By: Stacey L. Bolin
Have you ever, in your life, had a moment when you feel like you have woken up? I've been in such a brain fog with all that has been going over the last three years both good and bad. I battled breast cancer, have a heart condition, and the negative nellies in the world - YIKES! On a positive note, I have a beautiful granddaughter with a grandson due in March of this year. My younger son got married October of 2019, and both of my sons have their own trucking businesses and beautiful strong women in their lives. I kept my promise to my husband that he'd never had to work again if he didn't want too.
We have traveled to many new states and got to see ole military friends and family. Don't know if any of you remember my dream of opening my own store, well guess what - I now have my own brick and mortar store called, "Nostalgia's" Gifts and Goodies, located in Kimball, Nebraska. What a crazy ride it's been. We are only open from October to December, but the online store with products we create are still on Etsy.com. Opening this store made "Ukandu" tm Crafts, into a brand. Now I am at a point that I am considering buying my own store location, instead of a rental and have really enjoyed my husbands great sales skills when talking about my store. I was shocked how eloquently he spoke about it yesterday when we went to look at potential locations. Love the feeling of someone in my court.
I also opened a new business called "Painting on the Prairie with Stacey Bolin" and have enjoyed teaching art classes. I love the store and creating specialized gifts and I love seeing our Saturday Picasso's, smiling at the end of each paint class. You can find all of my newest stores on Facebook, but the one thing that I have missed the most is my blog. So many stories and ideas fill my creative noggin, that I have wanted to post, but was not in a mindset to place my fingers back onto the keyboard - Until now. So below is just a quick health jaunt to get you up to speed, before I start back up with my blogging.
As many of you know, I moved from Maryland to Nebraska, yes just like the T.V. show they have on now. I won't lie, I felt extremely disoriented for the first six months. Had a mild heart attack, had to separate myself from negative family and friends, and try to find that gut instinct I once had. Little by little the gut feelings came back. My son tells me to this day, that in September of 2016, I told him I was going to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but we both laughed it off that I was just stressed and speaking out of context. As I begin to heal and adjust to my new state, I was derailed once again when I was told I had breast cancer. That was a four wheeled journey all on its own, until I found a doctor that worked with me and that overpowering intuition. They were AWESOME! AND I'M STILL HERE!!!
Now I've been making this claim for years, spite all the naysayers - if I follow my instinct, I win/doing the right thing 98% of the time. So when it came time for the double mastectomy scheduled for September 20th, 2017, my mind was out of control, another feeling of death waiting if I proceed. The procedure was to be a mastectomy with reconstruction surgery that involved implants - Have you seen the news lately about those things? I went into a total HELL NO!! mode. I was not in denial that I had cancer, though many believe that was my underlying defiant attitude about the surgery. I was told it was to be only 5 hours, a standard procedure and in a few weeks all would be fine. They never convinced me and I cancelled the surgery and began following my intuition on the best form of treatment. On the day that would have been my implant surgery, a stunningly beautiful being came into my life - My granddaughter. She changed my life and my thinking the moment I held her in my arms. I knew I was going to be alright and that Grammie wanted to be around to see her grow up.
I had opted out of the 5 hour surgery, I scheduled the 12 hour D.E.I.P. surgery, (SAY WHAT! YEP I DID) which is a process that takes the tissue from your abdominal area and use it to create new breasts. By using all my own tissues, you'd never know these things were manufactured from all the Oreo's and snacks I've eaten over the years. I had plenty to go around and I'm back to the breast size I was in High School. Never thought I'd be toting these larger ladies around again, since I had a breast reduction in the late 1990's.
D.E.I.P. - the most life changing abbreviation that has literally transformed everything about me inside and out. To this day, I like to reply, "Hi, I'm Stacey Bolin, I'm 50+ years old and I had a tummy tuck and boob job - that's why I'm rocking this, slightly rounded on many edges, body. Oh and BTW I had breast cancer". So here I sit, fingers upon the keyboard, ready to get back to what I love - Writing. But I have to admit, the drive comes from a new determined feeling of something grand upon the horizon that will make a difference in lives all over the world - especially mine and my family. So I've strapped myself in my Time Machine and ready to discover what awaits me - as I'm sure one of you out there has the other half of my search, quest, answer, something, whatever it is.
