Today was my first official day back at work. Even though I will only be working in the afternoons this month (or until my morning nausea goes away and my stamina improves), it feels like a big step in the direction of normalcy. It felt so good to be in the office, discussing projects with my colleagues and focusing on something other than my health. As most of you know, I really love my work and I have missed it over the past three months. So, while I am really exhausted this evening, it is a nice kind of tired.

As I look back over the past three months, I am very grateful to be where I am today - far from 100% but definitely moving in the right direction. And I am incredibly grateful for all of the people who have helped me get here:

• An incredibly skilled medical team who gave me state of the art care with kindness and understanding - and really good health insurance to pay for it (not all my patients are so lucky);
• My children and their spouses who where here whenever they could be (even when it was difficult) and who called every day to check that I was okay;
• My extended family - children, siblings, siblings-in-law, parents, uncle, cousins, nieces and nephews - whose love and support were shown in so many ways;
• A team of caretakers (see my previous post) who helped me do what I had to do to get through the therapy - and kept Mark safe and happy;
• My colleagues who stepped in so ably to do my work - although I missed work, I had complete faith that things would be go on just fine without me and that faith was more than justified; 
• Dozens of people who provided food for me, for Mark and for my caregivers, giving us one less thing to worry about (continuing this week and I can't tell you what a blessing it was to not have to cook when I got home today!);
• My neighbors who kept our sidewalk and driveway clear during one of the worst winters Wisconsin has ever experienced;
• My friends and colleagues who sent flowers, DVDs, books, coloring books (really fun!) and a myriad of other gifts to increase my comfort and improve my mood during treatment;
• My brother for taking care of most of my Christmas shopping and my sister for both putting up and taking down my Christmas ornaments;
• My husband for just loving me and worrying about me even though he didn't really understand what was happening; 
• YOU - the many people who have sent notes of encouragement and support on this page or who just checked in. This Caringbridge site was a great source of support for me - just knowing you were there and concerned gave me comfort. Sometimes when I could not sleep at night, I would pull the site up on my phone to reread. 

As I now prepare to return to a more normal life, I cannot help but pause and appreciate what a wonderful life I have had and still do have and what a lucky woman I am. This will be my last post - don't want to bore you with my petty irritations about not being able to do as much as I want as fast as I want. But I want to THANK YOU for being there for me when I needed you and for caring.

Love,
Mary