Spingtime Visitors

Well, looky who's visiting! My precious neice Laura Clausen -- 3 months old.

Here is our 4-generation picture: Mom Leah, Grandma Barbara, Great-Granny Delia, and Laura.

These pictures were taken yesterday 3/20 at the Daffodil Festival in Wye, Arkansas.

And these pictures were taken today 3/21 before church!

Ok--I have to stop...SOMEBODY is getting annoyed with all the dang flashbulb lights.

1 more week

So, got one more week of radiation treatments to go. I'm getting very red and itchy on the treated side. I look like I'm 70 years old on one side and 30 on the other--is very wierd. I've got "age spots" where the skin has darkened, some hardening in spots, mostly over the scar tissue from surgery. Just not a real pleasant experience at the moment, but it always gets worse at the end. Looking forward to next week when I'm on vacation...yea!!! Probably won't feel like doing anything, but will be nice to not be rushing back and forth to work and treatments and all that mess.
Granny wasn't feeling very good yesterday and spent most of the day in bed. Is hard to tell these days if it's the weather, allergies, or something else going on. Today has got to get better--supposed to be good spring weather here in Arkansas. The flowers are starting to bloom more prolific so it adds cheer to the day!

So many leaves ....

Been trying to rake up the leaves in the backyard for some time now--starting to make real headway. I can fill about 4 bags and then I have to stop because I start to sweat. That leads to my radiation marks getting messed up which is bad, not to mention my side starts to get sore. I got about 12 bags over last weekend done--as you can see, all the neighbor's yards are clean and starting to go green. You can see very well the sections I haven't done yet--and now that it's raining, will have to wait even longer.

Since Granny got sick last November, the leaves have been solid over the entire back yard. I've been told to just LEAVE them...but that is killing the grass. I'm a little worried it may be too late for a lot of the areas I have finally gotten cleared.

Here are our first flowers in the yard--not quite out yet. The neighbors have jonquils in full bloom already. Mine are still struggling to get through the leaves! I'm hoping to do some planting over spring break--maybe liven up the place a bit with some color.

As for me, I've got 9 more radiation treatments to get through (including today). I have the day off work and we are expecting thunderstorms later this evening. I'm scheduled with H&R Block to get my taxes done today--yikes, wish me luck!

More worries...

Nico has been sick--stomach had been hurting her and I could tell she was having pain. Took her to the vet last Wednesday and he did some diagnostics--xrays and blood count. Only thing he found was elevated white blood cell count. He was going to do an ultra-sound, but opted not to since she seemed to be doing better. Ended up keeping her 3 days and never did figure out what exactly the problem was, but since she started eating and seemed to be doing better, I was able to bring her home Friday night. Vet bill ended up being $544 with Nico getting better on her own. Ouch. Thing is, I don't think she is totally over whatever it is. Monday she was starting to act funny and she never really got her appetite back until Tuesday. Again seems to be doing ok, but perhaps it is a "condition" I have to watch out for now--something to do with her digestion. She is getting older--8 now (that's 57 in dog years).



I popped home at lunchtime following a radiation treatment -- here's Granny! Yummy lunch, huh?

Home made

Here's a crocheted poncho I made in January...was something to do with my hands after my surgery. While Alison was knitting, I decided to crochet. Gee, the house sure looks messy...oh well.

2 down; 3 to go

I've got 2 weeks of radiation treatment completed, just 3 more to go. This is a Monday through Friday daily routine where I have to take an hour off from work (unpaid of course) along with my hour lunch to drive out to the medical center and get zapped by this huge machine. Nothing much has been happening so far, other than being sore on the targeted side. Some of that I believe is left-over from the surgery I had in January. Good news (according to my surgeon) is that it ought to feel much better in 6 months. Gee, thanks for the "good news" Doc.

This whole ordeal has been a whirlwind and a big surprise...still find it hard to believe. Several days after surgery (which I was told was routine and preventative since no cancer was found in the biopsy) the doctor told me that further pathology results on the tissue identified what they label DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) which is a non-invasive cancer. Uh huh. This was the best kind of cancer to have; also it was identified extremely early in my case and was completely removed with negative margins around the surgery area. Uh huh. Nothing further needs to be done surgically since it was removed, definitely do not need chemotherapy, and most likely won't need radiation treatment, either, since it was caught so early and was so small--3mm. But, you do need to see these 2 other doctors.... Oh, and you will probably have to take a pill most of the rest of your life as a future preventative. Uh huh.

Well one of those other "2" doctors got me started on a pill called tamoxifen--bit smaller than an aspirin...no problem, other than the lovely hot flashes which accompanies it as part of the side effects. The 2nd doctor got me started on the radiation treatments. I have the distinction of being his "earliest caught and smallest amount of cancer patient", however he still wanted me to go through the full radiation treatments--5 1/2 weeks. Considering the family history of breast cancer and the fact that I have a long way to go before retirement, I bit my tongue and said ok, (although I did feel obligated to argue about it to him).

I feel like a jerk for not being more grateful and for being so lucky to have this all taken care of before it got out of control. On the other hand, I'm still in disbelief--I mean, how many people are told they have (or had) cancer several days AFTER they've had surgery? Since I've had no problems or pain UNTIL the doctors started messing with me, it sometimes make one suspicious, ya know? Cancer is something that normally makes one stop and think about life, the universe and everything, but I haven't had time to yet. Sigh.

I'm trying to be more laid back with the inconveniences I'm going through. The other patients I see during treatments are in far worse condition than I am so I really need to relax. Is that possible? I'm starting to get darker skin on the zapped side and am told it will get red, will peel, itchy, etc. Oh, and don't forget there will also be some swelling and general fatigue. Uh huh. Granny went through radiation treatment and I remember in the last weeks she had a lot of itchiness. We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'm told NOT to wash the area by touching, NOT to disturb the markings they've put on with ink, NOT to use deodorant on that side, NOT to sweat, NOT to let water remain on long, NOT to use lotions, etc.

I am grateful that spring has not yet arrived in Arkansas....I know I will have strong desires to get out and work in the yard but that will also produce sweat which I'm not allowed to wash off too zealously. But, all is good for now. Just 3 more weeks.....3 more.... grrrrrrrr

Got Snow?

Ok--so what's the big deal? A little snow--get a grip. The deal is--central Arkansas ain't cut out for this stuff! We have, what, ONE snow plow? We actually have a "snow route" for our mass transit busses, but when 17 of them had some sort of accident, they shut down service. It was SUPPOSED to be a mix of rain/snow/sleet, but ended up being a SNOW event of somewhere between 7 1/2 to 12 inches depending on where you lived. (This is CENTRAL Arkansas, mind you--not the Ozark mountain areas.) It also seemed to melt at first, so probably had a couple inches melt as it accumulated. Early in the morning, I just didn't want to deal with it and was able to get the day off as vacation, so I watched the events unfold. Here's some nice simple pictures of the first 2 inches about 7am...

Then, just a couple of hours later.... major mess just to navigate roads. Got Hills? Forget it!

These are cute--Nico was definitely not used to the depth of the snow. It was WET and COLD! So, she carefully tried to walk along the side of the snow on the deck, although not able to keep entirely out of it. So, when she gets to a clearing, she has to hold up one of her paws so at least one will be warmer....

I went to work Tuesday morning--the highways are better, but all the side roads still have snow and ice patches as they are not cleared except through melting or driving over. It's quite treacherous in places. I've seen a lot of "snowmen" as schools have been closed and people who haven't seen snow before had been out having some fun. I'm just grateful we don't have the 2 feet of snow like the east coast! Can only imagine what our side streets would be like with that!