Anyone starting Chemo in Feb?
Comments
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Good evening, everybody!
I have been telling/emailing lots of my friends about Twilah, and this response did the most to cheer me... maybe it will for you, too:
"Raise a glass to your friend, Leah, and speak to her from the heart. The Buddhists believe that the soul lingers for 40 days. I love that notion."
I do, too! And so I have been letting me heart speak to her. And I feel comforted.
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Leah, I love that response too. I believe the soul does not die. I was raised Catholic, but am now kind of a free thinker, believing more in reincarnation and a full life beyond this one.
I would love to send Twilah's family something more than a card. Do you know when the services are? Did she love a particular flower?
I just can't help thinking about her constantly. I have to believe she is around all of us!
Hugs to you Leah, I know you became good friends and are feeling the loss....comfort and love to you and to Melanie and Marsha who also got to meet her in person.
Hugs especially to Marsha and Pat ((((Marsha)))) (((((Pat))))
Love
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Leah - Thank you for sharing that - it is wonderful.
You've all been on my mind even more than usual these past few days. I'm thinking of you all and sending hugs wishes and prayers.
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A week already has gone by since Twilah left this planet... I have been thinking of her a lot. A friend forwarded me an article a few days ago that I believe will resonate with you, too. It is long but truly worth reading (I sent it to Gina, too). I pasted again the yutube link, which, stangely enough, was my choice for our virtual gathering around Twink's bed...
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Submitted by Paul Gunther, Member-at-Large:
Last week Matt Good posted a Wall Street Journal article by Greg Sandow entitled "The Arts Need Better Arguments". The final words of that article are these:
"The arts are going to need a better strategy. And in the end it's going to
have to come from art itself, from the benefits art brings, in a world where
popular culture -- which has gotten smart and serious -- also helps bring
depth and meaning to our lives.
"That's the kicker: the popular culture part. Once we figure that out, we can leave our shaky arguments behind and really try to prove we matter."
In a somewhat similar vein is a welcome address given by Mr Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of the music division of the Boston Conservatory, to the class of incoming freshman in 2004. To the recent posting of JoAnn Falletta's Virgina Pilot op-ed by ICSOM Chair Bruce Ridge, I believe Mr Paulnack's address adds further weight as to why the arts -- and specifically music -- matters to all of us. Because it has been floating around the internet ever since, many of you may have seen it already. Recently it has found new life in light of the recent NEA funding issue. Mr Paulnack has given us permission to reprint it here:
One of my parents' deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not
properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn't be appreciated. I had very
good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they
imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be
more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother's
remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school â€" she said,
"you're WASTING your SAT scores." On some level, I think, my parents were
not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And
they LOVED music, they listened to classical music all the time. They just
weren't really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little
bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the "arts and
entertainment" section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your
kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with
entertainment, in fact it's the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a
little bit about music, and how it works.
The first people to understand how music really works were the ancient
Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said that music and
astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study
of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music
was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden
objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside
our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside
us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.
One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the *Quartet
for the End of Time*, written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940.
Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany.
He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940, sent across Germany in a
cattle car and imprisoned in a concentration camp.
He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a
place to compose. There were three other musicians in the camp, a cellist, a
violinist, and a clarinetist, and Messiaen wrote his quartet with these
specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand
prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous
masterworks in the repertoire.
Given what we have since learned about life in the concentration camps, why
would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing
music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water,
to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape tortureâ€"why would anyone bother
with music? And yetâ€"from the camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have
visual art; it wasn't just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people
created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on
survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that *art must
be, somehow, essential for life*. The camps were without money, without
hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they
were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human
spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in
which we say, "I am alive, and my life has meaning."
On September 12, 2001, I was a resident of Manhattan. That morning I reached
a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the world. I sat down
at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as was my daily routine; I
did it by force of habit, without thinking about it. I lifted the cover on
the keyboard, and opened my music, and put my hands on the keys and took my
hands off the keys. And I sat there and thought, does this even matter?
Isn't this completely irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what
happened in this city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless.
Why am I here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a
piano player right now? I was completely lost.
And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the journey of
getting through that week. I did not play the piano that day, and in fact I
contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to play the piano again. And
then I observed how we got through the day. At least in my neighborhood, we
didn't shoot hoops or play Scrabble. We didn't play cards to pass the time,
we didn't watch TV, we didn't shop, we most certainly did not go to the
mall. The first organized activity that I saw in New York, that same day,
was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang *We
Shall Overcome*. Lots of people sang *America the Beautiful*. The first
organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that
week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized
public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic
event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go
on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts,
and by music in particular, that very night.
From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is not
part of "arts and entertainment" as the newspaper section would have us
believe. It's not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of
our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass time. Music is a
basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our
lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a
way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can't with our
minds.
Some of you may know Samuel Barber's heartwrenchingly beautiful piece
Adagio for Strings.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkObnNQCMtM
If you don't know it by that name, then some of you may
know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie *
Platoon*, a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music
either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a
walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn't know you had. Music can
slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what's really going on inside
us the way a good therapist does.
I bet that you have never been to a wedding where there was absolutely no
music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some
really bad music, but I bet you there was some music. And something very
predictable happens at weddingsâ€"people get all pent up with all kinds of
emotions, and then there's some musical moment where the action of the
wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if
the music is lame, even if the quality isn't good, predictably 30 or 40
percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of
moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move
around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so
that we can express what we feel even when we can't talk about it. Can you
imagine watching *Indiana Jones* or *Superman* or *Star Wars* with the
dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the
right moment in *ET* so that all the softies in the audience start crying at
exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the
music stripped out, it wouldn't happen that way. The Greeks: Music is the
understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.
I'll give you one more example, the story of the most important concert of
my life. I must tell you I have played a little less than a thousand
concerts in my life so far. I have played in places that I thought were
important. I like playing in Carnegie Hall; I enjoyed playing in Paris; it
made me very happy to please the critics in St. Petersburg. I have played
for people I thought were important; music critics of major newspapers,
foreign heads of state. The most important concert of my entire life took
place in a nursing home in Fargo, ND, about 4 years ago.
I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We began,
as we often do, with Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was written during World
War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland's, a young pilot who was
shot down during the war. Now we often talk to our audiences about the
pieces we are going to play rather than providing them with written program
notes. But in this case, because we began the concert with this piece, we
decided to talk about the piece later in the program and to just come out
and play the music without explanation. Midway through the piece, an elderly
man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep.
This man, whom I later met, was clearly a soldierâ€"even in his 70's, it was
clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had
spent a good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd
that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of that
particular piece, but it wasn't the first time I've heard crying in a
concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.
When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided to talk
about both the first and second pieces, and we described the circumstances
in which the Copland was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed
pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had
to leave the auditorium. I honestly figured that we would not see him again,
but he did come backstage afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.
What he told us was this: "During World War II, I was a pilot, and I was in
an aerial combat situation where one of my team's planes was hit. I watched
my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes
which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute cords
so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop
away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about
this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this
memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I
didn't understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came
out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost
pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that?
How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?"
Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between
internal objects. This concert in Fargo was the most important work I have
ever done. For me to play for this old soldier and help him connect,
somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect their memories of their lost
friends, to help him remember and mourn his friend, this is my work. This is
why music matters.
What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year's freshman class
when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I will charge
your sons and daughters with is this:
"If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing
appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously because you would
imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your
emergency room and you're going to have to save their life. Well, my
friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and
bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that
is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you
do your craft. You're not here to become an entertainer, and you don't have
to sell yourself. The truth is you don't have anything to sell; being a
musician isn't about dispensing a product, like selling used Chevies. I'm
not an entertainer; I'm a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue
worker. You're here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a
spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works
with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come
into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.
Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I
expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this
planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of
equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a
military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the
religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war
as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is
to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit
together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do.
As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Thank you Catherine...music is a prayer. A memory.
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Just joining group My first chemo was Feb 20. AC every three weeks for 12 weeks then Herceptin oncw a week for 12 weeks. then radiation. First week scary. Spent a couple days at hospital. Thought I had a stroke. Right side of face all numb. but all ok now. I guess I haven't done much research ahead of time. Everything happened so fast. but doing it now. so this place is really wonderful. I am amazed how many different courses of treatment.
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Hi CalGal... if you go back a few pages here, you'll see there are a few more women who started their chemo in Feb, and, by now, they must have joined a Feb 2009 (not 2007) thread where it would be the place to get truly current tx info and a support more "in sync" with your situation. Sorry to see you on this board, and wishing you to go through tx with minimum hardship... take real good care of yourself... Big hugs for your journey... we did it in 2007 and developped friendships here... still going strong 2 years later, as you can see.
Wishing you the best, Catherine
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Evening, all!
I have had the unfortunate luck to come down with a kidney infection.Spent most of Monday in the local ER, while a blizzard raged outside. I was already 36 hours into the high fever by then, so i was beat. And I still am. Don't feel much better, though I imagine I must be on the mend, but fever is still high. My PCP who is in the other half of the state happens to be on vacation, so there is no one to follow up with. I might have to just find an office tomorrow around here. But I really feel whipped. And vulnerable...
Hope all the rest of you are ok. Stay well and happy. I have watched so much TV these past 3 days, my IQ went down 10 points. I even watched the Bachelor!!!!
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Hi Leah...I am so sorry you are "under the weather" (pun intended) A kidney infection is miserable and I am glad you were in the ER and not snowed in at home! Watching TV isn't all it's cracked up to be...I found that out while mending my foot surgery. I didn't watch the Bachelor, but I guess the ending was very controversial...so say the girls at work!
I am scheduled for a MRI on Monday eve....I had my regular bone scan and CT scans on the 23rd. The bone scan showed uptake on my T10 vertebrae, too small to characterize. So I wait and worry. Hoping it is just arthritis.
I am thinking we are all just mellowing out here....thinking about and missing Twilah. And not knowing what to say.
I too hope everyone else is well and happy. Marsha and Pat....here is a shout out to both of you!
Love,
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Hi ya'll! Yes, still can't believe our Twink is an angel now....very bittersweet knowing her family is hurting and missing her but at the same time knowing she is pain free and in peace.
I will never forget when our mom died at the age of 63 after a 5 yr fight with ovarian cancer, at that time my youngest sibling, a sister of 22yrs still lived at home with mom who was a widow. Well one week after mom passed, my sis called me and said that mom appeared in sis' bedroom during the night while she was asleep. Mom was dressed up in one of her work skirt/suit sets with her hair lush and beautiful. Sis says mom walked to her bedside and said smiling "tell the other kids not to worry, I am so happy and I love all you very much." Mom then opened her arms and hugged my sis who said she was trying to open her eyes, to wake up and "see" mom awake so she would know she was just dreaming, but she couldn't. Sis said she even felt the pressure of the hug on her arms and shoulders. Then mom disappeared and only then could sis open her eyes but she didn't see mom anymore. BUT, she could smell the scent of mom's favorite perfume in the air.
This was quite a surprise to hear coming from this sister back then because she has always been a very sort of closed minded type when it comes to things that are not black or white, so when she called to tell me about this her voice was shaking and I knew she had experienced something very special. She's been the only one that mom has "visited" but that spoke volumes to the rest of us and we knew even though we missed her terribly she was ok.
I just bet Twilah is hovering around her family, looking beautiful than ever.
love to all,
Pat
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Leah, sorry you're dealing with the kidney infection and hoping you got a good ER dr. to treat you. Please say you're taking tylenol extra strength for the fever, or motrin (advil/ibuprofen same thing) along with PLENTY of water, all day long. My suggestion is if your primary dr. can't see you then go back to the ER and tell them about the continued fever, etc. 3 days of high fever is too much for the body.
I was an ER RN for 20+ years and on taking care of patients with kidney infections one of our discharge instructions (if they were sent home) was to return to the ER if within 48 hrs: fever didn't respond with tylenol or motrin, or flank pain continues, or if you get nauseated to the point you can't take your meds or water (they did give you antibiotics right?).
so I don't mean to scare you but kidney infections are serious because they can lead to septicemia (blood infection) that opens up a whole new batch of problems. If you were my sister (oh yea, we're bc sisters!) HEY sister, get back to the dr. asap. If they roll they're eyes then either they're having a seizure or they don't know what they're doing and go to another ER. It's the continued high fevers that need to be addressed. Yes it can take up to a week (usually 2-3 days) to clear up these infections but your body is saying something if the fever is persisting.
let me know how you're doing or I'll look for you
Pat
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***I am scheduled for a MRI on Monday eve....I had my regular bone scan and CT scans on the 23rd. The bone scan showed uptake on my T10 vertebrae, too small to characterize. So I wait and worry. Hoping it is just arthritis. ...Terry***
Hi Terry! I will say a prayer for you that all is well. Scanxiety is REAL so hoping you have something to help you stay mentally ok whether it's a cup of calming herbal tea, a good friend to talk to, an exercise program, xanax or ativan.
I have a chest/abdomen/pelvic CT scheduled for 3-16 and a bone scan scheduled for 3-17 so I'll just shoot straight for the xanax while waiting for results.
Pat
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Hi, sisters... checking in to say hi... I was pleased to see some activity... but then realized the news could have been better...
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Leah}}}}}}}}}}, listen to Pat, please!!!! She is 100% right... this happened to my mom a few years ago, and she had a hard time... she missed septicemia by not much... the fever was making her so jumpy, she could not even use the phone to call the ambulance... she did ok, in the end, but this really scared her big time (she is a chronic sufferer of urinary tract infections, from childhood). Please come back here tell us that you did all the right things and are feeling better... we are looking forward to meeting your friends soon (their daughter is in the same zipcode as us...). Enjoy silly TV to unwind (does not work for me, prefer the radio or music... I turned into a yutube junkie...)
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Terry}}}}}}}}}}}} do not worry too much. I am surprised that you are getting scans. My onc did not order any (and I do not see him until July, now). They do only if the blood work comes back with abnormal stuff. Thinking of you and sharing completely your remarks... Please keep us posted, too...
Pat, I remember very well when you wrote about your sister's experience (pages and pages ago). If you read the long article posted above, the veteran story is troubling, too... I want to believe that these things happen. Hope you are feeling not too bad and are getting the rest you need. You sound in good spirits and energetic... what do you do right now, are you enjoying the warm TX spring? We have been in the mid-70's for a few days... amazing for Denver at this time of the year... no rain, no snow... getting a bit bothering... {{{{{{{{{{{{{{Pat}}}}}}}}}}}}}\
Marsha, thinking of you, sweetie... how are your days? Hope the pain is gone and that the rads are over... Sending you a cloud of kisses.
Waving at all the others MIA...
Back to work (burried in it...)... all I want to do is knit more baby stuff, but deadlines are tough...
Thinking of you all,
Catherine
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Hi all
Like Catherine pleased to see we hadn't dropped off the first page again.
Hope you are feeling much better Leah. Kidney infections are the pits, the pain is just so bad as well. Look after yourself as Pat said.
Terry, will be thinking of you when you go for your scans. Sending you big hugs.
Pat, sending big hugs as well as you have scans etc.
I am feeling really sore in all joints but think it is partly self inflicted. Went for a wonderful long walk yesterday morning - I have been walking on fine days. Really pushed myself up quite a steep road and felt terrible, actually thought I would have to call DH who was still at home, but continued on. DH was getting a little worried when I hadn't arrived back after an hour and a half, usuall takes me 45mins. I had stopped to buy coffee which I drank on the way home. By evening I had the shakes and good barely move, so don't know why. Very stiff this morning but not so bad. I have to be on form today as I 'Bea" sitting. This will be interesting as she doesn't like being away from her mother these days. Erin is starting work at the University today.
Where are you Marsha, we get worried when there is no news?
Blessings
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Report and marvel at the wonder of antibiotics: about 50 hours after getting first dose intravenously, the fever broke. I was lightheaded all morning, but as the day wore on, felt better. Now the fever is back slightly, so off to bed with me to rest. I have to go to work tomorrow, so a good night's sleep will help a lot.
I still feel our bodies are miraculous in the ways that they heal. They put up a hell of a fight, each and every time. I really was down for the count, but now i just feel tired and achey, but this too shall pass. Only work for one day, then get to rest again.
Thanks for all the advice and words of caution. I was all set to go get followed up on if the fever hadn't broke. (I am learning not to fight doctors so much- about time, doncha think???). It was nice to have you mothering me out there. Love you all.
The weather weenies are promising me a spring day for Saturday... highs in the 40's! Can't wait!!
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Leah good to hear you're much better, what a difference a day can make and yes the human body is awesome.
Catherine that veterans story was good and thanks for sharing that. I'm surprised you say you want to believe things like this happen, you mean you haven't had anything unexplainable happen to you? Wow, our family is full of experiences that make us go "Hhhmmmm??" For instance, my other sister dreamt of my father's fatal auto accident for 3 nights straight before it actually happened and she was 8 years old at the time, I was 17 and I would wake up and hear her crying and when I went to check on her she kept saying "dad was killed, I saw him". At that time my parents were separated so we would see dad on the weekends and I remember saying to her, "just watch, we're going to see dad this saturday and he'll be fine, just say a Hail Mary (or something like that, you know us catholics) and go back to sleep".
This went on from a Wednesday night thru Friday same exact way. We'll on Saturday morning we get a call that dad was killed by a drunk driver running a red light. Wow we felt so bad that our sister had "seen" it before it happened. The odd thing is at his funeral she handled it so well, almost like she had already gone thru the trauma and was ahead of the rest of us in dealing with it. Her and our father were super close.
I could go on but won't and my chemo brain made me forget I had previously posted the "mom visitation" already, sorry!
As for how I'm doing, feeling better every day even though still using the oxygen when I over exert and get short of breath. But yesterday and today were simply beautiful so I couldn't stay out of the yard and flower beds. So what I do is take the o2 tank to the patio and when I get short of breath I go sit down, take a 10-15 minute oxygen break then get back to work. My daughter says don't push it mom, but I'm a spring nut and I HAVE to get out there and pull weeds, plant, move stuff around, fertilize, water all of that, I love it! But I'm moving slower than before so I know to take frequent breaks. Have to do it when it's below 100 degrees which here in texas it won't be long.
Pat
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Pat, so glad to read your news... I am so happy for you that you can enjoy gardening, I love it so much myself, I can totally understand the feeling. Our "summer break" may end soon... snow may be in the forecast over the weenk-end... we need it badly. Your family stories are truly interesting... is your sister still having these "medium" abilities? I never experienced anything like that at all, but this morning I talked to my mom (78, lives in France), and she told me she had a dream where we were together, I was 10 and very cheerful, running like crazy and exhilarated about it... curiously enough, the night before last night, I had a dream where I was ecstatic because I was running "normally" with a small group of runners (I could only see their back), I was tall like them, athletic like them, and knew how to run like them, and it felt great (endorphins??)... hmmm
Leah, don't overdo it tomorrow, girl...
Alyson, I thought I might baby sit with you a bit over Skype today... but you were not there... Take care...
Hugs and sweet dreams to all...
Catherine
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Leah, so glad you are feeling better. Don't overdo at work today. and spend the weekend resting.
Pat, I am soooo jealous of you getting into your flower beds. It has been around 14 degrees here, so the ground is quite frozen. I am thinking about starting something inside though...I better get to it.
I remember a dream I had about 3 days after my dad passed away. I was 13 at the time. The oldest of 6. I dreamt that he took us all to the house up the road (it was abandoned), he always called it "Casper's house", but we all went inside and there was a beautiful beach, a beautiful blue sky and gentle waves. I can still see it. We spent a wonderful day together and had a picnic. He then told us that we would be okay and that he had to go, He walked out into the water and was gone. And then I woke up. I never dreamt about him again, but I believe it was his way of saying goodbye. So I never discount anyone's stories of the supernatural or afterlife.
Alyson....thank you for the card! I love it.
Catherine...hope you don't have too much bad weather! It is supposed to be warmer here this weekend. Can't wait!
Love you all,
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Not to be outdone by Leah, I have been sick for 2 weeks. Started with mild bronchitis, which progressed to horrible brochitis and exacerbation of my asthma(which hardly ever bothers me anymore). I have had to go back to using the nebulizer and breathing treatments. I still have a low grade fever. I have been in to see the doctor twice. I have been through a Z-Pac, a steroid shot and now started on a steroid inhaler. In the midst of all this, as if I wasn't miserable enough I noticed a small red circle on my abdomen. Ask one of the surgeons at work to look at it and he says I have an staph infection. So add BactrimDS twice a day, Hibiclens showers and some prescription ointment. I cough like an 80 year-old smoker. I don't smoke. My temp. is 99.9 tonight. My normal is 97.4, so I feel yucky at 99.9 Actually I started feeling a little better about 5 today. I worked Tues,, Wed. and Fri. I had missed a full week and so needed to work this week. Enough whinning from the "sanitarium".
Leah, so glad you are feeling better. As Pat said, drink, drink, drink....hmmm...that's water. LOL I hope you have a nice restful weekend taking care of yourself.
Pat, thinking of you and Terry as you face the "scanners". Xanax sounds good to me. Sounds like you are taking advantage of the nice weather we have been having. Good luck with your gardening. I love gardening too. I hope to get to it soon.
Thanks Catherine for the uTube links. Nice music. I have really felt too bad to set up my Skype, but hopefully will try next week. I think I want to get a new camera. The color on yours was so much better than mine. Don't work too hard. Sorry to hear about your late winter blast. Spring will be here soon.
Terry, you are in my thoughts and prayers as you head for the scanner.
My Mom had several experiences of seeing things to come. She found it quite disturbing, When the Quiga Board was popular she received some messages about car wrecks and death. She quit using it. But she did seem to be very attuned to the supernatural.
Bea-sitting. What fun!!! Alyson, I am so envious of your retirement. Maybe someday. Our business is so bad right now, I am really glad I have a job and am bringing in some money. Thank you so much for the lovely card. It was so sweet and thoughtful of you.
Marsha, warm thoughts and blessings for you. Hope we can here from you soon.
Well guess I better go do my breathing treatment and go to bed. Of course it makes me shake like a leaf. I hate that feeling of shakiness. But need the dialation of the airways. We will be traveling to Houston this weekend. DGD just turned 21 and we are celebrating. She is also getting a new baby Siamese kitten. One of their adult cats became ill with what they thought was a brain tumor, seizures and all. So he was euthanized and she was very upset. But it has been long enough that she is ready for another baby.
Everyone hang in there. I hope Spring comes early to everyone. Hugs to all. Especially our 'MIAS". I liked Catherine's word, so I borrowed it. Love to everyone, Sammie Kay
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Hi all
Have had a great Saturday. Went to the quilter's guild - very interesting day - used to do a lot of patchwork and quilting.
Bea sitting was fine, didn't get a chance to call you Catherine. Despite being only 4 month old she is very aware that her mother has gone so her Gran has to find ways to entertain her and she won't let me out of her sight. I was quite pleased when DD arrived back. I have her again on Tuesday.
I have a lot of work to do this week. I have to have the contents page and out of the text book I am writing to the editor by the end of the month. I have several meetings to organise about writing as well as well as get things organised for the carpet being laid on Wednesday. Am also trying to get a mother and babies group underway at our church.
Sammie Kay I do hope you are feeli8ng much better and that you have a great weekend with DGD.
Hope the weather in Denver wasn't too bad Catherine, saw it was going to snow.
TIme for bed in this part of the world. The cicadas are still singing so it will be another warm night.
Alyson
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I do apologize for being one of the MIA's
It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I do want to mention that Twilah knew how much we all cared for her, but if any of us wants to, we can do a donation to breastcancer.org in her honor. I don't know if you all remember it or not, but when she was having surgeries that is what she requested of her colleagues in lieu of flowers. Also, instead of Christmas gifts, her family would donate to charities...including this site. After talking with her husband, he is pretty clear that there will not be a memorial service as that was Twilah's wish. So, I will not see the family until the first weekend of April. I just returned from a wonderful trip to Playa del Carmen a few days ago. I did not have internet there, so I was surprised to see how much had been happening. I called Leah on Friday when I read her news. She was feeling good and had been to work that day. I was so relieved to know that she was okay.
Sammie; I hope that it is not staph! My daughter developed staph after she delivered Natalie and it is a constant battle for her now, even though it has been almost 4 years. It is so scary. Please take good care of yourself as it is important for us to not let our bodies get too run down.
Catherine; I miss talking with my mother. It was more like I was her mother, so our talks would have probably been quite humorous to anyone who would not have known our relationship. The last couple of years, I finally gave up scolding her for not eating right, working too much etc. etc.
Alyson; It is so much fun to have those little ones, but I agree that I am also happy to see them go home to mommy! I just don't have the energy that I once did...lol. My daughter left today for Savannah for some classes. Natalie will stay with daddy until Tuesday, then she and I will join her mommy in Savannah for the rest of the week. I have heard it is a beautiful little city and I am looking forward to that. Sounds like your retirement was perfectly timed!
Vegas; I know you are an avid golfer and I thought I would share with you that I played my first game of golf in Cancun and had a blast! I'm not too bad either. Had a couple of really nice holes. I might try to practice a little now, although I know it takes more time than I am willing to dedicate.
Marsha; Thinking of you and I hope you are having a nice Sunday afternoon.
Pat; You should be enjoying the outdoors! You know your limits and enjoying the spring weather can only make you feel better.
Terry: We will all be thinking of you tomorrow evening and hoping for arthritis....eeeeks....what stress we all go through these days.
Carynn; I bet I can guess what you are doing today.....
I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and that you are all enjoying the same great weather that we are having right now.
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I did a post earlier but lost it - I usually copy them - was about to when something funny happened and I lost it, nevermind as it was a rant about trades people. We are having carpet put down today and things didn't go as they should have.
Had Bea yesterday which was lovely. I am so pleased that I am around to look after her. She was much more settled thank goodness.
Will have to do something about the aches I am getting. can hardly walk today but hey I shouldn't complain too much.
Hope you are all doing fine
Alyson
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A big BONJOUR !!!! to all... Just wanted to tell you I read the posts, and think of you everyday, wishing you as much comfort as possible, and as little anxiety as possible...
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ALL}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Denver is as sunny as ever and I am taking my Toby for his walk (the white one)... before indulging myself in perousing through a yarn store to find buttons for a baby vest I just finished and find some yarn and needles: I promised my sweet little neighbour (a tall, slender Florida young lady with a 4-month old baby boy) to get her started... she wants to learn how to knit.
I have been very busy responding to new translations agencies wanted me to join their pool... Hard to understand what's going on in medical translation... very busy right now... I won't complain. For those who commute: I did the first fill-up in 6 months!!! Everything I need is within 2 miles... and I bike if given a choice...
Ciao, sisters...
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Well shoot. I let myself become one of the MIA's; but that doesnt mean I havent been thinking of you!
Work has been unbelieveably busy. I had some RA problems and at one point they actually had to drain my knee and do a cortisone shot. That's a bit out of the ordinary, but it was a doozy. My knee was about 4 times it's normal size. It's almost back to normal now, but now the other knee is trying to do the same thing. Gotta luv that symetrical effect. NOT!
DH and I put in one heck of a garden - since there's just the two of us, I call it "the farm."
Leah, Pat & SammieKay, how are you feeling? I hope that you are all on the mend and feeling good. Pat, are you still using the o2?
Yes Melanie, you did figure out what I was doing last Sunday!
Catherine - I know what you mean about being busy. I wish I could do more work from home. There's something so less intrusive about work when I'm home instead of at the office.
I am absolutely beat and calling it a night. I'm sorry I didnt address everyone, but I'm sending you all a big hug. Take care and see you soon!
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I am at work....but just a quick note. Got my MRI results....just arthritis on my T10 vertebrae. Thank heavens.
Will talk to you all later,
Love
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Great!!! Enjoy your day, Terry...
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Wonderful news Terry. Isn't it strange that we can say having arthritis is wonder???
Big Hugs
Alyson
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LOL,,,, I thought the same thing- a wonderful humdrum thing like a degenerative disease due to age. It was almost funny having a plain old infection last week. Like I can get a regular sort of sick and not panic.
This has been a tough winter. Lots of flus and things. Lucky for me, didn't get too much other than the one.
Looks like the end of March is scan time for a lot of us. I have a 4 month PET/CT scheduled for Mar. 26, and a Brain scan for 3/23. (want to get a baseline since it is over two years out.) But I am trying to just take this in stride, cause the payoff is a move to 6 months if this one is A-OK. That would be such a reprieve.
I have to admit I am amused by all the people on TV telling you how to cut back, use coupons, etc. etc. I have lived my life like that from the beginning... I never use credit, etc. They talk of such stuff as if they invented it! I was raised that way, and continue on that path. I have been eating out less, and cooking more. I am much more aware of how much money goes in and out, and like making it a game to "save". I reduced my car insurance by using an affinity group (Northeastern Universtiy saved me over $300) and my adjustable mortgage went down to 3.5%. So it is amusing to hear all the advice....
Love you all. Now if I can only cut my health insurance premiums... sigh...
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Great news Terry, congrats!!
Commando, sorry you have such problems with the RA but you "sound" so POSITIVE all the time, just like Leah......mmmm I need more of that.
Leah I hear you about the scans then the waiting game. I go for ct's on Monday then bone scans on Tuesday and don't see the dr. again till next week.
I finished the abraxane/avastin combo yesterday and the plan is to put me on maintenance avastine, 1 infusion every 2 weeks starting next week, of course pending the outcome of these scans.....so prayers, well wishers are highly appreciated.
Catherine I think you'll appreciated this: 2 days ago I was on my knees (oxygen tube fully extended 50 feet) digging out the flower beds and planting bright colored vincas, lantanas, and red hot pokers. Both the front yard and the back got a good splash of color. Well just in time for the rain we have been in sore need of for the past year. Yesterday it went down to 48-50 degrees (when we were just at 80-86) and started raining. Again today a high about 46, dark and rainey and tomorrow the same. My new plants are so happy!
Still using the oxygen and some days I think I have it licked and don't need it but then the next I feel short of breath with the slightest exertion. I am also using the nebulizers as scheduled regardless of how I feel and thinking they are helping alot. Everything I've read about rads pneumonitis says no way to know how long it can last. I just want to prevent it going to fibrosis so I'm deep breathing and using the spirometer they gave me to inhale and push my lungs to expand.
talk later, stay well!
pat
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Hi girls...I am finally breathing again. Have been so worried about the results of that bone scan. So glad my onc is okay with ordering more conclusive tests. Here's hoping all the rest of the scheduled scans and tests this month are as benign!
Pat and Catherine....I am sooo jealous of you being outside and enjoying walking and gardening. It is still in the 20s and 30s here, cold, dreary, rainy and/or snowy. I did buy some lettuce and spinach seeds and am contemplating whether to start some indoors. I do see some daffodil leaves peeking up thru the mulch though! We had some warm weather last weekend, but winter came back!
Leah...so glad you are feeling better. I know what you mean about coupons, etc. I have always clipped coupons, looked for sales, cooked, do my own cleaning (I know many people who have a "cleaning lady"!) . There is great satisfaction in being frugal and saving money, I think.
Carynn, so sorry your RA is acting up again. Sounds miserable, having your knees drained. I hope you feel better soon. DH & I and maybe some of the kids will be flying out to Arizona (Tuscon) in October...BIL is getting married Oct 25 there. No plans for the trip have been made yet, as they just set the date.
Alyson and Melanie...envious of both of you with your little granddaughters. My oldest girl has moved out on her own and the other is away at school. I sure miss them. I love my boys too, but I am outnumbered now! I am looking forward to someday having some little granddaughters to spoil.
Catherine...don't do too much work...the knitting and enjoying the doggies is important too!
Well, I am just exhausted ...haven't slept well for the last week or so (wonder why) and have worked late every day this week. So will go off to bed now. I am sure I will sleep better tonite.
Here are some hugs for Pat & Marsha ((((Pat)))) ((((Marsha))))
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