March 20th's Sunday/Monday Posts

Hi all!  It's Sunday morning (okay, fine, it's Saturday night my time still), so that means it's time to post some about our lives, bookish and otherwise.  As such, I'll be participating in:

Sunday Salon
Sunday Post
Stacking the Shelves
Mailbox Monday
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I had a busy week.  I was trying to get a bunch of stuff wrapped up at work, and do it all in four days.  Thursday, I was off for my annual colonoscopy.  I haven't talked about it around here for several years, but back in late 2017, I was diagnosed with colon cancer.  This was my annual follow up appointment.  They didn't find anything concerning, again, which is always nice.  I wasn't expecting them to find anything concerning, but it is nice to get that from a medical professional, you know?

I did fill out my first March Madness bracket ever this week, which lead me to "watching" some of the games.  (My definition of watching sports is to have the TV on with the sound off as I work on other things and check the score occasionally.)  I was actually doing pretty well early Monday, and I was ahead of my work group, but I've dropped since then and I'm near the bottom.  Oh well.  Considering that I don't follow sports, I'm surprised I did as well as I did early on Thursday.

That was pretty much my excitement in my real life this week.  (Honestly, I don't lead a very exciting life.)  So let's take a look at what I posted on the blog this week.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Disney Pin Review: Big Thunder Mountain - Cuckoo for Disney Pins
Monday - Ornament Review: Winter Fun with Snoopy #24
Tuesday - Book Review: A Dismal Harvest by Daisy Bateman
Wednesday - Movie Review: Turning Red
Thursday - Book Review: A Bird's Eye View of Murder by Jacqueline Vick
Friday - Friday Book Post Featuring An Eternal Lei
Saturday - March 19th's Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

What have I got coming up this week on the blog?  I'm glad you asked.

Sunday - Music Review: inhale (exhale) by MercyMe
Monday - Movie Review: A Quiet Place
Tuesday - Book Review: An Eternal Lei by Naomi Hirahara
Wednesday - Movie Review: Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Thursday - Book Review: Dead in the Water by S. C. Merritt
Friday - Ornament Review: Storytellers
Saturday - TV Show Review: Pearson - The Completely Series

Maybe not quite the normal variety pack, but still, a variety of reviews coming up this week.

This Week's Book Haul:

I got two books this week.  I rarely pre-order by more than a week or two, but I took advantage of the pre-order sale that Barnes and Noble had at the end of January to order lots of books coming out between now and the end of the year.  One of those came this week, but for some reason, in my notes, I had it coming out next week.  Not that I'm complaining.

Anyway, this week's books were:

Jesus Can by Austin French with Tim Luke
Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Yes, a non-fiction book snuck in there.  Austin French is a Christian singer I enjoy, so I thought I'd buy it when I was buying one of his CDs off his site.

Finally, we come to...

What I'm Currently Reading

I actually just finished up a book on Saturday, Death in a Blackout, the first in a new series from Jessica Ellicott.  I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.  I'm running very ahead right now since I plan on review the book in the beginning of April.  I'm not normally quite this far ahead, not that I'm complaining.

Now, I'll be starting Murder in the Bowery by Victoria Thompson.  I'm still working on catching up in the Gaslight series, and I'm looking forward to this adventure.

Finally, I'm starting an audio book as well, A Little Class on Murder by Carolyn Hart.  Yes, the Death on Demand series is another series I am way behind on.  I'm looking forward to it.

I think that about wraps us up for the week.  Hope you have a great one.

Health Update

It’s been a while since I gave you an update on my health.  There’s a good reason for that.

I’m still healthy!!!

I’ve been feeling fine, and earlier this month, I had my one year follow up tests.  Yes, it's been a year since I had the surgery for my colon cancer.  They found nothing to be concerned about at all.  My colon looks completely healthy.  Naturally, that was a huge relief for me.

I’m still playing ultimate Frisbee and running.  Did a 5K last weekend and am signed up for two mud runs with June, with hopefully more to come.

Naturally, I’m praising God for this.  It still seems surreal to me at times that this all happened.

General Update

I realize I got back in the swing of reviewing and I never really updated you on the things going on in my life.

I’ve now had two check ins with my oncologist – one three months ago and one on Thursday.  Both times, I had scans first.  And both scans came back clean.  My blood work looks great as well.  Naturally, this is a huge relief.  It really is looking like they got all of the cancer with my surgery.  I haven’t had to have any radiation or chemo still, which is huge.

I can’t remember at this point if I talked about my job situation at all.  My company was bought out while I was out on medical leave, and everyone at the corporate office where I worked was let go, most of us the end of April.  While I have not yet found a new permanent job, I am working again as a temp.  It’s still in town, which is wonderful, and it is paying the bills.  I’m hoping I find something permanent soon, of course, but I worked a temp job for a year and a half at one point, so I can do it if I have to.

Other than that, I’m obviously keeping busy reading and watching and collecting.  I was able to participate in the mud runs I’d signed up for in June, and I had a blast doing both of them.  I did another one last weekend, and I’ve got one more scheduled for the end of August, and that looks like it for the year just because of scheduling.  I’m back to playing ultimate Frisbee as well.  Life is moving forward.

Praise the Lord!

Latest Update

Just a quick update on my health.  I am slowly healing up.  I’m doing a little better every day, but healing up from major surgery like I had takes some time.  Fortunately, I am still off work for another week.  Not that I want to go back to work next Monday.  Having all this time off has been nice, especially with the Olympics on.  (You might have figured out I enjoy watching them.)

My oncologist agreed that I don’t need any chemo or radiation, which is huge.  I’m going to have an MRI in 3 months and another CT scan in six months to make sure they don’t see anything else.  And they are still doing some testing to see if they can figure out what caused it in the first place.  But I’m concentrating on healing up and putting this behind me.

After all, I’ve got two mud runs to do in June.

Home from the Hospital

There were no further delays, and I had my surgery on Monday.  The surgeon is quite happy with how it went and how quickly I seem to be recovering.

I am home from the hospital – I came home yesterday in fact.  I’m still very sore and taking pain meds, which isn’t a super surprise.  My brother was down for a couple of days, and my parents are still here taking care of me.  I am just taking it very slowly, trying not to leave my recliner too much since I am comfortable in it.

But I got the best news yesterday right before I left.  The pathology report had just come back, and the results are great.  It was stage 1 cancer, and they got it all out – nothing in the lymph nodes or anything.  The surgeon said I was cancer free, in fact.

So now, I need to heal up, which will be a slow process, but then I can put this all behind me.

Surgery Scheduled!

My surgery is back on the schedule.  I'm going in this coming Monday morning.  They still aren't completely sure what is going on with my liver, but they are pretty confident that it isn't cancer.  I plan to follow up with that after my surgery, and they will know more after the surgery on that anyway.  In the meantime, I'm excited to finally be moving forward and starting to treat it.

But just because I have the surgery next week doesn't mean the blog will be silent.  I've got three review for next week already drafted and one more I plan to write today.  So be sure to stop by and see what I am considering all next week.

Health Update

I didn't wind up having surgery yesterday.  When I had the CT scan last week, they found some spots on my liver they thought might be cancer.  I got that news last Friday.  Then, Monday, my oncologist called to say on further review of my CT scan, comparing it to CT scans from 2006, they found two of the spots were the same size and in the same location.  So they are now thinking they are something else entirely.

To make sure, they want me to have an MRI, which is scheduled for this afternoon.  Assuming this comes back confirming the new theory, they will reschedule my surgery.  It's hard waiting, but I am trying to trust God in all of this.  It isn't easy all the time, but I do know I am in His hands.

Life Update

If you were paying attention on Monday, you noticed that I cut back on my reading challenge goals for the year.  Not in the number of them I signed up for, but the level I signed up to read.  Unfortunately, there is a reason for that.

On December 15th, I was diagnosed with colon cancer.  There are still a lot of unknowns at the moment.  Tomorrow, I'm going in for two CT scans to see if it has spread beyond my colon.  On January 10th, I am going in for surgery.  After the surgery, we will have more concrete answers  as to what treatment will look like after that.

What does it mean for the blog?  I am not shutting it down.  However, posting will most likely be slower than normal over the next few months.  It also means that I am not accepting review requests for the time being.  I will complete those I have already agreed to, and I am concentrating on those books right now, so my book reviews in general will be down over the next few weeks as I start reading books way ahead of schedule.

I will keep you updated as I learn more myself.