Let them celebrate!

Our youngest nephew married last year, with his older brother assuming the role of best man. His speech was in the form of a poem and absolutely priceless. The best man and his parents (BIL and SIL) had thoughts of getting it all typed up, framed and presented to them on their first wedding anniversary. I offered to put something together for them. I frizzed around with different ideas and layouts, drew some up with a graphics package and searched the web for suitable graphics, etc.

Well, their first anniversary is in early April, so it was time to “get my skates on”. I promised that it would be ready by the end of this week. Old layouts and most ideas were discarded and new ones drawn up, (along with the associated shopping for card, ribbons, paper fasteners, etc), and finalised. Or so I thought. There always has to be one little hurdle to be overcome. What I didn’t take into consideration was that our printers would only print a certain length of page, even though it was possible to work on a very long, probably endless page, so on Thursday night I had to revamp everything.

The good news is that I finished it tonight! It’s 640mmx450mm (roughly 25”x18”) and made from a combination of white parchment, dark blue linen weave, vellum, silver card, organza ribbons (pink, and white with silver hearts), silver mini studs, pink and silver heart studs and a piece of photo paper.

I like to keep a record of everything I do, but for some reason, forgot to get the camera out. Lousy brain again!

Now it’s off to deliver it to BIL and SIL so they can arrange to get it framed. I hope to get a pic of the finished article.


Wednesday 31 March 2004

It’s the last day of March!

As I was awake at 4 I decided to read my book “Blowfly” by Patricia Cornwell, for a while.

5.20am get another jug of cordial (went through a jug overnight). The air is very dry and giving me a stuffy nose.

Breakfast – scrambled eggs and bacon, cornflakes, OJ.

My surgeon came in at around 8.30am. Awaiting pathology results, possibly late today. One step at a time. I’ll probably have questions after we know what we’re dealing with.

DH dropped in while J was at a play cafe after Kindergym. Gran and Pa are looking after him.

DH brought his computer with him and set it up for me. Collected email. Worked on some stuff. Started to install extra fonts as here were many not included on DH’s notebook.

DH left to pick J up and take him home.

Had lunch – roast port with gravy and apple sauce, roasted carrots and potatoes and peas, fruit salad.

Mum and Dad arrived.

A friend came to visit brought 10 pink roses and a card.

Mum and Dad left at around 4pm to go home.

DH and the boys came in and left about 5.30-5.45pm. Had dinner – beef schnitzel with chips and salad.

BIL and SIL came in around 6.30pm with flowers.

My surgeon arrived while they were there. He asked them to leave the room. He told me it was both good and not so good news. The top margins were clear, but where he found and removed another nodule under the nipple was not. It seems that the tumour started in several areas and joined together to form a large mass – the extra nodule tended to confirm this.

So we go back to surgery Friday afternoon to remove the rest of the left breast. As far as the lymph nodes are concerned, 16 were removed, 6 were involved. He asked me whether I’d like him to call DH, I said yes. When he first walked in he asked me how I was, I said “nervous”. I told him I was half expecting the news to be “negative”, but it was still a shock.

While he spoke to DH, I spoke to a breast care nurse with SIL present.

BIL and SIL offered to mind the boys while DH came in to sit/talk to me. He wanted to get them into bed first.

BIL and SIL left and DH arrived around 8-8.30pm. We went downstairs and sat in the waiting area and talked. He left around 9.45pm.

At around 10-10.30 they said they had a private room for me (18) ironic, isn’t it?

We moved all my stuff from bed 3 to 18. I had a bowel movement!

The nurse who helped me move has 2 boys 2 years and 8 months, and asked me about H’s school as she’d seen him in uniform earlier.

They suggested I try sleeping tablets (keep you asleep, not put you to sleep) and a couple of panadol. I took them around 11pm. I slept until 2.30am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I wrote for a little while then watched “Two Weeks Notice” on the computer. I was tired by 5.15am, but could not sleep. I lay in bed and waited for dawn. Of course my mind was still rushing.

The hormone receptor status of my tumour would not be known until Tuesday.