Last Day HipHipHooray!!

HipHipHooray was a common phrase my mom used whenever we had good news at our house when we were kids...and today I am yelling the biggest Hip Hip Hooray!!! as it was my last day of radiation! As Andria puts it I "can share germs" now and to her that means life is back on track and we need to celebrate--like my hips really need lots of chocolate and icecream today!

Believe it or not I do have feelings of happiness and sadness today--

Top five Sad things:

5. I don't have my daily commute to listen to a book on tape, or NPR or music--my choice, not the kids' choice.

4. No daily hope that I can have lunch with my husband since he works "just over there" at the U and might have a chance to escape the OR just long enough to have lunch with me!

3. All the support of my vast fan club in all its various forms and at all its random times.

2. I'm losing the excuse --" I don't have it all together because I have Breast Cancer!!"

1. I said goodbye today to all my Friends in the Radiation department who have smiled, waved, chatted, comforted, listened, cheered, and supported me for the last 33 weekdays of my life. They've seen more of me than they've wanted and they can still look me in the eyes and talk to me about the commonalities of life that we share. They've made me feel like Jenifer--not just a random nameless patient...although I am aware that the reality is that the impression they have made on me will last longer than the impression I have made on them (I don't expect them to remember every single patient--but I can pretend that they will remember me!)

Top five happy feelings:

5. No more daily commutes, speeding to the U to be on time for my tanning session--bottom line is that I'm pretty hopeless at being "on time" 5 days a week to anything!

4. I can stay home and enjoy a summer sleep- in and snuggle and read and talk with my kids in the mornings like I always have in summers past! Bonus--I appreciate what used to be the normal routine!

3. I might have time to actually exercise, shower, read the paper over breakfast and throw in a load of laundry before I have to run out the door to do something important! Laundry loads washed daily??? Never thought I would miss the simplicity of having time to do that!

2. I have two and 1/2 hours every day for the rest of my life that I haven't had for the last 33 weekdays to vacuum a floor, dust off a bookshelf, read a book, work in my yard, answer emails, call my siblings, gaze into space, sleep-in, talk to a friend, breath deeply, go for a bike ride, do a random act of kindness, play airhockey, jump on the trampoline, chase a child learning to ride a bike, text my teenagers, date my husband.... Guess there still won't be enough hours in each day to do all the things I love, but I will profoundly enjoy everything I can squish into each 24 hour day!

1. I can finally say that I am a Cancer Survivor..not a Cancer Patient!!

I still have so much to tell you about what I have been doing for the past 33 days in the radiation lab, but for now I'll just say that I'm sooo grateful for access to incredible medical care...and I'm off to celebrate!!