Family & Friends

Well folks the fun is over and the countdown to chemo has begun. 9:45am January 31st upon us. So much has gone down since my last post that this read might feel very winded. So grab a coffee and settle in ladies and gents.

Once upon a time in a far away land there lived a little girl named…ok, I’m kidding! I hosted our Annual Dixon Family Christmas Saturday and it went off without a hitch. It’s usually the first Saturday after Christmas but that fell to close to my surgery so we pushed it to my dads birthday, January 26th. I picked this date mainly for distraction for me, Troy, Uncle Tom, dad’s identical twin & the rest of the fam. It would be uncle Tom’s first birthday without his twin.

Being an identical twin has to be such an odd feeling at times. Especially at the end, when seeing the other laying in their casket. I walked with Uncle Tom to see dad for the first time at the funeral home and he said “I always wondered what this would be like”. I laughed and teared up simultaneously because I could hear dad in my head say “me too” because I’m sure they always thought the other would go first. He’d probably follow it up with “We were neck & neck in the race to the end…or something silly & witty.” I think a lot of my sense of humor comes from my dad and the Dixon side, in general. Of course I’m pretty confident I inherited good and bad from both sides of the geniology tracks.

Saturdays party was just what the doctor ordered. There were a few tears shed but MUCH more laughs! I laughed with my cousins until the wee hours of the night and loved every second. I was very thankful Uncle Tom could make it over for a couple hours to celebrate his birthday and see everyone. His health is not great either so we had to play it by ear if he’d attend.Each Year I try to do something fun gift-wise for everyone and the theme this time was Dad’s stuff. I decided that each family member would received something of Dads…a gift TO them all FROM him on his birthday. Uncle Tom Received his box of goodies first. It included some clothes, pictures & misc items from his twin bro. In pure Dixon style he had some good one-liners such as “Tim always did have alot of nice golf shirts…bet he’d be taking them back if was here” and “they’ll probably look better on me”. I gave him one picture of a group of their buddies growing up and didnt even notice Tom wasnt in the picture…just my dad with all the guys, but he pointed it out quickly ?

There are many funny stories I have growing up of Dad and Uncle Tom. I’ll share a couple favorites:

TIRES & ICE: Uncle Tom had a tire store in Mansfield, we lived in Toledo but Dad was the Sales Manager. He drove back & forth from T-town and over Christmas break one winter I went too so I could hang with my cousin Joel. It was freezing (like today). Joel and I decided it was time for me to learn to ice skate…on their front porch. We poured water all over the front one night so it would freeze by morning and we’d skate. Our plan worked fabulously and we were skating away the next morning when my dad comes storming in and says ” pack your stuff, we’re leaving! I can’t work with that man” Mind you, Joel and I had only been on our homemade rink for 15 mins and it was only day 2 (I think) of my visit. Needless to say, they weren’t meant to work together or maybe my dad wasn’t meant to work FOR his twin brother?

WRESTLE-MANIA At the age of 16 I walked downstairs from my room and found them rolling around on the kitchen floor fighting, literally, fists and all! They were 48 years old. I looked at them and said “really cool! two heart patients fighting like teens…one of you is going to have (another) heart attack!” I walked out the front door and laughed when I heard my dad say “look what you did now”.

TIMMY 2-SHIRTS Another good one was my graduation party when my dad was wearing some silly t-shirt about being retired and Uncle Tom was the one in the nice golf shirt. One of our friends walks up to Jimmy later and asks why my dad kept changing his shirt.

I got a little off track. Back to the party and recap of the week leading to chemo-day. The point I’m trying to convey about Saturday is that it was a great evening that worked out exactly how I had hoped. I was distracted from the reality of my past couple months and the months to come. I turned a sad day into a fun one and walked away with a giant light-up wine glass from the white-elephant. SUCCESS! Family ROCKS!! Especially mine?

Monday the reality set in, I was exhausted from the weekend and had to go to chemo school to learn everything about Thursday and the next 20-some weeks. No…chemo “school” isnt really a thing, just a Dene’ism title for our 1.5 hr. consult chemo lesson and tour of the infusion area. Let me tell ya – that’s a site to see. It’s no James Cadilac infusion center, but it will do the job. It’s nice enough and I’m sure I’ll get in trouble at some point for being to loud with whatever friend is joining me during a treatment along the way. A couple hours after chemo school, I found myself bawling solo again at the office. What is it about that office?!?! It’s just another reality check that life has changed forever and I did indeed “get me the cancer” for my 45th birthday.

The upside of the evening was ski club. It’s fun to see the kids succeeding & trying something new. Little Julia is rocking the snowboard and I’m super jealous! Click link to check out her skillzzzzhttps://ama506.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/img_1235.movMaybe that will be next winter’s goal for me to try snowboarding on the bunny hills with the kiddo’s. I’m sure they will have mastered it by then and my only real intention to board would be in hopes of doing something to require my right hip to be replaced, because my body may be in withdrawal from surgery at that point;)

Tuesday was wig fitting day. That was more fun than I anticipated.  I was dreading going and most likely would have rescheduled at the last minute if I didnt have friends meeting me there. THANKS SO MUCH LARA AND SHANNON! We laughed as I tried on wigs that were nowhere near the color of my current hair, yet on the stylish side. The fan fave was the infamous 90’s Rachel cut one. I couldn’t resist singing the FRIENDS theme song while shaking the very layered blondish-brown locks. FUN TIMES. We snagged the nylon cap that goes over my existing hair for the fitting so that I can run around the house wearing it over my (current) hair while “practicing” being bald.To wrap up the week, tonight I had a great evening with a couple of my volleyball moms. We became a tight knit group during Maria’s Zenith Club volleyball days. Another evening of talking & laughing. We arrived at 6:30pm on this frigid evening and were literally the last 3 customers in the place at 10pm. Well, it’s midnight now and I need to chug a ton of water and crash! Tomorrow is another “IT’S FREEZING OUT” day off of school! The last time it was this cold I was in college at OSU and they cancelled class @ 1am so alcohol couldn’t be sold. It was so cold folks could die breathing the moment you walked out the door BUT we proceeded to head to a Frat house to whoop it up “Frozen-style”. To bad the Disney movie Frozen wasn’t out yet or that evening could’ve easily turned into a theme party.

So needless to say the past few days have been packed with making memories with both Family & Friends. While I’m not a fan of the reason for the memories, I will forever be greatfull for my support system through these months!!! Now off to bed in preparation for the launch of the next 6 months of hibernation and hopes of not getting sick. I’ve gathered my F-Cancer socks and coloring books from my BFF for life (Kelly), my pink blanket from old roomie and sorority pal Caryn and lots of well wishes from my support system near and far. I ❤️ you all and couldn’t fight this battle without my FAMILY & FRIENDS