Better Day

A good nights sleep can do wonders for a person.  It doesn’t seem to matter that the sleep was aided by drugs.  A little sunshine would help also but that isn’t available.  In fact more snowflakes are predicted.

I probably won’t ever say I’m having a bad day again since that seems to make the phone ring over and over and over………..  which interrupts the rest I was trying to get.

Telling me I will feel better soon, that someone else feels worse, all those platitudes ---- please.  Just let me be miserable for a while.

After having my new bathtub installed I thought about grab bars.  I should have thought of them sooner.  So the plumber is coming back today to see about them.  If possible he will install them today. 

Tomorrow is a vet appointment for Teddy.  He gets an ear infection this time of year – springtime.  I have been treating it but I want the vet to look at it plus it is time for his heart worm test. 

Also I need heart worm meds for both dogs and I want to know what they weigh.  I want to know if their diet is working.  Both were a little overweight on their last visit.  So Bandit will come along just to get on the scales.

I feel much better – really.

later…. 

 

Bad Day

The weather man is right this time, it is snowing.  It won’t amount to much but it is doing it.  One last “take that” from nature.

I haven’t even gotten dressed today.  Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. 

Tried reading for a while but had to close one eye to be able to see clearly. 

Everything tastes like chemicals, even water. 

So I’m having a bad day, I’m allowed. 

later….

Another Routine Chemo Day

Drove myself for the third time today.  I think I go there for a nice nap.  They told me I snored today. 

I know I watch too much TV.  Sometimes the commercials are the most entertaining part.

A Home Depot ad on TV says that grass doesn’t turn green just because the calendar says it’s spring. 

I’ve got news for them – it’s been happening for hundreds, more like thousands of years.  It may not be a perfect lawn of grass.  It probably will have those cheerful yellow dandelions in it, but it does turn green without all that costly help.

The Sun is out but the temps are in the 40’s.  I’ll take the sunny days anytime.  They are predicting snow again.  We got missed by the last one.  Spring snow doesn’t last long.

A picture of Bandit enjoying his meal.  It’s so good he has to sit down to get the full benefit.  Of course, for him sitting down isn’t that far from standing up. 

His skin fits him like stretched out long johns and you can see one of his fatty tumors on his left side.  I call him lumpy sometimes.  He doesn’t care what you call him as long as you have food or belly rubs for him.

He hates the camera flash so much he actually stopped eating and looked around for a moment.  Maybe if I take enough pictures he will get over it.

later….

Winter is Back and Washing Dishes

It IS Ohio after all and one day at 70 degrees, the next one at 20 is kind of a tradition around here.   Highs in the 40’s with snow on Sunday.  Nothing above 40 in the 5 day forecast.  So get those long johns  back out and forget the shorts, unless you are a teenager – in which case you wear whatever you want.

This is a picture of a worn out pot scrubber.  The last job it did was when Lory grabbed it up to remove paint from the bottom of her feet while painting the bathroom – and tracking paint throughout the house. 

Dish washing was suspended, the sink began to pile up.  Actually the search for a new one had been going on for quite some time. 

The internet revealed that they are sold at only one kind of hardware store in Ohio and there isn’t one of those kind of stores near here.

Further search found they could be ordered online.  AHAAAA!!!

How about a case of them? Twelve boxes with two scrubbers each. Why not!  Everyone will get one for their birthday.  Andrea already received hers. 

Crazy?  Maybe, but I can buy a case of scrubbers if I want to – and I wanted to. 

But now I have to do those dishes…

later….

Running Around Tuesday

WOW!  My granddaughter, Andrea, turned 23 years old today.   Her Mother and I took her shopping at a Thrift store.  We had a great time, even found some stuff for ourselves also.

My major contribution was to meet her at the License Bureau and get her a new sticker for her license plate. 

Since this excursion took up most of the afternoon and I spent most of the morning on the phone I didn’t have time to overeat.   Yet my stomach still feels a bit uncomfortable.  So maybe that’s just how it feels on the day after chemo. 

She informed me that she is getting a pink bow tattoo in honor of my having breast cancer.  Her Mother and I tried to convince her to get it where it could easily be covered up.  I think we won. 

I’m trying to feel honored about this tattoo.  I know it is the latest thing for the youth to do.  I even got one a couple of years ago so I guess I can’t object too much.

Later….

 

Chemotherapy Treatment No. 14

I have occasionally complained about comments from this blog referring me to websites about male enhancement.  They, happily, do not show up as comments on the blog, just come to me as email. 

So now I want to say something nice about an anonymous comment on one of my old posts that thanked me for helping them solve a problem.  It was a post about the steroids I take the day before chemo.  Don’t know how it helped but I am happy that it did.  It made my day.

Sunday I took three 4 mg dexamethasone pills both morning and night.   Hope this works well.  Could it be possible to reduce this even more?  Time will tell.

The problem that is most bothersome now is the numbness that is progressing in my right foot.  It started at the toes, has progressed to the ball of the foot and the heel and ankle are feeling strange now.

This is called “Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy” or CIPN.  Looked it up on the internet and it is found in 60% of Taxol patients.  It is the nerves, not the circulation. 

Maybe the most bothersome thing is the fingers on my right hand are starting to be affected also.  I am very right handed.  My poor old left hand barely knows it’s name. 

One place I worked, many years ago, the cord to the calculator would only reach the electrical outlet from the left side of my desk.  Eventually I learned to use it with my left hand.  But that was MANY years ago.  Can you teach an old hand new tricks?  I may get to find out. 

Just got back from chemo.  I drove myself, even turned right on red twice – haha. 

No problems with the chemo.  I slept thru some of it.  I try to pull the blanket up to my face so it can catch any drool.  TMI? (too much information)

We are having Florida weather, quick shower of huge drops with thunder then sunshine.

Now I just have to remember not to eat too much at one time the rest of today and tomorrow. 

later….

 

 

 

DVD Critique

They came, they watched, they laughed, they oood and awwwd.  The DVD’s were all watched this afternoon. 

Some of the ones we had wanted to see were not included.  A search was launched and they were found, still on movie reels.  So the job is not done.

Comments such as “I don’t remember Grandma ever looking that young” and “now I want to go see Yellowstone” were common. 

We had pizza instead of popcorn.  The pizza is made 2 doors down the street at the high school pizza hang out.  It is hand made while you wait.  I know because they make mine without cheese for me. 

One thing we have learned over the years is that pictures of people are more important than pictures of places.   The places are still there, some of them may have changed, but not much.  The people surely do change. 

I’ll bet that rock balancing on top of a pinnacle in Bryce Canyon is still there. 

Of course, the old cars in the movies from the 1960’s and 1970’s were fun to see.

There were a lot of movies of child number 1, not so many of child number 2, and even less of child number 3.  Since their birth years were 1963, 1966, and 1968 there is a good reason for taking less and less movies.   Very busy parents just coping with food, clothing, and shelter is a pretty good reason.

Susan thinks she has a computer program for editing the DVD’s.  The DVD’s play from the beginning of a section thru to the end.  You can pause and restart, you can fast forward, but you can’t stop and start again where you left off in the middle.  I wish her luck in editing.

I was able to pawn off a bag of paperback books on Susan.  Always glad to see things leave here that have been laying around for a while.

I have been watching the news off and on.  Sometimes I have to turn the TV to animal shows or reruns to take a break from all the alarming news.  

Sure hope the world settles down soon.

later….