Lovely Day

Tuesday, February 14, 2012: It's Valentine's Day. Wish I had sent all my "lovelies" a card and a chocolate kiss, but please know that I do love you all so, so much.

Last night, during Family Home Evening and Family Council, Dean and Ness and I went through the "good days" and "bad days" of last week. I love when there are more good on the list than bad. Of course, we always do the good first and count our blessings to recognize that we have much to be thankful for; seemingly small things, like being able to sing in a choir and taking it easy on a rare day off and feeling the Spirit during a church meeting. I was reminded that sometimes good and bad can happen together, like getting bad news but being able to smile in the next moment. That happened last week with Dr. Grossmann.

He walked into the exam room and saw that I was trying to keep warm under my jacket and said, "You were cold during the scan, too, weren't you?" My first reaction was, wow, was it that obvious? Did the techs tell on me? I asked him how he knew that I was cold. He started to explain that we all have "brown fat" - necessary fat (how cool is that?) - that helps keep our bodies warm. When we're cold, the brown fat works harder to generate heat. Dr. G pulled up my scan and showed me the area around my shoulders. On both sides of my collarbone and up into my shoulders were two "ghost-ish" swoops, like Nike logos. They weren't yellow, like in my (hot) brain and heart, but they were white-ish. Dr. G explained that those were evidence of my brown fat trying to warm up the upper half of my body. Amazing! I'm always cold in those scan rooms, so it did make me curious that we haven't seen that before, but maybe seeing me shivering that day in the exam room reminded Dr. G to tell me about it. I liked that. It kind of softened the blow of the hot spot for a minute.

It also makes me happy that Dr. Grossmann always asks about my singing, that he remembers I'm in the Symphony Chorus. Lindsey is always good to remember personal things about him, too, like when he told us about his Christmas lamb dinner and that he was going to be on vacation this week. He was excited to take his parents skiing at Park City during his time off. It also seemed to us that on this visit, as he outlined what would happen to me IF this is really a tumor and IF this is another form of cancer - that my care would be transferred to another specialist - since he is a specialist for "melanoma in the head and neck." We knew he was a melanoma specialist, but I'm not sure we've ever heard him specify the head and neck. How blessed am I to have the best of the best! I count my blessings every day. And I know he'll keep me on his radar, even IF...

Lao Tzu said, "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
Amen.

(Picture was taken by grandson, Lachlan, during Christmas visit 2011)