Wow, it's been so long since I've updated I'm not sure where to begin! Carol nudged me to make a new post and I promised her one this week so I better come up with something. So.........what's new?
Well, I signed up for an art class with Jude and Lynne. It was 15 hours or 5 Saturday mornings from 9:30 - 12:30 and was based on the Betty Edwards book, Learn to draw in 15 hours with the right side of your brain. We are finished it and enjoyed it so much and the progress we made was so amazing that we have signed up for the second part of the course and that starts in April.
My friend Sue came down for a weeks visit and I enjoyed it so much. I mentioned in an earlier blog that she has been diagnosed with stage IV Lymphoma with spots appearing in her liver. She looks fine and is not sick at all right now. She sees the doctor every 3 months and has blood work before she sees him each time. They will not do any treatment unless she starts to show symptoms or gets sick and then they will do the chemo and radiation but have told her it is not a cure, it is only to hold it at bay basically.
While she was here I still had to go to work each day but it still worked out really well. She got here on the Thursday and Jude picked her up here in Langley at the bus depot and they went shopping and hung out till I got off work. Then being Thursday we had girls night and it was my turn to have the girls at my place. Josh had given me a chocolate fondue set for Christmas so we had veggies and dip, 7 layer dip and cheese and crackers and then we did the chocolate fondue with fruit and cake and whipping cream......OMG it was sooooo good. Then I worked on Friday and then Saturday morning we had our art class and then Jude and Sue and I headed for the ferry and went to the island and visited with Barb in Comox.
We had a great time over there with the Sunday being a gorgeous sunny day. We walked the beach and then went to Barb's work (a fish packer and front end store outlet) and picked up a couple of big bags of salmon heads and took them down to the beach where Barb's friend Mona lives. We dumped out the fish heads on the beach and got our camera's out and watched first the
seagulls and then pretty quick the eagles started coming in. I counted about 12 of them in total. I got some pictures that were pretty good. (I'll post them when I get home. Right now I'm at work) We were over there from Saturday until Monday and came home Monday afternoon. Sue stayed until Wednesday and then I took her to the bus.
I am going to try and get up to visit her as often as possible this spring and summer. She is 4 hours away from me so I can leave work on a Friday and be there by 10 that night even with stopping for dinner along the way. I could start treatment at any time or she could get sick and need to start treatment so we need to enjoy this spring and summer and forget the bad stuff while we can and that is exactly what we plan on doing.
My little granddaughter turned 4 on the 23rd of February. Hmmm I guess I haven't mentioned her hair............ Well for Christmas besides the clothes and toys I got her I also made a trip over to the dollar store and picked her up a little tool box and filled it up with office stuff like tape, post-it notes, pens, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, note pads and a pair of small scissors. She loved it and had post-it notes stuck all over my apartment. Unfortunately she used the glue sticks for lip gloss......................but the worst thing was she got ahold of the scissors when nobody was looking and cut the end off her pigtail. My son phoned to inform me that Christina had used MY Christmas gift to cut her hair with. I informed him that what goes around comes around and told him how he had decided at 3 to cut his hair and had got ahold of scissors and given himself a reverse mohawk!! Yes, that is correct. He took the scissors and held them on top of his head and just went clip clip clip right down the center of his head so he had a nice little bald strip down the center of his head. He thought that was pretty funny.
Well two weeks later Christina got into Allie's scrapbooking stuff and found some shape scissors. Allie went looking to see what Christina was up to and she was in the bathroom with the door shut. Allie asked her what she was doing and she said "Oh, nothing I'm just brushing my teeth" Finally Allie insisted that she open the door and she stood there with the scissors in her hand and big chunks of hair missing from all over her head!!!! Allie just about had a heart attack. She ended up shaving her head completely and then she took a picture and sent it to me. I phoned to talk to her and as we were on the phone Christina came up and handed Allie and baggie full of hair! Needless to say she looks like a child who has recently had chemo. I have pictures of that too so I'll post a bald baby pic when I get home as well.
I had her for a sleepover for her birthday and we had a ball. She wanted to go to the dollar store and get makeup so we did that. She wanted a baby doll and carriage so we did that too and then I found her the cutest little outfits. She is getting her own taste in clothes though already and will only wear stuff if she likes it. I went to get her some new runners to go with her new outfit and we wandered up and down the isle looking at all the shoes and runners and she spotted some bratz runners and had to have those. So we looked and they didn't have her size so I tried the next size up and they were too big but she insisted they were good so I let her wear them around for awhile until she conceded that yes they were too big so back to wandering up and down the isle looking and all of a sudden she saw the Pokeman shoes and those were the ones she had to have. We looked and they had her size so I put them on her and she loved them! She ran up and down the isle to see if they were fast (???) and she jumped up and down in them and said, "Oh Grandma I love these shoes!!" and she looked so happy and then all of a sudden she says, "Grandma, these are girls runners right?" (They were black, grey and white and yes probably boys runners) I said honey I think they are for both boys and girls and either can wear them. That answer made her happy and she wore the shoes for the rest of the weekend. She also wanted a princess nightgown and an ariel swimsuit. When I took her home on Sunday she fell asleep in the car and when her dad took her out he laid her on the couch and took her shoes off. Well big mistake! She woke up crying and nasty and when he asked her what was wrong she said I want my shoes!! I called her that night before bed to tell her how much I enjoyed her company and that I loved her and she was running around in her new princess nightgown but also had to have her shoes on too. I'm sure when she goes to daycare and the other kids tell her they are boys shoes she is going to inform them that grandma said they were for both boys and girls!
The weather is warmer but a whole lot wetter but at least I can still drive in the rain and haven't had to miss any more work due to snow days. Lacey and I have been doing alot of walking and we both are enjoying getting out more rain or shine. Lynnie comes with us quite often and sometimes it's Josh but I am going on my own more often too. I found an off-leash area along the dike and we go there. Lacey loves it and can run and play and she meets lots of other dogs. All good for her and for me.
I've been doing ok but am getting anxious to get on with the drug trial. I am getting back some of the symptoms I had before treatment last time. I wake up feeling crappy in the mornings and fight nausea for awhile. It goes away in an hour or so. Lots of heartburn lately too. The odd scary chest pain that I ignore and it does go away. Not too much energy. Go to work, come home and basically do nothing for the rest of the evening which means most housework gets left for the weekends. I take care of the animals, clean the litter pan etc but other than that I don't do much. I am forcing myself to spend less time at the computer and more time reading and drawing. Waiting waiting waiting is what it's all about at the moment. Feel like I'm in limbo and can't really make plans or move forward until I get the treatment thing under control. What will the treatment consist of, how many drugs, how long will I have to take them, will I miss work and if I do how will I pay my bills, will I get the horrible rash everyone talks about and on and on with no answers until I get the phone call saying drug trial starts and you need to come in for the meeting and sign the informed consent.
Well I better get back to work here and I'll post some pics when I get home and find them :)
Well, I signed up for an art class with Jude and Lynne. It was 15 hours or 5 Saturday mornings from 9:30 - 12:30 and was based on the Betty Edwards book, Learn to draw in 15 hours with the right side of your brain. We are finished it and enjoyed it so much and the progress we made was so amazing that we have signed up for the second part of the course and that starts in April.
My friend Sue came down for a weeks visit and I enjoyed it so much. I mentioned in an earlier blog that she has been diagnosed with stage IV Lymphoma with spots appearing in her liver. She looks fine and is not sick at all right now. She sees the doctor every 3 months and has blood work before she sees him each time. They will not do any treatment unless she starts to show symptoms or gets sick and then they will do the chemo and radiation but have told her it is not a cure, it is only to hold it at bay basically.
While she was here I still had to go to work each day but it still worked out really well. She got here on the Thursday and Jude picked her up here in Langley at the bus depot and they went shopping and hung out till I got off work. Then being Thursday we had girls night and it was my turn to have the girls at my place. Josh had given me a chocolate fondue set for Christmas so we had veggies and dip, 7 layer dip and cheese and crackers and then we did the chocolate fondue with fruit and cake and whipping cream......OMG it was sooooo good. Then I worked on Friday and then Saturday morning we had our art class and then Jude and Sue and I headed for the ferry and went to the island and visited with Barb in Comox.
We had a great time over there with the Sunday being a gorgeous sunny day. We walked the beach and then went to Barb's work (a fish packer and front end store outlet) and picked up a couple of big bags of salmon heads and took them down to the beach where Barb's friend Mona lives. We dumped out the fish heads on the beach and got our camera's out and watched first the
seagulls and then pretty quick the eagles started coming in. I counted about 12 of them in total. I got some pictures that were pretty good. (I'll post them when I get home. Right now I'm at work) We were over there from Saturday until Monday and came home Monday afternoon. Sue stayed until Wednesday and then I took her to the bus.I am going to try and get up to visit her as often as possible this spring and summer. She is 4 hours away from me so I can leave work on a Friday and be there by 10 that night even with stopping for dinner along the way. I could start treatment at any time or she could get sick and need to start treatment so we need to enjoy this spring and summer and forget the bad stuff while we can and that is exactly what we plan on doing.
My little granddaughter turned 4 on the 23rd of February. Hmmm I guess I haven't mentioned her hair............ Well for Christmas besides the clothes and toys I got her I also made a trip over to the dollar store and picked her up a little tool box and filled it up with office stuff like tape, post-it notes, pens, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, note pads and a pair of small scissors. She loved it and had post-it notes stuck all over my apartment. Unfortunately she used the glue sticks for lip gloss......................but the worst thing was she got ahold of the scissors when nobody was looking and cut the end off her pigtail. My son phoned to inform me that Christina had used MY Christmas gift to cut her hair with. I informed him that what goes around comes around and told him how he had decided at 3 to cut his hair and had got ahold of scissors and given himself a reverse mohawk!! Yes, that is correct. He took the scissors and held them on top of his head and just went clip clip clip right down the center of his head so he had a nice little bald strip down the center of his head. He thought that was pretty funny.
Well two weeks later Christina got into Allie's scrapbooking stuff and found some shape scissors. Allie went looking to see what Christina was up to and she was in the bathroom with the door shut. Allie asked her what she was doing and she said "Oh, nothing I'm just brushing my teeth" Finally Allie insisted that she open the door and she stood there with the scissors in her hand and big chunks of hair missing from all over her head!!!! Allie just about had a heart attack. She ended up shaving her head completely and then she took a picture and sent it to me. I phoned to talk to her and as we were on the phone Christina came up and handed Allie and baggie full of hair! Needless to say she looks like a child who has recently had chemo. I have pictures of that too so I'll post a bald baby pic when I get home as well.
I had her for a sleepover for her birthday and we had a ball. She wanted to go to the dollar store and get makeup so we did that. She wanted a baby doll and carriage so we did that too and then I found her the cutest little outfits. She is getting her own taste in clothes though already and will only wear stuff if she likes it. I went to get her some new runners to go with her new outfit and we wandered up and down the isle looking at all the shoes and runners and she spotted some bratz runners and had to have those. So we looked and they didn't have her size so I tried the next size up and they were too big but she insisted they were good so I let her wear them around for awhile until she conceded that yes they were too big so back to wandering up and down the isle looking and all of a sudden she saw the Pokeman shoes and those were the ones she had to have. We looked and they had her size so I put them on her and she loved them! She ran up and down the isle to see if they were fast (???) and she jumped up and down in them and said, "Oh Grandma I love these shoes!!" and she looked so happy and then all of a sudden she says, "Grandma, these are girls runners right?" (They were black, grey and white and yes probably boys runners) I said honey I think they are for both boys and girls and either can wear them. That answer made her happy and she wore the shoes for the rest of the weekend. She also wanted a princess nightgown and an ariel swimsuit. When I took her home on Sunday she fell asleep in the car and when her dad took her out he laid her on the couch and took her shoes off. Well big mistake! She woke up crying and nasty and when he asked her what was wrong she said I want my shoes!! I called her that night before bed to tell her how much I enjoyed her company and that I loved her and she was running around in her new princess nightgown but also had to have her shoes on too. I'm sure when she goes to daycare and the other kids tell her they are boys shoes she is going to inform them that grandma said they were for both boys and girls!The weather is warmer but a whole lot wetter but at least I can still drive in the rain and haven't had to miss any more work due to snow days. Lacey and I have been doing alot of walking and we both are enjoying getting out more rain or shine. Lynnie comes with us quite often and sometimes it's Josh but I am going on my own more often too. I found an off-leash area along the dike and we go there. Lacey loves it and can run and play and she meets lots of other dogs. All good for her and for me.
I've been doing ok but am getting anxious to get on with the drug trial. I am getting back some of the symptoms I had before treatment last time. I wake up feeling crappy in the mornings and fight nausea for awhile. It goes away in an hour or so. Lots of heartburn lately too. The odd scary chest pain that I ignore and it does go away. Not too much energy. Go to work, come home and basically do nothing for the rest of the evening which means most housework gets left for the weekends. I take care of the animals, clean the litter pan etc but other than that I don't do much. I am forcing myself to spend less time at the computer and more time reading and drawing. Waiting waiting waiting is what it's all about at the moment. Feel like I'm in limbo and can't really make plans or move forward until I get the treatment thing under control. What will the treatment consist of, how many drugs, how long will I have to take them, will I miss work and if I do how will I pay my bills, will I get the horrible rash everyone talks about and on and on with no answers until I get the phone call saying drug trial starts and you need to come in for the meeting and sign the informed consent.
Well I better get back to work here and I'll post some pics when I get home and find them :)
