"Lost in this moment with you, I am completely consumed..."

Hola!

Well, I have just about the best news ever and it must be shared with the world:

Today I had a doctor's appointment to review X-rays of my femur and to figure out what the next course of action would be. After a forty-five minute wait, my hip doctor/surgeon (Dr. Sims) decided to show up and we viewed my X-rays. To say the least, they looked good. Really good. I think they even surprised Dr. Sims. Between having radiation and chemotherapy, what was once a dark and cancerous looking femur is now an area that is glowing a healthy white. Calcium and healthy bone cells are returning to my femural head and neck. Dr. Sims says my femur can tolerate weight and there is no risk that it will randomly fracture.

My posture, however, is a little poor since I had started limping to compensate for previous pain. So tomorrow I start meeting with a physical therapist in order to regain flexibility and normal movement. I'm glad Dr. Sims set me up with someone to work with on that. I was worried they were just going to say, "Congratulations. Now go off and do some stretching or something and you'll be back to normal eventually." But now I'll have someone to show me what stretches and exercises will benefit me most and I can work on not just regaining strength in my one leg, but my overall endurance. I'll be able to keep up with everybody again!! Clogging is in my future!!! =D (Clogging is that hillbilly tap dance stuff I told you about before.)

So this has pretty much been one of the best days of my life as of late. I got up this morning, lounged around, then Mom and I went shopping before my appointment. We made a trip to Michael's (craft store) so I could get some new paint. I have old, cheap bottles of acrylic sitting here at home and I definitely needed a new tube of white. Next we went to Panera for lunch. All I can say is: Fufu berry. That's right. Fufu berry. Go forth to the nearest Panera and try a Fufu berry Jones soda. It is amazing. So then I had my appointment and started crying for joy. Afterwards we rushed over to RCTC for the remaining bit of band practice. It wasn't all that exciting. We played "Hands Across the Sea" (evil Sousa) again, "Billboard March" (why must we play marches...!?), and the "Pirates" medley. I realized I need to work on a section of "Pirates"; there is some crazy triplet/tercet action going on in that song that needs to be practiced up to full speed. And finally I got to enjoy the beautiful day. I took all my paints and supplies outside and painted in the sun. Later Mom and I took the puppies on a walk, ate dinner, and went to a free concert at RCTC.

The concert was really fun. It was a group called Arvel Bird and One Nation. They performed contemporary Native American pieces, which was quite interesting. Arvel was an amazing fiddle player who had studied classical violin for eleven years and then went around exploring all different types of music, so no matter what he played it sounded superb. The group's guitarist was something else too. Definitely a very talented musician. Here's their website: http://www.arvelbirdandonenation.com/ Check it out and listen to "Mother Earth". The lyrics aren't all that creative, but the instrumental aspects of the song are worth listening to.

And I guess that is about it in news. I think I'll finish up this post so I can go eat my delectable slice of Oreo DQ blizzard cake. =D

Much love,
Cheryl