Happy Birthday To Me!

Hi guys! It’s been a while since I’ve posted and that's becoming a theme with me. Life gets busy! And, I'm still plagued with fatigue and hot flashes. By the time my workday is done, I don't have much steam left. But I thought today is a good day to do so - it’s my birthday! And I have some positive updates. Last week I had an upper endoscopy in order to check out my esophagus and stomach since I’ve had issues in the past with acid reflux. I actually had a hiatal hernia surgery in 2023 which was due to Gastroesophageal reflux disease. I thought that would fix things and for a while it did. Was able to get off of Omeprazole which I had been on for decades. But then cancer happened. And due to the stress and anxiety, I started having acid reflux again. It came back - which sucks. So I got back on a low-dose of omeprazole, and started having some stomach issues, likely from Tamoxifen since the issues started shortly after starting the medication. So, that’s why the upper endoscopy. The results were mixed - my esophagus looked great but there are spots of inflammation on my stomach which the doctor found necessary to biopsy. I received the biopsy results yesterday and, good news, nothing worrisome! What a relief! I have to be on meds for at least eight weeks to see if it clears up and the irritation goes away. The other positive thing is yesterday I had my routine mammogram. If you recall, it was a year ago during my routine mammogram that the cancer was initially found so there was certainly some anxiety with this one. I thought I would have to wait days and agonize over results but I actually received the results yesterday afternoon and everything looks good! So I can enjoy my birthday today with a little more peace of mind.

So far celebrating my birthday has been wonderful. I spent all day Saturday with my boys at the Mall of America. Me, Jon and Eddie went to the vintage fest on the fourth floor and found some cool things. Afterwards, we walked around and shopped a little bit, ate lunch at the food court (because I didn’t want anything fancy), did the 5D mine ride and then did an escape room - and escaped! Gotta love the Mall of America! They have something for everybody :-)

We were paired up with another group - 4 college friends - they were so fun to hang out with and solve all the crazy puzzles of the escape room. We did "The Heist" which was solving the mystery of the stolen painting.

At the 5D Extreme - Mine Ride

My and my boy <3

Today, I worked from home, enjoyed my free birthday Starbucks and received a surprise delivery of Crumbl Cookie from Mandy! Doesn't get much better than that :)

Next week we're having another birthday celebration with Cole and Leah - dinner at Punchbowl Social - those kids are crazy busy so it can be a challenge getting all 5 of us to make plans work!

For my next posts I need to catch you up on my trip to Portugal (yes, Portugal!), my poor, sweet Peanut and his failing health and some of the art projects I'm currently working on. Did I mention I was busy?