It's been a while since I have posted, but I have been following all of the recent posts. I have been praying each night for the health of each and every person on this board. I wish I hadn't "met" you under these circumstances, but for sure, I feel that my life is better for meeting you all.

I had a post op visit back on February 23rd and got good news. Everything was healing well. The Doc actually told me that he'd really never seen a cleaner mouth just three weeks after surgery. I will admit, I was tired of the nasty taste in my mouth and really went to town with the salt water rinses. I was given the go ahead to chew again, Amen! I was also okayed to go back to work. But the best news of all came when he went over the final pathology with me. Remember, they removed part of my jaw and the initial path didn't show anything in the bone. As it turns out, there was a tiny bit of cancer within the bone. I thank God that he took that bone, because if he hadn't, who knows when it would have been discovered. He is confident that he got it all. I had clean margins. I shudder at the thought of that having been missed. It didn't show up on the scans so I wouldn't have realized it was there. I was lucky.

I am falling back into my normal routine. Back to work, taking care of the kids. Back on my eliptical machine every day. I gotta get in shape for that walk in June.

One thing I have learned is that I am not fully happy in my job. It is okay, but it's not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I am actually persuing a position at Mayo Clinic, where I received my treatment. I think it would be cool if this worked out for me. A lot of things have changed for me since my diagnosis and I have taken the opportunity to rethink certain things in my life. The job thing is one of them. I know that good has come from my experience and I want to keep using it that way. Even 3 months ago, if you would have told me I'd be thinking about working at Mayo, I would have laughed out loud. Now it doesn't seem so silly.

I will be heading back to see the surgeon on March 16. If all is well, I will have visits with an oral surgeon closer to home. Then early next year we can get on the road to reconstruction. I am not stressing about this at all. I have already gotten used to the missing teeth. I'll do that surgery when the timing is right, though my goal is to be sporting a full set of teeth by my 40th B-day. That gives me until May 2009.

My hubby (Brad) has bacterial pneumonia so now I am getting a chance to be the caregiver. He's getting much better, but I do see just how hard it is to be on this side of the fence. On a funny note, back when I had my surgery, my coworkers presented me with a t-shirt that says "cancer survivor" on it. I wore it to work on my first night back. So this morning, I noticed something on the back of Brad's shirt. In magic marker, he had written "pneumonia survivor." I laughed right out loud.

God bless you all.

Amy