A Not-So-Quick Update

Well, I've been home from the hospital for 3 days now and am happy to report that I am feeling better. In fact, I actually left my house today and was able to run a couple easy errands for the first time, which is about 3 weeks sooner than with my last surgery. Like I said, this surgery was much less painful than the last and so hopefully I'll continue to heal quickly and be back to my old self in no time.

The biggest challenge is that I now have to "relearn" my digestive system (again!!), and it's definitely been a bit more challenging than I thought it would be. I basically get about a 3 second warning before I need to go to the bathroom and, since I have been home, I have been going 20+ times a day. (Note: This is perhaps more info than you wanted or needed, but I have been pretty straight-forward about everything else I have endured so far, so why stop now, right?) But my doctor assures me that this will all get much better with time as my body heals and I should be back to "normal" within a few months. So in the meantime, I'm just sticking close to a bathroom and taking loads of Immodium AD. As far as I am concerned, life could be much worse.

Pete's parents head home tomorrow and so we are having a small celebratory dinner tonight with my parents, my in-laws and the kids. This has been such an incredibly long, crazy year and it's still a bit surreal for me to believe that the end is so near. The last thing that I need to have done is to remove the chemo port. Hopefully the removal will truly be a "non-event" this time (or at least more of a non-event than the implantation ever was!) and I am hoping to have this done sometime in January. Once I have this procedure, then I will truly be at the very top of my mountain and so the sooner the better as far as I am concerned! But since my in-laws will not be back for this last step -- and since the worst of what I must go through is truly behind me -- we are celebrating tonight.

I have thought a lot about what to do with my blog after everything is done. Many people have urged me to continue writing; to continue sharing information that I learn about our environment or about our health or just about my personal perspectives on life after cancer and I have definitely toyed with the idea. I have really enjoyed writing this blog; it has been incredibly therapeutic for me at times and I know that I will be forever grateful that I made the effort to write regularly so that I can always reflect back on this crazy life experience. I am also grateful that my children will someday be able read about this year and to fully understand and appreciate how many people and how much love it truly takes to "cure" cancer and how we were all completely surrounded by this love non-stop this whole year. And I hope that my writing will also help to inspire others who receive the unfortunate diagnosis of cancer to "fight the Bitch" rather than simply resigning themselves to the diagnosis and giving up.

And so for all these reasons, I have been tempted to continue writing. But the truth is I am ready for a change. I miss the intellectually challenges of marketing and of being involved in business and I am ready to earn a paycheck again (fun as it would be, continuing to write my blog does not show signs of being a terribly lucrative endeavor!) And so I have decided that I will stop writing regularly in my blog shortly (with the exceptional of occasional updates regarding scan results, etc.) That said, I still have a few more entries that I want to add -- ideas that I have been tossing around for months or things that friends have asked me to write about. After that, I am going to try to transform my blog into a book (using Pete's company's software, of course! If you are unfamiliar with Pete's company, check out blurb.com). And I'll definitely post info here as soon as it's in book form in case you are interested in buying a copy. But after that, I am off to my next adventure, which, as it turns out, is a consulting project with Jamba Juice.

I wrote a few months ago that I was beginning to get anxious about what the next chapter of my life held in store, but then one day at church I was reminded to just be patient and that the right opportunity would reveal itself to me. Well, that is exactly what happened!! A few weeks later, I got a call from an old client of mine who had accepted a job as head of marketing at Jamba Juice (a chain of blended juice fast-food restaurants with about 600 locations nationwide.) He is working with Jamba's CEO to reposition the brand as "healthy fast-food," and in fact, their new positioning statement reads "to inspire and simplify healthy living." Toward this end, Paul (who also heads up product development for the brand) is working to remove all added sugar from their products (he has already removed all trans fats and high fructose corn syrup). And his ultimate goal is that every Jamba product be made of all-organic, natural ingredients with zero added sugar, preservatives or artificial anything. Basically, a place where someone like me can go and know that everything on the menu is completely healthy and good for me. And get this...Michael Pollan (the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) has been consulting with Jamba regarding ways to modify and shape their new menu!! How great is that!?! So needless to say, when he asked me to come help them with their marketing and was willing to accommodate my schedule so that I could go through surgery and finish healing, I just knew that it was the opportunity that I had been waiting for. The type of work I will be doing is right up my alley and the brand could not be better aligned with my new personal focus on healthy living. I start in February and so I have a few more weeks to relax and heal before my next life chapter begins.

Anyway, that's the not-so-quick update about my life. I am happy, healing, and heading into the final stretch of my climb. Stay tuned just a little bit longer and if you have any thoughts for last minute blog entries, get your requests in soon... :)