A Long Year Gone By

It's been a long year...year and a half actually.  In May of 2011 we bought a new "old" house.  We had grown tired of subdivision life with limited parking, homeowner associations and neighbors being so close.  We had been looking for a piece of property to purchase but found that any kind of acreage was located too far out in the boonies to make it feasible for commuting to work.  When a piece of property came available very close to where we were living we decided it had to be investigated.  1.5 acres with a 1957 cinderblock house with a poorly constructed addition on the main house.  The property also had a huge detached workshop which had David salivating. There was a contract on the house that had just fallen through.  We made an offer and on May 27, 2011 we became the proud owners of a fixer upper.  That was also the day that our hiking came to a halt as all of our free time was now spent trying to get the house in a  liveable condition so that we could sell the subdivision house.  In November of 2011 we sold our subdivision house and had to do a quick move into our fixer upper that was really still just a shell of a house. 

The holidays came and went.  In January 2012 David turned 50 and we were moving along having a wonderful time at our "Compound" as we had named our new property.  The first week of February David went to having his first colonoscopy now that he was 50.  After the procedure they took us into a room for the doctor to meet with us where we learned that he had a large tumor in his sigmoid colon.  That news was followed by surgery the last week of February and the news that the tumor was much more advanced than first expected.  The last week of March brought the first round of chemotherapy.  Three days of chemo every two weeks for 24 weeks.  It was tough!  For David it was hard to feel so physically ill and weak all the time.  For me it was hard to see him feeling so poorly and knowing that there was nothing I could do to make it better.  But we got through it and continued to work on our Compound.  David managed to make all of our kitchen cabinets while receiving chemo.  He is truly amazing!!  He received his final chemo treatment the last week of September. 

Here we are at the holidays again.  The main portion of our house remodel is completed.  David is feeling like his old self again. I'm so happy to put 2012 behind us and so proud of everything that we have accomplished.  I remain a bit apprehensive about our future with cancer.  David will be having another colonoscopy and CT scan in January and I pray for good news. 

We are ready to start doing some hiking again and have taken a couple of shorter hikes recently.  It is so peaceful in the woods and really helps my mind to relax and breathe.  We've adopted a dog, P.P.,  and he hikes with us. 

At the beginning of this New Year I feel so fortunate for my husband, our family and friends.  I have a new outlook on what's important in life and of just how fragile life can be.  I'm looking forward to spending more time in the woods with the man I love!

Happy New Year