oh – this isn’t the quilting teacher…? Never mind…”

It felt good to be in the right place at the right time.