Saturday, December 13, 2008

Smooth Saturday

I realized tonight that I can afford to go down to 131 pounds, which was an adult weight for me...granted I was 21 and teaching school at the time! This is good news as I weighed myself this AM and am down to 141...I now weigh the same as Sandy! I'm not going to stress about this anymore, after Weight Watchers says I "should" weigh 136.

The only concern I have is, will I have to go broke buying new clothes? My clothing hangs on me now...not a good look, for sure. I got addicted to my credit cards and clothes shopping after I lost the weight from the gastric bypass...I can't afford to go that route again!

I got up all on my own this AM and let the dogs out. No problem. Jean was the witness that I could do it by myself...so now she feels better about leaving me on my own tonight.

In addition, this morning I got up and took a shower, on my own. I did everything...got my clean clothes out, showered, toweled off, dried my hair, and got dressed! I even shaved my legs...a job that needed doing LAST MONTH!

Sandy did come up and put lotion on my feet and got my socks on for me...but that was because after all that effort I was prone on the bed! I laid there for awhile, recuperating. She brought me my protein shake to get me going...which did the trick.

I came downstairs and had oatmeal, cup of joe and the protein shake for breakfast.

Mike called and they wanted to come for a visit..I told them, "come on down!" Which they did. It was so good to see the two of them. Bob kept his distance because he still has a bit of a cold....which I appreciated.

After they left I ate some lunch and then when Sandy got up, went up for a nap. Sandy took the dogs for a long walk tonight and came home freezing. It's in the 20s and falling fast out there! I'm glad I'm nice and warm in here.

Sandy is making steak tonight...yum! I'm hoping I have a repeat of last night's supper, when I ate double helpings of the fish and the spinach. Tonight, steak, peas and stuffed potato. I think I'll add either stewed tomatoes or applesauce to that mix. Decisions, decisions...

Don't forget, the Huskies are playing tomorrow at 2pm I believe. Maybe on ESPN?

Nighty night!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Better and better

Good night's sleep last night, despite the wind and rain howling. I drank a protein shake before I put the light's out and that helped calm my stomach. Maybe I've been hungry all this time. You know, since my gastric bypass surgery, I have had trouble figuring out when I am hungry.

I don't feel hunger like I used to. Usually when I've gone too long between meals, I feel a bit ill and Sandy has to tell me to eat. So..last night I remembered that and had the protein shake. BIG DIFFERENCE!!

I got up at nine and came downstairs. Sandy went out shopping and left me to fend for myself...which I can handle now. I got myself my lunch and snacks and went up for a nap at 2pm. Slept until 4pm...this is my new routine....I don't mind it.

Jean is here for dinner and to stay the night with me. I think this will be the last night I'll need that until my next chemo session starts...and I may not need it then either.

She and Sandy are making fish tonight and I'm really looking forward to having it...been thinking about it all day.

Just going to veg out tonight and get to bed at a decent hour. Quiet weekend ahead. Nice.

Nighty night!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Modeling

I see where Jennifer Anniston is making quite a stir by appearing on GQ wearing nothing but a Brooks Bros. tie.

This got me to thinking..."what do I have to lose by showing off my new bod wearing nothing but one of Mr. Peeper's bow ties?" I can do better than Jen!

Email me privately for copies of those pics.

Quiet day. Got up early and ate a nice bowl of reduced sugar oatmeal, that I made myself and a cup of coffee...also made by me.

Sandy had a MD appt. at noon, so I made my own lunch too...had some of that great winter squash soup that Barb brought over last night...Mary the chef had made it for me! I added a half of a ham and cheese on pumpernickel sandwich and had a nice little meal.

After I let lunch sit for abit I made my way back upstair with Lily and Bubbles. I was so tired, but I didn't fall asleep for a long time...which was okay...it felt good just lying there, being quiet. I finally dozed later on and got up refreshed at around 2:30...back downstairs for a little snack of ice cream and Animal Crackers (a comfort food for me).

When Sandy got home I told her I had a hankering for pizza again...so off she went to Joe DiMaggio's in downtown Jewett City (a real experience...if you've never been there...do yourself a favor)....to get me a small hamburg and spinach pizza. I had two wonderful slices.

Later I cleaned the half bath downstairs while Sandy vacuumed and then I windexed around downstairs. That pretty much wiped me out...so that's it for my house cleaning tasks for awhile!

Now I'm vegging in the recliner, waiting for Survivor to start...then it's off to bed to rejuvenate for another day!

Pretty boring stuff, eh? I like it this way!

Nighty night!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Meeting My Goals

Last night, as I was lying in bed, listening to the wind howl I had the realization that lately I have achieved a number of goals that I had set for myself.

First, I have wanted to get my weight down to aourn 150, for the past two years or so. I have exercised, watched my diet, etc...but it still stayed in the 165 area and I was getting ready to resign myself to the fact that I would never get back to 150. Well..right now I weigh 146...Sandy weighs only five pounds less! Who would have thunk? I know that I need to add some weight to this, muscle weight..as I have withered away in that department...but I don't think it's unrealistic to expect I can do that and stay in the 150 range!

I have also wanted to get more hours of sleep per night. I read an article about how your blood pressure, heart etc were helped by getting just a couple of hours more sleep a night. Well...lately I've been going to bed at 9pm, sometimes even earlier, rather than my usual 11-midnight routine. I have even been sleeping later into the morning...getting up at 9 instead of 7...so that goal is being met!

I have wanted to spend more time at home....I had been getting into a whirling vortex of working, appointments, meetings and running all over the place. Well, today I got in the car and went out for just the first time in a week! Much more time at home!

Even before the gas crisis I had been cutting back on unnecessary trips. My car is pretty fuel efficient, but those $50-60 fill-ups were killing me! Jean told me today that gas sells for something like $1.70 per gallon! Well..the last time I filled the Camry it cost me $3.27 a gallon! So, you can see, I have really cut down on my trips! I think the last time I filled the car was at the end of October and here we are..almost Christmas! Pretty darned good if I do say so myself!

Another big goal I had for myself was to get ovarian cancer, or something like it, just to see how I would handle the news, the chemo, etc. You know...like a test of self, willpower, etc. Oh wait....that was never one of my goals!

Never mind!

Went out this AM to get my blood drawn. I told the tech to get used to seeing me, I'll be there every Wednesday from now on. She was very nice and assured me that she would get the results faxed to my doctor's office by noon each Wednesday. It took so much energy just walking into the building, standing there while they fiddled and diddled with my paperwork, that I started to doze as she was drawing the tubes of blood! I'm sure it won't be like that everytime...but today sure was draining.

I'm at the point following chemo where my blood counts are going to be at their lowest. This is when I have to avoid people who are sick and I have to rest a lot. Unfortunatly, Sandy brought a cold home from work...so we are avoiding breathing on each other.

For the next couple of days I might not post here...the lure of the bed is strong my friend!

Of course, last night as soon as it started blowing and raining...the leak was back in the bedroom...drip drip drip. It should get worse today as it is really going to blow and POUR! The guy who swore he would be out to take a look never did of course. For all the talk of tradespeople looking for work we haven't been successful in getting any of them to come for electrical work that needs to be done and now for the roof! If they played their cards right, they might get a whole roofing job out of us! But hopefully, it's just a bad shingle or flashing or something like that. We just need SOMEONE who knows what they are doing to come take a look! Until then we'll be listening to the drip drip drip into the bucket in the bedroom!

May that be the worst thing that happens to us!

Now, back to achieving more of my goals!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

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.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Bad night last night. The ache continued, but started dying down to a very managable level. I told Sandy it's not that it hurts so much, it's that it hurts, you're tired and worn down and the bowels still aren't working properly.

The bowels are what made for the bad night. Suffice it to say when dawn broke I was more convinced than ever that we need to be aggressive about my bowel regime. I do NOT want to go through that again!

I got up around nine and took a rare morning shower, then got dressed and downstairs into the recliner. Slept there for a few hours while Sandy hung the lights outside in the freezing cold. I vacillated between sweating and freezing so my nap was fitful.

Had a nice ham sandwich for lunch and then got myself back upstairs to bed for a couple of hours. Jean came as I was heading up...while I was sleeping she decorated the house with our Santa collection and other decorations. The two of them also put the tree up...and it all looks beautiful!

I came down to admire their handiwork. We went outside for the lighting ceremony...Sandy wrapped LED lites around the porch and the posts out there, put the "reindeer" up on the side lawn and wrapped lites around the trees out there. She hung the red ribbons on the fence...that coupled with the candles in every window looks very, very nice!

Oh, I weighed myself tonight...Jean brought up a scale as we can't find ours since the move. I weighed 146...unbelievable! I had hoped to get down to 150...but I'm heading south of that! Don't blink....you might miss me!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

An achy kind of day. Weird pains in my hip that started last night, waking me up. I lay there thinking..."who's hip is hurting? My hip doesn't hurt like that!" But it was my hip and it continues off and on all day. Sandy says she thinks it could be marrow..and she may be right...it is a deeper kind of twinge.

Sandy dragged Christmas stuff out to put up....worked two hours and had little to show for it...the reindeer don't want to light up and the one that does, won't stand up in the yard! Can't find all our fake wreaths that we used to put on the gates, door and windows. Good thing Jeremy surprised us by putting a beautiful real wreath on our front gate and then driving away! It's now hanging on the front door.

The candles Sandy got for each window (which would look really nice) don't reach the damned outlets! So, she has to get extension cords for each one! Nothing is easy!

We're wondering if perhaps we left a lot of Christmas decorations at the old house when we moved...we never did that last walk-through in the basement and we know the movers missed a lot of stuff from down there--paint and some tools, etc.

Watching the Patriots play Seattle...who have won only two games this year. I do NOT recognize these Patriots anymore. And now Tedy Bruschi is hurt..what next? Doesn't look good for my favorite team!

I was hoping to make it to the Mortality Review meeting tomorrow...but I'm saying "uncle" for now. I have to rest. So, I just sent my comments via email and hope I can make the next meeting.

Oh...I had two (count 'em) two pieces of pizza for lunch today! Next up I'll try to make a dent in a hamburg, spinach and sweet potato for supper. Here's hoping my appetite holds!