Big Night on the town

So last week was a lovely event at Mirbeau to support the Carol Baldwin Breast Cancer Foundation. The picture is of me, the girls, and Daniel Baldwin. He was taking a picture of just us and then asked if he could be in one with us, so we let him! You have to admit, we all look pretty darn hot! I had in some Jessica Simpson Extensions to give my hair the extra fullness and bounce and you can get them too at Bijou Salon, right here in Syracuse! You are welcome Kim!


So, I have been so busy getting EVERYTHING done before the surgery that I have not been eating well and the day of the event was no different. I went on an empty stomach and immediately began drinking the pink martinis they were serving. You all know where this is going, Sherie out, without Andy to watch her, and her friends just feeding into her every whim. They carried my bags, they got me drinks, they got me food, they never stopped me once from a drink! thanks girls, I was loving you that night but cursing you the next day! I also met some great ladies; survivors, non survivors supporting others, pioneer nurses breaking into the wellness field, Carol Baldwin was a hoot, Jeannie Ralston (author of The Unlikely Lavender Queen) hung with us, a total ladies night.


So, apparently I did do a split by the end of the night, I forgot about it until I was reminded the next day. I was wondering why my legs hurt so much. Andy always says if I am doing a split, then I am drunk. Well OK, you got me, I was drunk, but as the girls kept telling me all night, I have a good reason! Funny or not, it was exactly 2 weeks before my surgery, so I kept saying things like, Oh in two weeks I'll have no boobs and I'l be drinking an IV. So, maybe the comedian was funnier, but I guess I had some steam & anxiety to blow off. Well, it's gone, I am not drinking again until atleast this Friday!


So, hangover and all, I got up the next morning and packed up the family and we went to Rochester for the weekend. We had a blast. We did the Strong Museum of Play, The Science Museum, & the Genesee Country Museum. We also saw Legally Blonde: The Musical. It was nice not being too far from home, but far enough to do some different things. Poor Andy got a cold, so he was having a hard time breathing as his head was so stuffed. Poor me cause I had to stay away from him as I don't want to get sick before surgery. That illness cloud needs to leave our family alone!

So this week is dedicated to Popcorn! Yes, it is our last year as the Popcorn Kernals for the cubscouts and those who have been around me at the end of October the past 2 years know what that means. My whole life becomes popcorn: distributing it, reordering more, tally all the forms, inputting it into the computer system, ordering scouts prizes and blah, blah, blah.... I get pretty obsessed with it, sorry, I'll be back next week guys! Good News is it looks like we beat our record last year and sold over $20,000! 36% of tha goes right back to our pack, so yeah to all the cubscouts, their parents, and all you friends who made this a great year for us.

Met with the Plastic Surgeon last week for my 2 week pre-op. He went over everything that is going to happen, before, durning, and after the surgery, he was great. The surgery is scheduled for 3:30pm on the 6th, I don't even go in until 2pm that day, so it will probably be late before i am out. I will try and have Andy give Shell a report to get to everyone. I will be in the hospital until sometime Saturday or Sunday. Once home, my Mom will be staying with us to help Andy with me and the kids. Friends have told me I may have a hard time breathing and therefore talking that first week, so I will try and just blog. I will also have 4 drains, 2 out of each side and a pain pump, right in the middle of my chest, hanging out of me that first week, so moving around is not going to be easy. No driving for 10 days! I got some great new Victoria's Secret PJ's to lounge in. I got lots of books to read, and I have Michael's whole DVD collection right next store to view so I will be set! Maria is giving me two massages next week to "prepare" me and she is going to make a hospital call! yeah for Licensed Massage Therapist who become dear friends! So, I haven't been too worried or anxious about any of this yet, trying to live in the moment and be mindful.


Andy had some xrays yesterday. His shoulder is healing slowly. They are ordering a special test for him to see if it is going to heal fully and they brought up the possibility of him needing surgery if the next test doesn't look good. Again, he'' continue with PT and we'll keep on focusing on what he can do and we'll deal with another surgery when and if it happens.


So, now we are just trying to come up with some good Halloween costumes for our Halloween dinner with friends on Saturday. We've always been so into Halloween (we got engaged on it!) and love to dress up, but this year we have been off a bit and we're fallen behind the curve on "dressing up". Hopefully, something will inspire us soon. I'd hate to disappoint, but "We've got a good excuse!"


Back to the popcorn.... Sherie

The week in review...

Here are the kids last weekend in Cooperstown. It was a beautiful fall weekend and it was nice getting away. What a beautiful place it is, if you haven't been, I would highly recommend it, especially in the fall.

Made it back to Syracuse for Spamalot. Lacked some of the energy and excitement of broadway and it was our third time seeing it, but give me any musical, anywhere, and I am usually pretty contented.

The kids had monday off for the non-holiday of Columbus Day, another beautiful day. Ruby went with a friend to the Science Museum in Syracuse and Rex & I had a great day at the zoo. Andy worked very hard to support our goofing off ways!

No doctors appointments this past week, it was just like the old days just doing stuff around the house and getting kids to and from activities. I have been exercising again and getting surgery ready. I did get out for a few lunches with friends and that was a nice treat. One day I didn't even leave the house, just did yard work and projects inside I haven't had time for. The Red Sox have kept me up late alot this week and I am half typing as I watch the game right now. They are ahead as of this line!

Ruby rode a cute new pony.

Rex wrote a spooky story

Ruby made a brownie bat for her brownie troop's Halloween event.

Rex's team won their first soccer game.

We all went to a 6 story treehouse in Ithaca with Andy's Webelos.

As normal as could be and I loved it.

Of course, in the back of my mind there is the clock ticking, 19 more days till the surgery, I have my 2 week preop with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday. I assume we'll talk nitty gritty about the surgery and aftermath, nothing I haven't heard already from my survivor girls. I am armed and ready for this on all fronts.

So, until then I will continue on overdrive to do everything I can now, to make up for not doing anything in November. I am planning a family thanksgiving at my house, but I will have everyone else doing all the work, I just want it here so I don't have to shower and it's quicker to my bed!

I planned and booked the office xmas party at the Brewster Inn again, it is always a nice evening with Andy's office and we all spend the night there, so it will be my first overnight away after the surgery, we all know what that will mean....... I can sleep in with no kids waking me!

Also, sent in our sponsorship for the Skaneatles Festival xmas gathering, they said I could have special parking and extra wine at the table for making it there so soon after my surgery!

Just gotta find something to do for New Years now. This is all me planning when I said I wasn't planning for awhile. I did delegate and didn't interfer with Halloween plans, we are going out with a few friends for a quiet masquerade dinner, just couldn't get into the whole wild dress up & party we went to last year, did that just come out of my mouth? I guess the"BC" has slowed me down just a bit.

Hope everyone is well, thanks again for your htoughts and prayers, I feel happy to have you all in our lives.

Sherie

THE TARGET & DATE ARE SET

I will go in Thursday November 6th for a bilateral Mastectomy & start of the reconstruction process. I will be at Community Hospital for two days following and then home. The first 2 weeks, I hear, are the ones I need to take it easy for. I will have drains in and won't be able to lift or drive during that period. Following that I still will have physical restriction on my activities, but my survivors girls tell me I can, and should, still try and get out to social getherings, as I can tolerate. Holiday season is quickly approaching & there are lots of parties, so don't take me off your lists just yet!
The reconstruction process (expanding & 2 more one day surgeries) will continue throughout the winter and I hope to be finished entirely with that process by bathing suit time in July.(I was going to say June, but I remembered we are in central new york)

Funny Victoria's Secret just sent an email about their spring bathing suit line and I realized I will be able to wear styles I have always liked, but not been able to pull off with my real boobs. I will probably be a bit smaller too, so I am going to have alot of 34C bathing suits up for grabs! Positives, it is all about finding them and holding on to them to get through what could be a long & sore winter. (see that was me doing a positive again, not painful, just sore) I must tell you, patients always used to say I was pretty good at what I did(psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfullness) and now that I am using this stuff on myself, I agree! and I haven't even had to resort to prescribing myself medications yet. Andy tried to talk me into it, but I just gave him some! (just kidding)

So, one month to go. I am exercising again, now that the first surgery has healed and I am getting what I call "surgery ready". The stars have the Oscars, I have surgery. I wonder if I should go tanning. Has anyone tried that cabbage soup diet? I should probably drop 10 pounds before the red carpet, actually I think Community Hospital's carpet is blue, I should remember that when I am picking out my gown, wouldn't want to clash. Hair up or down, need to remember to talk to Kim about that.

Honestly, I am good. The family is packing tonight for Cooperstown & looking forward to a great and warm weekend there. We are staying at the Otesaga Resort (ohhlaalaa) & going to hit all the museums (art/farmers/baseball) & shops. Then back to Syracuse on Sunday for SPAMALOT. (Yes, it will be my third time and the kids second, but it is that good!) The zoo or the MOST on monday as the kids aer off school. It'll be a great fall weekend. Hope all of you can get out there and enjoy it too.

Andy says Hi! Continues to improve, slowly, but surely. He's still a hurtin and he is spent by 8pm each night, he's been working like a dog! Thank goodness they started running the series of some of his work in the Post Standard this past weekend, it lifted his spirits and there are plenty more articles to follow. They wanted him to write a weekly column talking about different design ideas, but he doesn't like to write, that is why he draws! and draw he does, even with 4 broken ribs and a broken collar bone. That's my man. Keep your eyes out for him in the sunday paper again and keep on for me as we'll be away.

As a very handsome man, Matthew McConaughy, likes to say, Just keep livin(JKL)!

Sherie

Sassy Strides Strutted it's stuff yesterday. We joined the other 7500 people who walking in the Making Strides Campaign for Breast Cancer in downtown Syracuse. Our team had the 3rd highest amount raised. One of our Captains, Ms. Julia was top individual raiser until that morning and then some big CEO man came and knocked her down to 2nd place. I was able to make it to the 9th highest individual raiser with all of your help, Thank you! It was a beautiful day and inspiring to see how the people there helping support this cause. It was also amazing to see all the ladies with survivor shirts on and to hear their stories. While my journey is just beginning with this all, I am not alone and this was proof positive! This is a special bunch of ladies and I am honored to be amongst their ranks. It doesn't hurt that I look good in pink!

Gotta go get the kids, but wanted to send a big shoot out to everyone that donated and helped this be the biggest ever event in its 13 years!

Sherie

This is what I got Andy for our anniversary, it is a new superhero bike riding suit! Actually I am going to get him a wetsuit beacause he almost drown during the swim. It's true, if he had successfully finished the bike course you would have all heard the story about the swim, but after the fall, the bike fall got all the attention. So, what happened is he didn't have a triathalon suit this year and he decided to wear our waterskiing one instead. You true triathaloners are laughing now cause you know how heavy these are, not to mention ours has arms, so he had no movement there either. He said he tried to take it off in the middle of the swim when he realized the errors of his ways, but that wasn't happening either. I think he swam with it around his ankles for a while. This drama may have caused the bike accident, as he was trying to make up ground for a bad swim time and may have been a bit more reckless on the bike. Well, that all behind us, he'll have a new wet suit, he'll take a bike safety course, and he'll be ready to go next year.

He had a painful PT appointment yesterday and as he wasn't wearing his sling, a few people hit him on his shoulder, poor thing. Thank goodness the drinks were a flowing at dinner!

Our Anniversary dinner was very nice. Mirbeau went all out to try and get us drunk, but it was a school night. We were happily intoxicated and home by 9:30pm, Andy was sleeping by 10pm. I watched the Red Sox's beat the Angels!

I called the Surgeons today. They are still working on scheduling my surgery, but feel like the first week in November should work. I watched Oprah on Tuesday for the BC (breast cancer) special. It was inspiring to hear all the stories and experiences of other woman. I wanted to get it clear here though. They mentioned that friends and family should not believe people going through this when they say they are good and don't need anything. They mentioned something about not having to be Superwoman. Well, sorry folks, but I ain't giving that title up! I have worked way to hard for it and it ain't going anywhere now just because of this. Also, they were saying something about how spiritually you re-evaluate and re-prioritize and don't feel like everything has to be perfect. Yeah, not believeing that one either. Things still have there proper place and ain't no Oprah or other BC survivors telling me I have to let my perfectionism slide. What are they doing here, trying to drive me insane! I did like what Melissa Etheridge said to Christina Applegate about this being a gift and an opportunity to start new. I am working in therapy, with myself, on the body image issue post surgery cause I think that is going to be the hardest thing for me and Christina really hit a cord there for me.

Well, time to change out summer clothes for fall/winter.

There are only 2 1/2 days left to donate to the Making Strides Walk, if you have a little extra money burning a hole in your pocket, click on the link below and help the fight against breast cancer!

Thanks,

Sherie

Happy Anniversary to Us!
Here we are 14 years ago on our wedding day in Lake Placid. I know, you are thinking I haven't changed much and you are wondering who that hair bag is, but that's my boy. If you can't see it, he has a pony tail in the picture, he still has it too, just ask Steve who didn't believe him at New Years last year. We are off to Mirbeau for dinner to celebrate! Tell you all about it, well most of it tomorrow.
Sherie

meal update: via Shelly

Sherie said that since she is feeling good right now and definitely will need help with meals once she schedules her surgery for the beginning of November.... that she would do a bit of family cooking for the remaining days in October. Below is the October calendar ... full of helping friends and NO THANK YOU days... where Sherie will cook..

again... The Ramsgard's will need a bit more support in November..stay tuned for a new calender or email shelly or helen.

we share our continued THANKS for all your help!

calendar updated 10-1-08

click to enlarge