Progressing to Six Month Visits

Tuesday, October 6, I made the trek to Springfield to see the Oncologist. Due to the fact that it was a busy day with a workshop for nutrition in Collinsville that evening, I went by myself. Not a big deal as I don’t anticipate bad news when I go, just makes the trip a little longer with no one to talk to other than the radio.

As usual the doctor was late by at least 45 minutes. I always take a book as I know it will be a long wait and he always tells me he is so glad that I come armed with a book. Our visit was good and involved a blood draw as well as the Zometa infusion. The blood draw went well and the doctor says that my blood is “perfect as usual”. After the physical and general conversation, he told me that I wouldn’t need to see him for six months. I am glad that I don’t have to go back until April as it means all is well, but then there is the other side that I like hearing him say “All is well” every three months. Anyone that has been through this knows what I am talking about….

The Zometa infusion was a little tougher. The nurse told me that when I come back the next time to tell the nurse that does the blood draw to put in an IV so that I only get stuck once. Sounds good to me! They drew the blood from the crook of my arm as they generally do and then put the infusion in the vein on the top of my arm. This vein is a roller and manages to get away from them every time. After extended digging, she finally got the infusion started. Then it is just a matter of sitting quietly for 20 minutes, more reading time. Of course, as I look around the chemo room where the infusion is given, I am just thankful that I haven’t had to ever sit in the chair on a regular basis to have “poison” dripped into my body! I do count my blessings when I leave there.

I am doing well and really have very little to complain about in anyway. I did laugh and tell the doctor that I am amazed that my non-breast area continues to change. I now have a large “hole” in that area. It really is just a deep indentation that he says is where the fat was stripped away between ribs and chest bone. Since there is fat left above it (which is nice as I can wear lower cut things and it not be apparent that I am missing something), it is quite noticeable when I lie down. Of course, no one but Gary and I are aware of this (until I wrote this) and neither one of us cares. Just another interesting development. The doctor laughs and says that there will be changes forever, so I might as well get used to it.

Before the next visit I will have to have a mammogram (that is a standing January appointment in my mind) and then a bone density test. I now have to have one of those every year to determine if the Zometa treatment is working. That is really just lying still, so no problem there either.  At least I have fewer appointments these days.

I think it was 1:30 when I finally left his office after my 11:00 appointment.  I made a couple of quick stops in Springfield and went on to Fairview Heights to check into my hotel and make some quick stops there for workshop items.  When I work with nutrition I have a rule that if I am more than an hour from home and I finish up after 8:30 that I stay over. It is much easier to get up early the next morning and drive than it is late at night. I have always been a morning person and that hasn’t changed.  I am fortunate that the Director at NET is comfortable with that.

I got a call from Greg at 3:45 am this morning to ask if I would stay with Gabe and Mackenzie while he took Stacey to the ER. They are pretty sure that the kidney stone that she knows she has in one of her kidneys had decided to move.  Of course, the ER doctor couldn’t find that and determined that her colon is inflamed, etc. She and Greg aren’t convinced, but I stayed with the kids until 9 am. They were both out of school with the flu. The two of them and Stacey had been to the doctor yesterday to be checked for the flu. They actually tested negative, but they are being treated for the it.   The kids are out of school until they are 24 hours without a temperature.  Gabe wasn’t running a temperature this morning and Mackenzie had just gotten up, so I don’t know if she was or not. Glad this was Greg’s day off (his Sunday), so he is there to take care of them. This rainy day means that he didn’t have many other plans anyway.

Trigger Finger

Went to see my “regular” doctor a week or so ago. He tries to keep up with me and schedules me to see him every six months. He always has some tests he wants to run, etc. He says he never wants to be the doctor that says “If only I had done that….” As I have said before, he is the “humor me” doctor when I fight him on doing some things. I have to laugh at him.

Everything seems to be fine as far he is concerned. I did discuss my finger issues with him and he tells me that my finger locking is trigger finger and that I will need to have surgery to correct it. He says it is not serious, but needs to be taken care of at some point. I told him it was the most aggravating whenever we make the bed in the morning as it generally decides to lock at that point. He said he had a great solution…”Don’t make the bed!” I told him that wasn’t acceptable, especially when I am married to “Norton Neat”!

I have been pretty busy with NET (nutrition) workshops recently. I go to Greenup tomorrow (2 hours northeast of here). It means that I am taking lots of days off at work. That is not all bad, I have to say. I am averaging 3 workshops a month. Hope those numbers continue once I am retired. Nice to have a little extra income. I know I can’t count on it, but it will help build up the “project account”.

We are off to Gabe’s ballgame shortly. He started playing with a fall baseball team. Today is his first game and of course, Greg is working and Stacey needs to take Mackenzie to the first practice of the new team that she is on for softball. This means that Gabe misses his basketball practice, which he loves. This all keeps them busy.

Both of the kids were here yesterday for a work day. I had made a deal with them when we went school shopping that if they got the shoes they wanted, which were more expensive than I thought was necessary, that they would spend a day working in the yard with me. I did get more done with their help, but I must say that they wouldn’t make a list of top 10 workers. We dug out weeds (still lots more to be done) and planted bulbs. I figure it will be nice for them to see the fruits of their labors in the spring.

Another Anniversary

Since I know that a few of you out there faithfully read the blog, I will continue to write and I do know it is rather therapeutic for me and a great record to someday print out and have for posterity!

August 1 was the anniversary of completing radiation. I must say that it passed with little more than a comment from me that it was 1 year completion anniversary. My tan is still visible, but has faded to a similar color as my fading Sanibel tan. I had one lady tell me that hers was still there after many, many years. I do know that things are different now and I think that eventually mine will fade completely, but it really doesn’t matter one way or the other….As we say in our office on a regular basis…”It is what it is!”

It is hard for me to find time to type, but things should slow down now for awhile. Wrapping up summer camps is always good. The 3 weeks of the big camp is always draining. I took a week off, but was very busy doing work here at the house, etc. I went to Sycamore for the annual nutrition training, which means six hours in the car each way. Always enjoy the time with the other consultants. Most have worked for NET for several years, so we enjoy being together and catching up on everyone’s life. Then when I returned, I dove into the bathroom re-do. I had pulled down the wallpaper before I left and since this room refuses to be painted (I have tried everything and just have given up) I continue to wallpaper it. I wallpapered one day, plumber pulled the stool and lavatory the next (Gary had taken everything out for me to wallpaper behind the medicine chest, etc.)  and our favorite contractor came in,  laid laminate on the floor, put up beadboard and trim, the plumber returned the next day and replaced everything.  I have to say it was a good change. I like it and it means I will never have to fight wallpapering behind the stool again. Yeah!

My last day off was spent taking the kids school shopping. This is an annual event and they love it. Gary says that they must not have included this shopping trip when they say that school shopping dollars were down! We have a good time and they get many new things so that they are well dressed for school. Mackenzie is in the 6th grade and Gabe in the 3rd. They both like clothes and Gabe is actually a bit better shopper than Mackenzie. She is now old enough she knows the rules, so it is a easier to get her to try on things. She loves to buy, just doesn’t want to try on before she buys. My rule is, we don’t buy if you don’t try! It works very well.

As far as my health, all really is going well I do believe. I do tire more easily than I used to, it could be called aging, but I don’t want to discuss that. When I hear friends voice the same comments I am thinking and they haven’t had breast cancer or any other illness, I have to think it is “normal”. I certainly am more conscious of my body and how I feel than ever before, so that may be why I realize I tire more easily. It might also have to do with my later bedtime these days. I rarely get more than 8 hours sleep (I know some of you are envious that I get that much!) and my body really does like 9 hours, but I can generally stay up until almost 10 pm.

We have been very fortunate to have time with lots of friends recently. One of my friends from the age of 11, Pennie Crinion, stopped by when she was in the area for a wedding. Fun to see her daughter that I haven’t seen since she was quite young. Now a civil engineer. Where does the time go!

Then this weekend we got to see my college crew, Newman Club. It is very hard to explain to some people, but these people truly are family at this point. We have been friends for over 40 years and have ridden the waves of life together. We have been there for the good times and held each other in the not so good times. The best part is when we come together at least once a year and talk and laugh (…..and we do laugh lots!) , it is just like we haven’t been apart. What special people. So nice that our spouses get along well too. Of course, several of those have been around forever in our friendships.

We also have connected with several friends as we follow Mackenzie’s softball team. When we are in the Mattoon area we get in touch with friends from that area and Sullivan. We love having the opportunity to visit and catch up.  At the last two tournaments I saw quite a number of the students I had when I taught I Sullivan.  We get to visit with Scot England of WAND TV and his family occasionally.  As they travel down Interstate 57 we make connections when we can.  I love to connect with those young people that were such a huge part of my life.  I see one every year at the Christ in Youth camp too, which has been nice.  We look forward to our yearly visit.

Mackenzie and Gabe both played lots of ball this summer. We spent many days at various parks, etc. cheering them on. Gabe’s team won the Pinto World Championship tournament in Mt. Vernon. They are turning this team into a travel team (send your donations to our ball fund!) too. This presented quite a challenge on the weekend of Mackenzie’s last tournament in Paducah and with his team in Indiana. We went to Paducah and Stacey went to Indiana as I had to work on Sunday, so couldn’t have all weekend at either tournament. Greg drove to Paducah when he got off work each day. I think this was probably only the first of many challenges we have, if they are both traveling. We are just blessed to live so close and be able to travel with the teams and be a part of all of this. Especially important when Greg works weekends. Mackenzie’s team finished their 10 and under career with a 40-1 record and move up to 12 and under where the real ball starts. She made the team when they had tryouts a couple of weeks ago. They won’t play until mid October as most of the girls are playing on their junior high teams, but Mackenzie is still considered intermediate school so couldn’t play on the school team. Probably isn’t all bad that she has a 3 week break from practice and the team. They are good girls and from several different schools, so they aren’t together on a daily basis.

Overall I can say life is good and I am blessed with a wonderful family and great friends. I really can’t ask for much more than that in life. Gary and I enjoy just having time to walk in the backyard every evening and enjoy the pond. We would love it if the flower beds were weedless and we could figure out how to change things from the situation the May 8 storm created. The shade garden isn’t totally shaded now, so we must transplant things this fall. Some things are still under a tree. The glads in the front are thrilled that they have more sunshine and have bloomed all summer. Interesting things that we have learned about the areas that now have sun that hadn’t seen much sun in 100 years or so, but as I said, life is good.

Counting my Blessings

Sorry for the long time between posts.  Somehow everything gets blamed on the “storm” these days, but that certainly has been part of it.  Every day for quite some time we were cutting, hauling and burning on a daily basis.  Then there was the computer issue…….it got a ridiculous virus that took a total wipeout to cure.  I tried hooking up a laptop at home, but couldn’t get it to work for me.  I am a bit technologically challenged.

I went back to the oncologist on July 7.  Another great visit.  I do really like this guy.  He is so easy to talk to and doesn’t seem to ever think my concerns are crazy.  All is well.  He had the results of my bone scan taken in April and was very pleased with it.  I have gained 12% bone in the back area.  I asked about my finger that seems to catch on a regular basis.  He said it might be a side effect of the medicine that I am on or it could be osteoarthritis.  He said to take an Aleve every morning.  He is a great fan of Aleve.  I will try that…..probably.  I am not great at taking something like that daily.  Time will tell.  So far I can live with it.  As he said, it improves with use throughout the day, which is a plus.  I have another appointment in October.  I keep thinking he will tell me to come back every 6 months, not 3, but he had promised me he would treat me just like I was in the study I was “kicked” out of.  I will always have to go back every 6 months to get the infusion to prevent the osteoporosis and I really want to prevent that.  As I look at my mom, I wish the opportunity for her to have received treatment would have been available.  I think she shrinks every time I see her.  I hate to say how short she is these days.

I spent the night with my mom on Tuesday night after the doctor’s visit.  I have a meeting today, Thursday, in Springfield and didn’t want to make the trip back to southern Illinois and return again today.  It also was a time to visit with her.  I want to spend as much time as I can with her and I know that her heart condition is not improving.

As I said in the title for this, I have spent a good deal of the summer counting my blessings.  As I told Gary, it is nice that if we had to have this storm that it was this summer as I am able to be a assistance.  Last summer I would not have been able to help him at all other than to cheer him on.  He still thinks that I shouldn’t work so hard, but why not, if I can do it.  I do still seem to run down a little quicker than I used to, but it could possibly be that culprit called age…….Let’s not go there!

I am also in the middle of summer at DCE, which means crazy time and lots of hours.  I am finished with camps except the 3 weeks of the large church camp that will be in the last 2 weeks of July and the first week of August.  Even the youngest ones of the crew are tired at the end of summer after all of these camps.

We have been doing lots of ballgames this summer.  Mackenzie has had a fabulous softball summer.  She plays only travel league.  She was named MVP for a game and to the All Tournament team at the State Championship tournament a few weeks ago.  Their team won it which was also very special.  Four girls on their team were named to the All Tournament team.  Gabe is still going strong with baseball as he is on the All Star team and is playing in tournaments.  He had to be pulled out for a couple of weeks after a trip back to St. Louis to review the Chiara Malformation.  At first they thought he had scoliosis which is a side effect of the Chiara Malformation, but they decided that wasn’t something that he had.  The Chiara Malformation was also rated as a 1, which is the least serious.  They will continue to monitor him, but at least he is back in sports (no contact sports, which is fine by me….golf is the only fall sport as far as I am concerned!).

We spent the 4th with Gary’s family.  His uncle had planned a celebration south of Shelbyville and we went there.  Gary’s youngest sister, Maribeth, and her husband were there as well as several cousins, etc.  Good to visit with them.

The bottomline here is…….Life is GOOD!

After the Storm

The Forsythia in Bloom, April 2009

Similar picture after the storm, May, 2009

As I look at these pictures, it really doesn’t due justice to the damage that the Inland Hurricane left us with.  Realize that the reason you can’t see the garage in the second picture is that a tree is down and the limbs are big enough that they block the view.   One of the trees in this picture will have to come out as it has only two branches left and one only didn’t come down due to the fact it is cabled to the trunk and it took the pressure off it enough that it didn’t break further down.  We are currently waiting on our insurance to let us know what they will pay before we decide what will happen at the moment.  We must get the huge tree that was across the drive and the gum tree in the back taken away.  We are working on the gum tree, but we know it will reach the point that a professional will have to take care of the remains.  We fortunately are in a “burning permitted” area, so we burn daily.  The pile didn’t go out for about 5 days and then it rained enough that it put it out.  We restart it between rains.

I know that I told some of you that I would get this posted at least a week ago, but life has taken on more of a crazy tilt than it had before.  Gary’s mother died on May 21 and due to family difficulties, Gary and Greg (and Gary’s youngest sister, Maribeth) chose not to go to the funeral.  We planted a red dogwood tree in the front yard (replaces a small tree that a tree landed across and we had to cut it down) and did a small dedication service with our immediate family during the time the funeral would have occurred.  Too sad when families reach this point.  To say the least it has added lots of stress to our lives, but we are glad that she no longer has to suffer with dialysis and she had been diagnosed recently with acute leukemia.

We continue to work most days on clean up.  We call it reclaiming areas of the yard.  We have the back in fairly good shape, except for the gum tree.  It will be interesting to see if the shade garden that was under it (and a little is literally under it now) will survive without that big tree.  There are other trees that offer some shade, but about half of the garden will be receiving more sun than ever before.  The bad part is that the yard is ready to be mowed where we have it clean so Gary will have to take time out to do that, if it dries up enough.  I imagine that we will reach a point soon that we would be glad to see some of the rain that we are receiving daily now.

We went to my mom’s on Monday and celebrated my birthday with her.  Gary was very impressed that she was able to “pop” up from the chair instead of try, try again and webble wobble out of it.  I do believe those long beach walks are why she is so much stronger right now.  She said that she thought she should have just stayed down there as the weather has been so unpleasant since we returned.  Of course, I know it hasn’t been great down there either, but they have needed the rain much more than we have.

What a year this has been.  So very many things to be thankful for and many challenges to overcome.  My friends have been steady and true and that has been one of the biggest blessings outside of the loving care of my family.

Well, I’m off to have lunch at Mackenzie’s classroom and see their play.  Then tomorrow it is Gabe’s play.  What fun to have grandchildren to keep our lives bright!

Mother’s Day Trip

My mom, sister, Penny; and I left for our annual (4th year) trip to Sanibel Island on May 7.  It was very uneventful flight, etc.  We arrived on the island on at the cottages by 4 pm.  It wasn’t long until we hit the beach….Mom’s and my favorite activity!  It was wonderful shelling while we were there.  Full moon and wonderful low tides contributed to this.  I brought home more shells than I normally do, but just couldn’t seem to part with them this year.

We really do very little while we are there but walk the beach, read and generally be lazy.  We always get up and go to church on Mother’s Day and then go to brunch.  We eat out one other time as we like to eat fresh fish.  The rest of the time we cook our meals, although we do very simple fare and nothing mind boggling.

I received a call from Greg on Friday evening after 2 texts….and I don’t text….that opened with the words “Mom, we are all OK here and before I tell you the next part you need to know that.  I knew if you watched the news it would scare you when you heard about the awful storm we have had as it is on national news.”  Now what he doesn’t understand is that we don’t turn the TV on while we are at the cottage.  None of us particularly enjoy it, so it is never on.  This year Mom wanted to see one program, so we did watch it, but I will tell that tale later.  Anyway, Greg went on to explain that we had been hit by what has been termed an inland hurricane.  Gary had gone outside to clean out the overflow on the pond as there had been a huge rain that had lasted quite sometime.  The pond was overflowing in the wrong place which means we lose fish.  He was out working on it when the winds hit….up to 106 miles an hour.   He braced himself between 2 trees and held on for dear life.  Although the top came out of one of the trees, he was unhurt, only shaken.  We lost about 3 trees on the dam.  Gary hadn’t been able to see the house for the 15 minutes (he timed it) that the wind was blowing so hard, but when he got to there it was still standing with little damage.  We had a tree branch on the roof, but not through it.  We have had to have roof repairs of damaged shingles, but nothing overly serious.  We have a friend that lost every single shingle, so ours is minor.  A huge sweet gum tree was uprooted in the back yard.  Not sure what this will mean to the shade flower garden that was planted under it and the its twin about 20 feet from it that is still standing.  The front yard suffered most of the damage.  One oak tree was across the drive, but fortunately Gary’s truck was in the garage.  It was 2 days before he got someone to cut the tree enough he could get out of the garage.  When they did get started cutting it, they discovered a hive of bees in a hole in the trunk.  We are now trying to deal with getting it salvaged as we know that bees are declining and we have a friend that will take the hive if we can get all of the arrangements made and coordinated between tree cutter and bee person.  I will just say that the rest of the damage made it impossible to see the road from our house.  We will have many weeks of clean up, but thankful it wasn’t any worse.

Greg and Stacey had minimal damage and none close to the house.  This has been great as Greg has spent quite a number of hours helping us clean up.  We will have many more days of piling, burning and cutting.  The tree cutter will definitely take care of at least 3 trees.  We will have another of the big oaks taken out in front of the house as it only has two sticks left.  Sad to see them go.  We hated it that the sweet gum fell on a young oak that we had planted several years ago.  It was about 8 inches in circumference, but it was a nice young tree.  We can now choose what kind we plant to replace these and we will probably move them a little further from the house.

I did talk lots to Gary and Greg after all of this.  Generally I talk no more than once a day to someone, but there was always a new topic of concern, etc.  Gary didn’t want me to fly home early and I really figured there was little I could do, so I stayed.  He was without power from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon.  Many were without for over a week, so we were fortunate with that too.  Greg had power restored on Saturday, so he knew where he could go if he really felt he wanted electricity.  We have a natural gas water heater and range, so he could cook if he got desperate and a hot shower is always good.  The weather was a pleasant temperature, so he didn’t need air conditioning so he over all things were good.

Once again we count our blessings and move along.  One of those blessings was that Mom is still able to make the trip to Florida.  She gets stronger while she is there as she walks the beach at least twice a day.  We try to stick close, Penny did this better than I did this year, and help her sit down when she is too tired and get up when she is ready to move along.  We tell her to give us her Mrs. America wave and we will come help her.  She is a good sport and we always enjoy our time with her.  She continues to have a positive outlook and overall is good.  As she says at almost 88 (not until October) she expects to have a few aches and pains.

Marvelous Morels

My mom came down last weekend, April 18 and spent the weekend with us.  She loves to hunt mushrooms and always wants to go to the Shawnee Forest.  She has done very little walking outside this spring due to the lack of warm weather and her new car (09 Ford Focus).  She is trying very hard to get that first 1000 miles and it doesn’t go on very quickly when she only drives about 20 miles at a time.  Anyway, she insisted she would be fine to go to the usual mushroom patch.  The problem with all of this is that it is about a half mile uphill, slight grade, before we get to the path into the timber.  We got up that morning and along with Greg made the trek to the Shawnee.  Gary and I were just talking this morning that we think she does better in the wood than in the house.  Of course, as the day goes on she does do worse.  She is such a webble-wobble at this point.  We just hope that she doesn’t fall down as unlike the webble wobble she doesn’t bounce back up quite so quickly!

Mom has learned to take things at her own pace and she does get out of breath and has to stop.  We sent the guys ahead of us and I walked with her.  I told her to set the pace and stop when she needed to.  She had her cane and followed instructions and she got along pretty good.  I carry water and food for her as I know that she won’t drink very much and never knows when she is hungry.  Greg and Gary found some mushrooms immediately when they got into the woods and Gary came back to find us.  He and Greg staked them out and waited for us to arrive.  We really did quite well for the day and found a variety of sizes and kinds.  We ended up with about a plastic  grocery bag full.  Cooked some that night, sent some home with Mom and have some left.  Do to the fact that I am getting ready to leave on my 2 and 1/2 week adventure, I told Greg to come and get them if he promised to get them cooked quickly or I was calling my friends Nancy and Joe and telling them to come get them.  Their health doesn’t allow them to hunt any longer and we try to see that they have at least one good meal of them every year.  They are happy to come get them.  If they are in my refrigerator when I get home on Saturday, I say that they will be going to visit Joe and Nancy!

Hopefully I will get my home computer back when I return to work for my half day on May 4.  At that point I will attach pictures of some of the morels that Gary and Greg found when they went on further back into the Shawnee than Mom and I.  They found some of the nice big ones that we all hope to find.

Hunting morels was quite special this year since I was unable last year to make it to the timber until mushrooms were long gone.  It is always a time I enjoy.  As mom says, even if we don’t find any mushrooms it is nice to get out and see the flowers and other things in the timber….preferably not the slithering kinds of things, but we enjoy being out in nature so to speak.  Of course, I just love spring.

I leave at noon today for Bloomington for a workshop that I was supposed to plan.  It has gone really far “south” due to someone not really having the four people for a panel even though she guaranteed me in January that she had them in place!  OK, so I ended up with one person and have managed to find a student form here that is willing to go to Bloomington on Friday.  I made sure he knew it was a four hour trip.  We will pay him mileage.  The topic of the workshop is “green” and only have 25 signed up for it.  Oh well, it will be OK and if it isn’t what can they do to me, this is my last duty with this group anyway as it was a 2 year position downstate rep. for the continuing educators group.  Just looking forward to getting through this one and moving on.

When I get home on Friday evening, I will put everything in the suitcases that is setting on the spare room bed for the trip to Virginia.  I think I have most of it pulled together.  That conference is a bit of a mess too, but it has to do with the registration staff in our building.  I have to tell 14 people they really aren’t on the field trip as someone in our building entered them into it even though it was full!  Anyone want to do data entry?  I think there may be an opening after I pinch their little head off!  Anyway we will leave on Saturday morning for Evansville for at least the Saturday games of Mackenzie’s tournament.  May stay for some of Sunday depending on when they play.  Then it is off to Virginia.  When I finish my responsibilities, which will probably be about noon on Wednesday, we will go to Asheville, NC for a couple of days and relax and enjoy that area.  We are just over the border of VA and Asheville is nearby.  Looking forward to some time to unwind.

If I am not posting here, you know we are having too much fun for me to take time to type.  I will have a laptop with me as it is business and I must carry it for registration.  If I happen to have some quiet time I want to fill with typing I will let you know what we are doing.

THE DINNER!

Sorry for my slowness in posting.  The home computer is on the fritz!  Finally gave up trying to cure it with all of the things the computer geek was sending home with me.  He thinks that he will have back up everything that is on it and then wipe it clean.  Yikes.  I hate that.  They do that occasionally on our work computers and things are never quite the same.  They had gave me a new computer while I was out last year and it was tough finding everything when I came back.  They were able to restore everything, but it was rough for awhile just figuring out what they hadn’t replaced.  Oh well, I appreciate the help and it is much less expensive than sending it out.

Back to the dinner.  Everyone finally RSVP’d by about Thursday.  Gabe was the last one.  Not sure why someone hadn’t made sure that he had called, but Gary was down at Greg’s and told Gabe he sure going to miss him on Saturday night when everyone else came to eat at our house.  Gabe told Gary he would be there too and Gary explained that we didn’t think so as he had not let me know.  Greg handed him the phone and he quickly called to tell me he was planning on coming too.

When they arrived, I was quite impressed how dressed up everyone was.  At some point I will attach a picture, but once again, I can’t download pictures when my computer is not functioning correctly (shuts down every time I boot it up and I can’t do much in safe mode).  Anyway they were actually about 10 minutes before the announced dinner hour.  That was impressive too as generally it is 10 minutes after or at best right at the time.

We sat down to appetizers and I explained where their napkin was to go.  That was the first lesson of the evening.  Gabe’s comment was that the napkins matched the tablecloth!  Another first for him.  We have become far too lax about using paper.  I will try to use cloth more often, even when it isn’t a formal dinner.  Gabe had a little problem waiting until everyone had been served and not picking things up with his fingers.  The mozzarella sticks were just too tempting for him.  I warned them not to eat too many appetizers as there was a lot more to come.

The salad was the next course.  That wasn’t too much of an adventure other than finding the right fork.  There was discussion of using the fork that was next in line instead of jumping to the one that someone thought was appropriate.

I had asked Mackenzie to do “Meal Talk” questions.  We had these when we were at American Girl.  They are just questions folded up and put in a box.  We used a glass dish.  She had done 20 questions and they were good questions.  It keeps the conversation from veering off somewhere we didn’t want it to go.  She had things such as “Which season do you prefer?”; “Share a childhood memory”; (Gabe asked what that was and we told him any memory for him was a childhood memory.); “What was your favorite toy?”;  etc.  She may well have had some help, but she did type them all and print them out.  They worked very well.  the 20 lasted us the whole meal.  It was a nice way to keep things going and involve everyone in the conversation.  We each one answered each question and sometimes expounded on our answer.  Makes good memories.

The main course was chicken cordon blue (OK, so I broke down and bought it this time!), twice baked potatoes, and broccoli with cheese.  The kids weren’t fond of the chicken (surprised me as they eat most things), but didn’t make a big deal out of it.  One of the other important things for them to learn.  I think the waiting for everyone to be served was the most difficult thing for them throughout the whole meal.  Manners have certainly now been emphasized enough, but they did well overall.  We still have several things to work on, but we will keep at it over the years.  I didn’t want to “pick” at them over small things.  They need to have fond memories of these dinners and I believe that being overly crititcal  isn’t the way to go.  We do want them to know what good manners are and we will continue to work on that as well as which fork to use.

The last course was the dessert.  I had made a plain cheese cake and topped it with cherries.  The kids decided they only wanted the sauce, no cherries.   Too funny.  Anyway, they seemed to have fun and I think walked away with a lot more knowledge than when they started.  Bread plates were a challenge for them.

Overall, I think everyone was just pleased that we could celebrate one year of me being cancerfree.  That was the best part of the whole evening and I got a few extra hugs with a few tears in the eyes as memories went back to a year ago.  Of course, it has been a wonderful year in many ways and I choose to center on that and think of my blessings.  I am just fortunate to have a family that cares so very much….and everyone of them does.  I know not everyone can say that.  My niece and nephews and their families have been trooping right along with everyone else and been my cheerleaders.  I have friends who have made this journey and not had that support.  In fact, a few have expressed a bit of jealousy about the support my family has given me.  What a blessing friends and family are.  OK, so I am a broken record.

I am to go to the clinic here in Carbondale today to have a bone density test.  Got a call that they didn’t have an order for it, so if that doesn’t arrive before 10:30, I won’t have the test today.  If it doesn’t happen today, it won’t happen for several weeks as I am starting into my crazy time.  I think I work 7 days in the next 4 weeks.  Can’t be putting appointments on top of that.  I am in Bloomington for a workshop next Friday and then leave on Saturday for Virginia via Evansville, IN for Mackenzie’s softball tournament.  We will be in Virginia 2 days for a conference that I doing registration and then just bum around in TN and NC for a few days.  We return home on May 2 or 3, depending and then I go to Decatur at noon on May 4 overnight for a conference with nutrition.  Back to work for half day on May 6 before I leave for Florida for the girl trip for Mother’s Day.  Certainly looking forward to some down time before the summer camp crazies start.

A Year of Healing

Decided that I really should maybe update the whole issue of what has healed…..EVERYTHING!  Yes, I am shouting.  I truly believe that everything has healed at this point.  The itchy spots have healed all over my body.  It may or may not have been due to the radiation, but I am glad that they are gone.  The cream that the dermatologist recommended seems to have done the job.  I still use it most days.  I slither in it all over, including the incision scar from hip to hip.  That scar is slowly becoming less visible.  It is the last place to really change.  The radiation area is slowly losing its tan and becoming rather normal looking skin.  Once again, it has not totally disappeared, but just a gradual reduction in tan.  I am looking forward to a natural tan.  The incision in the breast area is so small compared to others and it looks good.  The area of scar tissue that the plastic surgeon removed has returned and I have decided it is really trying to regrow a nipple.  OK, so I have a weird sense of humor, but at least I have one.  Overall healing is complete.  I do still feel tightness in the stomach incision area if I overeat or do exercises that work that area.  I know that it normally would get sore (not from overeating!), but this is more incision soreness than muscle soreness.  Really hard to explain, but that is the best I can explain how it feels.

What a blessing it is to have such good friends that still read the blog and care if I am healing in all ways.  I think that I will always carry a mental scar, but overall my scars are healed.  The mental scar isn’t serious, just will always be a bit concerned that it might return to haunt me one more time.  I know that I am being well cared for and watched carefully, so I don’t worry about it particularly as I am convinced if it should reoccur somewhere in my body it would be found very early as I am being watched so closely.

Hard to believe how my life has changed in one year.  I think I could call the year of 2008 one of the most life-changing that I have experienced.  Not all bad by any means, but certainly it has altered lots of my thinking.  I know that it has increased my desire to retire and live life a bit differently than I am now, it has made me more aware of my body….I do try to sleep when it says I need to, etc……another reason to retire.  I needed to sleep this morning and couldn’t without calling in sick!

I will celebrate one more day in April and then it will just be moving on towards the future.  That will be April 21, one year from the final surgery that removed the tramflap.   That will be a quiet personal celebration as I do feel it was a blessing to have it removed and I have no regrets.  I know that if I were big busted I might feel differently, but since I can get away without a prosthesis if I so desire (at least in the back yard) it isn’t a big deal.  I know every woman who travels down this road has different feelings and every cancer is different, but for me I just want life to be as “normal” as possible and move on.  I know it will always be a part of me and I will be willing to share with anyone that I can help, but it won’t be my signature.

More Good News!!

Yesterday I went to see the oncologist.  He is such a nice guy.  I really enjoy our visits, just not the reason that I am there to see him!  I will walk through the whole appointment and skip the parts where we visit about his first trip to southern Illinois and the restoration he is doing to his 1905 home.

When I go in the first thing that the nurses do after weight, BP and temperature is draw 2 viles of blood.  The nurse asked if I would let a new person draw the blood as she had been out of nursing for a year and half and was trying to get back up to speed.  I allowed it as I know they have to try with someone.  Yikes!  It was fine as she hit the vein the first time, but she was very rough when she changed the viles and then didn’t fill one enough, so had to redo it.  I survived and don’t look too bruised this morning.  It was a rough day with needles, but I will get to that later.  The doctor then comes in and we discuss my health, etc.  I told him I have to discuss my whines and it was the sore hip joint.  I know that the Femara can cause leg pains, but didn’t think this was related.  He laughed and said that me and everyone else my age had that issue.  Ok, ok, I overreact to everything these days.  I asked if he thought I could try glucosamine and he said that was fine, but Aleve was also an alternative.   The rest of the conversation went like this….”Your weight is enviable, not like the 15 pounds I am overweight, your pulse rate is better than mine, your BP is great (although it was higher than normal, no stress for me in this appointment), your blood work couldn’t be better, all is well, now take off your top, put these clothes on and let me look at you.”  So as you can tell, all the reports were great.  He does an exam of both breasts, I get dressed, wait for the last blood work to be completed and then go into the chemo room for the Zometa drip.   Unfortunately this took 3 tries before they got the vein.  The first nurse tried twice and said that their rule was after 2 tries someone else took over.  She had really hurt on the first stick, so I was thrilled when the next nurse hit it right away.  The drip only takes 20 minutes when it actually gets started.  By the time that was all done, it was 4 pm and I had been there over 1 and 1/2 hours.   They did schedule me for another appointment in 3 months plus another bone density test.  They said they had to get the insurance company’s permission before they could do that.  I thought it was to be scheduled in June, but when I got home there was a message on the answering machine that it had been scheduled for April.  My reaction is why not give this drip from yesterday time to do its work.  But of course the bottomline with all of this that I have been cancerfree for one year and plan to stay that way forever!

I did ask the doctor if he felt my divorce from the radiologist was OK and he said “Yes, if you had had radiation in Springfield you would have been dismissed once the one month after completion check-up was done. “  I said I felt it was a $$ issue and he just smiled….the professional way of not talking against fellow doctors.  Makes me wonder if it would have been wise to have gone to Springfield, but it is OK that I didn’t.  Always pros and cons.  Of course, I don’t worry about it now as that part of my life is behind me.

May is looking like it will be the doctor-free month that I am looking forward to.  Of course, I am going to be so busy traveling, etc. I don’t have time for a doctor’s appointment.  Starting April 23, I will spend about 1 1/2 days in the office until May 13.  Gary is going with me to VA to the conference registration I have there.  We will vacation a little before and a couple of days afterwards.  Looking forward to that.

Our celebration is planned for Saturday night, so we are looking forward to that.  I am still working on the menu.  I think I better get it nailed down as I dreamed about opening a Chinese restaurant last night and worked really hard serving food all night.  I’m ready to sell that place as it is far too much work!  I got up stiff and sore this morning and have a headache.  I know I worked too hard at that restaurant.

For those of you that are morel mushroom fans, we have started finding them.  Greg finds them at his property and we find them on ours.  We have very few so far, but hope to find more in the next couple of days.  A trip to Shawnee Forest may be in the works on Sunday.  Time will tell.  Mom will be coming down the weekend of the 18th and we will take her mushroom hunting somewhere.  She is hoping to go to the Shawnee, but she says she will tell when she gets here if she thinks she can do that.  I know it is a tough walk.  We do have Gary well trained.  We stick to the trail where the walking is easier and he is the scout.  Mom takes her cane and we carry water and food for her.  The fallen trees make good resting places.