“I have some good news and some great news. The good news is your ct scan came back clean and all the evidence points to your being cancer free.  The great news is that you do not have to worry about a hunk of coal in your stocking for Christmas when you have that HUNK of a husband by your side on Christmas and every day thereafter.”

So were the words from Michele’s oncologist after her recent 3 month post chemo checkup. These truths were very well received by the Giannone household and we feel blessed in this holiday season to have made our way past 2016 and look forward to a happy and healthy 2017.  Everything came back kosher from the follow up visit and it was a fantastic way to close out a trying 2016.

With that in mind, January 1 usually entails resolutions and I certainly have a number of them that I want to adhere to:

• I will stop saying ‘Yes’ to Michele when I am not actually listening to what she is saying. In the past this has resulted in my sitting in a sparsely populated theater on Broadway watching ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ while the Super Bowl was being played or more recently when brand new furniture showed up at the door with a guy asking me where I want it….obviously not realizing it was already ‘delivered’ to me in a very sensitive place.
• Despite the immense humor I gain from it, I promise to stop smearing my boogers on the door handles to public restrooms.
• I promise to continue to shoulder the burden of overall household upkeep without complaint. Cooking, cleaning, finances and primary caretaker of the children – It is a labor of love and I would not want to encumber Michele by increasing her share beyond the already excessive 10%.
• I need to commit to the reconditioning of my core. As I lumber from one place to the next, my mid-section has morphed into a living version of a lava lamp, where spongy gel like substance flows back and forth and up and down as if gravity has been suspended, my skin being the only thing preventing a gelatinous mud pie being spread across the floor.
• I will purchase and use the best personal hygiene trimmer on the market. I swear that there is a little man on a horse that sneaks into our room at night when I am asleep and funnels gallons of miracle grow into my nasal and ear cavities, generating hair growth that resembles a chia pet on meth. For good measure that little f*cker gets his horse to mule kick my teeth as he departs, furthering my mouth’s journey towards its apparent holy land destination.
• Lastly, I will do my very best to ensure Michele knows how much she means to me and how I will do all I can to create happiness in her life. What a devastating scare this past year was and it made me come to grips with how much my life and everything I hold dear revolves around her. Life without Michele is unthinkable which is why I do not think about that, not even for a minute. Because wasting a minute on that only robs me of another opportunity to appreciate the here and now with her. There is no other place for me.

 

We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to one and all for the support and love sent our way over this past year. It made a difficult time a lot easier to cope with and we will be eternally grateful.   Merry Christmas and happy holidays.