“There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”

—George Burton Adams (1851-1925), educator, historian

I have received so many heartwarming emails and it would take ages to answer each and every one, so I am going to let everyone know…

God is good and wonderful and the prayers and well wishes of others really helped me feel comforted and a heck of a lot less anxious when I went in for my scan. It is always scary when the word cancer is brought up by your doctor. The worst part was the mineral solution that they injected in the vein in my hand followed by a saline solution to push it through. Brent came with me and then we went and had lunch at the Olive Garden and waited for the solution to circulate. I swear I drank 5 full glasses of water over lunch and sloshed back to the hospital 2 hours later for the scan. I had a really hard time laying still for the 23 minutes of the first full body scan. (I’m such an antsy wiggle worm!) The scan was actually pretty neat to watch as the machine moved me out of the main scanner thingamajig. I’ve never seen my whole skeletal system and it was so neat. They did my lower back separately and then a scan of m y neck and head. (It was cool to see my neck scan because it turns out that a previous problem that I;d had with my neck has corrected itself!!!!) It was also neat to see that my brain is alive and kicking in it’s cozy little home, too… LOL!

Anyway… we are still not sure what the problem is with the pain, but the dr now feels that it’s something muscular and we’ll try some manipulations and therapy to try to relieve the pain. I’d like to avoid pill therapy… .but something to ease the pain to allow sleeping would be mighty nice.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your well wishes, prayers, and positive thoughts. I firmly believe that God listens to our prayers and the prayers of others praying on our behalf.

With much love,

Inky Smiles!

Erin

“The crest and crowning of all good, Life’s final star, is Brotherhood.”

—Edwin Markham (1852-1940); poet