Holding My Breath

This just in: I'm becoming quite the expert at holding my breath here lately. I've honed this talent through the ultrasound, CT Scan and MRI that I've had in the past month, where they each require you to suck in and hold for about 25 seconds at a time. And repeat. For upwards of 45 minutes in some cases! Apparently, this helps to keep your internal organs from moving so they can be ready for their close up. I don't mean to brag, but even my liver surgeon remarked that my breath holding skills were top notch, as there wasn't a single blurry image in my report!

My talent at work! 'The Todd' (my tumor) is the white mass in my liver (on the left of this picture).

As a currently unemployed, and admittedly somewhat confused, person, I'm looking for ways to cash in on this newly discovered talent and someday make a living from it. In the meantime, I'm practicing my skill until July, when I will learn whether the lovely tumor that is occupying nearly 40% of my liver will shrink, remain the same or grow. As long as it's not the last of those options, I believe it will be smooth sailing from there...

I hope you will each do me a favor and hold YOUR breath that there is only good news from here on out. And you just might find out you have a hidden talent too!

What a Difference a Week Makes

Life is funny, isn't it? And I don't mean ha ha funny, but more of the strange and unpredictable variety. I actually intended to post about this train of thought a couple of weeks back when some small fun things were changing my blase mood, but it is really more relevant than ever right now...

One week ago, I was on my way back to the US from Australia for a last minute trip to be with family in Florida. I had been told prior to planning this trip that I had a tumor in my liver, the cause was unknown and that carcinoma (cancer) 'should be considered.' How's that for some news out of the blue?!? One week before that, I had no idea that anything was wrong and that I would be returning to home in the near future. It's truly amazing how much can change in such a short amount of time.

Well, here we are one week into my visit here at home. And again, what a different frame of mind we all have now than we did last week. I have seen a doctor who has all but assured me that my tumor is benign, my blood work has come back cancer free and clear of any other major issues and I just have to get past the hurdle of tomorrow's MRI before I can put my mind totally at ease. And in one more week, I am sure that I will be 100% worry free and nearly on my way back to Australia!

In the meantime, I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my family and especially Bailey. I was pretty worried that she was going to forget all about me in the time that I have been gone, so the silver lining of this emergency trip home has been that I get to keep that from happening. I am not looking forward to leaving her next week, but on the bright side, I'll be seeing her again in July!

I'm starting to get the hang of these self-portraits

I'm sure that the fact I'm Stateside right now comes as a bit of a shock to many of you, but since this wasn't a social visit and I didn't know exactly what to expect while here, I decided to keep a low profile. I would love to see every last one of you if only I had the time! But I'll do the best to keep you in the loop on the blog until I do get to see you again. And in the meantime, here are some random pictures from this Orlando visit...

Celebrating St. Patty's Day, the sale of my house and my great health news!

Bailey cheering the Gator basketball team on to victory

One of the most clever things I've seen in a long time