SUCCESS!!!

My new best friend, a nurse who's name I do not know, gave Sandy advice about what to do for my bowels...and this AM we had success! It took a long, uncomfortable night to get to that success point...but who gives a rat's ass? It's done, done, done!

Now I will keep up on taking the senna and the stool softeners, so I don't ever have to bore you with the sordid details again!

In my family, bms have always been a topic of almost daily conversation. My siblings I'm sure can remember my Nana discussing her bowel regime many times. My mother being very concerned about whether or not we were having "marble doo-doos" (which Steve and I shortened to say "mahbah doo-doos)....my mother telling us to eat right, plenty of fiber, veggies (green and yellow) and make sure we didn't get constipated.

I can hear my mother's voice now...telling me not to be stupid....don't get in that situation again...I'm choosing to listen to that voice.

Anyhoo...watched the Rutgers game last night...they played Georgia in the Jimmy V classic. I have watched, and contributed to the Jimmy V foundation before, but last night, because of where I'm sitting now, it really touched me. Unless you have gone through chemotherapy and know what it does to your body, you can't really appreciate the fact that that guy got up there on that stage, in his condition, and made that speech, the speech that inspired the development of a foundation that has raised $80 million for cancer research! Unbelievable. I don't know how he did it...it was sheer will and determination, trust me.

The game was horrible...unworthy of being a Jimmy V classic game. Rutgers looks like a high school team. No one helping each other out, multiple turnovers for traveling for crying out loud! It was embarrasing to women's basketball to say the least. I felt bad for Andy Landers, the Georgia coach, who sucked it up big time to be at the game, he had been on IVs all day for a stomach virus. The boy didn't look right at the end of the game...I told Jean.."he's toast right now."

The house looks so pretty with the decorations all over the dining room and living room. Jean put them up yesterday...I finally got to admire them this AM as I walked five laps around the house...the hongest I've walked since I got home from the hospital.

The garden pond was overflowing into the garage yesterday...the waterfall pump froze up and it backed up into the filter which is in the garage. Good thing Sandy went out there to let the dogs out the garage door...she heard the water and was able to stop it before the pond drained completely. I told her to shut off both pumps and now the surface is frozen over. She has to get to the store to pick up the floating heater to keep a hole in the ice.

The weather is supposed to turn warmer...I hope so, I've been worried about all those folks who are building the new house for the Girard family, right down the road in Voluntown, for Extreme Home Makeover. There was an article in the paper today about how the folks in Voluntown already had plans to build a new house for them...before the chance for the tv show thing came through.

Everyone is pitching in and it is the "feel good" story of this area...in a time when so much is going bad, people losing jobs, people worried about losing jobs, this chance to help this family has inspired so many people. It's wonderful!

Well...today I focus ona walking and eating...two worthy goals. I came downstairs early and had a nice bowl of oatmeal. Dunno what I'll have for lunch...maybe chocolate chip cookies! I see them in a tin in the kitchen. Sandy and Jean did up a "menu" for me of food that is available in the house for me to eat....it has a wide variety of meats, soups, snacks, etc. Very nice...I just wish that I had more of an appetite...oh well, that will come.

I've been trying to do some exercises in bed...and thinking thoughts of "strength" and sending those thoughts to my legs and arms. I feel it working.

I have stopped taking the ibuprofen for the aches as Sandy says I'm getting to the point where my blood counts will be low....that's when you can have trouble with bleeding from aspirin like products. Fortunately, the achiness is subsiding at the same time, so it works out fine. Tomorrow I'll have to get in the car and go down for my first set of bloodwork. Every Wednesday from now until the forseeable future I'll be getting blood drawn. This is a good thing...it tells the doctors how I'm doing and helps them determine my treatment levels. I'm anxious to see the results of the CA125 test (cancer level test) that they do. It's like knowing your T cell count if you have AIDs...which I don't, thank GOD!

Enough of this crap....I'm going to take a nap...then have lunch. And walk, of course!

Later.