Mets Day 618 - Together for the holidays

In the past week the family has gathered for the holidays.  Jennifer, Chelsea, and Rose returned from the "Rose Tour" in Utah (Chelsea's medical residency interviews apparently were just a distraction, according to other family members).  Kirsten finished her finals at CNU, drove home and slept for several days.  Spencer finished his finals at NVCC and likewise took a long winter's rest.  Garrett's Christmas break starts today.  And on Wednesday, my mom and stepdad flew up from Florida for the holidays.  It is wonderful to have a full house.  Yesterday and today we've been baking and frosting sugar cookies -- I'm doing my part by letting my stomach fix the ones that are broken or are not perfectly frosted.

I've avoided the hectic shopping rush by doing all of my shopping on line. It's fun to look for offbeat and unexpected gifts for other family members. Jennifer likewise shopped via Amazon, and while she was in Utah, I had about a dozen boxes pile up.  I was under strict instructions not to open the boxes she had ordered, but the problem was that all of my orders were to her name, since I used her Amazon Prime account and didn't bother to change the recipient.  So after she got back, we carefully opened the boxes to decide who was responsible for what.  The presents are gradually congregating under the tree, and the low-key anticipation gradually is building.

Meanwhile, my incontinence has started to reappear.  Nothing regular -- I might be dry for several nights in a row, then leak for a night or two.  There is no pattern that I can detect -- it seems unrelated to volume or type of fluid intake.  Just another thing I have to deal with.

Speaking of which, my stamina has not improved by much.  I still get easily run down if I do anything involving physical activity.  I'm going to follow up with my oncologist after the holidays to see if she has any recommendations.  I'm also going to have another CT scan in early January to see if it can detect any further spreading of my cancer.  I find that I spend very little time thinking about my cancer, even though it has reordered my life.  I deal with the fallout, but since I can't control the disease, I don't worry about it.  It is what it is.