Familiarity:  A word which surrounds the words family and familiar.  It evokes in me the feelings of calm and warmth.  It can include all the senses of sight, smell, touch, sound, and movement. 

*When I think of special holidays, I think of the sight and smell of traditional family foods, the sound of family chatter and familiar songs being heard and sung, the touch of familiar decorations being pulled from storage, and the movements involved as we make our special preparations and share hugs  and activities with friends and family.  For me, these familiarities create warmth, smiles and calmness.

*The same holds true for me with the familiarity of clothes - what I choose for lounging, for working out, for going out with friends or to special dinners/performances: I choose items which are familiar, comfy for my activity of choice, items that make me feel good inside and provide me with the calm needed to present myself to the outside world.  

As Bob and I drove into Rochester, MN for my Mayo appointments in January 2024, I realized  familiarity  was not always a warm and fuzzy feeling. We had been navigating this 4 1/2 hour drive from Green Bay, WI to Rochester, MN for a year.  We were very familiar with our hotel room, we knew exactly what the rotation of hotel breakfast items would be,  and I personally knew all the halls and stairways from my 2023 days post-radiation and post-brain surgery, when my short nights of sleep found me walking those halls and climbing stairs endlessly.  On the Mayo "campus", we were now familiar with all the patient care areas I needed for blood draws, CT scans, MRI scans, and operations.  We were becoming way too familiar with looking at my various tumor areas on computer screens with the physician at our side.  Warm and comfy familiarities? NO!  

Now, as we return for March appts, I will be adding 3 more brain tumor procedures (involving both radiation, a thermal probe and surgery) to my repertoire of "familiarities".  Bob, my biggest cheerleader, reminds me to lean to the positive: The Mayo medical experts are still providing me with procedures to keep these tumors from taking control of my brain, and the current chemo and immunotherapy concoctions are still effective enough that I can participate in most of my preferred activities, including my MOST PRECIOUS activity of surrounding myself with family and friends... who still put up with my particular (or peculiar?) talent of combining humor and sarcasm in the same sentence.  

I apologize if you have been the recipient of any of those sentences! However, I should also warn you: I wear my NO FILTER t-shirt with pride!!

With all sincerity, we thank you for your many and endless forms of support.  You make this fight worth it!

Joan and Bob