December 1st - A long-awaited day!

Why long-awaited?  Find out down below the fold...and not because it's unimportant!

First, I see that my last few posts have been basically the same location here in Port Wing.  And my excuse for that is this...for those of us enamored by--and feeling blessed--to be living up here...it seems there is always something to see.  Take yesterday, for example.  Sitting out there on the ice ridge is an eagle.  My iPhone camera is not quite adequate for this zooming situation, but his white head shows he is definitely an eagle.  And watch what comes next...

I got into my car, because it was cold, and I looked up to see him flying away with something white in his beak.  Not sure if it was a seagull or what, because I didn't seem him dive after anything.  Again, not zoomed enough, but still cool.

And today, it's even colder (8˚ at 3:30pm or so says my car) but seeing all the ice chunks out in the lake intrigued me.  So I took another walk along the pier.  So beautiful.  And see the moon?

I decided to walk out a little bit farther (further?) today and this is what I found.  Ice!  Waves must have splashed up and over at some time recently.  Or else it's wind-blown down to ice.  So...I stopped, looked around, took a couple pictures, and turned around to go back where the traction was better!

View to the right - northeast.

View to the left - northwest.

Now, the reason that this is a long-awaited day.  Today is the day that Leann's sister, Kristi, is finally able to have the surgery to remove the cancerous areas in her pelvis, recurrences after her original colorectal cancer back in January, 2013.  But this time she's in Rochester with her team of Mayo surgeons, doctors, and other specialists.

In the past year Kristi has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy over 16 weeks from April to July (done near her home in Fargo, ND), 5 1/2 weeks of radiation treatments in September and October--every day for 28 days minus the weekends--done at Mayo, numerous scans and doctors' appointments at Mayo, all leading up to her surgery day today.

Her team consisted of a surgery oncologist, urologist, vascular surgeon, and radiologist, and a host of others in support.  A final part of the surgery today was doing a blast of intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) after all of the cancer was removed to try to get any remaining cancer cells in that area.  And surgery went just fine!  She's visiting with Leann and their other sister, Sandy, tonight and she was soon to take her first little walk still this evening!  And when I asked if she had her post-surgery pain button this time like she had in Fargo, I was told that they do pain management differently there using no narcotics.  Evidently they've found that people heal faster using this plan.  Amazing!

We're so thankful for the skills, knowledge and expertise shown to her in this process, and so proud of her and how she has dealt with everything she has gone through the last couple of years.  And we hope she will make this the first day of the rest of her life!  She deserves all the best!

And I'll try to find some different photo scenery tomorrow!