those canadian girls

it may not be a well know fact, but pamela anderson is a home grown canuck! she was born and raised in british columbia in western canada. a fact more widely known is the enhanced voluptuousness of this young mountie!

another canadian girl undergoes a similar procedure today - but for completely different reasons (and hopefully with completely different, less obvious results!). when we arrive for the operation earlier this morning, they quiz jane. "would you like steroids?", or not. "would you like to be intibated?", or not. [i'm not even sure what that one means!]. "gel or saline?". "small, medium, large?". well, what's a girl to do. and of course, at that point it hits me - why she has been somewhat resistant to doing this step. it's been a lot of decisions, a lot of process, and i suppose that she just wants it all to be done. jane is comforted by the fact that the anaesthesiologist, who is patient and knowledgeable, has just gone through mastectomy and chemo herself (last year) - so she truly knows what the emotions and physical ramifications are.

jane is doing tremendously well after surgery - the team at winthrop has been fantastic, as has dr. 'goldfinger' as jane comes to call him in the early days. he nips, he tucks, he even fixes an errant earlobe, and voila! she's out in no time flat, feeling well but groggy in recovery, and before you know it, they send her on her way! a quick visit by hadas rounds out the event, then home she is, lying down and recuperating, happy to have passed through this phase.

on the other side of the afternoon, we both seem relieved. it's a good thing. another link in the chain, another step towards recovery.

full house

a busy and fun weekend continues, although maybe not so much for jane, who is on call through monday. beepers buzzing, running into the hospital in the early morn, etc.. a bit of sniffling from the taxotere and other hypersensitivity reactions ... but getting there, slowly but surely.

we are all buoyed and occupied with stuart and eileen's visit, and seeing our nephew josh and niece amanda. they arrive on sunday as we are on our way home from a lovely brunch - sort of a 'jewish easter' celebration - on this, most lovely of spring days. we enjoy a big sunday lunch together, then start to get ready in costumes for a new jersey bat mitzvah ... it's a 'purim party' so everyone is asked to be dressed in inspired finery, and josh and amanda are joining us to. that's seven costumes to find and outfit at the last moment (what else is new for us!) ... but we pull it off. jane is a witch, i'm a goth version of 'snape', marlee is a japanese maiden, josh is a chinese waiter, amanda is a karate black belt, jared a baseball player, and andi a mid-fielder for the moroccan soccer team.

we have a fabulous time at the fete, lots of good friends, music, food, and general merriment - and needless to say, the kids have a blast. after a positively tortuous drive home - agonizing really - we make it back to long island. blowing up beds, covering pillows, and undoing costumes is followed by a relatively early evening ... another day tomorrow, action packed as ever.

two weeks from today, and jane goes in for reconstruction surgery, which i'm sure will advance the whole process forward.