This month has been a real doozy!
At the end of February Carol was recalled to see a surgeon after a routine mammogram showed that she had breast cancer. After a biopsy we were told she had grade III infiltrating ductal carcinoma, meaning that the cancer has burst out of its tumour and is on its way into the tissue in the breast. Life pretty much came to a full stop as we digested this news and adjusted to the ramifications of it.
Carol began a furious information gathering time trying to find out as much as she could about her options including alternative therapies. In the end she followed the advise of her doctor and surgeon and had a mastectomy (removal of her right breast) last Thursday. Amazingly she was home from hospital on the Saturday and is healing well with no pain.
In the middle of this Carol's eldest daughter got married and enjoyed a perfect wedding day. The tenants of our house suddenly decided they needed to find a new home. It seemed that life needs us to stay put here in NZ for a while. We cancelled our tickets (we were due to fly to London on 18 May) and Malaysia Air very kindly have waived Carols NZ$500 cancelation fee which is great, now we just have to figure out how and where to get the refund...
We completely renovated our home before leaving on our trip but never got to live in the new as we left the day after painting the last bits. Our tenants have looked after the house well but the gardens which used to be full of flowers are now empty, they have moved out and we will have to spend some time bringing it back up to speed to rent it out again.
The Christchurch earthquake caused the cancellation of the census so Carols job ended rather suddenly. She will rest a while now and we are sure the year will sort itself out.
The weather is still lovely although cooler, autumn is one of the best seasons in this country.
