Treatment #6

We both woke about 4 and couldn’t go back to sleep. It made for a really long day, and I’m sure we won’t be up late.

We got home from John's chemo treatment about 1:30. This may be his last one - although originally there was one more scheduled. The radiologist says his last radiology treatment would be next Wednesday, so another chemo the day after that would not be necessary. John hopes to talk to the doc tomorrow morning, so we'll see. His labs are still pretty good, and he still has hair, so the lack of energy has been the worst side effect so far.

Joyce and Dick brought us a pot of potato soup for supper. Just the ticket when we’re really tired. Thanks, friends.

Quiet Wednesday

Tina was here for a while this afternoon, trying to help us figure out how to stream videos from the library. We didn’t accomplish that, but she did help me relearn how to use our Roku box. Maybe we’ll get some use from that. Eventually she’ll figure out the streaming thing for us, too.

Tomorrow is chemo treatment #6 (of seven).

Updates

John was feeling better today.  He ate something besides soup for lunch and dinner.  And he even walked for about 15 minutes on the Riverwalk.
We talked to Margaret.  Bobby is feeling better.  He's able to get out of the house some, but not for long.
I got to the grocery stores today.  That seems to do really bad things to my knee. I'll have to figure out some other way to handle grocery shopping.

Usual Monday

Usual Monday stuff - swimming, coffee, and bridge.

Both of us had yucky cards.

Radiation oncologist told John his last treatment would be a week from Wednesday (#30). We thought it would be longer. We’ll have to check. John is very tired all the time. He’ll be so glad to have this over with and start to regain his strength.

Sunday Stealing

Funky Twenty-Five Meme


Stolen from: The now-defunct Tense Teacher


1. Most unflattering hairstyle you ever had? What made it so unflattering? Probably when, on a whim, I had John buzz cut my hair. Definitely not my style, and it took much longer to grow out than I had thought.
2. Favorite movie(s) that were made in the 90's? I have no idea. We see so few movies, and I can’t remember any specifically from that decade.
3. Do you rent movies? If so, from where? We don’t rent any more. We get some from the library or from On Demand.
4. Do you like cookies better when they're just out of the oven or after they've cooled? Who cares? They’re cookies, aren’t they. I guess I like them cooled.
5. Do you still talk to the person who gave you your first kiss? I don’t remember the event. In any case, I don’t have contact with anyone who was around at that time of my life.
6. Did you go to pre-school? If so, what was the name of it? There was no preschool then.
7. How do you take your coffee? Hot and black. Sometimes at a coffee shop, I might get a latte.
8. Do you like fuzzy things? It depends. I love peaches. Moldy things, not so much. Cats and dogs are fine.
9. Favorite kind of chocolate? Dark
10. Are you more optimistic or pessimistic? I’m pretty optimistic, with a strong strain of realism.
11. What about peopleofwalmart.com? Do you think the site is mean, funny, or both? Never heard of it, and don’t think I care to investigate.
12. Do you like fat sandwiches? If so, what does your favorite one have on it? I’m not sure I understand the term “fat sandwiches”. What I put on a sandwich depends on the main ingredient.
13. One restaurant you'd never been to but would like to go to? I can’t think of one. That’s not just that important.
14. Last time you got a haircut? Do you need one? Three weeks ago, and I’m planning to get one tomorrow. Usually every three weeks.
15. What's your favorite pattern for clothing (stripes, plaid, etc.)? It depends, but I mostly lean toward solid colors.
16. What's your age backwards? 97
17. When you see typos in a survey, do you correct them? Absolutely! I’m such a grammar/spelling snob.
18. When was your last vacation? Did you go someplace special? Last fall, we took a cruise on the American Queen from St. Louis to Minneapolis on the Mississippi River.
19. What's your favorite kind of pancakes? I’m not much of a fan of pancakes. I prefer waffles or French toast.
20. Do you like movies with computer graphics, like Avatar? Again we see so few movies, and this would not be a first choice.
21. Do you know how to sew? Oh, my, yes! I used to make all the clothes for the girls and myself and all John’s sport shirts. I almost never do any sewing any more.
22. Are you good at wrapping gifts? I do a good job, not elaborate, but rarely do it any more.
23. Do you like flavored yogurt? Yes - I don’t like plain yogurt.
24. How old will you be in December of 2015? 79

25. What's the age difference between you and your siblings? My sister was 5 ½ years older, but she died almost 19 years ago.

Sleepy Saturday

John slept most of the day today. Just no energy. I got a nap this afternoon, too.
I made chicken soup yesterday, and he had that for supper last night and lunch today. During the day today, I made beef stock from the tail end of a standing rib roast that I've had in the freezer. I put onions, garlic, mushrooms, and rice in it. We had it for supper and it was delicious. For the duration, I'm fixing whatever John feels like eating.

Friday trio

• Three of our swimmers had birthdays this week (ages 70, 73, and 86!), so we had a brunch after class this morning. Great food, as always. No presents, but it was fun to see who could find the funniest cards.
• We went to duplicate this afternoon and had terrible cards. We didn’t play them all that well, either. I think, out of 18 hands, we had the bid only 3 times. John’s energy was really gone by the time we finished the afternoon.
• We’re due to get bad weather tomorrow, so I guess we’ll be staying in. I hope we don’t get anything severe.

Chemo #5 (of 7)

Treatment number five.

Over half-way. Energy

Gone. End is in sight.

Wednesday, Week #5

Chemo #5 is tomorrow. He is really feeling the lack of energy. This has gotten pretty hard for him. He just can’t do things that he thinks he ought to do - even like walking on the Riverwalk. But he did get out for a little while this morning.

Both of my “indulgences” wound up being today. I had my mani/pedi scheduled for this morning. And I had to change my massage appointment, so this wound up being about an hour after that. Both are wonderful, but I do try to space them out a bit.

Tomorrow is mostly at the hospital for a chemo day.

Food and TV

I got my first fresh ear of corn today. John has a loose tooth, so wasn’t going to try to eat that. I love corn on the cob and this was pretty good for the first one of the season. Not as good as Bobby’s of course, but it’s way too early for that. Anyway, I cooked it in the shucks in the microwave. Have you tried that method? It’s an amazing way to cook a few ears of corn. There are lots of videos on YouTube about it. Check it out and give it a try.
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Instead of watching a rerun of NCIS tonight, we watched a National Geographic program on our PBS station called The National Mall. It was an interesting program about the development of the National Mall as the Nation’s Front Yard. Most time was spent on the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, and the use of the Mall for demonstrations. Really a very interesting program. Catch it on your local PBS station if you see it in your listings.

Monday Miscellany

• Thunderstorms from about 4-6 a.m. this morning, then sunshine.
• Since last Thursday, we’ve had another 2.25” of rain.
• We still had swim class. John walked in the therapy pool.
• I went to bridge. No great cards.
• John had his radiation time moved to midafternoon today. Still didn’t take long.
• Papa Murphy pizza for supper tonight.

Quiet weekend

It’s been another quiet weekend. Lots and lots of rain - maybe another 2-3” of rain today, with more predicted to come in overnight. There may even be enough thunder in the morning to keep us from swimming. We shall see.

John wanted to take me out to dinner last night and I was hungry for a good salad. We went to Ruby Tuesday because I know they have a good salad bar. And it was good, plus a crab cake. John had their shrimp and grits. He said it was excellent and brought home enough to have for dinner tonight.

He may have no energy, and he may sleep a lot, but as he says, he still has his appetite, his hair, and his sense of humor.

Sunday Stealing

Book Preference Meme


Stolen from: The now-defunct Tense Teacher

Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
I don’t particularly like any of these, although I did like Harry Potter.
Hardback or Trade paperback or Mass market paperback?
The only books I’m likely to buy nowadays are e-books.
Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
Amazon
Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Neither of these, and obviously, there is no more Borders.
Bookmark or Dog-ear?
Bookmark, definitely!
Asimov’s Science Fiction or Fantasy & Science Fiction?
See the first answer
Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title, or Random?
Random - I’m definitely not that organized any more.
Keep, Throw away or Sell?
Never, EVER throw a book away. I try to give away as many as I can.
Keep dust-jacket or Toss it?
When I was reading paper books, I kept the dust-jacket.
Read with dustjacket or Remove it?
And I read with the dust-jacket on the book, using the flap as a bookmark.
Short story or Novel?
Novels, or nonfiction.
Stop reading when tired or at Chapter breaks?
Usually at chapter breaks, but I’m not wedded to it. I can stop in midpage whenever I need to.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time?”
“Once upon a time”
Buy or Borrow?
I would prefer to borrow from the library.
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
Recommendations, browsing, BookTV. I never read book reviews.
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
I don’t read short stories.
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
I hate cliffhangers - give me a tidy ending.
Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?
Any time that works. Doctor’s offices are frequent reading places.
Standalone or Series?
I don’t much care, but each book in a series should also stand alone.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Monte Walsh by Jack Shaffer
Favorite genre series?
Nevada Barr’s books with Anna Pigeon is one favorite.
Currently Reading?

The Courbet Connection by Estelle Ryan.

Week #4

John's chemo treatments are on Thursdays, and yesterday's was his 4th (of 7). So he's just over half-way through. He'll probably start feeling "puny" (as he says) tomorrow and that'll last through part of Monday. He's having some trouble swallowing. But he does okay if he does as his mother tried to teach him all those years ago - take small bites, chew your food thoroughly, and put your fork down between bites. He says he's finally getting the message - only took nearly 80 years.

In between showers this afternoon, the yard man was finally able to get the grass (weeds) cut. And two contractors came to look at the jobs and repairs, so we’ll be getting estimates from them. One or two more are due to come next week. Spring is the time for repairs I guess.

Didn't it rain!

John emptied 4” of water from the rain gauge this afternoon. We got 2.5” of rain today on top of the 1.5” from yesterday and Monday.

During John’s chemo treatment at the hospital this morning, the bottom fell out. The rain just poured, with lots of lightning and thunder. By the time we went home about 1 p.m., the rain has slacked off some, but not stopped. The rest of the afternoon, it continued.


On the news tonight, the weather guy said at one point this morning, we got an inch of rain in 23 minutes! A friend who was at the hospital in another area said one of the hospital’s parking lots had flooded and cars were submerged up to their windows. And, of course, there were areas of flash flooding throughout the area.


It seems to have stopped now (10:00 p.m.), but schools have delayed opening in the morning until daylight so the bus drivers can watch for standing water.


Apologies to California.

Today was for me.

I’ve been having some severe sharp stabbing pains in my right arm in the area of the shoulder replacement. I’ve afraid there was something amiss with the prosthesis that would require more surgery, and I certainly didn‘t want to deal with that at this point.

The doc didn’t take x-rays, but he was able to reproduce the pain (big ouch!). He says that the sharp pain is coming from where the deltoid muscle is attached to the bone where it holds the shaft of the prosthesis. He recommended upward deep massage with an OTC rub (Ben-Gay, Aspercreme, etc.), and to just keep using the arm. So that means more work on the arms in the pool. I’ll ask my massage therapist to do extra work on that area. What a relief! I’ll see him again the end of July. Maybe by then, I’ll be ready start talking about my knee.

Not exciting (fortunately)

John had much more energy today. He even felt like doing some time on the rowing machine and on the recumbent bicycle.

I did just the grocery stores. Admittedly there was just a miniscule amount of time involved. My knee went out while I was there, so I tried to get through as quickly as possible. It was nice to see the early small watermelons in the store. We love them, and this one is pretty good for being so early. I forgot to look to see where it was from - probably Mexico or Central America.

One of the bidders to do the work on the deck was supposed to come this afternoon, but he never showed. We’ve had a lot of phone calls, though, and there are several appointments set up for the next few days. It’ll be good to make some decisions about that.

Monday Miscellany

It has literally rained all day today - sometimes just a sprinkle, and sometimes really raining. And there’s supposed to be more rain all week. We still have a little rain deficit in this area for the year. But obviously nothing like California. I wish we could share some of this with them.
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Winning at duplicate last Friday was great. But today, they announced the scores from last Monday’s contract bridge group. I came in first last week. I’ll certainly enjoy this for a while. Even with the yucky cards we got today.
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John’s still “puny” (to use his word), but he managed to go all day today without even ONE nap. And he stayed up until the news came on at 11! His cough is awful, but a lot of that may be due to Chattanooga’s awful pollen (even with all the rain). And so starts treatment week #4.
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We’ve needed some major, but basic, maintenance done to the deck and some other minimal stuff. John has several services coming this week to look at the jobs and give us estimates. And he talked to the yard guy to start working on the yard, whenever the rain stops.

Quiet weekend

This was a really slow, quiet weekend. Our duplicate on Friday afternoon was about all the activity John could handle. The lack of energy has really hit him hard. He got out to the boathouse for a few minutes (it was “opening day” for the rowing club, and they were doing clean-up and boat rigging). He didn’t help, just went to talk to folks. But he came home and went right to naptime.

We went to dinner with Carol and Stephen Saturday night, and Tina came for dinner (hash from leftovers) tonight. That was it for activities.

All we have on for next week are John’s treatments plus his quarterly dental appointment. This will be week #4, midpoint of the treatments.

Five for Friday

1. Early morning thunderstorms meant no swimming. John got to radiation, and we met Missy at Panera for coffee.

2. A massage is a wonderful thing. Even when she really works the sore places.

3. John felt well enough to go to duplicate this afternoon. And we kicked butt! We not only came in first, but by a large margin.

4. John had a severe sinking spell after supper, and went to bed before 7. I hope he can sleep it off through the night.

5. I finished the pattern part of the sweater I’m knitting. Just have the neckband, ribbing, side seams, and blocking to finish it.

Third Thursday

Week 3, chemo 3.

X-ray, breakfast, treatment room.

Worked today. Hooray!

Fun in Tennessee

Tennessee was the subject of Rachel Maddow’s lead story tonight. It seems that the NRA National Convention is being held in Nashville beginning Friday. The state is thrilled to be hosting 70,000 delegates and getting the benefits of the money they spend and the publicity they bring. And most of the declared and possible 2016 Republican candidates for the nomination for President will be speaking (although the Republican Governor of Tennessee was not invited to speak).

The Tennessee Legislature currently has a Republican super majority and loves to pass gun laws. One current law permits legally permitted gun owners to carry guns in public places, except where specifically permitted by the local government with jurisdiction over the spaces.

These are things that have happened in the last couple of weeks:

1. A bill was introduced that would allow legal gun-holders to carry guns in all parks, superseding any local laws that prohibit guns.

2. An amendment was proposed that this should also include the Legislative Plaza and the State Capitol (where guns are currently banned).

3. The bill has currently been tabled.

4. There will be, according to advertisements, 14 acres of vendors and displays at the convention. None of the guns at the booths can be in working order - firing pins must be removed from all guns.

5. Attendees with legal carry permits will be allowed to carry at the convention.

6. Except during the entertainment (Jeff Foxworthy, Alan Jackson, etc.)

7. Concealed weapons will be allowed at the speeches by the potential Republican candidates.

8. There is currently a guy in Nashville (the Radnor Lake Rambo) who walks around schools and other public places, wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a rifle (sometimes bolt-action, sometimes automatic). He has a permit for open carry, and has broken no gun laws by doing this. The police have no idea what to do about this guy.

Never a dull minute!

Rainy Monday

Rain on Monday makes

For good cards at bridge. We got

New floor lamp. Hooray!

Spring Sunday

We went to visit Margaret and Bobby this afternoon.  We went the back way, through Soddy Daisy and across the Sequatchie Valley, rather than taking the interstate.  The redbud trees along the highway were as full, plentiful, and colorful as we could remember.  We came home on the interstate and they were almost as spectacular there.
Margaret and Bobby were doing well.  Jesse was home for the weekend, so that was a special treat.

Seeing Stars

I know yesterday’s eclipse was spectacular - but it was cloudy here, so we didn’t see it.

However, we had a great show of the International Space Station tonight. The skies were clear and the ISS passed almost directly overhead for us. Wow!

We get e-mails to alert us as to when the ISS will be visible in our area (weather permitting). Click here to get to the site to sign up for notifying e-mails.

It is amazing!

Five for Friday

1.  Swimming and coffee
2.  Haircuts  (YEA)
3.  Skyped with Jean
4.  Tina came by
5.  Talked to Margaret

Chemo #2

John did okay during the treatment today. It does pretty much shoot the whole day. We didn't get home (or have lunch) until after 2. I had a short nap and John slept until after 5. I was cold from the treatment center until after my nap - thought I had more clothes on this time. John tells me to go out into the lobby to wait, but I hate not to sit with him. His lab work was okay prior to this treatment. We'll see what happens this week.

Warmer Wednesday

Today was another lovely day. John got to get in his exercise on the River Walk. He loves soaking up all that sunshine.


Judy brought us potato soup for dinner tonight. It was delicious and made with that very special ingredient, LOVE! Thanks, Friend.


I’m still pretty zonked from the lack of sleep the other night, so I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is a chemo day, so we’ll be at the hospital all morning.