Math lesson for today. 3 x 7 does not equal 20. So what does it mean? Now I could breakout into my best "Sound of Music" voice......you know the song......"let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to begin - when you learn to read you begin with A, B, C. Hold it, hold it!!!! Let's put the breaks on this 1964, light blue, rust colored "VW" Bug.
How about I turn into robot Joan and just supply definitions. You can draw your own conclusions or burst out singing your own favorite musical. (However you need to let me know what musical has got your toe tapping).
In July, I was diagnosed with three new tumors on my spine. By October, my three radiologists where telling me my tumors each had grown by seven new tumors up and down my spine. The docs couldn't quite agree as to what the total growth was and Dr. Goodman and I were frustrated and went with what we could see on the PET/CT.
I'm now on cytoxan and taxol. I was on taxotere a synthetic of taxol, however I developed ulcers on my hands, in my mouth and in my bladder. Basically pure pain.
And here I am, no hair, massive pain, losing weight (not to bad of a thing), worried to death about my family, would kill for a goodnight sleep, and trying to figure out if I have enough money for Christmas
Just another day in my life........and yes, the tears are rolling down my cheeks
P.s. I am going to have a jewelry open house on Saturday, December 7th from 3 pm to 9 pm or so. Champagne, yummy ti
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Riddle me this????
A very brief thought or short riddle. Just to keep you on your toes. (Hee, hee, hee) 3 x 7 does not equal 20. So what does 3 stand for? And 7? And do not forget 20? What do they mean and do they mean anything.
Meanwhile, I no longer sleep and have a child who has a hard time being in the same room as I.
Meanwhile, I no longer sleep and have a child who has a hard time being in the same room as I.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Well, I’m a woos!
I’m on a new chemo; the drug is only two years old. FDA approved. It’s a fast acting med. It was originally created for Pancreas and Renal
cancer, however serendipitously the scientists discovered…….a cure for
cancer. No, I wish. The scientist found out that the drug works
on advanced cancer patients who develop rapid growing and large cancer tumors in
the bone. Great, I’m so lucky to be one
of the few, however the more I read about it, the more it becomes
interesting. Is going to cure my cancer,
seriously……..NO! But hopely the cancer won't break my bone and call me names.
So there is good
about the drug…..it’s powerful and if I’m lucky it will kick butt of those
nagging tumors in my spine. Once again,
they never tell people that bone cancer hurts.
But I’ll tell you, IT HURTS. The
drug dark side…..sound scary music from ……Jaws, no not gruesome enough. Halloween, no, no, no that movie has a happy
ending. Psycho ……perhaps, right now I
feel like a have a million knives in my mouth slicing and dicing. I was told the first thing to go would be taste
within five days and blisters will start in mouth, begining their march down my
throat to my stomach. Plus, the stupid
medicine has a mind of its own. For some reason, the drug will think my lips,
my chin, my cheeks, my eyes, my forehead have been mined with cancer bombs. When I’m not gargling with warm salt water
mixed with lidocaine. the cancer will begin it’s stealth mission. The cancer will creep out
of my mouth (with my luck probably when I’m asleep snoring) and begin to
blister my face. Oh yes, I can feel the
pain already and can imagine the people in the grocery store stampeding out the
door trying to get away from an alien in their midst.
So now I know you’re all scratching your head with the
question – why do I feel like a woos.
That’s easy. I’m deathly afraid
of any kind of mouth pain. I hate
dentists…..yes, I know they are much maligned and are really super heroes,
defenders of teeth, tongue and banishing the evil villains in the guise of cavities and
(whispered softly) bad breathe. I have a bad tooth from my on going
chemo. Plus after my first go around with hard chemo, I had to have my front teeth replaced. I keep my teeth and the bad tooth clean and wait until I
can come up with $3Gs to get it pulled.
It’s been okay up until I started my new chemo regiment. My mouth pain was off charts, I even reached out and
called my dentist to see if I could get in.
Problems……she’s no longer with the firm (and we wish her well, this is a
recording). Plus, I still have a sort of
small bill that has been yet resolved…….don’t look at me, as far as I’m
concerned it’s a billing problem and they need to reinvoice the insurance
company. And yes, I’ve given them my
dental card over and over. So now I have
mouth pain…..Ouch. I have blisters on
my tongue……Ouch. My gums are beginning
to swell with mountains of blisters……Ouch.
And my tooth is killing me. ……LOL…sorry,
let me pick myself up off the floor. I made a bad faux pas , I went with cancer
humor there.
So I’m a woos.
Every three hours or so I go brush my teeth softly, rinse and swish my
mouth with lidocaine and lean over the
sink crying that I don’t know if I can do this.
God, I hope so. Oh the plus side…..I’ve
already lost five pounds and no it’s not from dehydration. I’m drinking plenty of Vitamin Water and
regular water. It’s because another side
effect is taking effect, loss of appetite.
Soooooo woo-hoo.
It’s time for me to go brush, rinse, and cry. Ni ni.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Well it looks like I have cancer.......again.
So my “D” Day or “C” Day has come and gone. And yes for just a minute or hour so, I’m
delaying giving you the results of my fun filled tests that oh so warms my
heart. (Please note – that is sarcasm). I probably need to do a quick recap for those
who are uninformed as to my current clinical situation……
So yes, I have cancer.
(I can hear my friends think to themselves, Geez Louise, what are you
going back to the beginning of this escapade? Do we all have to go through 5 years of whine,
whine, whine? Get on with it. If the newbie’s don’t know what’s going on –
tell them to read your blog from the beginning at http://justjudge.blogspot.com). Okay, okay how about I start from hmm……this
past January.
In January, I went to see my docs to get my favorite chemo
cocktail. I’ve been lucky; so far the
drug has kept my cancer at bay. Anyway,
let’s just stick the facts. First thing
Dr. Goodman said – Had you have your flu shot.
No, I don’t believe in it. I
think your body should try to fight the virus on its own. Nope – you need a flu shot. Laurie, get the needle. Blood counts look good, no lumps, other
numbers great. See you in March – we’re
going to run the usual barrage of tests.
Do I have to have the shot…..YES.
Laurie appears with the needle.
This may hurt for a few days, you might also get a fever – let us know
if it goes over 101 degrees. Ouch, that
hurt. Dr. Goodman pops his head in……BTW,
Happy Birthday. You’re a month early. Better early than never. Arh, Arh.
So guess what I got for an early birthday present – give the
person in back who said the flu a million dollars. Yes, I got the flu mixed with my usual
malaise I get from my chemo cocktail. I
went from feeling bad to really feeling bad.
Snotty nose, sore throat, fever (but never over 100.8), chills and cough
had become my friends. Next thing you
know, Hannah has it, Emma grabs from her sister, Dylan gets it (although he
says he picked it up in S.F. before coming up here). We’re buying stock in Kleenex. I feel like a commercial for Ricola and Vicks
cough drops. The germs are swilling
around our house, poor Rainer is playing nursemaid to us all until he himself finally
joins the party. Hack, hack. Cough, cough.
Good thing I had plenty of frozen soup made last fall in the freezer. The children got well first. It’s amazing how resilient they are. Rainer and I are taking turns in visiting our
GP doctor. Cough medicine laced with
codeine as the cough turns into bronchitis for Rainer, pneumonia for me. Rainer
gets better, I get worse. I’m hacking up
a lung and he’s off to work to escape my loud seal calls. I’m even forced to do 10 days of in prison –
the dreaded bed rest. Yuck.
March rolls in…..I’m still hacking. I tell Dr. Goodman that I’ll never have
another flu shot. I’ll spare you the
details of my torturous tests. March
results…….hmmm. You’ve broken your
back. Huh? It looks like you broke your clavicle right
here – could be from your lower bone density but more likely your cough. He shows me the scans and I watch my sternum
react to a cough and yep it lights a fierce orange. Looks like it’s beginning to heal. No lifting, gardening, etc. Your sternum is hot but that’s probably from
the cough. However we’re concerned about
up here – he scrolls the movie video of my body to some lymph nodes above my
lungs near my heart. He’s pointing at
pin pricks. I can barely see the tumors;
they look like small stars in deep space.
Hmmm. Doctors converse back and forth. (I’m a case study – they even have my DNA and
everything). We’re going to double your
oral chemo, plus increase today’s chemo cocktail. We’ll start doing pictures every two weeks to
monitor the growth. Shouldn’t we start hard chemo (translation –
loose hair, loose 80 lbs, throw up every 20 minutes, don’t sleep for fear that
you’ll never wake up). No, once we’ve
used a hard chemo drug you can’t have it again.
Let’s tackle the problem with what’s been working. Okay – worst case scenario, what happens if
it keeps growing? Cluck, cluck, my
doctors sound like chickens as they talk in Latin. Open heart surgery, crack chest, scoop out
cancer, remove lymph nodes here and here, Goodman points to the pin prick
stars. Then we’ll tackle with hard
chemo. I’m pacing now, I feel like a
trapped tiger. The room seems smaller,
my ears are ringing. Deep breathe. Can’t you radiate the cancer? No, you can’t radiate the heart. Already the team is breaking up, my twelve
doctors are off to other patients.
Conference phone hung up. Three Radiologists
sneak out heads together like the three witches from Macbeth. Dr.
Goodman is manhandling me out the door, giving new med orders to Laurie,
telling Jessy my schedule for the next few months. My ears are still ringing, but you put your
feet one foot in front of each other, walk slowly and paste a smile on your
face as you walk out to where your friends are waiting for you.
Fast forward to July……Confidence is high. Yes, I still have the hacking cough. My recent visits to my internist ends with
let’s see what shows up on the scans.
Cough, cough. I express
confidence, however know the cancer has spread to my lungs. Three day torture diet and no homemade apple
pie that I made for the 4th, I’m ready to hear the news. There he is……Dr. Goodman. No phone calls this time, good news I
think. So how’s it going? I still have the cough. Don’t know why, you’re lungs are as clear as the
blue sky. Shoulders drop, relief spreads.
The tumors near your heart haven’t grown at all. They are still showing hot; however they seem
to be fading. I think I feel happiness beginning
to bloom in my heart. However…….I hate
that word. You have three tumors on your
spine. He pulls up the scans and shows
me the tumors, orange basketballs – well maybe grapefruits (I know, I know
grapefruit are yellow but you get the analogy).
Plus this lower tumor has jumped from your spine to your pelvis. I guess that cancer cells were partying hard
and didn’t have enough food to drink or eat – or perhaps they decided they
wanted a dance floor where they could get down and boogie. I’m pacing, back and forth, back and
forth. Dr. Goodman takes my hand and
gently puts me back into my seat. So
what do we do…….
Enough of the tragedy that plays out, you do not need to
hear all the gory details. I’ve added a
new gruesome mix to my chemo cocktail. I
guess the good thing about this one is it doesn’t make your hair fall out. (However, one of my other drugs thins my
hair). It acts fast…..we should begin to
see some results within 4 weeks. It’s been 3 days on the drugs and I can
already feel the effects of the new chemo settle in. I have a small rash beginning to bloom on my
hands and I’ve got a blister in my mouth.
According to my nurses standing guard over me and refuse to give up on
me, DO NOT EAT ANY RAW FOOD. I guess a
small salad will put me in the hospital for a week. (I was sort of okay with this until Rainer
reminded me tonight that translates to no more guacamole and chips – grrr).
So that’s it. I’ve
got cancer……again. Am I admitting
defeat? NO. Hey, I can do this. Besides, if I loose 80 lbs, I'm going to the Caribbean - I'll be hot.
p.s. To those who
live on Bainbridge Island, I’m going to be jumping the fence on Saturday, July
20th at 10:00 pm. I intend
to walk the track at the High School.
(They used to have a Relay for Life put on by the American Cancer
Society here – but it’s gone now) Please
feel free to come hold hands with me.
Carrie and Nina you’ve walked with me from the start of this, I’m sort of
hoping you’ll show up. Bring your kids,
my kids like to walk backwards and usually lap me over and over. Last year the stars were so bright, no rain,
no fog, just lots of laughs. I’m trying
to convince Emma to play her cello as we walk……but I’m not sure she’ll do it or
not. Perhaps she’ll play if someone
plays French Folk Song and allows her to play the harmony. (She likes to show
off lately).
p.p.s. To those who
don’t live here and are feeling guilty……heh, heh….why don’t you make a donation
to “Swedish Hospital Women’s Cancer Foundation, 801 Broadway, 5th
Floor, Seattle, WA 98122”. Just tell them that I sent you. I owe Swedish a lot (beside money, arh, arh……it’s
late and I’m getting punching with a side of nausea. ) Swedish makes sure I keep on living…..for my
husband, for my children both near and far, for my parents, for beloved friends
far away and for all the best BFF’s a
girl could have who live on Bainbridge – they are all pretty great.
So excuse me……I get to go slather cream all over my face and
hands…….preparation so I don’t blister too bad.
Ni ni all…..See you on Saturday, July 20th at 10:00 p.m. No worries if you can’t make it.
Oh……one more thing my new meds are outrageously expensive……go
to https://www.etsy.com/shop/OctoberSkyJewels
and buy stuff. Also, I’m going to give
the Lynwood Market another shot, hopefully no rain. I’ve got some really cool stuff, if nothing –
go for the summer hemp bracelet, it’s a hit.
The Lynwood Market is sort of like the downtown farmers market, just
cheaper and on the south side of the island.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Crazy Lady still stuck
Hmm…..I
can’t remember if its day 6 or 7 of enforced bed rest. Originally, I was given a week – however they
(the people in white coats – who come to take you away, hee-hee ho-ho) have
extended my prison term to 10 days. Hmmm
let’s examine how I am, fever – nope, sore throat – nope, wheezy breath – in
the evenings, hacking cough – okay, okay I give – still hacking up lungs at
night. Grrrr, I foresee that I’ll be
given an additional sentence ……but I want out of here. Now the whining starts. First, my family completely ignores me (as if
I’m invisible or something), no food or drinks for the token ghost upstairs
(again – whining, it peeves me when I can hear them munching down on chow downstairs
– especially when Rainer made his chicken last night, chicken, parmesan, gobs of
garlic, stewed tomatoes, zucchini, a little curry, fluffy mashed potatoes with
butter – having been ignored I’ll day, I’m hungry). Laundry is still piling up, you think my
family would start washing their clothes……but nooooo, I just keep hear them in
the laundry room sorting through the dirty clothes to find shirts with no
stains and smell relatively okay. I can
only read the newspaper five times before I’m snoozing with sheets of newspaper
tenting over my face as I’ve drop off to sleep again. I’ve missed my Emmie’s school
music concert (but she did look fab before she left – clean glasses, shiny long
red hair, wearing a snazzy short sleeved black tunic, black leggings, and
extremely hip black suede boots). As
some you know, Emma is a tomboy opposed to an actual girl, she prefers ragged
jeans, t-shirts, muddy boots, and of course her coat (if I let her, I swear she’d
wear it 24 hours a day – Recently, I finally got her to keep the hood down so I
could see her face). I sometimes forget
how beautiful she is. Her older sisters
have always been stars, but I have a feeling little Emmila just might outshine
all of them in her own way.
Sorry, took
a mini break there – Dylan showed up with a small bowl of beef stroganoff
(yummy family recipe). Did anyone come
to eat with me? No. I turned the TV on
and played america’s favorite pastime, flipping channels on the TV. What’s that old Springsteen song, “57
Channels and Nothing on”. Watched the end of Sherlock Holmes (the Downey one),
the end of Hello Dolly (foolish pleasure), news, and then started watching the
movie “Out of Africa”. Can’t you just
hear in your mind Meryl Streep saying, “I had a farm in Africa”? I love the movie, but just hearing the music
I started to sob. I turned the TV
off. She dies, you know.
So I’m
typing – was going to interest my readers with my Tucson story, but I’ll save
it for another day. I just took some cough
medicine and have a throat lozenge swirling around in my mouth. Pretty soon, I’ll have to actually get under
the covers and pretend to sleep. So
here, I’ll bore you with what’s going on around me. I’ll work backwards. Emma is in her room. Her room is actually clean; I put my foot
down and threatened her with sanctions.
She’s on her computer. She’s been starting to program little cartoon
videos that she’s loading up on YouTube.
Her characters are always from Erin Hunter’s Warrior books – cats with
courage. Hannah, I know she just
finished her homework. She was
downstairs earlier in the day watching “American Idol” with her dad – I could
hear her laughter. They love that show……not
my kind of entertainment. Her dad is
getting worried, he only has three more years and then she can try out for
American Idol. Let’s hope they cancel
the show. I know she can sing, but I
much rather her to stick to her plan.
What’s that you ask……my daughter wants to go to Yale University – she wants
to be either an actress or an Ichthyologist (fish doctor), she’s had this plan for
years. My little steamboat, although on
more than one occasion – the mean mom comes out when she whines about doing
homework – I say those fateful works.
Okay, if Yale doesn’t mean so much, you don’t have to study so
hard. But Mom, she drags my name
out. It’s fine that you don’t want keep
your grades up for potential scholarships (The hard truth there is, now that I’m
no longer a VP –we’ve got no money for college – if Dylan can get money, so can
she). Okay…..I’ll study or I’ll play the
piano…….isn’t the guilt great. Guilt is the only weapon I have now to use
against her. She’s heading into teenager
mode. Remember way back when, it’s when
you certainly didn’t want your mom around and 90% of the time you didn’t like
her. Dylan’s home, he graduated from
college last May (with honors – I’m grinning when I say that). He’s been looking for a job since then…….well,
really, really looking for a job since October – he went down to visit his
father in SF until Christmas. However
from May to October, you could find him and his dad hanging out at the ballpark
watching the SF Giants baseball team do their thing. No jobs in SF, although I think he was hoping
about a potential contact from a friend of a friend. He wants to be a journalist – so if you know
of a job……sent him an email. One other
reason, he’s hanging around up in the gray, rainy, big Northwest. His girlfriend has a job up here…….she’s
wonderful, ahhh, isn’t that sweet.
Ashley, Ashley…..she’s radiating happiness with her new beau up in the
wilds of Michigan. I need to send a
package to her; perhaps I should throw in some yarn and needles. She can knit as the snow piles higher and
higher. J
Rainier
(remember rhymes with finer) has been recording music on his computer all
weekend. He laid down some guitar parts,
added a base, cut in some piano licks. Jeez louise, he even was recording music
on my cello – which just kills me that in no time he plays even better than I
do. Gosh all mighty, I wish he’d just
join a band or something. Unfortunately,
my wanna be rock star just turned fifty and loves to play those golden oldies
from the 70’s, 80’s, and perhaps a 90’s tune here or there. If nothing else, I wish we could build the
garage and then I could throw him outside the house when he wanted to pound out
on his guitar
And here I
am, time is fading. And no it’s not my
bedtime but I might actually get under the covers instead of sitting on top all
day. I see a favorite book next to my
nightstand. I think it’s time to re-read
it again.
Ni ni all……from
the crazy lady sentenced to bed rest.
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Flu
So it’s the beginning of day four of doctor imposed bed
rest. This year’s flu is not very nice. I
went in for my monthly chemo cocktail and my doctor said I had to get a flu
shot. I receive both my chemo and flu
shot on January 11th. I have
been sick ever since. I was rather
stupid, instead of resting and getting better I just kept playing supermom. I mean I’m the Mom, who else is going to do
the stuff I do – being a taxi service for my children’s escapades, doing wash,
doing dishes, going to the market picking up enough food to feed five hungry
mouths, feeding our goatie girls, dogs and cats. (Sorry I don’t feed the gold fish, he’s been
with us for nearly 10 years – personally I wouldn’t mind to see him floating on
the on the bottom, but Emma and Hannah love that fish) Next thing I knew I had a
deep hacking cough, wheezing due to fluid beginning to fill up my lungs,
fevers, chills and achy body. I finally
gave in and went to see my doctor. Tisk,
tisk…..I need to run some test, she says.
Once again, I went thrqu my favorite things, tongue swabs, needle
pricks, blood drained. I was given the choice of either three days in the
hospital or ten days of bed rest. So
after a long day of intravenous antibiotics mixed with a 1000ml bag of saline
solution for dehydration, I chose the bed rest.
I’ve been to that prison called the hospital. The hospital is nightmarish. First, they (the orderlies dressed in blue)
show up every half hour to hook you up to the blood pressure machine (which is
worse than the hug of python), you’re your temperature, measure and empty your
bladder bag, and just make sure your still alive, your nurse showing up every
hour doing double duty of blood pressure, pulse count, giving you little cups
of funny colored pills, interns pretending to be doctors while they experiment
on you, and handsome residents who know
the end of their midnight duty is just about done.
I know, I know, I haven’t been writing much lately. You’re wondering what in the world is
going. I thought she had cancer and here
she’s writing about the flu. Yes, I
still have cancer – I’ve got new tumors on my sternum and a particularly nasty
one just above my right lung. I’m a
walking cancer monster, shoulder, sternum, ribs, and hips. Lord almighty, the cancer just keeps finding
nice and tasty bones to munch on. Plus,
I’m tired of cancer. I’ve been on a sort
of a vacation from cancer, translation, no chemo for the month of February. So I’m sort of peeved that I’ve been ill with
the flu for nearly a month.
I’m working on getting my game face ready. I’ve got a nice new tumor on the right side
of my chest opposed to the left side.
(Well that’s funny – I’ve been leaning to the left for years and years and now they want me to lean to the
right…..sorry, no can do, Go democrats –
Cancer humor). My doctor will take a
slew of new tests on March 11th.
However, I’m pretty sure I’m going to go from chemo light to chemo
heavy. I’ll go from thinning hair to no
hair, being able to eat great pasta loaded with tomatoes, spicy sausage, and garlic
to food tasting like metal and pulling out the pink bucket so I don’t have to
worry about making it to the bathroom.-
So instead of going to a Jewelry Show in Tucson (I’ll
explain later), going to Florida and staying at the Ritz (aka D & H condo,
right on the water in Palm Beach), trekking down to LA to finally take my kids
to the land of wonder – Disneyland and spend time drinking wine with my dear
friend. I’m stuck on bed rest for at
least 6 more days. Boo-hoo. Needless to say it’s killing me as I watch
the laundry mountain grow higher, and haven’t been to my knitting group and
bible study group for which seems like years.
Grrr. I hate the flu, however I
guess the good thing about it is…….nearly everyone round me seems to be getting
the flu. I guess it’s nice to be a part
of this terrible click call the flu – now where’s the Kleenex and cough syrup.
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