48 hours & counting

Hello fellow bloggers.
I have been up since Saturday morning 9 am! Put in 24 hours @ the Hack- & had a productive Friday Christmas shopping with Ash & Jo:

Saturday was a work night, but because we were having our family dinner on Sunday, I woke up to clean the house & do some laundry & by the time I wanted to take a nap it was time to go to work. I came home Sunday morning to finish cleaning, but first stopped @ shop-rite to get fixings for Sunday night dinner. The menu: chicken & potatoes a la oven with beans & rice with a tossed salad. Which, by the way, was delicious! On the guest list: Abuela, Anthony, Sasha, Sade, Shamorr, & myself. Ryan, Wa, & Denise couldn't make it. I prepared dinner, & if I do say so myself, it was delicious. By the time dinner was done, my guest had arrived, so because I had to go back to work, we had dinner early & I went back to work. While @ work, we celebrated my beloved sisters' bdays: Joanna & Lillibeth:

Almost the original prude crew /w 2 freaks, missing Beth Droney! The morning was busy to say the least 1/3 confused patients had pulled out her DLC & F/C with telemetry & LUE sling! After leaving the Hack @ almost 8 am, went home to change into civilian clothes to take Abuela to her docs appointments, a total of 3: general surgeon, plastic surgeon, & oncologist. Joining us today were Anthony, my dear nephew, & Sasha, my mostly absent daughter. We went to the first appt in which we found out that besides the total left mastectomy, there were a total of 8 lymph nodes removed, which 3 came back with T3 markers making my Mom Stage 3 CA! One of the docs made sure he pointed out that I have to have my mammogram done. His specific words were: "I know how you nurses are, too busy taking care of everybody else & never enough time to take care of yourself!" After the first appt we headed to our favorite El Salvadorian spot for a late brunch. We talked about this new Dx & have decided to wait until we speak with the cardiologists to ask if my Mom's heart can withstand chemotherapy.
After visiting all the doctors, I took my Mom back to her house- she was exhausted, so we did not question her decision. After dropping her off, I thought of what Dr. Frost said to me & it dawned on me, I need to get my first mammogram done & take better care of myself & stop working so hard. So I decided to start taking care of myself by going to get a mani, pedi, & wax; check out my tootsies:

Not quite the mammogram I need but a good start. I promise to take better care of myself, so my health will allow me to continue taking care of my family. I also came home early to get a good nights' sleep, but I had to blog, because it continues to be my biggest healing mechanism, so enjoy the blog & thank you for being here for me. I will leave you with tonight's image of Marley & me blogging:

As you can see my Marley has become my constant dependable blog partner, she was sad about Abuela's Dx as well!