My husband, Frankie, is the most amazing, fantastic and sweet husband a lady could ask for. I'm not toooooo prejudiced, right? LOL! We met online in a computer chat room on Prodigy in November of 1995. Ever since our very first chat, we just hit it off right away. He lived in Phoenix, and I lived four hours away in Yuma. So while we were dating, we did the Phoenix-Yuma and Yuma-Phoenix shuffle every other weekend. Our phone bill was astronomical! But nothing stands in the way of true love!! We did that for a year...and the following November, on the 16th, 1996, we got married. It was really funny because ALL of Frankie's siblings-one brother, one sister also got married in 1996. Frankie's parents retired in 1996, too. So that was one busy year!!!
Frankie has always been there for me, supported me through the diagnosis of fibro, then the arthritis, then the lumbar disc problems. I have been there for him through his diagnosis of a rare cancer called GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumor) in August of 2003. He had 3 surgeries spread over a year span and then went into remission until just recently, and one of the tumors we believe has returned in his small intestine. So he will have that surgically removed June 24, 2010. The surgeon is confident he can get it ALL. Whoooppppeee!
Together, we've had our ups and downs, in's and out's and have survived. Together, we can survive ANYTHING that comes our way!!
UPDATE: Frankie did have his surgery on June 24th, 2010, my 40th birthday. I got the BEST gift of all that day, learning my husband is cancer free! The surgeon came out and told us he searched everywhere and what he found was something called "AVM" or arterio-venous malformation, which is essentially just a collection of vessels that, in Frankie's case, attached themselves to his small intestine. Usually AVM's are found in the brain or on the spinal column. So leave it to MY husband to get something rare, again!! After many complications and over a month in the hospital, he is finally all healed and doing fantastic. He started back on the Gleevec the end of September and unfortunately, the side-effects are coming back of having painful bones and muscles. He is on the same pain meds as before the surgery. We had the last surgeon appointment a few weeks ago and he said as we were leaving, "I hope to never see you again in this office. Now go live your life!" Sweet words, especially since we were so afraid he went out of remission. So Frankie will continue with year 7 on the Gleevec. When he first started, they said it would only last 2 years. Ha! I love proving doctors wrong! LOL!
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| Bed buddies for life!!! |
