Hello everyone, hope some of you remember me! Last time you heard from me was shortly before we came home from our Disney holiday last August.
DH came home to a new job (which is going fantastically well, even though he didn't really want the job at first but he needed to get something). Sadly we also came home to some devasting news. My eldest sister, who had been in remission from breast cancer (diagnosed in 2009) was diagnosed with bone cancer. She'd had a sore back after straining it at work and after a few weeks of back ache she visited the GP. He thought it was just a strain but because of her history sent her to hospital for tests/scans and they found the new tumours. She had some more chemo and radiotherapy and was doing okay. At the end of October and still in considerable pain she was admitted to hospital for tests where they found more tumours in her leg and also discovered that she'd fractured her hip - the chemo had weakened her bones. She thought it was just the cancer causing the pain but they worked out that she must have done it approx 4 weeks previously as it was all but healed up. The week after our visit in November she had some further treatment to shrink the tumour in her leg. Following the treatment she came home in December and after a few days was admitted to a care home to regain her strength as she was finding it hard to manage on her own (my niece was working and couldn't be around all day). She was due home for Christmas when she would have been stronger and there would be people around to help her recovery. Sadly, she died on December 13th a couple of days after being admitted to the care home; she was just 64 years old. Her death was very sudden and unexpected in spite of the cancer. We had to wait for a Coronor's Inquest before we could hold the funeral.
Her funeral was eventually held between Christmas and New Year and it was one of the most difficult days of my life. My two children (10 and 7) had both said they wanted to go and I can't tell you how proud I am of the way they coped and both showed maturity way beyond their age.
As you can imagine it has been a roller coaster ride since we got back from Orlando and I never even made my trip report - it all went out of the window. I thought at one point I'd lost my photopass photos too. I forgot all about going on the site to register my pass codes and by the time I remembered it was outside of the time allowed and I got a message saying that no photos could be retrieved. Then something very peculiar happened and I received an e-mail from Photopass saying that my photos would expire on 7th December! I logged back in to the site and cried when I saw all our photos were there! We've since received the CD from them but following my sister's death I haven't even looked at it yet.
Anyway, since then it's been a case of getting by day by day - lots of bad days with the occasional good one thrown in. Every so often I'll catch myself thinking of her without even realising that I'm doing it.
This morning I woke up at 3 o'clock and on autopilot I found myself looking on the Virgin Holiday's site for prices for another Orlando holiday. It won't be this year but we have decided to go again in August 2013 and hope to book it in the next few weeks. DH is going to phone tomorrow with some questions and we need to decide where to stay. We've previously stayed in villas but are being sorely tempted by the Wildnerness Cabins and the new Animation resort. It was an indication to me that life has to move on and that my sister wouldn't want us to spend our days in mourning - she was very much in favour of living for the moment.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I just wanted to say that I'm starting to get back to full planning mode and hope to join in again with all the chat and activities on this forum. I missed the banter and excitement of all the holiday planning but really needed some time out
DH came home to a new job (which is going fantastically well, even though he didn't really want the job at first but he needed to get something). Sadly we also came home to some devasting news. My eldest sister, who had been in remission from breast cancer (diagnosed in 2009) was diagnosed with bone cancer. She'd had a sore back after straining it at work and after a few weeks of back ache she visited the GP. He thought it was just a strain but because of her history sent her to hospital for tests/scans and they found the new tumours. She had some more chemo and radiotherapy and was doing okay. At the end of October and still in considerable pain she was admitted to hospital for tests where they found more tumours in her leg and also discovered that she'd fractured her hip - the chemo had weakened her bones. She thought it was just the cancer causing the pain but they worked out that she must have done it approx 4 weeks previously as it was all but healed up. The week after our visit in November she had some further treatment to shrink the tumour in her leg. Following the treatment she came home in December and after a few days was admitted to a care home to regain her strength as she was finding it hard to manage on her own (my niece was working and couldn't be around all day). She was due home for Christmas when she would have been stronger and there would be people around to help her recovery. Sadly, she died on December 13th a couple of days after being admitted to the care home; she was just 64 years old. Her death was very sudden and unexpected in spite of the cancer. We had to wait for a Coronor's Inquest before we could hold the funeral.
Her funeral was eventually held between Christmas and New Year and it was one of the most difficult days of my life. My two children (10 and 7) had both said they wanted to go and I can't tell you how proud I am of the way they coped and both showed maturity way beyond their age.
As you can imagine it has been a roller coaster ride since we got back from Orlando and I never even made my trip report - it all went out of the window. I thought at one point I'd lost my photopass photos too. I forgot all about going on the site to register my pass codes and by the time I remembered it was outside of the time allowed and I got a message saying that no photos could be retrieved. Then something very peculiar happened and I received an e-mail from Photopass saying that my photos would expire on 7th December! I logged back in to the site and cried when I saw all our photos were there! We've since received the CD from them but following my sister's death I haven't even looked at it yet.
Anyway, since then it's been a case of getting by day by day - lots of bad days with the occasional good one thrown in. Every so often I'll catch myself thinking of her without even realising that I'm doing it.
This morning I woke up at 3 o'clock and on autopilot I found myself looking on the Virgin Holiday's site for prices for another Orlando holiday. It won't be this year but we have decided to go again in August 2013 and hope to book it in the next few weeks. DH is going to phone tomorrow with some questions and we need to decide where to stay. We've previously stayed in villas but are being sorely tempted by the Wildnerness Cabins and the new Animation resort. It was an indication to me that life has to move on and that my sister wouldn't want us to spend our days in mourning - she was very much in favour of living for the moment.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I just wanted to say that I'm starting to get back to full planning mode and hope to join in again with all the chat and activities on this forum. I missed the banter and excitement of all the holiday planning but really needed some time out
I'm so sorry to hear your sad news, what a terrible few months you have had 
Welcome back Louise, it's lovely to see you posting again 
yep, some things don't change! DS is still addicted to sausages and he's still a little chatter box!
