Quilts and Books

57 years. 3 months. 15 days. That's how old my sister was when she died on December 30, 2015. Char spent four and a half years in a tug of war with cancer. For a while there she seemed to be in total control. But that insidious disease came back and this time would not let up. Here's the kicker. She had uterine cancer, just like me. Only hers was Stage 4 when they found it. Mine barely qualified as Stage 1. Life is often unfair, but that seemed the cruelest irony of all. As I wept that she was dying, she wept because I was not. It's taken me a long time to process this and to be willing to talk openly about it. Some of you reading this have been very open with your own struggles with health, grief, death, and dying. I've wanted to be, but I think I needed for the worst of it to be over first. Every time I tried to write about it, I'd sit paralyzed at the keyboard. I just wasn't ready I guess. Char decided to suspend further treatment last August. It wa...

So in my previous post I reported that I'd be having a hysterectomy because I had an early form of uterine cancer. I'm now home recovering, doing very well, and grateful for a pathology report that said the cancer was contained and further treatment isn't necessary. Just regular screenings. I didn't think I'd get a TBR post done because I wasn't paying close attention to the calendar and thought it'd be too soon after surgery. But I got it done! It's short, but it's done. Yay me. It's paranormal/romantic suspense month in Ye Olde TBR Challenge and I chose this military suspense novel that's been languishing on my Kindle for way too long. This is Book 1 in Kaylea Cross's Bagram Special Ops series. The series involves American military personnel stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Deadly Descent  is the story of Devon Crawford, an officer and Black Hawk pilot, who is fighting her attraction to Cam Munro an enliste...

I've been, for the most part, a pretty deep lurker during my years on the Internet. Lately, I've taken lurking to new depths. Life has taken some difficult turns, one of which I want to share now. Last spring I experienced some post-menopausal bleeding and saw my doctor in early June about it. I'd been taking hormone replacements and I'm overweight. Bleeding is not uncommon because of the way fat cells store estrogen. I stopped the hormones and the bleeding stopped. But my doctor never saw a fat woman who could go home and forget about it. She said we still need to check it out. The pelvic ultrasound was negative. The biopsy (which didn't happen until August, for Reasons) was not. On August 17 I learned I have uterine cancer. People, I have the best doctor. I took her flowers. So Thursday I'm having a full hysterectomy. The cancer cells taken in the biopsy were "level 1," which is a good thing. Still, you never take anything for granted. They...