The win the other night w as fantastic! Not the first half...which was the worst I've ever seen the team play...but I wasn't nervous. Not at all. I was reading the
"tweets" of Renee, Charde, Swin and Mike DiMauro and none of them were nervous...why should I be?

I knew that they would come roaring back after that horrific first half, and I settled in to enjoy the show. The only thing I was surprised about was that Stanford was able to get to within six points at the end.

Things since then have been quiet. I've watched the Sox...get beat by the Yanks. Not fun...but it is great to hear the voices of Jerry and Don and the sounds of the game and to start to learn about the new guys.

I missed the Draft Day things at the Sun today. I got the media invite, but I couldn't do it. I ended up going back to bed after lunch and sleeping for a few hours. I woke up in time to watch the draft on tv. The Sun did an excellent job in this draft, they got some really PRIME players!

I'm probably not going to cover the Sun again this summer. I can't see myself having the energy to go to the games and come home and write the articles. I wish I could.

I ordered our tickets to Sweden last night. We'll fly on Icelandair...like I did before. I liked that...they have the shortest trips possible...no long lay-overs.
The captain and cabin crew are very "authoritarian"....almost militaristic...which I find comforting somehow. It will be fun sharing that with Maria.

Last night my gas was so bad I had to, in all good conscience, get up and go sleep in the spare room. I put blankets on top of the comforter and hung my butt out in the fresh air...and let them rip. I had gotten tired of getting up and running to the bathroom every time I felt a fart coming on...which was like every five minutes. It was two o'clock when I moved to the other room....the farting stopped about an hour later, but I just stayed there. Sandy wasn't even aware that I had moved.

She said it would have been all right if I had stayed in the bedroom. She says once she's asleep she doesn't know anything that's going on. Well...I doubt it. My farts are so toxic now (it must be the chemo) that even I don't like them. And we all know how we don't mind the smell of our own farts....

Well, I won't have to move out tonight. Sandy is working thirds. She has five more nights to work third, including tonight. Then she moves to first shift! YAY!

I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do about the farting once she is working first shift. Hopefully, as the chemo gets out of my system this will stop. Nothing helps...I've tried it all: Beano, Gas-Ex, everything!

I'll leave you with that thought...

Nighty night!

Only one thing to write:


GO HUSKIES!!!!!

Huskies won last night...I knew they would! Sandy took Ryan, his friend Chris and Maria to the Celts game yesterday...they won. And the Sox finished off the perfect day "sportswise" for me with a come from behind win.

I am doing a lot better. I seem to have turned some type of corner. More energy and I can do more things....did 33 minutes on the Wii Fit Plus the other day...and my Wii Fit age was 52!! Not bad for someone who hadn't done the Fit program for almost 300 days...according to the Wii Fit guy.

I still crash, suddenly and completely...but I can still do more in between.

The diarrhea started a few days early this time...oh joy! That keeps me up at night, but I'm falling asleep faster now.

I have the Huskies to distract me for another day and then the Sox will be on almost every day...so that will keep me gainfully occupied!

We are seriously making plans for Sweden now. Getting REALLY excited! Tomorrow I'll make the plane reservations.

Now I'm fading and will sign off.

I leave you with the words of the week: GO HUSKIES!!!


Nighty night

Woke up this AM feeling better than I have felt in a LONG time! Actually, I woke up this AM (really early AM)with a horrible bout of bad diarrhea--my stomach had been gurgling all night long. I had several trips to the bathroom, then collapsed in bed. It was when I awoke later that I felt sooooo good.

I had a lot more energy...but I listened to Pam, I didn't overdo it. Just cleaned the bathrooms upstairs and did a couple loads of laundry. Then I took it easy out on the deck....in the sun. It was soooo nice out there.

Sandy put on a fashion show for me this afternoon. She had gone shopping for work clothes yesterday at Kohl's. She had run through the store, grabbing anything and everything that she liked, not trying anything on. She had a 30% off coupon and ended up getting about $300 worth of stuff....saving $500 something. She figured that she didn't have long to use the coupon and could return whatever didn't fit.

Well...she got nice stuff and only one thing didn't fit! She has lots of outfits she can put together with these purchases. I'm almost jealous! HA HA!

I asked her if she could believe the change in us...from fashion-nothings to fashionistas (almost). We have learned so much from Stacy and Clinton on "What Not to Wear" and now it's paying off.

I would still love to be selected for that show...I would liven it up all right!

Waiting for the Final Four. Looking forward to that match-up between Tina Charles and Brittany Griner. I have no doubt Tina will be teaching Brittany a thing or two.

I was supposed to go with Sandy, Ryan and Maria to the Celtics game Sunday, but I have to bag out. I don't have the energy to go a whole day like that. Also, Sunday is the day I'll be flipping over to diarrhea, according to how things have been going this time around. I can't see myself stuck at the game, sitting in the john the whole time.

So, I'll rest up Sunday, in anticipation of the basketball games that night...and will probably flip back and forth between the bball game and the Sox Yankees opener. At least during the first game I will. I love this time of year!

I think I'll also take this opportunity to lie out in the sun and work on my tan. I want a nice tan like I had last year. A good goal to have.

Oh, and I'm also going to go online and order our plane tickets to Sweden. So exciting!

Okay, I'm off now to watch the Family Guy shows I've recorded. And then maybe some Hoarders, Buried Alive shows. That will inspire me to go through my bathroom drawers and get them organized!

Nighty night.

The women's basketball tournament is very interesting these past few days. Baylor is going to the Final Four, where UConn will play them in the FF, if they get past FSU tonight. I don't have much doubt about that, but I don't want to ruin mojo here.

I haven't been feeling too good since the chemo...actually, I haven't felt good for a long time. I guess that's the price you pay to get rid of cancer...and if me not feeling well means that the cancer is getting wiped out...so be it.

I sleep an awful lot. I sleep until one or two in the afternoon, get up for a couple of hours, go back up and nap and then come down for supper. Then back up to bed again. In between naps, I drag around, exhausted.

I make myself do things, like hike up to get the mail, feed the birds, etc. After those tasks I feel so wiped out....no strength.

Two more chemo treatments to go. Sandy told me that she read on the ovarian cancer message board that a lot of people stop the treatments when they get to this point. I can see why they do, especially if they have a life to live....like go to work, take care of kids or others. I am so fortunate that I have no obligations like that....I have Sandy to help me.

I'm going to stick it out to the end. I may end up sleeping 24 hours a day, but I think that this is the best thing to do.

Water water water....Jean and Frank just called, they have four inches in their basement. Sandy is going down to help, but we don't have a pump to bring, she'll bring the wet vac..that's the best we can do. They used to come help us when the water would come in, now it's "our" turn to help them. Jean says they've already lost the freezer and they are hoping the furnace motor is up high enough.

Carol says they have a "huge sink hole" in their front yard and water in their basement for the first time ever. We have some small areas where the basement floor is "weeping" as the water has no where else to go. Our back yard is like a series of mini ponds.

We're lucky it isn't worse in our basement.

Tonight the Huskies play FSU. They had some trouble with them (minor) back in Decemeber. I'm sure that Geno had them watching the UT game and the Stanford game to show the team that you can't get complacent. I don't worry about that with this team. They are on a mission.

GO HUSKIES!!!

Nighty night! Stay dry!

Chemo Round Four

Went up to the hospital yesterday AM...we got there a little after 8am and then went up to my room....not on my old unit (bummer) but on the unit next door. I went over to 4East to check if Marcia was working and she wasn't...so I wouldn't have seen her anyway.

My nurse was nice...I ended up having three different nurses over the course of the day...the treatment went on so long.

They started at 10am with the premeds and then Sandy got a call from Jean. It was about Lily. Jean came to the house early to let the dogs out. We had told her she didn't have to come early, but thank goodness she did. When she opened Lily's kennel to let her out, Lily stepped out and promptly collapsed on the floor.

Her front paw was "knuckling under" and her back legs were splaying out to the side. She couldn't move.

Suffice it to say, Sandy hit the room back to Connecticut to see what was going on. Also suffice it to say, they noted my BP went up forty points after I heard this news.

The chemo started and I waited for word from home. The news I got was encouraging...Lily was doing better. Phew! Sandy thought Lily was overdosed on her anxiety meds. It turns out that this was NOT what was happening. More on that later.

Sandy returned to hospital in time to be there when they started the Carboplatinum. That is the chemo that I had the reaction to last time. They started it slowly and gradually built up the strength and the flow rate. It took six hours to go through the whole process....it usually takes me an hour and a half to get it.

They were very cautious...once they started the Carbo a nurse had to be in the room with me at all times and they watched me like a hawk. They took my vitals every 15 minutes and were pleased at how consistent they remained. I did flush a few times, but it was from hot flashes and not the chemo.

We finally finished up at 10:30 and we rushed out and got on the road home as fast as possible.

Imagine my shock when I saw Lily...here I thought she was walking, Sandy had said that she was doing better....I guess I didn't hear or didn't want to hear, how bad it was. Lily was lying on her bed in the living, with Jean keeping a close eye on her. When I came in she tried to get up and her back legs were just flailing around helplessly. I went over and petted her and kissed her and told her I was all right. Her tail was thumping so hard.

I turned around and walked back in the kitchen to put my bags down...I hear a noise, it's Jean crying out....Lily! I look and here comes Lily, she had gotten up and was WALKING to me! Jean said, "that's the most she's done all day!"

Sandy got Lily upstairs, using a sling under her hind and her harness that she wears for a restraint in the car. Lily helped a lot, putting her feet down and pulling herself up. She flopped on her bed and didn't move...except she managed to roll over in the night.

This morning she was even better, walking across the bedroom floor with minimal assistance from Sandy. Her front paw still "knuckles."

Sandy took her to Ocean State Animal Hospital and the doctor there said she thought Lily had either done something to a vertebrae in her neck or had a piece of verterbrae break off and form a little clot. Sandy had heard of this before.

The doctor felt that since Lily was improving so quickly, it probably was not Lyme disease, another thing we thought it might be. She also said that she's never heard of "knuckling" happening with Lyme disease.

She told Sandy to keep giving Lily the anti-inflammatory once a day and having her rest. Now she is getting up by herself and can walk a bit more. The "knuckling" is subsiding a bit. We are hopeful she will continue to improve. Later, when she's had a chance to rest, Sandy will take her up to Wizard of Paws, the doggie physical therapist to see if she would benefit from that type of care.

So, it was a very exciting day. A long, exhausting day. Sandy was so tired after having had to get up at 5am to get the dogs fed, etc., then having to drive me an hour out to the hospital; an hour back home; an hour back to the hospital and then another hour driving me home. She was worried about Lily and very tired. She got snappy with me on the way home. I told her I should drive...it was my car. She said I couldn't drive because I just had all those drugs. I shut up.

This morning I told her I thought she was more impaired than I was last night....she had to agree. DUH! She almost ran into an ambulance, then was slow to get out of the way of a car who was trying to hit us...and then kept yawning (and sighing) the who way home....I would have been a better driver than she was last night!

So, I'm doing fine and Lily is on the mend from whatever it was that happened.

I guess that for my next two chemo treatments I'll be going to the hospital instead of to the Oncology Center. Won't break my heart! The nurses were great and lots of fun, believe it or not...we did a lot of laughing yesterday. I can't wait to go back!

Only two more to go! YAY!

Tomorrow the Huskies play at noon. The Vols were eliminated today by Baylor. I wouldn't mind seeing Baylor play the Huskies next weekend in the semifinals. But I don't want to get too far ahead...want to enjoy each game as it comes along.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!

Nighty night

Thursday before Chemo???

No call so far, so we are assuming that I will be getting chemo tomorrow. We head up there early, have to be there at 8am.

I haven't been feeling well at all for the past week. Everything I do exhausts me, so I was willing to bet my counts were still way too low. Guess I was wrong.

I hope I do get chemo tomorrow. This will be my fourth treatment, put me "over the hump" and I will have only two to go.

I will have my laptop at the hospital with me so I can blog about the whole experience.

Now I have to go pack a bag, in case I have to stay overnight at the hospital.

Wish me luck!

Nighty night!