As I said before, fighting melanoma is a team effort. I have a lot of people on my team who support me in a number of ways. I'll get to them as my story progresses. My advice to you-if you don't know what to do when someone is diagnosed with a crappy disease or illness, just do something. Send a card. Call (don't worry about disturbing us-sometimes we just don't have the energy to dial and won't answer if it's a bad time). Offer to cook a meal. Above all, don't just vanish after a week or two. That's when it's the hardest-once the friends have helped, they move on. I always say my true friends are the ones who are still helping me because they 'get' that I'll be worn down for a good year or so.
Don't know what to say? Just tell me you're sorry I'm going through this. I'll tell you it has been in a strange way one of the best things to happen to me. The people who have stuck by me can see I have a new outlook on life. I don't have time for petty crap. I have done more this summer and had more fun this summer than I have in a long time. Even though I have an overwhelming semester coming up at school, I still intend to get out there and do stuff. Just not as much but when I do, I'll make sure it's something I feel like doing and want to do-as long as treatment hasn't kicked my ass.
Ah, yes, treatment. As I tell my husband, I live one day at a time and refuse to plan too much ahead so I won't be disappointed if I am having a crappy day. I also go one meal at a time because of nausea (mostly controlled by meds) and loss of appetite (funny stories about that to come).
So, my team member for today's blog as I procrastinate preparing to teach AP World History to a bunch of 9th graders in two weeks.......
Meet Nemo. He's my avatar picture for my blog because it all starts with him. See, Dave and I adopted 5 month old Carly (big black dog-they don't stand a chance in shelters, especially down south) from a local rescue group 4 years ago. She was pulled from a South Carolina shelter after her time was up (a whopping 72 hours) We hadn't intended to get another dog (we already had Molly, our OCD lab) but we fell in love with her. Around 4th of July, she became a member of our family. She grew, and grew, and grew for 2 years and is now a 90 pound lab/chow/boxer with the sweetest disposition except she still thinks she's 40 pounds. We kept bringing Carly back to visit the rescue and then we were asked if we wanted to foster dogs........so we were sucked into the world of rescuing animals.
I'll get back to fostering in another blog but long story short, in February of 2011, I saw these two black dogs cowering in their shelter video in Martinsville, Virginia. I knew I needed to save them. We had two foster puppies at the time and couldn't take them. I kept watching that video over and over and something about those two dogs kept pulling me back to them week after week. Finally the puppies we fostered found homes and I begged to get Nemo and Dory pulled. We met the transport (also another blog for another day) and the guy who drove them to Mt. Holly warned us they were very shy and were hard to get in and out of the transportation crates. I literally crawled half into the crate to get them out and both stuck together like glue, obviously traumatized by their day of travel in cars from VA to NJ. The two literally climbed on top of each other and cowered in the corner. I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Turns out these two knew NOTHING about living with people and they were 2 1/2 years old. They knew NOTHING about houses. We let them adjust and they gradually came out of their shells. Dory, Nemo's sister got adopted by a wonderful couple and I always get updates so no worries about her. Nemo was another story. He had been Heartworm Positive and was thankfully treated by the shelter. We worked with him all the time to get him used to living in a house and everything was celebrated as he gradually learned to live with people who were not going to hurt him. I knew he needed to find a home but months went by with no applications that would work for him.
In the fall of 2011, he started to become obsessed with a mole on my back. He would be standing on the bed while I would sit and get dressed and he would lick it, dig his nose into it and then start biting it. I would sometimes have to ask Dave to pull him off me because he would not quit. Then I started asking Dave why he always went to the same spot. Dave said it was that mole on my back that he was after. I started paying attention to it and had Dave look at it. Turns out it was changing shape. I made a mental note to call after the holidays to make a dermatologist appointment to get it checked. So, Nemo saved me after being saved himself. I had a friend tell me this weekend that I have been paid back for saving dogs....I save them and they turned around and saved me. I am a firm believer in what comes around goes around.......until next time!
Team member Nemo August 2012....he looks so much better!- this picture was from May of 2011 shortly after Dory and Nemo became our fosters. The shaved part on Nemo was where he got injections for HW treatment. He was so thin!
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