INSOMNIACS place to talk in the wee hours
Comments
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Spookie- ha, overachiever I am! I shop all year long and when I find something perfect for someone, I put it away for either birthdays or Xmas gifts. As most of my holiday gift exchange goes out of state, I like it to be done early enough so I can mail it by November. I often have end of the year deadlines with work and have to spend time end of the year there and doing the cards for both myself and my biz.
I finished earlier this year than expected! Nothing wrapped and ready to mail, just stored in the "loot bag."
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I knew it!!
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So? I am ready for next Easter! maybe...........I am doing good to think about what to have for DINNER!
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I just ran across something else we can worry about!
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Just put up my Halloween decorations this afternoon. Haven't even started holiday shopping yet!
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Florida peeps, what say you?
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Spookie- ha ha!
Hey, there was a unicorn sighting at the harvest fest pet parade today!
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There was a green horse too
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that looks like fun!!
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What are you drinking JAZZY??
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Oops. Must be tired. One more day to go.
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jazzy, I used to buy gifts all year long. But I gave them to them tight away
doesn't work for me. I think it worked for everyone else. They got Christmas stuff too. Now I like to take the kids on a vacation as a Christmas present. Chevy, sorry about your friend. Sad to see people decline.
Hi everyone, have a good weekend
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Smarty- it is called Uinta Brewing Pumk'n Harvest Ale. It is tasty!
I bought a six pack last year when my family was visiting for Thanksgiving and have had a couple bottles hanging around. I realized they need to be "drunk up" and so I had one last night and one tonight. That is my quota for the week. It is a tasty beer.
I got it at Whole Foods but there is a link on their web page that shows you all the places it is sold.
Pumpkin spice everything!
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I gotta let my daughter know. She is all about pumpkin anythin
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Can't wait for next week so I can see all the Fall stuff and Halloween decorations. It is funny to think about when we had a best Spring day today and daylight saving started. It is going to be funny going to opposite seasons Bhopal it's beautiful in Denver and then Indiana and I know it will be in Canada. We don't get the beautiful Autumn colours here.
I have done most of my Christmas shopping, I am a bit early but wanted it done before we went away.
Chevy, the back is really bad. They have found I have about six discs gone which is why I am having such pain in back and legs. Just hope I can keep going on this trip.
Hugs to all.
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Alyson, Hi
sorry about the back. Hope it doesn't mess up your trip to you DD. I sometimes see you on Fb , but rarely there. Are they coing to try and fix the back? Doing well here...........nothing off since about july this year......reprieve for awhile LOL.0 -
Alyson- I am glad you are enjoying your travels to the US. Different seasons here, our falls are the best in the Rockies (aspens) and back east with the full array of colors. I am heading to NY in a few days for a wedding and so happy I will be able to see the fall foliage for the first time in many years! I will be camera ready.
You and are much alike with our Xmas shopping habbits. I love to shop, but after October, you won't see me in a store again until the new year. I think that also comes with having worked holiday retail in my youth too (people are crazy!)
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Oh, so sorry about your back Alyson......... They finally fixed mine, but I was only about 45 when they did, and I just had 2 herniated disks, along with them pressing on that sciatic nerve... I know about back pain...... But it's all good, if I don't do too much screwing around, and bending over, and just take care of it......
My Mom had a lot of trouble with bone-spurs on her back...they fixed that too.... but then everything else falls apart.... Take good care!
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Morning Owlies, Had one of those moments this morning that plays with the mind. The regular postal mail delivery truck was out front today. HMMmm isn't this Sunday? It took DBF and I a bit of talk b/c we were both confused that it was there. Apparently, they are trying to be more competitive and are doing parcel delivery on Sundays.
I invited GrammaKathy to join us. She will be popping by
Smarrty, the crazy thing was about me. It was in referencing glass. You were part of the example b/c of your intense interest(and skill) in quilting. I talk about glass as if were animate instead of inanimate. Will admit I sometimes even talk to it. LOL send the truck(ems) with the straight jacket.
Spookie, Susan, & Jazzy... I do the same thing about gathering things throughout the year. Problem is I have so much in drawers that I have found things years later. It started with one specified drawer, then two, then on and on. Mostly b/c I needed more places to stash glass. Poor DS. I have started trying to clear these things out, but it will take awhile.
Talked with DB Charlie today. He is such a trial. He has no clue how rigid his thinking has become. I saw the same trend in many as they got older on in my Dad's brother's and sister's. Since quite a few developed Alzheimers, it's a worry. Oh well.
Blondie, did the lady come yet?
Patty waving and sending kisses
Lilgoats are you going to be here for Sunday afternoon. I have to go out for a few hours. I have gotten used to seeing you her on Sunday's
Rosie Love the description with all the DD's. Glad your Accessory is doing so well
The intensity of Toradol thread is now down. It wore me out last week. What was cool, is the two main docs that the thread was based on both have posted. I called Dr Retsky from Harvard, and he in turn introduced me to Dr Forget(Forshuy) from Brussels Belgium. Fun. Fun Fun.
Loverly, glad you were there Muah
BBL sassy waving to all I missed for the moment
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Chevy, Glad you found that nonverbal /verbal pain stuff useful. The part about checking for impactions, throws allot of people off track, but it's so true. Hope Carol's scenario improve as time goes on. Time will tell how much she will improve or not.
Those suggestions Glennie made regarding the reading resources, it'd be nice to send them on to the daughter. Really. For two reasons 1. Carol. 2. the daughter is probably feeling lost that she can't help her Mom more. The info would help DD work through allot of personal emotional things. Then she would likely share them with Carol's fiancé.
It would give them something to do. Even if that something to do, either does something or doesn't do anything. It will help the caregivers very much. This is not suggesting that the info doesn't work. It does when it can. In this scenario families feel a wide array of emotions. This will involve them in Carol's care. You would be giving them a gift that I can't truly express how important it would be.
I know I didn't do that justice. If they're is anyone else that can see, if they can say it better, please, give it a go, thanks
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Colorado Voices: For some with breast cancer, a darker shade of pink
By Siobhan Sprecace
POSTED: 09/26/2015 05:00:00 PM MDT2 COMMENTS
Balloons are released as part of a tribute to breast cancer survivors during halftime of a Denver Broncos game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in October 2014. (Denver Post file)Breast Cancer Awareness Month is fast approaching. Soon, Denver will be awash in perfectly tied pink ribbons, perky pink knick-knacks, and cleverly worded pink signs.
Of course, I am always aware that my right breast was removed due to cancer several years ago, along with a hefty helping of my lymph nodes, all of my hair (which has since grown back), and my faith in the future.
Most people prefer the stories of cancer that is detected early, battled gracefully — usually with a lot of cheerful pink fripperies — and wrestled to the ground triumphantly so that we can all live happily ever after. And then have a race.
But what about those unlucky people who didn't catch the cancer early? Or those who did catch it early, only to have it return a few years later with a vengeance? Or the truly heroic people who beat it down as best they could only to finally die from it?
Some of us need a darker shade of pink to don — either that or a very strong pink net to catch us as we go tumbling into a metastatic cancer diagnosis.
On a sunny Saturday in May 2011, I awoke to a lump in my right breast — a cartoonishly large mass that stubbornly pushed back every time I gingerly (and then more insistently) poked my finger at it.
It must be a cyst ... a sign of age ... some kind of simple, hormonal thing," I whispered to myself as I drove to my gynecologist's office the following Monday. After a mammogram, an ultrasound, a biopsy, several frantic phone calls, desperate texts and beseeching prayers, it was confirmed that the lump was certainly nothing simple.
And with that, I went reeling off of the cliff known as cancer.
A PET scan confirmed that the cancer had spread — to my liver — and suddenly I was facing a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis.
Staging is what the doctors use to describe how far the cancer has spread at diagnosis. When I was diagnosed, it had already traveled to a distant site, making it stage IV from the start. (There is no stage V.) This is also referred to as metastatic cancer, meaning the cancer moved (usually via the lymph nodes or the bloodstream) to somewhere other than where it started.
Metastatic breast cancer is the one that kills you. According to the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, approximately 40,000 people die from metastatic breast cancer every year; around 150,000 people are living with it. I am one of the latter — for today.
I thought to myself: What kind of an idiot gets stage IV cancer right off the bat? Stage IV is for the losers — literally, we will eventually lose our lives to cancer. Stage IV is scary, sad and pathetic, and ends in death. No amount of pink can make that cheery.
Those who have metastatic cancer will never kick it to the curb; we will require treatment forever. And we must learn to live with that. We live in the shadows of a beast of an illness — an illness that, for me, has so far been tamed with a life-saving drug. Yet it paces ferociously, relentlessly inside our bodies like a caged animal, waiting to lunge again.
Cancer is programmed to outsmart drugs, much like superbugs outsmart antibiotics. Once the cancer gets wise to the drug you are taking, you try to beat it down with surgeries, drugs, radiation, chemo, anti-hormonals, antibodies, targeted treatments, immune therapies and clinical trials. Each time one drug or treatment stops working, you cliff-jump to another one. The side effects, fatigue and anxiety can become more and more unbearable with each leap.
In the beginning, I was wide-eyed with fear. I was a poster child for obeying all the rules of treatment. I even joked about cancer, made light of losing my hair, and smiled frequently.
I had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis, but I spent my days trying to "lighten" the reality. But at night, I lay in bed, and the terror settled on me like a suffocating blanket. I fought sleep because it seemed too close to death.
If the fear of death is primal, the fear of leaving a child motherless is feral.
The panic raged for years, and still sneaks up on me frequently. But it has been muzzled. For today, I am alive. For today, I am grateful.
So every third Monday, I have my port accessed and get a drug called Herceptin, which saves my life. We schedule our lives around it. Vacations, school drop-offs, funerals are planned around the hours that I must be at the chemo center. I can't miss a dose.
I realize that I am one of the luckiest unlucky people I know. Metastatic cancer kills people every day. For now, in three-week increments, I am reeling in the years that I never thought I'd see.
In the midst of metastatic cancer — with its never-ending treatment, its sometimes debilitating side effects, its financial woes and its harrowing fear of death — there are bills to pay, dinners to make, children to raise, houses to clean, friends in need and tires that go flat.
There is morning and night and the spectacular, tiny, magnificent, mundane, beautiful and tragic elements that occur between those two — the rising and the setting — that make up our ordinary days. I know that always, for all of us, there are cliffs to jump, sunsets to view and races to run — for as long as we can.
And so, as morning dawns today, I will grab my dark, rose-colored scarf and join the Komen Race for the Cure, jumping into the barrage of a color that, quite simply, reminds me of my impending death.
I'll be walking in honor of those whose last sunsets came too early.
This just brought tears to my eyes....... and thinking of all the women who I have met on here, and reading their stores...... You all mean so much to me.......... xoxo
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Sass, thanks for the insight.... Carol has 3 Sons and a Daughter... but she has not spoken to her Daughter in maybe 40 years... I don't know the whole story, and when we DID talk about it, she seemed to not know what had happened.... why, after all this time, they have not spoken...... And I'm not pushing it....
I DID ask her x-DIL if she has heard from Lynn, or if she even knows about her Mom... She just quietly said "no".... She has had contact with her Grand-daughter, but not recently... It's her x-DiL that cares about her.... and her one Son.... The rest of her family is just not concerned I guess.... I wake up every night, thinking about her, and what a sorrowful life she has.... I guess it doesn't bother her, because she doesn't seem to think about the past, or the future. Just what is going on "now".....
She used to watch TV every minute, or have music playing all day.... that's when she wasn't volunteering at the Hospital, the Museum, or REI.. or endlessly cleaning her house, working in the garden, or washing windows....... Or on one of her round the world cruises, train-rides or group trips.....Or even taking off in her huge motor-home..... or going to special dinners and plays with her Fiance' or her Son.... She HAS had a beautiful full life.... but in an instant it ended..... and life goes on.............
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Chevy, Don't take who you should send it too literally. I thought you said a daughter was there. Give the info to whomever is with her. When families around the patient have info that they can use. It helps. It helps in so many ways. They feel less helpless. They feel like they can do something. They won't feel like everything is out of control.
Thanks for posting that from Siobhan. Not sure I've ever read anything that was more insightful about cancer.
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Chevy, would you , please, post Siobhan's article on Pinktober. Thanks
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Beautiful Chevy! I wish that could get picked up by all the national news and social media outlets.
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Chevy- that is one really good article. I think it should go to the Moderators too. There needs to be a different awareness created around this instead of "buy this, a portion goes to charity, you should feel good about yourself now." Thank you for sharing that. One of the best articles I have read.
Speaking of cancer (and we always do), I took a friend out today who has Stage IV brain cancer. Went for a ride in the convertible and had breakfast at one of the best places in town. My friend was not feeling that great (maintenance chemo every other week) and was not sure he would eat much, but saw him polish off a huge breakfast with eggs, sausage, hash browns and pancakes! It was good to see him eat a good meal and we had a nice time. Helping cancer brothers and sisters is the thing I am doing now to make a difference.
Oh and here is my breakfast, huevos con queso which is a spin on eggs Benedict with a yummy queso cheese sauce instead of hollandaise sauce. It is a total gastronomic delight!
Now I am sleepy.......
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OH Jazzy, that looks good. Anything with a good sauce is my total downfall. At 21 y/o, my MIL got me into eating cauliflower and broccoli b/c she made the nicest cheese sauce. Found out I loved C&B. Never touched it before that...... Sounds like a lovely day with your friend. Such a good idea the way you are doing it. I know after Greg died, I was so lonesome. WE had been so isolated b/c of immunity issues for two years, getting out and being social was nirvahna
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5 hours ago scuttlers wrote:
Scuttler: I may make a copy, put on the fridge, and play bingo for one week. If I get a "Bingo", hubby takes me to dinner. If I get a "full card", I get a full spa treatment. Then all those idiots would be wondering why I jump up and down and scream happily at their stupid and asinine remarks. :-). !!!!!
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Sassy- OMG is that good. I have to share that in a few places. And I heard all of those at one point or another.
My favorite during treatment was "oh you are tired all the time, you must be depressed." No I am in cancer treatment, you get fatigued from the treatments they give you.
My favorite now is "you are all done with that now, right?" Define "done with", please?
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