Feeling lucky

I haven't blogged for a while. I do have some scrappy stuff to share, but first I want to tell you about the personal stuff. I feel like I dodged a bullet this week. You see, I had a bit of a health scare that I didn't really want to talk about until I knew more. Many of you know that my dad is being treated for Stage 4 colon cancer. Thank God he is so strong and still fighting. It is a life threatening diagnosis. So it was even more frightening to me when I noticed bleeding when I used the bathroom. Now I know, this is a yucky subject, and one I think people don't want to discuss because it talks about something "dirty". But you know what? If me sharing this helps anyone in the future, I don't mind talking about it.
I was so scared, so I immediately called a gastroenterologist. He happened to have an opening that very day. We talked and it was decided that I should have a colonoscopy. Soon. Again, an icky topic, because the idea of having a long tube inserted in you , especially THERE, is unpleasant. But I got over my fear and had it done Wednesday.
I was found to have a large polyp that was the source of my troubles. It was big enough that both the doctor and the nurse told me I was lucky I went in when I did. It was removed and I'm waiting for the report that it is not cancerous. My doctor says he thinks it's not going to turn out to be serious, so I am cautiously relieved. You see, most colon cancers start as these benign polyps. Given time to grow, the odds increase that they will become cancerous. I am now going to need to be watched very carefully the rest of my life.
So my point of sharing all this is this: Do NOT ignore any change in your bowel habits. Any type of bleeding there warrants a trip to the doctor. There are lots of minor problems that can cause bleeding, but there are some that are BAD. If I had tried to blame it on something like hemmorhoids, and waited, I might have heard BAD news in the future. I am only 40 years old and have a lot to live for. Some people think this stuff only happens to older people, but that's just not true. There's a 22 year old girl who gets chemo every 2 weeks with my dad. She had colon cancer. Colon cancer is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in our country. We can't afford to be embarrassed to talk about it.

Okay, so let me share some projects now...

Here is my LO for the current Dreamgirls challenge - to scrap 5 random facts on five locations of your page and use doodling:




Here are a couple of recent 8.5 x 11 pages:




Once again, it seems I've stayed up later than I should, so it's off to sleep for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.