Surgery Tomorrow

I'm more than ready to get surgery over with, but I'm also dreading it with my whole being. I have virtually no tolerance for pain and am the biggest, whiniest baby you've ever seen. So the next few weeks are going to be, shall we say, challenging for me...and for Ivan. Appreciate prayers that the surgery will go well, and recovery will be without any complications or infections.

On top of surgery, I get to start taking anastrozole the day after. This is an estrogen suppressant medication, and protocol for women who are post-menopausal and ER positive. I'm actually triple positive: estrogen, progesterone and HER2 (human epidermal growth receptor 2) positive. Go me! Anyway, anastrozole will basically put me back into menopause and, having been there, done that, I'm not real excited about going through it again. It wasn't fun the first time around, and I'm not expecting it to be fun this time either. My oncologist would have started me on it earlier but held off because I've been so miserable with the bronchitis and lung issues.

Hair growth is proceeding at a snail's pace, and I'm beginning to doubt I'll have more than an inch by the end of the year. The other discouraging thing is that I have a receding hairline! Yikes. My mom always said I had a high forehead and needed bangs -- as evidenced by the this 4th grade school photo -- and, if there were any doubts before, there aren't now. I'm going to need a minimum of 2" (3" would be better) of hair to somewhat cover the glaring, ginormous area of hairless skin a.k.a. my forehead.

Have any of y'all watched Home Town on HGTV? I started following Erin's blog years ago (and liked it so much I went back and read all her posts going back to the beginning). She called it "Make Something Good Today" and she purposefully recorded at least one good thing each day. Anyway, a few years ago she and her husband were contacted by HGTV about doing a pilot, and that led to the creation of their show, now entering it's third season in January. I've been a big fan from the beginning, and snatched up their book when it was released a couple weeks ago. It's a compilation of her journal entries expanded to include other things that were going on in their lives, and both Erin and husband, Ben, share from their unique perspectives. It was such a fun read, probably made more enjoyable because I've followed the blog and their unfolding HGTV adventure from the beginning.

Looking forward to the premier of another new HGTV show,  Best House on the Block, featuring an interior design blogger I've followed for years, Lauren Liess and her husband Dave. I've loved every room and house she has designed (and have her book too), so I'm excited to see their show. Although it's an HGTV show (and will eventually air on that channel), it's debuting on the DIY Network on November 8th.

I'd love to see HGTV add a LOT of new shows, because I can't handle the channel these days with their shift to accommodate binge viewers. I'm sorry, but no way, no how, do I want to see six episodes of anything back to back (or worse yet, an entire day of something). Ugh! It seems like the majority of cable channels have gone in that direction. Even the big three networks are starting down that rabbit hole. I'm curious if other parts of the U.S. have this issue: the local CBS station starts their news programming at 4 p.m. in the afternoon! So we have a half hour of national news sandwiched between 1-1/2 hours of local news before and another hour of local news after. THAT IS THREE HOURS OF NEWS. If I wanted to watch that much news, I'd tune into a dedicated cable news channel.

Talk about going down a rabbit hole... Sorry, not sorry, about that rant.

Let's talk about something more pleasant. Like the weather. Not even kidding! Our weather went from sizzling hot (108 average temp this summer) to gorgeous, amazing, beautiful 70s and 80s and lows at night down into the 50s. Yes, please, and thank you!!! Open windows, fresh breezes... loving it. So glad (and grateful) for the change in weather before surgery. Had I kept to my original surgery date, I would have been sweltering under all my bandaging on the way home from the hospital; now I don't have to worry about that. It's a small thing, but isn't it the small things that tend to make us the happiest?

Speaking of small things, I think it's about time I share some photos of my adorable grandbabies (although they're growing so fast, I can't technically call them small any more; but it did make for a nice segue into this paragraph). Up first are Simon and Betsy in their traditional October t-shirts --  scary how cute they are!!!

And here's Adalyn photo bombing Eisley's five month photo shoot... these two are hilarious and it makes us so happy to see how much they enjoy each other (although there are times when Eisley is clearly over so much attention from her big sis 😜).

Now that you've had your cuteness quotient for the day, my work here is done. Thank you and good night.