I decided to cross-post this from the Mothers With Cancer post since this weekend is Mother’s day….Happy Mother’s Day to all my friends.  If any of you have blogs (or should; Sharon) than I am tagging you to continue this blog around the world.  Just post 5 reasons why you love being a mom.  Here is where it originated:world-according-to-mom.html

I was tagged by Whymommy at Mothers with Cancer to join in a cooperative effort to attempt a “blog around the world”.  The topic is “5 Reasons why I love being a Mother”. Now most who know me know that I am quite vociferous about all the reasons that I Hate being a mother; so this list may come  as a surprise to many, as I tend to keep those feelings closer to my heart. This past year battling cancer and cancer treatment has taught me quite a lot about the little people in my life. Not only has their compassion grown for me but I have slowed down a little to truly appreciate the wonders that make up their lives.  The fear of never seeing them grow up puts an extra special emphasis on the little things they do every day. Here are 5 of many reasons why I love being a mom:

1. Because there is no one in the world who loves you unconditionally like your children.  Oh they may battle against your wishes and fight tooth and nail to get their way but when it comes down to it; they think you are the bees knees.  

2. Turning the last corner of any road race or triathlon and seeing my kids cheering me on holding signs and screaming “Go Mom!”

3. The smell of freshly washed hair.

4. Swinging on swings, riding on merry-go-rounds, sliding down slides and playing in sandboxes, building with blocks, coloring in coloring books and doing handstands in the pool. These things would look silly and not be as fun if we didn’t have children to do them with.

5. Watching my children excel and love playing hockey, baseball, soccer, piano and gymnastics and the feeling of pride I get knowing they have so many more opportunities than I ever did.

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I also wanted to chime in on my roll call — Frances is present and accounted for.  Still getting Herceptin infusions until July, taking Tamoxifen, and on heart medication to quell the heart issues caused by the toxicity of chemo.  I did have a slight setback regarding my  breast implant.  I noticed it was looking a little awkward and ripply. My oncologist thought it might be leaking.  Oh GREAT!  so I met with the charming Dr. Plastic who informed me quite abruptly that there was no way it was leaking.  I reminded him about the unfortunate incident regarding the expander and how he poked a hole in that, but he insisted that it had only been 12 weeks since my surgery and that it was fine.

After we talked a little while and I told him that I was training again to do 2 triathlons and the Pan Mass Challenge (a 150 mile bike -a-thon to raise money for Dana Farber) he said “AHA!”

“aha?”

“You have lost weight, haven’t you?” he asked.

“Only about 5 pounds,” I said, “I’ve got about 10 to go.”

He told me that since I had lost some weight that now my left  implanted breast was a full implant size bigger than my own right breast.

I had told him before the surgery that once I was back on my feet and back to training that I would lose weight and that he should plan occordingly but I get the feeling that at the time, he (being a man) assumed I would want the bigger implant.

“Will you gain the weight back?” he asked me

“I certainly hope not!”

Anyway, I guess he will be able to do yet another surgery to replace the implant with a smaller one…the question is, though, will insurance pay for this?

Anyway, that’s where I am at these days…..plugging along….lopsided and pretty happy.