The Headache

Let me start this by saying David is fine. But Friday was a tough day for us. David had his first headache since the tumor.

David and I knew the day would come. Headaches are inevitable. Everyone gets them and they’re perfectly normal. Unfortunately for us…they come with a lot more baggage. To us a headache means the possibility of a tumor. David had a nasty headache for 3 weeks before he was diagnosed with the tumor. We knew this day would come and we dreaded it.

But it came and we got through it. David had a headache. Took an Advil and it went away. This was good news since the last headache never went away no matter what he took.

Also, thankfully David already had an appointment set up on Friday afternoon with his Radiologist and he reassured David that he was clean. He just had his MRI at the end of December and there was nothing there. Also…the headache would still have been there. A single Advil would have done nothing for it. So he’s fine. But it hit us both pretty hard and we had some very dark moments. It was a nasty reminder of how precarious life is and the fears that surround our daily life.

It’s a beginning…

So, here we are after the holidays. We had a great holiday season filled with friends, family and cherished moments. Can’t ask for much more can we? We tried to let ourselves not get too caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season and just sit back and enjoy the ride. I admit we weren’t always successful…but we didn’t do too bad either and I have a feeling next year we will do even better about just letting the small stuff slide and enjoying the holidays.

We trimmed back a bit on a few things. It was hard because I usually write a note in each card I send out, but with everything going on in our lives as of late I found that I just don’t have the time like I used to. So, I kept the “tradition” of selecting a quote I feel particularly appropriate for the year…but it was pre-printed in the cards. I felt it was kind of impersonal but I knew there was no way in hell I would have time to write them all out and I didn’t want to sacrifice the quote. So. No personal notes but the thought and love behind it was still there and although I was unable to jot out a quick personal note in each card you were all in my thoughts.

I was going to do a Holiday letter as well to just encapsulate the year since I wasn’t filling out each card…but when I sat down to write it, I hadn’t a clue where to begin. What the hell do I write? Hi everyone…hope everyone is doing well. The Fisher-Hewett’s have had one hell of a year. Dave had a headache. Then he had a tumor. A guy went in and popped that bad boy out and now it’s gone and he’s doing the “Chemo Thang.” OH, and Happy Holidays! Nope, it just doesn’t work does it? Would have been a downer and I couldn’t seem to put a “peppy” spin on it so I decided screw it. I’ll do one next year once things settle down. Will they settle down? I believe so. Am I on crack? Possibly. But it makes life more interesting that way and it makes waking up in the morning a hell of a lot easier.

And DRUM ROLL please....after much anticipation…
We finally have completed pieces from our not so new kiln. Here they are!




We kept it simple so we could focus on the intricacies of firing the kiln, proper annealing schedules of the glass and other fun technical things. But we’re happy with the final outcome and will hopefully have some new more developed pieces soon. We’re both so excited about the medium and all the ideas we have rattling around in our brains it’s hard to slow down and take the much needed time to learn the medium fully. But we’re trying to be patient and explore this new exciting craft at a moderate pace.

Beyond that...We have spent an enormous amount of time in recent months researching the whole tumor thing and changing our eating habits and lifestyle. And now that some of it has become second nature and other elements are becoming a little bit more routine…like the constant preparation of food, fruits, veggies…the cooking and the subsequent dishes and the scouring of cookbooks looking for healthy recipes with “cancer” fighting foods. It’s become a bit easier and I’m hoping in the coming months to develop an arsenal of yummy meals to keep us healthy and chugging along.

And now that things have started to settle down a bit, we’ve also starting hitting the house again. I find it keeps me busy and keeps my mind off all of the other crap going on…as well as we truly enjoy the house projects. And one thing we’ve learned through all this is that Life is too short to spend too much time on stuff you don’t want to do. Do the not-so-fun life stuff as quickly as possible and move onto the things that matter most and that you enjoy the most. We both absolutely love our home and working on it brings us both so much joy and satisfaction. So. We’ve picked up where we left off on the many unfinished house projects and I’m sure a few new ones will be added in as well. You know that is inevitable with us. :)

And between the house projects, art projects, cooking, and spending time with the family I will try to take brief moments out to blog and let everyone know how we’re doing. I have the best of intentions to blog every 2 weeks or so…but as one friend pointed out…it’s not very likely!

Take care friends and I’ll leave you with this little quote I found.

"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."
~Grandma Moses