Victoria!

This weekend Jeff and I took a little trip to Victoria, BC for his last weekend in Seattle before moving to San Diego... this week!  But anyway, we stayed in Port Angeles on Friday night and then caught the ferry into Victoria early on Saturday.  And it was sooo cute and charming!!  I highly recommend it for a great nearby weekend trip from Seattle.

The Empress, our castle for the weekend

We wandered around the city (although it feels more like a town) and enjoyed delicious lunch at Red Fish Blue Fish (thanks for the rec, Sam!).  Then we attended a surprise afternoon tea at the Empress, and it was AWESOME.  I love high tea, and this was probably the best I've had.  

This pic cracks me up... you still look quite rugged, Jeff ;)

Wonderful black tea (minus the gnat that temporarily went swimming in my cup, ha), savory sandwiches, AMAZING scones and strawberry jam, and the tastiest little desserts.  Mmmmmmmmm.

YUM

After tea, we headed to Butchart Gardens for a picnic dinner, wandering through the really beautiful gardens, and enjoying some of the best fireworks.  If you ever go to Butchart, definitely stick around for summer Saturday fireworks, then check out the Sunken Garden after, when it's dark out but the garden is lit.  It is MAGICAL.  Seriously.  So beautiful.  

Today we enjoyed free breakfast at the Empress, which was part of our complimentary upgrade upon arriving yesterday.  Don't mind if we do!  We hit the road, took a ferry ride, took a scenic drive, took another ferry ride, and then made it back to Seattle.

My 2 main cities, wrapped up in 1 nice little life-preserving package

All in all, Jeff and I had an awesome weekend.  Sun, great food, lovely flowers, a pretty sweet hotel, time on the water (via ferry, but still).  And a visit to a crazy foreign country!  Oh, Canada...

I felt pretty good and it was nice to give my eyes a break for the weekend.  I have 2 days of work this week, then am off for a leisurely little scenic drive with Jeff down the West Coast.  We're taking off after work on Tuesday and get to Los Angeles on Sunday, so I'll likely be off the blogging radar.  I fly from L.A. to Springfield, Missouri on Sunday and will definitely update then.  As there's nothing else to do in Springfield, so I hear.  :)

Getting nervous

Even though my first quarterly MRI appointment isn't for a month (September 1st), I'm already starting to get a little bit nervous.  I know I should be enjoying my ignorant "no news is good news" time right now, before I could potentially get bad news, but I can feel the nerves in my stomach a little.

I know why I'm feeling this way though.  My eyes have been really sucking the last couple of weeks, and it has me paranoid.  They're tired all the time and sometimes they don't want to focus quite like they used to, pre-surgery.  I had/have pretty amazing eyesight, so these challenges are a bit frustrating.  I've been doing a ton of reading and detail work at work lately and I can totally tell it's affecting my eyes.  It's like they never get a break to recover, not even over the weekend, so the tiredness never ends.  I'm not reading on the bus or at home but they still seem constantly overworked.  Since my tumor is in the vision part of my brain, it just makes me wonder if there's anything more going on than just overuse of my eyes at work.  (Like tumor growth.)

As Jeff reminded me, it's highly unlikely that my non-growing tumor (at least, before surgery) that we found randomly that wasn't giving me symptoms has started growing 2 months after surgery and is now affecting me.  He is right; it's very unlikely to be growing... I'd just feel a lot better if my eyes started cooperating more.  The good news is that I'm taking 3 days off from work next week to drive down the WA/OR/CA coast and I'm not only looking forward to the trip and the company but also for the relaxation for my eyes.  :)

Some specific thank yous

Today I was able to give my official thank you to my seester Amy and buzzin cuzzin Stephanie, for all of their help surrounding my surgery.  They went to numerous appointments with me, took tons of time off of work, stayed in the hospital, guest blogged (Steph), tried to attend the support group (Amy), picked up things from the store, ran errands, and were generally pretty awesome.  I owe them BIG.

We love Christmas.  But not in July.  This is a couple Decembers ago.

Today I started to repay my debt by treating them to a lovely little spa day!  We got massages, manicures, and pedicures at Gene Juarez and enjoyed a little post-spa meal at Potbelly.  It was a relaxing and luxurious day.  Almost makes me want to be a full-time spa-going lady of leisure.  Just need to win the lottery first...

We're addicted to love.  And Halloween.

Thanks, ladies!!!

I also want to give a quick thanks to Amy's friend Mylissa.  Although I haven't met her, she organized a fundraising Friday at the Morgan Stanley office that she works at.  People were able to wear jeans if they donated to the Brain Tumor Walk!  Amy collected a handful of random online donations and Mylissa has some cash to donate to the cause too.  Around $75 was raised by a bunch of strangers!  So cool!  :)

TS,B&T is dominating!

Team Sara, Brain and Tall (or TS,B&T) is totally rocking the fundraising for the upcoming Brain Tumor Walk in Portland!  There are 85 teams registered, and we are #5 in the list of top fundraising teams!!!  And I'd like to point out that our team has 10 members as of right now (with a possible 3 more joining that I know of), and the teams above us have 66, 29, 30, and 38 team members, respectively.  My team is so badass!!  :)

Sometimes I can get a BIT competitive, and the fundraising for this really important event has brought that out in me.  I am currently the #3 individual fundraiser!!!!!!!  I don't know how many people are registered for the walk overall, but I'm feeling darn good about the money that has been raised and the cause that it's supporting.

How cool is it that 3 of the top 5 fundraisers are Sara(h)s?!

I wish that I could take credit for my team's climb up the list of fundraisers, but I really owe it all to YOU, the readers of my blog, my friends, my family, my coworkers, and even people that I've never even met but are supporting members of my team and this cause.  I could not be MORE thrilled with how the fundraising is going and all of the support that we're receiving.  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

There's 1 month left till the walk itself, and my team and I aren't done trying to raise as much money for brain tumor research and patient support as we can.  If you're interested in joining the team and walking with us, or donating some tax-deductible funds, or even just high-5ing us when you see us (who doesn't love high-5s?!), we (and myself especially) are really grateful for your love and support.

Go Team Sara, Brain and Tall!!  :)  xoxo

99% normal

I am feeling GOOD!  And just about as normal as I could hope to be feeling, less than 2 months after freakin' brain surgery.  I've started working out (although I use that term loosely).  I've been able to go on 45-minute speed walks near my apartment painlessly.  Well, except for the I'm-sooo-out-of-shape pain.  I haven't kicked it up any notches higher than that yet.  I'm washing my hair normally, walking at my normal fast pace, and reading more.

The only things that seem to be keeping me 1% away from total normality are my eyes a little and my sense of direction/symmetry.  I'm still not able to read on the bus without my eyes being pretty unhappy with me.  I volunteered at the Warrior Dash with Lisa this weekend, and when we were on beer garden bracelet watch (to make sure everyone was 21 and over), my eyes became quite strained.  The issue with my sense of direction/symmetry (as I call it) is still around too.  Just today, I was on the 3rd floor after lunch, wanting to go to my desk on the 7th.  I hit the down elevator button and waited, letting an elevator going up totally pass me.  It wasn't until about 20 seconds later that I realized the 7th floor is ABOVE the 3rd floor.  Sometimes I feel like a kindergartener.  A really tall kindergartener.

I also think I spent too much time on my rooftop deck during my tumor vacation, as I have a pretty ridiculous farmer's tan going on.  It'll look especially hot if I don't get it fixed before Carl and Maria's wedding in early October.  But I'm sure my strapless black groom's attendant dress will look nice with a farmer's tan, no?!  (Does this count as a surgery side effect?)

Seriously though, I'm feeling pretty back to normal.  Now if only I can ditch my hats...

And, unrelated, my friend from college Krystal (who had surgery to remove part of her brain tumor a couple months before me, at the same hospital with the same neurosurgeons) had a seizure this weekend.  Her tumor was discovered after she had a couple pretty major seizures this spring, so it must be quite scary to have it happen again (although luckily it was minor).  I'm only mentioning this so that you can keep her in your thoughts as she works through her tumor challenges too.

I'm OVER hats

It's been almost 2 months since surgery, and I'm officially REALLY tired of wearing hats and headscarves.  Seriously.  I've only ponytailed it twice but it's about to become a regular 'do in my repertoire.  I also got my first random hat comment today from someone who I know but that didn't know about my surgery.  I may have been wearing a headscarf and may have heard a pirate-like aaarrrgggghh come in my direction.  :)  Don't worry, I thought it was funny.

I am about to begin officially counting the days till late September when I can chop it OFF...

But the good news is that it is growing!  I've posted a pic of my hair progress on my incision picture page.  But as always, view at your own risk, as the incision pics are still on there too.

Just a bad dream?

I had a doctor's appointment last week (unrelated to my tumor) and the doctor asked me about my tumor situation.  After I told her, she asked who my neurosurgeon is.  I told her Dr. S, and she said that he did a craniotomy on her 10 years ago, as she had a tumor too.  I think it's pretty amazing to meet people that are/were in a similar situation as me, even down to the neurosurgeon!  Her tumor was fully removed at surgery and she hasn't had any recurrences since.  She told me that, as weird as it sounds, she wouldn't change her situation for the world.  She said that having the tumor and surgery gave her an entirely new perspective that she is very lucky to have now.  Granted, she hasn't had any tumor issues since (she's a lucky lady), but it's still good to hear.  She said it took her about 6 months after the surgery to feel like that, and while my perspective has changed about some things, I'm really looking forward to continuing to adjust my perspective (in a positive way).  It goes back to that Lance Armstrong quote ("You don't know it yet, but we're the lucky ones.") that I think about a lot.

I definitely am making progress, as my whole surgery is starting to seem like a weird bad dream that I had. It sort of feels like after I got my adult braces off.  I know I actually had braces, but it feels like that was a weird bad dream, and sometimes I think, "Wow, did I really actually have braces (as an adult)?!"  Then I see pictures taken from that time and that my teeth are straight now, and I know that yes, yes I did.  My surgery is starting to take on those same characteristics.  Because brain surgery is CRAZY, right?!  It seems unfathomable at times that I actually had it done.  But lo and behold, I have the massive scar and short hair to prove it.

Don't get me wrong, this is a GOOD thing.  My surgery and tumor are not at the top of my mind, and I forget about them a lot.  Because I'm moving on with my life and my surgery and my tumor are not the focus, it almost surprises me when I remember it.  It's not denial, it's just progress.  And it's GREAT.  :)

Whammy!

I was looking forward to attending my first brain tumor support group tonight, which they hold monthly at UWMC.  I met my seester Amy downtown and we headed there together... only to find an empty conference room and not a single brain tumor patient or supporter around!  We waited for about 10 minutes past the start time, then wandered over to the neurosurgery department.  A flier said today's meeting was a "picnic" but had no information as to where said picnic might be occurring, nobody answered the phone when we called the contact number, and there was no alternate location indicated at the conference room.  Bummer.  Perhaps brain tumor patients love sunny Seattle evenings too much to attend?  I can hardly blame them.

I'm going to email the contact lady and perhaps check out a support group at another Seattle hospital instead for next time.  Sigh.  What an anticlimactic event...

UPDATE ON 7/7/11:  I heard back from the lady that I emailed, and they did in fact have their annual picnic somewhere at the hospital... but we just didn't know where or if it was even happening.  She sent me some informational fliers and it sounds like they have a decent turnout, sometimes with guest speakers, and they break the group out halfway into patients/survivors and family/caregivers.  At least it sounds like more than just me and my sister chatting with each other!  So I'll give them another try.  :)

Professional vacationer

Amen to not having any travel restrictions with my head, because I've been enjoying some serious vacation time!  Although I did get my head patted down by TSA at Seatac (and only my head) after my xray scan; I'm guessing they saw my titanium screws and got suspicious.  ;)

Jeff and I took a great little trip to New England and went to a wedding, hung out on the lake, did the big city, and had daily happy hour at the house.  It was relaxing and refreshing and JUST what I needed.  I did get a bit lightheaded after the first boat ride, which was a bit bumpy, but felt awesome otherwise.

Newfound Lake, NH: gorrrrgeous!!

Jeff and I at the wedding... my first official non-hat/scarf day!  My ponytail covered everything mostly, but I get nervous and a little self-conscious that my short hair is tweaking out.

Evening in Boston after Little Italy dinner, complete with swan boats

Once I got back to Seattle, I attended the wedding of a friend from college and her new hubby.  It was a PERFECT Seattle day and night and was a really sweet ceremony and fun time.  Congrats, Karrie and Steve!  (Pics to come, perhaps...)

The morning after the wedding, I dashed off to good ol' Las Vegas for 1 night to celebrate my BFF Carl and his bride Maria's joint bachelor(ette) party.  One night trips to Vegas mean you're definitely a jet setter.  :)  I busted out the ponytail for the second time, with the help of a little gel to keep those short tweakers down.

The "Rich Uncle" and "Villain" finger mustaches, respectively

You need to zoom to appreciate the magic of the mustaches

The future Mrs. and Mr.: congrats!!!

I'm tired, my apartment is a disaster zone, and I've got groceries and laundry and unpacking to catch up on... and it couldn't be better!!  The time off was relaxing and exciting and fun and low-key and just about perfect.

I'm feeling really good, and waiting for one of my last "major" lingering symptoms to simmer down.  When my heartbeat escalates, I feel it pounding in my head immediately and gives me a little (temporary) headache.  I'm not much of a workout lover, but I am really looking forward to getting my heart pumping again (without the side effects).  Soon, hopefully!!