Wow - a day without doctors

On the fast track again... the social worker yesterday was calling to talk with me about how I could approach my cancer with Ellie. She was make suggestions about bringing the conversation to her level and not leaving out info because she might hear it from somewhere else and it would be better coming from me. I will meet her in person next week after my oncology appointment.
Rob and Dean decided to just get on the road and Dean noticed Ellie was starting to cry. Everyone hugged and kissed goodbye and Rob promised to be back on Saturday instead of Sunday. Ellie's crying eventually led to hyperventilating - must run in our family lately. I asked her what was bothering her and suddenly this string of questions came rushing from her lips. How sick are you? When are you going to be better? Do you need surgery? Whoa, I guess "the talk" was going to happen now.
We sat on the couch together and hashed everything out. She asked when my first appointment was - I told her about 3 weeks ago with my primary. We went through the calendar and I told her the extremely knowledgeable 8 year old version of my last week. She wanted to know how each test worked, who was there, which arm the IV went in on each day. I explained what I know so far about my upcoming treatment - how I will have to get sick to get better. She asked some really incredible questions - things I hadn't even thought about. She wanted to know if I would lay on my stomach or back for my radiation treatments - I don't know now but I will next week. I told her I have the most excellent group of doctors and nurses working in my corner to make me better - she wanted to know how many and each of their names - would she get to meet them? It was the toughest thing I have ever had to do as a Mom (even beat Nick's allergic drug reaction trip to the ER). I asked her to please not worry about me that I will be just fine and back to my normal self in a while - how long? About a year - that is a long time for an 8 year old. We both cried throughout our talk and at the end it did feel good to finally get "my secret" off my chest. I believe knowledge is power and that our talk empowered Ellie to stop worrying.
Mom and Dad came over for Thursday night dinner. Mom read to Ellie and Nick, Nick and Grandpa played trains and then bedtime. Ellie ended the night by telling me she wasn't worried anymore - music to my ears. I even remembered that the tooth fairy needed to visit Ellie's room - usually Rob's job.
I decided to cut out the sleeping pills since they don't really do anything and what do you know? I actually had dreams last night - not good sleep but dreams are positive. The sun was shining way too bright this morning because both the kids were awake at 5:30. We had breakfast, Ellie went to school and then Nick and I went over to Mom's. Nick and Tony played for a bit before we left to do some grocery shopping.
We picked up lunch and pulled into Beck Lake for a impromptu picnic lunch. The boys had a great time watching the canoe and kayak on the lake and all the geese and birds walking around. There was even a family of geese - the Mom and Dad and about a dozen gosling - super cute. We traveled home and got Ellie from the bus stop. We went to the park with our neighbor and played for a while.
We went for a special dinner - I asked Ellie to think about where she wanted to go last night and she came up with Chilis - so that's where we wound up. We had a great time together - that's is all I want from this weekend because I don't know how the next few weeks of treatment are going to go. We stopped by the new Salvation Army thrift store and it was icky - just putting that out there local friends - just keep going and pass it up. We came home and read a few books and I tucked the kids in.
Just a very low key day - probably the calm before the storm but hey, I will take the calm. Hope everyone is having as awesome of a Friday as us - Love to all, Tree