Mikey Likes It :)

When I am around the house I tend to wear scarves or buffs and not bother with a wig; sometimes I am even known to walk around 'topless', which is what the breastcancer.org forum defines as 'without a headcovering'.

My son Kenny is 17 and can be quite honest, although he knows that if it isn't complimentary he may be best to keep his opinion to himself. He has been a sweetheart since my diagnosis. I have learned that it is best to share information with him ahead of time so that he knows what to expect. He knew about my surgery, my chemo and the hair loss and many other things ahead of time. He has given me lots of good hugs and taken chores upon himself without being asked. I really appreciate this.

Of our four boys Kenny is the one who I would describe as our 'Mikey', as in the Life cereal commercial. He has very distinct food likes and dislikes and these likes and dislikes also seem to transfer over to other areas.

Yesterday afternoon I had my second appointment with the GP who specializes in oncology. Again, there was quite a wait in the waiting room, but once I was in her office she gave me the impression that she had all the time in the world for me. We talked about how I was handling chemo and the side effects and about my Mom and many other things. I described my busy day where I ended up 'not being awesome' by the end of it and she told me that a strategy that is used in the BEAUTY program I am starting is a system for working with your energy levels on any given day or time. The system is red, yellow and green. A red time is when you have no energy and you give yourself permission to do only the absolute essentials. A yellow time you may have a little more energy but still have to scale back the activity and a green time is a good time to possibly try to accomplish a little bit more. She also said that this would be a good way to communicate to family what kind of day I was having so they could be prepared and accommodate accordingly.

Anyway, back to my story ;). After the appointment I hit rush hour traffic and didn't get home until after 6 p.m. There was still supper to make and so I didn't bother taking my wig off, but went right to work on food preparation. As we were all sitting down to our supper, Kenny looked up at me, said 'Nice wig' and then went went right back to eating. 'Mikey' likes it - that endorsement and the honesty behind it is priceless.

Take care, everyone.