Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy New Year! Happy Birthday! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

It has been over a year since I have written.  Much has gone on in the last year.  In January, I turned 50.  A few years ago, after my third bout of breast cancer, I didn’t know if I’d see 50, yet here I am.  Yay!!! My husband and children plan on having a combination 50th birthday/retirement party for me at some point in the Spring, when a snow storm shouldn’t be an issue.  Look out this Tuesday!  We are supposed to get a lot of snow.  Though who knows if that will happen.  We may have an Engagement Party to plan.

(My official work retirement party with my NYPD family will be on April 21st, in the City.  Thank you Lilly and Monica for putting it together).

Did I say retirement party? Oh yeah. January, I celebrated 30 years with the NYPD.  I am now using all of my accrued vacation/comp time & my official retirement date should be July 31st.  It feels strange not heading into work.  It still feels like I’m on vacation.  I guess it hasn’t totally sunk in yet.  I joined the “Confirmation Choir” at Church & may join one of the Mass choirs as well.  I plan on going back to “tap dancing” & maybe I’ll go back to Tae Kwon Do and finally test for my second degree black belt.  (If I can remember all of my forms).  Charles & I hope to get an RV and travel this great USA.  There are many states I have yet to see.  We also  want to travel abroad.  I’m looking forward to Italy in 2018.

Over the last few months, many people had asked when my last official day at work would be.  I had originally planned on taking off in November or December, however, there were a few issues I had to deal with first.  I have had a few neck sonograms and other tests which have shown nodes on my thyroid/parathyroid.  I also have been diagnosed as having hypothyroidism & am currently on thyroid meds.  I have had two separate thyroid needle biopsies and in both instances, the doctor was unable to get sufficient cells for a determination.  The biopsies were horrible.  For each biopsy, the doctor stuck a needle into my neck three times, trying to get cells from two separate nodes on the left side of my neck.  Each time the needle went into my neck, it felt like the doctor hit a nerve.  I experienced pain in the back of my neck and down into my left shoulder.  I was literally in tears with each  needle placement.  I hope NOT to have to do that again.  I decided to see another doctor for a second opinion.  He recommended a couple tests, including another neck sonogram, some blood & urine work, and a bone scan.   When the results came in, this doctor noted that I had some osteopenia in my spine (thinning of my bones) but felt that this may be due to menopause (which the chemo caused).  However, he didn’t feel that I needed any surgery at this time.  Once I got the good news, I made my appointment with the pension section.  I went to the Pension Section on February 21st & my last official day at work was the day after.  I will go back at some point in June to go to the range one last time and to turn in all of my Department property. Before that happens though, I will see the doctor again to make sure that I’m still good and surgery is still not recommended.

We had a lot going on in 2016.  Early in the year, Charles had his left knee replaced.  I was able to take about 6 weeks off to be with him while he recovered.

Gillian graduated high school and started college.  She also tested for her 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  She was accepted to all the schools she applied to, with a couple schools offering full scholarships (Temple University and McCauley’s Honors College @ CCNY).  She received a few scholarships from NYPD fraternal organizations.  She decided to attend the Sophie Davis/CUNY Medical School program at City College (CCNY), a 7 year BS/MD program, where if she does well in the undergraduate program, she will start CUNY Medical School in her 4th year (no MCAT necessary). Only about 90 students are accepted into the program each year.  She attended a pre-matriculation program in the summer and stayed at a family friend’s apartment in Harlem.  I spent a weekend with her to get her acclimated to the NYC subway system.  My country girl is becoming a city girl!  I miss our Sundays together.  We’d regularly go to Mass & follow up with lunch at Charlotte’s Tea Room.  As she is so busy with classes, she can’t come home every weekend.  Of course, I can always go down to the City and see her!

Xavier is in his second semester at Temple Law School.  He’s back living down in Philly.  Xavier came home for a couple days at Thanksgiving and for about a week for Christmas.  He hadn’t been home since he started school (though I saw him in NJ in September on my mom’s 80th birthday).  We went snow tubing! Fun! We brought Xavier & his girlfriend Kaitlyn back to Philly on New Years Day.  Hopefully we will see him a little more often but I hear the first year of Law School is crazy!

Xavier visited with Kaitlyn the weekend of March 4th as he wanted to try and visit a little more often & it was his “Spring Break.”  Well…..while they were here, they bought a ring & ended up getting engaged.  But that is their story, so they can tell it.  Congratulations! We love you.

We celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday in September.  Happy Birthday mom!  We love you.  You are the greatest mom ever.

Christian is a senior at SUNY Maritime.  He spent the whole summer at sea.  He went to Ireland, Italy, Spain, & Malta (I may be confusing this last location)! He’s on the off-shore sailing team so we barely saw him this past semester.  It was great having him home for the winter break and most weekends this semester as he is working at the local mountain. I must say that I am glad he is back at school because that mustache really had to go!

What has been going on with me for the past year?  I still see my oncologist every three months.  I still have the port implanted in my chest.  I want to have it removed but I need to find out what is up with my thyroid first & my oncologist wanted me to have a PET Scan prior to removal but my private insurance company feels a PET Scan is not medically necessary.  So, I continue to have my port flushed regularly I also tried to go through the WTC health plan for the PET Scan but it wasn’t approved through them yet.  The WTC plan is covering the thyroid appointments though (after a rough start getting the authorizations & some confusion).  I’ve had to contact my insurance company for some claims though because even with the WTC authorizations, the doctor’s  offices still billed my personal insurance company.  I guess the doctors figured they’d get paid quicker going through my insurance.

I finally got the PET/CT scan.  I was supposed to get the results within two days but when I still hadn’t heard anything 4 business days later, I called the doctor’s office.  I was informed that the test was negative.  When I see the oncologist in a couple months, I can hopefully get my Port removed.  When I saw the results for myself, I discovered that I now have a small hiatal hernia.  Not sure how that happened.  Maybe from all the surgery?  But it may explain why I experience nausea so often.  I guess I should talk to my surgeon about that.  Hopefully it won’t involve more surgery.

Charles, Gillian, and I did a tour of Ireland in July with one of my sisters and her family.  I had never been abroad.  We spent Independence Day in Killarney & there was USA Independence Day celebration there with Uncle Sam!  Ireland was beautiful & I definitely want to return.  I especially loved Clonmacnoise, the Cliffs of Moher, the Blarney Castle and grounds, the Ring of Kerry, and the Wild Atlantic Way.  All of the hotels that we stayed in were beautiful.  I would recommend a tour for a first trip to a country to get the feel of places that you’d like to stay in the future.  The downfalls were the length of time we had in certain locations.  As we were on a time schedule, we only had about an hour at the Cliffs of Moher.  I could have stayed there all day, it was that lovely.  We only had one bad weather day, which was when we visited the Hill of Uisneach (the sacred center of Ireland).

I jogged a few 5K fundraisers in 2016.  I try to jog at least 5k twice a week when the weather is nice.  If the weather is below 40 degrees, my lungs hurt too much and if I jog too much, my right hip hurts.  Recently, I jogged and probably over did it.  I got home & couldn’t stop coughing.  I did a treatment with my nebulizer & took a hot bath but the coughing didn’t stop & my right lung was hurting.  Charles thought he’d have to take me to the ER.  I did two additional treatments with my nebulizer and finally my coughing subsided enough that he wasn’t too concerned.  Of course I was unable to sleep for quite some time after using my nebulizer but at least I avoided an emergency room visit.   My usual workout is via an Elliptical.  As it is non impact, my hip pain is limited.

For the second year in a row, my command participated in “NYPD Blue goes Pink” by running a “Pink Friday” fundraiser at 1 Police Plaza for breast cancer awareness.  We designed and sold a challenge coin, made earrings and baked goods, and also sold pins. We raised around $7000.  All proceeds went to charities including: the American Cancer Society, Young Survival Coalition, Little Pink Houses of Hope, Breast Cancer Research Fund, Komen Foundation, and the Brain Tumor Foundation.  We also donated money to Brotherhood for the Fallen.

2016 was not a great year for Law Enforcement.  Too many officers were killed in the line of duty, including Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo of the NYPD.  There was an increase in ambush style attacks as well.  This world seems to be going crazy!

We elected a new President in 2016.  Many people felt strongly about the candidates.  Strong love or strong hate.  Many were unhappy about the choices we had for the general election.  There were and still are many protests.  Thank God I no longer have to deal with that!!!!!

Since I no longer have to head to work, I will try my best to update my blog more often.  When I was working in my last command, my commute to and from work was 4 hours a day.

Please pray for all of our first responders suffering from 9/11 related illnesses.  Though it has been over 16 years, more and more of our first responders are being diagnosed with cancer & other illnesses and many of us are dying.  Never forget.