My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
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Nice to see folk hanging in there. Boo will be thinking about you tomorrow on results, both you and Bevjen made me smile. My DH of 34 years and I have always bickered/ bantered - it’s our way of learning to deal with the wee stuff so when the big shit hits we’re OK. Doing fine on total lockdown for me - DH does all the shopping as no delivery slots now.
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Mara— hubby found ONE Lysol spray and ONE Clorox wipes at the store yesterday morning. No toilet paper yet.
Candy678– we will make it thru this just as “we” did with Spanish flu and polio. Both of these shut down most cities during their “events”. I used to work with a lady who talked about the summer kids couldn’t leave their yards due to polio.
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Thanks Dodgers for the good thoughts. I am online here already. Will be checking in a lot today.
Boo- Hope your results are good. Let us know as soon as you can.
I think NicoleRod has scans today.
I might Google Pandemic of 1918 and read up on it. I have heard MILLIONS died with it. But I don't really know the timeline--when it started and when 2nd wave, etc. Of course, things were way different back then. I need to read what they did for mitigation back then and how did it all end--petered out, not a vaccine, right?
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Candy678– I think the Spanish Flu is still part of the yearly flu to this day but we have vaccines for it and other variants of flu. I did find a newspaper story from my local city about the quarantine in place for Spanish flu. And, yes, it did have waves just as the experts believe of the CoVid-19.
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Candy,
Good suggestion for reading about the Spanish flu -- I just did a quick scan on google and there are loads of articles on it -- I read a short one on the history channel -- and you are right -- deaths were in the millions. Very eerie.
Also, I'm sure that some of us remember the polio scare and the subsequent vaccine that was given on sugar cubes, if my mind serves me. I remember being a young child and my parents taking us to the town hall where we all got our vaccines -- maybe I'm imagining the sugar cube, but I think that was how they distributed it. I don't remember being kept in prior to that, but perhaps it's because I was so young.
Last night I attended my monthly metastatic cancer discussion group via zoom. I just started attending this group last November or December. The folks in the group are lovely, and I always learn something from the discussion. But the next day, I always feel very down. It's a weird thing. Maybe it's the recognition that this is very real, maybe it's the fact that some people are doing great whereas others are changing treatments on a rapid pace -- I don't know. Last night, one of the participants was talking about changing treatments. Another was talking about a group member (who I did not know) who had gone downhill very rapidly after a not good treatment change. Another was very upbeat, talking about travel just before the virus hit. So it was a mixed bag, so not sure why I feel so down today. But today I know I have to do something that's uplifting, even if it's just taking a super long walk.
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my dogs approved of my choice of make up colors today! I got the paws up’! It’s sunny at least but DH has to leave today to go back down and check in with his director. They do it once a month since this started, so it’s the second time down again. He’ll be gone until Saturday. So that brings me down.
Bev Jen~ I know exactly how you feel about how you can just be bummed after a group or something. I had great scans Last month and the day after, when I should have been celebrating, I was annoyed that I still have to go through that again in nine more months. Or that I have damn cancer!!!!? At all! I think for me , this corona thing has been a distraction from giving me time to notice all the cancer commercials or think about cancer 24/7. This has made that take a back seat because this is so in our face. Daily. For me the cancer waves come and go. Depends on how I’m Feeling that day. If I’m In pain even the dogs know. That’s why they call it chronic. I hate that we have so much to deal with it’s overwhelmingly staggering. My brain goes numb and I just walk through my days. I am thinking of you. Hugs being sent !
Hello Dodgers.....Candy and Mara..... Tanya...Rosie...
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Mel
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Hey, we gotta laugh or we’ll cry
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ain’t that the truth!
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Re reading about the Pandemic: I strongly recommend Ellen Bryant Voigt's poetry collection "Kyrie," about the 1918 Spanish Flu. I just re-read it. Profound and really hits home.
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I will read more about the Spanish Flu. I did a quick Google search this morning. Started Spring 1918 with wave 2 in Fall 1918 and wave 3 in Winter 1918-1919. I think that is how the timeline went. I am going to do more reading. Santa- I will check out the poetry also. Just wondering what we can learn from the Spanish Flu to help us now. And also how long this may take.
I watched New York Governor press conference today. I just usually see bits and pieces of his conference. I like him. Very factual. Has charts and such. He was talking about building a bridge until we get a vaccine in 18 months. Talked about testing and tracing and phasing in reopenings. Sounds like a long and difficult road ahead with more illnesses and deaths. Scary with MBC to add to it. Timelines are scary since we MBCers are not guaranteed 18 months to play with.
Cute pics all. Hahaha.
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I love to laugh as much as possible and these pictures are so very cute.
Taking it easy today. Did a lot of walks yesterday and my feet need a rest today. I did decide to try an experiment with the cat litter catcher mat and see if it could be washed since my rubber gripper bathmat came out so well. The mat did start to rip in a couple of places so I sewed it up with some of my yarn for a good strong bond. Note to self, stick to hosing it down in the tub instead. Beyond that, will just be reading some more and that is about it.
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Candy said, “ Timelines are scary since we MBCers are not guaranteed 18 months to play with.“ Yeah, that’s what strikes me. While “normal” people are waiting to “get through this” and be normal again, some of us stage iv types are wondering if this is how we live the rest of our (shortened) lives. The way I cope with this is to assume things will not change quickly, and figure out how I can be happiest with circumstances as they are. So for example, even though there are things about online grocery shopping I do not like, I set it up with the assumption that this is how I shop from now on. Another example, rather than waiting for my dance classes to resume, I am assuming I may never go back and am focusing my creative energies on garden design here at home. Just as I found with the mbc diagnosis, I am more at peace accepting it and adapting than railing against it like kicking a solid brick wall. (It did take me a while to come to this point re mbc.) The other thing that keeps me going is believing that a vaccine will be developed in record time, and it will liberate us sooner than we thought possible. The whole world is working on it!
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It sounds like the Spanish Flu ended because people died or had immunity from the disease.
Hoping that our sheltering in place helps and we can wait for a vaccine. We have more science and treatments at our disposal so we should be able to avoid the numbers of sick and dead as the Spanish Flu.
Having said that, I am still staying away from heavy duty news coverage other than local news. Even local news I had to shut off as I was crying hearing about long term care homes having outbreaks and many elders and disabled dying. Another home had employees abandon the residents and they were left for days without being changed or looked after. I can't help the poor people, only my gov't can help so I will obey social distancing rules, stay home and just appreciate how lucky I am. I do think watching too much coverage is detrimental to mental health in general.
I agree with you Shetland about the fact that a vaccine will be coming just as soon as possible with everyone around the world working furiously. In Canada, there is a new test that can test for covid and give results almost immediately which should help with isolating those infected.
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Hey Friends 😊, Not much going on with me, just a lot of sitting around, tv, neighborhood walks and occasional car rides with DH. If anyone here is also on FB, I'd suggest you check out the page View From My Window. People from around the world are asked to post one picture showing what they see from their windows with all the staying home we're all doing, and give a description. It's very nice to see a different view from a place we'll probably never see otherwise. Some are quaint backyards, some are more unusual.
Thanks for the funny stuff, Boo and Mel, and the advice about dealing with *shit*, Mara. I enjoyed them!
Tanya, hoping your daughters' mother in law is doing ok. And I hope no other family members are affected. I feel for the essential workers who go to work wondering if it will make them sick.
IWrite (I think?), Loved the yes/no option for the lunch choices. Lol.
Mae, Glad you still feel some optimism even with your slow progress. I hope before long you'll be turning the corner. Having trips and events cancelled is a bummer. 🌺
I went for a short, (windier than I expected) walk earlier, now it's snowing. Ugh.
Hello to everyone here. 🙋0 -
Rosie~ windy here too. Makes it colder. Not a big fan of the wind But it’s always windy in our town. Everyday.
Saw this adorable guy self distancing with his mom in their car while dad ran over to take the cart back. He was riding along like a person. It was adorable dh and I laughed. Small things. That dog sat in that seat better than children!!!!! 0 -
There is a book about it called The Great Influenza - I've been reading it in snatches here and there, partly because its really heavy on the science but also from the more interesting history side everything they do and say in that book? is the same as today. The makeshift wards in large spaces look just like today. Some of the same statements about quarantining people and the vulnerable and this and that - could have been on CNN today. Uncanny almost and scary to think that we really didn't learn anything did we in the last 100 years.
In addition to the vaccine hopes, the more time that passes the more people will learn about this disease and develop new treatment pathways - repurposed drugs, new procedures, faster testing - so that if you DO get it there is a way to monitor and treat to an extent (like pneumonia). Look at Germany - a lot of their success is because they have resources to check in on people at Day 9 (when they are most likely to take a turn for the worse) and get folks on oxygen before they get to the point of no return. Its the unknown, which is becoming less by the day, that is overwhelming I think, and that is replicated in the news reports.
Nothing new here other than packing stuff and arranging movers. Found a new GP practice in the new neighborhood that looks very promising and my buddy has vouched for their quality, so that makes me feel good. We ordered in dinner tonight as its been about 10 days since the last one - ugh. Its tasty eating it but then man such a rock in the gut! One of the cats has had a sicky tummy too, probably from snacking al fresco on something in the yard. Cow patties in the box are no fun to deal with first thing in the morning! But they both are drinking water, eating fine, and are peppy, so just keeping an eye on the situation for the time being.
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I have decided to make lemonade out of lemons. I just can’t stand hearing any more about the virus, so I’m focusing on humor instead.
Mel,
I don’t want to hear about you dressing up your dog like that poor old thing in the picture! I’ll have to come back to PA and give you a good talkin to! Lol
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One really sweet story out of this:
A pensioner decided to walk around his backyard 100 times before his 100th birthday next week, to raise money for the NHS through Just Giving. He set a goal for £1000 or something small. Well, someone on the Daily Mail picked it up, then that blowhard Piers Morgan honked about it on tv, and add to the fact the guy was in WWII (although sadly not in the Blitz as I think that would have been a bit over the top for even the Daily Mail) and as of right now he is at £9.6 million in donations. Earlier today when I checked he was at £7.3 million.
Frankly I think we should all just pay a bit more in tax every year to avoid having a 100 yr old man raise funds this way, but its a cute story all the same:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8220789/W...
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That is a great story, we need to hear more news like these stories that bring us up here and there. Thanks Sondra.
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very cool. I love the sense of community it brings when people come Together and take time To make something important. Most people who don’t have time seem to be the ones that make each moment count because we are aware of it. MBC gives that to us But to hear of that man walking 100 times around his yard for his own important time,made me smile. So I got up and did it around my house! Go mister go!
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BooBoo~ I'll be right with you, one moment please.......never that bad But we have fun
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Mel,
NO!!!!! Look at his face (in the 2nd picture). Like he’s saying, “Go ahead, say something. I dare you.”
What a cutie! Even if Mama has lost her mind
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Mama is luckily his biggest fan for sure. He is a Challenging a dog and has been since day number one when he howled all night long. He eats everything and is quite loud with his bellow. He's 11 and you would never know it. I am a little crazy when it comeS to my dogs. They are like Family
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Mel,
That is so cool. When my kids were little, we used to play the cloud game -- "I can see a ..." when looking at the clouds. That one would have been a winner for sure!
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Shetland- I too think this will be my "new normal" while waiting on a vaccine. The general public can see light at the end of the tunnel--vaccine. But with MBC and a shortened lifespan this may be what we need to get used to for the bulk of our lives (or for what life we have left). So online shopping--groceries and clothes and such-- may be the way I shop from now on. Zoom meetings for doc appointments or volunteer committee meetings. And my home being my main place from now on. I am starting to come to terms with that prospect. And gearing up for that possibility.
I listen to several news outlets. The main talk is a "new normal" until a vaccine is made. Masks in public, 6 feet distancing, no large crowds, no handshakes or hugs. And most experts are saying late 2021 or early 2022 for the vaccine. Also mentioned is the vaccines safety--not only when first given to the person (reaction in first few minutes), but also if the person contracts COVID after the vaccine given that it doesn't make the illness worse. Never thought of that.
Mara- I have been reading on the 1918 Pandemic. Going to read more. It does seem that the illness ran until either the people had contracted it and survived or contracted it and died. Scary. May be what will happen with COVID.
Rosie- Neat idea for the pics !!!
Mel- Love the dog pics !!!
Sondra- I read an article online about the 1918 Pandemic. It said they discouraged spitting in public. Hahaha.
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