Sunday, November 15, 2009

Life is filled with unexpected blessings

Well, I found a house to rent. Couldn't ask for much better. Nice house. Across the street from the school. Across the street from the rec center. Across the street from the school. Walking distance to the bus stop for Jake to get to work at the mall. Oh...and did I mention it's right across the street from the school. KIDS CAN WALK TO SCHOOL. YEAH...YEAH... That's nearly as exciting as; I ONLY HAVE 1 MORE CHEMO LEFT. Dec 2nd. the last one. Very last one. Only one more weekend of nausea, weight loss, and rotten watermelon taste in my mouth. ONly one more weekend of feeling like someone just beat the crap out of me; after I had finished the iron man triathlon, that I have no recollection of participating in. Annnddd.... only one more weekend of stool softeners and dried fruit.
The bonus of all this as that weekend is that we will be having our hospice xmas gathering, and I get to go to Trans Siberian Orchestra 4th row with Cea. Quite nice deals after chemo #6.
Yesterday we started the packing and moving process. What an ordeal. Who'd a thunk 16 years in one house would have had us moving 756 billion boxes of junk. We really really need to have a garage sale once we get moved. We had quite the moving crew. Tracy, Meagan,Diane,Courtney, Savanah, Angel, Kelly, and Jake. I did get another bald bonus at Hungry Howies last night. When I showed up to pick up the pizza, he looked at me and then started doing button pushing on the register, saying, let me see what other discount I can get ya. 6 dollars off. I guess that will be the only part of all this I will miss :)
Story of the day yest...At Madi's softball tournament(which she hit a home run clear over their head), I had to run to the bathroom to throw up. When I was done I thought I would just go pee too. But before I could do that I had to throw up some more. Then I went on my merry way to Madi's game. After her game she asked for lunch, as I stood up to go, my pants fell down. I just thought man, I really lost some weight since throwing up...Nah, just failed to zip and button them after the first bathroom trip. So I got to drop my drawers at the ball field Whoo Hoo

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Guess what you are getting for xmas???


Well...sadly enough Cea and I only have 1 more disc of Dexter season 3. Monday we finally got caught up. Man, is that a great show. Never been much of a TV fan. But I'll sacrifice "perfectly healthy should be outside hiking time" for good ole Dexter.
It's 1am and these steroids are making sure I don't get an ounce of sleep for the next few days. Lets' just hope the new chemo drug gives me somewhat of a reprieve from the previous 4 cycles of hell.
I spent the day today with Cea, teaching her how to can jam...Strawberry, raspberry, peach, raspberry-peach, and triple berry. Her poor stove and microwave and my bald head looked like a Dexter crime scene. red raspberry splatter everywhere. That jam starts boiling and poppin everywhere, including Cea's eyeball too. The jam looks fabulous. (in the jars, not the floor).
OK...its off to bed to pretend to fall asleep. I'm going to get up in the am and hike Thunderbird Mtn before I have chemo at 11. Just 2 more cycles left of kicking cancers butt.
Good night

Friday, November 6, 2009

My eylashes and eyebrows have finally left


I just want it known that we didn't stop hiking because any one of us was tired. We had to get back in time for a meeting. And.. I got to take some great shots of the McDowell Mountains.
Wednesday and Thursday were such bonus days...No chemo due to major changes. So since Wed Cea was supposed to be my chemo partner, I had breakfast with her, Kelly and Scotty. Yuuummy. We then caught up on more Dexter. Perfect!
Thursday, Julie was supposed to be my Chemo partner. So we went on a hike instead with Barrie in the McDowell Mountains. Barrie kept finding hearts in the rocks. We all tried and tried to find Colette from Illinois whos copy of her passport we found. Couldn't find her. Met Twyla though! Had fun taking a few pics, and, I didn't fall. Julie...looked good in her Hope shirt and found the prickly pear with a gage hole. She didn't fall. Well neither did Barrie. None of us fell. Sadly enough, there really isn't any color changes in the desert hikes like there are in Flag. Guess that means I better go to Flag next week :)
Monday the dr decided the fact that my face, hands and feet felt as though it had been numbed by the dentist, as well as hurt, was not a good thing. Not being able to hold a pen last weekend wasn't a good thing either. Sooooo...chemo has to change. I think it's OK though. I will now get carboplatin instead of cisplatin. This is better for less neuropathy. So no more belly chemo. Just Taxol and Carboplatin every 21 days IV. I think I can handle that. Only 2 more chemo cycles. I'm a happy camper.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.

Madi reminded me of this today, and I am trying to be sucessful at this. Stupid things keep trying to bring me down. Like hitting my poor Pilot and taking off. Buttheads.
I have to remember that there is always somebody's life that is having a worse story than I. It's here I just remember I have 2 of the most fabulous beautiful children in the world that they love each other tremendously. Plus I'm thinkin they really really love their momma too. I also have the best friends and family anyone could ever ever ask for. That's all we need...LOVE. Everything else is just stuff and we will get through all this, and have these stories as a guide for the rest of our lives. Madi and I had a nice conversation that God doesn't give us more than he feels we can handle. We are very strong. We will be just fine. I told them I cant' wait for the day to come when we get to help fix someone elses dilemma. I will be very good at it.
After watching Madi's ball game this morning(nice double there woman!), we met up with Julie's family and Barrie's family for church. After which we went to a nice lunch to Rock Bottom for some great mac and cheese. Mike thank you for the lunch. Madi had a great time connecting with Jake(Barrie&Mike's Jake). Emily and my Jake continue to look like twins, and Ethan and Bryce wrote a really neat song. Caroline was great at being a cute little kid with extra celery sticks. The Petty family provided our family with a nice Rubbermaid basket filled with stuff our family will be needing. Thank You so so much Petty family. You're the best. Our visit wasnt long enough before my Jake had to get to work. Darn.
Tonight we celebrated my nephews 12th birthday. Spagetti dinner. Yummy.
2 days of no pain meds. i like that. Really dont like the fingers feet and face feeling all funky. But I see the dr tomorrow to discuss changes that are going to need to occur so I can feel those body parts later on when I am teaching my grandaughter how to throw down.
Mmmmmm nothing better than nice clean sheets at bedtime. My fav.