No, not just TGIF, I want to give a follow up post to my announcement of a few weeks ago for my loyal readers because many of you had invested yourselves in my personal challenges.
As many of you know, my family had a huge medical challenge recently. It was all about this familiar symbol.
Back on the week of October 18th, my lovely wife went through a double mastectomy, which seemed to be the best option given the situation. The surgery was succesfull, with no complications, but we had to wait for final lab results and follow up scans. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, and to top it off we lost a beloved family pet of 15 years Monday. Minners is finally drinking clean water somewhere.
So dear readers, please forgive me if I’ve been dour and a little snippy here. I know I have been a bit rough around the edges. I’ve been so frazzled I forgot to do our weekly Sea Ice News last Sunday. I forgot to take out the garbage Wednesday, and at coffee yesterday morning I couldn’t remember the name of a person I’d known for years. Stress is a weird thing.
Late last night, after two days of follow up at Stanford Medical Center. We got the news. No metastasis, they got it all. Now it’s just the long but certain road physical therapy.
I gotta tell you it was like somebody cutting the guy lines to the giant lead balloon I’ve been tied to for the last three months. It took off into the stratosphere, never to be seen again.
I want to thank you all for the kind words, prayers, and most especially for the support of WUWT with ideas and guest articles. I want to give a special thanks to Willis Eschenbach, Tom Fuller, and Steve Mosher for guest posts. Special thanks go to Evan Jones and D.B. Stealey for their support and the kind letters they sent me, and to Charles the Moderator for keeping the chaos managed.
If I’ve missed anyone, please don’t feel left out, I’m just a bit scrambled mentally. Everybody gets gold stars.
In a day or two, I’ll be back to chasing errant weather stations and missing “M”‘s in METAR reports.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
That should of course be Mrs Watts(SORRY)
What nice news to start my Friday with! The Watts are a force for the good.
We went through a similar situation a couple of years back and I know that the stress can put you off your game.
I’m very glad to hear that everything is working out well for your family.
God Bless.
Ken
Today is the day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad.-
A great day indeed! Best wishes to you both and family.
The relief must be indescribable. A great day indeed.
Great news. She must be a saint to have put up with you all this time 🙂
Take some more time off and relax. Good luck too.
The Warmists are beginning to see the cooling in the ‘hottest’ year on the record, don’t worry about losing any ground.
Anthony, awesome news. Regards to you and you family.
Good days are great, specially when they lead to even better tomorrows.
Keep by your wifes side and give her all the love and attention she needs and wishes…. There’s still plenty of healin’ to do yet…… As fer us mob out here in blog land, we can get along fine fer a while longer if needs be.
Get well Mrs Watts 🙂
Very pleased to see all has worked out, Anthony. May your wife recover fully and you both have a long, happy life together!
Great news!
On the other hand I think the global CO2 level may go up as all your readers collectively breath a sigh of relief!
🙂
Excellent news Anthony.
Fantastic Anthony! Life’s challenges can be scary, but valuable in hindsight….
God bless you and your wife.
Our elderly cat died just at the time my partler’s mother was taken into hospital for what proved to be her final visit – so I know how these things can be very rough. I’m glad the news is better now, and if you get a bouncy kitten will help as well!
I wish you and you family, nothing but the best Anthony. Welcome back. 🙂
DaveE.
I am so pleased for your wife and yourself. The other mods did a great job while you were away, but there was a hollowness to the site, if that makes sense. Hope all your problems are small ones from here on in.
Great news Anthony! Best wishes for your wife’s recovery. Having witnessed the ravages of this disease among too many friends and family members we long ago became strong supporters of the Susan G Komen organization. Too bad we can’t take back some of the billions wasted on AGW research and use it to find a cure.
Very best wishes to your wife and her great news. I hope the recovery goes perfectly. Nearly two years ago I had a slightly rising PSA number. My regular doc thought I should see a urologist. An ultrasound showed nothing, prostate biopsy showed two of eight samples had a small amount of cancer. I guess I went for the male equivalent of what your wife went through. Radical retropubic prostatectomy three weeks later. I simply couldn’t handle the possibility of any cancer being left in me – cut that son of bitch out once and for all. Two weeks after my surgery we too, lost our wonderful little eleven year old dog Sam to congestive heart failure. Just the sort of emotional hit we didn’t need during recovery. I think of losing Sam more than I think of my own medical problem. I hope your wife’s recovery goes as well as mine did. Nearly two years later I hardly think of the surgery or recovery period. Everything is more or less back to normal and regular check ups show absolutely no recurrence. When I hear of someone as a “cancer survivor” I often think, Holy Toledo, that’s me too. I think your metaphor of the lead ballon fleeing upward is exactly right. Its a feeling of relief that you really can’t fully explain to anyone else. Again, congratulations to your wife’s successful surgery and good news. Keep up the great work on WUWT. I check it first in the morning and many times during the day. Always an informative and fun read. By the way, I’m sort of your neighbor by living in Redding.
Great news, Anthony! I hope everything in the recovery goes wonderfully well for her!
It’s very good news, Anthony. My best to you and your wife.
Best of health to you and wife.
May God grant a speedy recovery for you both.
My own spouse has had medical problems (heart) and is now recovering. She spent many days in intensive care units. Each day I visited I thought of Clarke’s Third Law — Any sufficiently advanced society is indistinguishable from magic.
Then I would visit with a doctor, nurse, or technician and know they are not magicians – they are smart, well trained, very dedicated, and compassionate. The machines, instruments, devices, and medicines seem magical but they too are created by individuals.
I applaud them all.
Still, the most amazing person in the story was the patient. Each day I left the ICU thinking of the words And I thought I was tough to Craig Morgan’s song — Tough.
So, along with the rest of the “been there” crowd I will say that we know the true star of your story and heap our admiration on Mrs. Watts.
Take care, Anthony. And thanks for sharing.
It is very reassuring to see some good news right now. I am very happy for you and your wife.