Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Monday, March 23, 2015

What do you do when...

What do you do when your prosthetic boob falls out of your bra and onto your feet in the grocery store? Why, pick it up and put it back in of course!

What do you do when there is an itch on the INSIDE of your boob somewhere behind the tissue expander? (seriously, how is this even possible?) You shimmy around a lot trying to shift the tissue expander to scratch the itch, which is like a phantom itch and can't really be scratched.

What do you do when you're trying on a prosthetic sports bra thingy in Nordstroms and you get very stuck in it? You do NOT cry for help! You would take a selfie if you could get to your phone. You do struggle and twist your way out, finally exiting the dressing room sweating profusely. "I'm good for today." you say to the sales lady who's been helping you. (by the look on her face this is not a first-time occurrence.




Monday, March 16, 2015

One of those days

Today was one of those days...

...when I realize there are 562 chromosomes in my living room. (10 kids x 47 + 2 moms x 46) Oh, and two dads in the basement doing some much needed work. So thankful!

...when I finally head to bed at 1:45 a.m. and realize that I am so behind on laundry that not one child has clean clothes for school in the morning but that everyone is fed, bathed (some twice) and happy.

...when I write a note to Angela's gym teacher, "Due to no fault of her own, Angela will not be changing clothes for gym today. Don't ask."

...when at 2:00 am I remember the drywall guy will arrive in 8 hours but the winter dog crap is not yet picked up in the newly-melted back yard that he has to walk through to get the sheetrock into the basement.

...when I say things like, "Don't dangle your sister's underwear." and "Take that out of your nose."

…when I look at the bottle of pills I am supposed to start taking tomorrow - and every day for the next 5 years - that my oncologist says will make me feel like I am 90 years old. On a good day. (Its possible I moved them to the back of the medicine cabinet and am pretending I didn't see them. Maybe Tuesday would be better.)

…when I look at the huge smile on Angela's face as she receives her last award from a 6 year floor hockey career, wiping a tear from my eye as she leaves the awards area, stops to give a thumbs up and shouts to me at the back of the room. "I love you mom!"

…when I watch Axel receive his first ever floor hockey award and I marvel at how far  he's come in 4 short years.

…when I feel oddly energized by an insane weekend.

… when I look around the dinner table at all the faces and feel God's blessing in our lives.


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Remember when I said...

Remember when I asked "What should I do?"

Between the comments here and on Facebook, there were some great suggestions, even if some did include water (Hello, I don't DO water!). So here's where what I decided:

I want to learn these things this year:


  • Some kind of dancing - Ballroom or Hip Hop are on my radar
  • acrylic painting
  • how to play the guitar, or at least some basic chords. I want to be one of those moms who can play the guitar and sing with her kids. Like in the movies.


I want to do:


  • I was going to do skydiving. But..ugh…I dunno. Angela REALLY wants to skydive and she is over 18 now so..maybe? I would love to try the indoor skydiving thing. I'm trying to find a local place.
  • I want to climb something. Not like a mountain, because, well we live in MN and there is a lot of flat! 
  • I want to take a really long walk. Like the 3 day for breast cancer, only I don't want to support that particular organization. I think I just want to do it because I can. Maybe as a fundraiser then donate the money back to an organization, like the Down Syndrome Association of MN, or a Breast Cancer related organization who I know spends the money well. First I have to start the training regimen to be able to do this. I might start tomorrow.

I want to meet one person this year:

Actress Kathy Bates. We share a birthday and a journey through Breast cancer. She is an actress and I used to do a lot of community theater. If I could be a real actress I would be a lot like Kathy.   I don't know how to make meeting Kathy happen but now that I've put it out there, maybe God will help me find a way.

Now, I am off to take a walk then find someone to teach this broad how to play guitar. Oh…I should buy a guitar. Hey! Maybe Kathy would want to do the 3 day walk with me? Kathy, if you're reading I promise not to talk too much. And besides, if you're reading here you've already decided I'm a crazy stalker lady.


Saturday, March 07, 2015

The year I disappeared

One year ago four words changed the course of my life as I knew it.

"You have breast cancer." 

The battle was on. Every ounce of my being became about the fight for my life. The future ahead of me and the information I received from my doctors on a daily basis felt like a battle ship parked on my chest. Crushing me. That first week was all about breathing. Several times each day reminding myself, "Breath in, breath out. Do it again." 

I went through the motions of each day numb. "Please God. Please NO!" I lived a charade of acceptance and positive outlook. That's what everyone else needed to hear, and its what I had to tell myself. I didn't FEEL positive. I lied. While I told myself and my loved ones, "I'll get through this, I'll be fine. I'm good." it wasn't what I was thinking inside. Inside I felt death stalking me. At night I was plagued with dreams of rotting flesh, breasts falling off in the freezer isle of the grocery store, and hospital morgues filled with not bodies, but boobs. Hundreds and hundreds of boobs. 

And then I started chemo.

Chemo is the epitome of the battle between good and evil; pumping poison into our bodies to keep us alive.

Chemo caused the loss of myself, and I watched as I disappeared into a chemical haze. Swimming through the murky cloud was all I could do, like sea life covered in oil after a tanker spill. Only by the grace of God, because he loves me so, was I able to keep moving each day. Swimming in thick, greasy, muck, my limbs exhausted with the effort.

I was still a mother. 

I bathed the children. 

I read to the children. 

I fed the children. 

I did the laundry.

I scrubbed toilets. 

I did all the things the mothers do. In the haze. In the oil and muck. In the filth that is chemo. 

I did all the things the mothers do, only it wasn't me because I was gone.  I was lost inside myself and I didn't have anything left for anyone else, but I did it anyway. 

The days I was in agonizing pain, I eased myself into a steaming hot tub of water, tears streaming down my face as each wave of agonizing pain washed over me, threatening to crush my knees and hips into bits of nothing. I cried out to God, "Please God. Please…please…please make it stop. MAKE IT STOP!" And He would answer my prayer every time as I drifted off to sleep in the scalding hot water. As it cooled to room temperature I would wake, groggy and ready for my bed. The pain nearly completely gone. And I would sleep. I would rest knowing He was still here, even if I wasn't. 

It took months to come out of that fog. As I did, I realized my body held so many remnants of the attack. My finger and toenails had turned gray with black streaks, four deep ridges running across each nail, evenly spaced, one for each round of chemo. My body was void of any hair. Over the next few months I watched my nails slowly change, the discoloration growing out to the ends. Each time I clipped my nails I was clipping away the evidence of my toxic bath. The color of my skin slowly improved. My eyebrows, lashes, armpit and pubic hair returned.

Then came the darkness.

Triggered by a combination of chemo and the stress of several surgeries I was thrown into menopause. Thrown as in, "The woman was loaded into a cannon, the fuse was lit and she was shot directly into a brick wall which has been reinforced with steel rods. SPLAT!" 

Women who go through menopause naturally experience the changes over a period of years. Mine happened in a week. I was irritable, and I was depressed. I was all about doom and gloom. I said "fuck" a lot. I had finally made it through chemo's oil slick into clean waters, but I was still drowning! I was swimming as hard as I could, kicking and paddling but still sitting on the fucking bottom of the fucking sea!!!! I've never been a good swimmer really, so its no surprise I couldn't save myself. But God! He reached his hand deep down into the waters and ever so gently brought me to the surface. Not too fast that the pressure change would kill me. Just fast enough that I could look around a bit. Get my bearings. Regain my balance.

When I finally broke the surface I gasped at the freshness of the air. I marveled at the sunshine, even in the midst of our Minnesota winter. So much time had passed! I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs, expanding them, for they had been crushed by the depths for so very long.

Only recently have I found my way to the shoreline and basked in the warm breeze, letting the sun warm my body. Alive. Rested. Energized. I was finally ready to leave the shoreline to explore life once again.

I began to find the joy in my days. The joy in the mundane. Each morning to be greeted by the amazing people in my house. Those sleepy hugs from Asher that he saves for only me. Angela a young woman ready to graduate high school in a couple of months. Axel, tall an strong, responsible and helpful. Abel with his nervous chuckle, wanting to please me. Audrey, joyful, determined to be heard by all. 

And my love. 

How I love this man God blessed me with. My true partner, walking through each day with me, both of us perfectly in step with one another. Finishing each other's sentences. A team matched by the God who knew what was ahead. I was so lost for so long, but when I returned he was right here, waiting to pick up where we left off, only better. We are BETTER than ever, so in love that sometimes I wonder how it could be that my heart ACHES with it?

A year. 

The journey of a lifetime. 

I am back!