I love that the last day of November blogging coincides with my cancerversary – it’s a great reminder of how thankful I am for the doctors and nurses – thank god for nurses! – at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
I woke up feeling grateful today, and I sent an email to my oncologist, whom I have not had to see for 15 years. I included a photo of the two of us (below) and a thank you message. I know she likely doesn’t remember me – she helps thousands of women – but she replied (!) and was so happy to hear that I was healthy and well.
Sidenote: I LOVED that little peplum wool jacket I was wearing. And, I STILL WEAR THAT SCARF!
We often retell the story of the day of my surgery 20 years ago; in true fashion to our family, we had some laughs for sure. Mr. KK and I arrived early, I don’t even think the sun was up, to check in. An hour or so later, my friend and my parents and my future mother-in-law arrived, and we all hunkered down in the surgical waiting room. My mother whipped out a ziploc bag of brownies and we watched the morning talk shows. It was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t leave the hospital after my surgery for 6 days.
My surgery was long – about 5 hours; this was 20 years ago and it was incredibly invasive. (Now, the surgery is done laparoscopically with a much shorter in-hospital recovery time.) While the surgeon was performing surgery, she noticed that my appendix was not looking 100% so she took it out. Bonus appendectomy!
When I came out of surgery, I was in recovery, and only 2 people were allowed to come in at a time. Mr. KK came in first. I was mostly out of it, complaining that my lips were chapped, going in and out of sleep. Next, my parents came in. Then Mr. KK came back. “Where’s your mom?” I asked him.
“She’s in the waiting room, she’ll be here soon. She’s just watching the end of Jeopardy!, it looks like Ken Jennings is going to win and be the winningest contestant on the show!”
WHAT?? Ken Jennings?? She was watching Ken Jennings? Immediately he became my nemesis! And this became the family joke, how my mother-in-law didn’t come see me right away because she had to watch Ken Jennings win Jeopardy! (Imagine the ridicule when he came back to host! The jokes never end.)
Thanks for reading along this month, and happy cancerversary to me!
Life of kk 