*(as seen on Facebook)
So, I realize I do random "whines" about things, but not a whole picture...
So - the picture is this: I am getting better.
Ever twinge and ache I wonder "is this cancer coming back?" so I go get checked (the throat thing).
My body is still not 100% my own.. it still does what it wants, but instead of having a poopcidents (love that term and stole it from a lady on my support group) more than once a week I would say I'm down to about every week and a half... maybe two weeks if I am having a REALLY good span.
I do NOT eat right... well, I eat, and too well as told by my body gaining 10lbs, but I'm not eating the RIGHT things according to the docs and folks who know better. I have added lots of roughage back into my life, because, well, I LIKE it. I enjoy the flavors. Is it doing my bowels any good? Probably not... I go from what I would consider constipation (not going) for anywhere from 1 to 3 days then I have a few small poopcidents from lack of control - or clustering (going to the potty MULTIPLE times a day) to full on "purge" mode where I basically purge my WHOLE weeks' worth of whatever the heck I ate.
Are they horrible? No, not really... my body is still not fully absorbing water and forming hard stool... so things go smoothly, they just may not go much or too much... which then causes issues with the tissues... hahahaha - sorry, couldn't resist.
BUT this leads to a silver lining that if you have a baby I can tell you with certainty which baby rash ointment is the BEST on the market.
So.... how am I??
Fine, really. I have adjusted. If this is my life, then I'm cool with it... I work around it, I wear protection so that even if there is a poopcident, it's a blip in the day and I go on.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
First night of pottery
Ok this was really fun!
My friend from work Leigh Ann and I signed up for pottery. Lizzie decided to join in too! I had doubts at first if I should/would do it. SO glad I did! Such fun!!!
This was after I mushed a failed attempt. ;) it was even fun to mush too!! Mud everywhere!!!
My two keepers. Not too shabby for my first try at this!
Leigh Ann and I drove up, met Liz and went to dinner. Tonight was Sangs for Thai food. What’s funny is I had Thai for lunch too :)
I didn’t mind having it twice on one night. I just tried something different for dinner. Ha! We plan on trying a new place every week.
My friend from work Leigh Ann and I signed up for pottery. Lizzie decided to join in too! I had doubts at first if I should/would do it. SO glad I did! Such fun!!!
This was after I mushed a failed attempt. ;) it was even fun to mush too!! Mud everywhere!!!
My two keepers. Not too shabby for my first try at this!
Leigh Ann and I drove up, met Liz and went to dinner. Tonight was Sangs for Thai food. What’s funny is I had Thai for lunch too :)
I didn’t mind having it twice on one night. I just tried something different for dinner. Ha! We plan on trying a new place every week.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Weekend projects
Not sure what happened to my wife angle shot of the room PILED with junk. The bed was piled the floor at the foot of the bed was piled. I went through everything and with moved it to the dining room or put it away.
The “after” and I’m not REALLY done in there quite yet. I need to repair a door (screw popped through the back of the door for the handle)
Where it all went. Hahaha!
Yes we have a blanket problem.
AFTER! OK not quite done here either but what a difference!!
What is GOING to consignment tomorrow!! Yes tomorrow. Will it all fit in the car?
The answer is YES and it’s all in there now. This line bag is my goodwill bag to go in later!!
Angela’s room all empty. Looks weird.
I’ll still need to take a few more things to consignment but we shall concentrate on this load tomorrow first. Then do another later.
That was a LOT of work this weekend!!
It was nice to get everything out of the bedrooms and in one area. Then I could see just how many blankets we really had. Scary amount!! I still kept quite a few, because you know you always need blankets!
So. The car is loaded and there is even a bike in there I got off the side of the road ;)
So what all was in there??
Here’s the list!!
The “after” and I’m not REALLY done in there quite yet. I need to repair a door (screw popped through the back of the door for the handle)
Where it all went. Hahaha!
Yes we have a blanket problem.
AFTER! OK not quite done here either but what a difference!!
What is GOING to consignment tomorrow!! Yes tomorrow. Will it all fit in the car?
The answer is YES and it’s all in there now. This line bag is my goodwill bag to go in later!!
Angela’s room all empty. Looks weird.
I’ll still need to take a few more things to consignment but we shall concentrate on this load tomorrow first. Then do another later.
That was a LOT of work this weekend!!
It was nice to get everything out of the bedrooms and in one area. Then I could see just how many blankets we really had. Scary amount!! I still kept quite a few, because you know you always need blankets!
So. The car is loaded and there is even a bike in there I got off the side of the road ;)
So what all was in there??
Here’s the list!!
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Let the great Clean Up begin!
Someone asked me today what I did for the 4th of July... well, I cleaned the back room... this has been the theme since last weekend. Last weekend we moved the bed and bookshelves for Liz, this week we moved the box springs that she originally turned up her nose at. Why? She discovered that the bed frame she wanted would be over $100 (or close to that ) at Ikea... I tried to warn her as this was the emotional discussion that Angela and I had in the MIDDLE of a room in Ikea... you have to pick your battles and the amount you want to spend on things when your money is tight... money isn't really tight in Liz's case, but her wallet is screeching after moving to the new place and discovering she has to furnish said house!
So... after going to Sam's Club with me on Sunday she discovered the bed frame I was talking about was $37 new... so, yeah, she was going to buy that instead!! Smart gal, smart gal.... too bad it then took us one MORE trip to Macon with the box springs yesterday - ha! Oh, well, we were going up to help her hang her curtains - all 118" of them and they are NOT at the ceiling, they are a few inches below the top of the window and a few inches shy of reaching the floor, however, they are nice curtains - in a dark navy blue. She has promised to share pictures on Facebook at some point as my phone was in the car and I was NOT running downstairs to grab it, thanks!
So, what DID I do for the 4th? I went with mom and dad to get a lawnmower. He has finally give up on his old mower that is probably 12 years old... it keeps throwing the belt all the time now... they just barely put the thing back on and he went 10 feet, put the blade on and slip... there goes the belt! Sigh... so it was time for it to go! They had called at one point early in the week to ask me where a John Deer place was, but NOT in Macon... so I found one in Unidilla... just down the road from them. I guess my instractions and map confused them as they went down 41 instead of the freeway, but they eventually made it to the place... and they didn't have any smaller yard mowers, just BIG tractors. Guess even if you live in the country, you are going into town to Lowes and Home Depot to get a mower... So, Lowes and Home Depot were visisted... and a mower was picked. I had offered to use my military discount to get the mower, saves them 10% - can't beat that!! They picked one on earlier that morning and called me to let me know that they had picked one and could I go with them to get it that morning... Yep, sure! So I stopped my culling and cleaning in the back room and went to Home Depot with them to get the mower. It should be delivered to their house today.
Then I went back home and worked on culling some more... Butch and I had gotten up and pulled the mattress up off the back bed, pulled OUT the box springs for Eliabeth, which, honestly was a good thing as it makes that bed SUPER high as it's a super thick mattress - as in hip high to ME.... yeah, THAT tall. So, that done, I had started realy going through the closet identifying what was Lizs left behind stuff and what was Angela's stuff.. which was easy as I had brought in most of Angelas stuff and put it on the bed... but now it's all mixed.. whoops! I went through it all again. The stuff that had been identified for consignment was slowly moved out to the living room in prep of moving it to the car this weekend.
AND I knew about my dresser having an issue with one of the drawer pulls, so I pulled it off, went to Lowes, picked up what I thought was the right size... it wasn't. Sigh. Too tight.. so I have to take that BACK to Lowes today probably to get the other one instead. Fun, fun, Fun. I did stop in GoodWill at the same time, because, well, it's RIGHT there!! Ha! Found a few things that I thought I couldn't live without - whopping $2.50 worth of stuff. Then back home... more culling and packing and tossing. Would you believe I found some Moster High Dolls in Angelas stuff. I laughed at that as she's 18+ ... apparently she hadn't cleaned her closet in a LONG time either. Well, it's cleaned now!! (she did consent to me getting rid of these dolls - ha!)
SO.... there we sit, box springs in the living room, Angelas bedroom pulled apart and her bed frame sitting there.. so we took the bottom of her bed (platform) and put the boards on the frame of the back bedrooms bed - and walah, no need to get extra slats for the bed that didn't have a boxsprings anymore - yay us!
What else did we do? Oh, yeah, drive said boxsprings along with a ladder and some levels to Elizabeths place in Macon so we could help her hang her curtain rods. She bought some new fangled pressure plate ones that fit right inside of the frames for a window, but soon discovered that heavey duty 118" curtains are WAY too heavy for those types of curtain rods! Amid lots of curses for windows that were coming apart, pressure that wasn't enough to hold up 5lbs of curtains and instructions coming from two adults to a 20-something person on a 10 foot ladder, they were finally hung sucessfully with a screw or two augmenting their hold! They are very nice and a great length for how they are hung. Butch also leveled her bookshelves for her to be able to load her books on them. When we left her she was going back to Walmart to get a cube set up for her entertainment items. Next up for her is a sofa and some kitchen chairs. She has one arm chair from Ikea that is quite comfortable. And now, thanks to our shopping trip to Sams, a bed and boxsprings that is off the floor and her mom discovered that the decorative pillows that I could not place where they belonged, belong to HER bed ... good thing I noticed that as they were going to go to the consignment shop next week! She'll come rescue them shortly I'm sure!
After that it was now 5:30pm so we headed to the house thinking we would get food on the way home... the first three places we chose to go were closed for the holiday - how sad for us! The last was just a nearby option that didn't sound too horible. (Bojangles fried chicken). And with that we were done for our ONE day off in the middle of the week... besides stepping out to watch quite a bit of the fireworks going on all around us. There was quite a bit going on - sounded like there was a war going on outside of our house... non-stop booming and banging for hours. Didn't bother me... I only jumped once for a close mortar before going to sleep... but after that I slept so hard I pressed the wrong buttons on my alarm clock and overslept this moring - ha! I woke up a full 1/2 hour after I typically wake up... got ready quickly, shoved some food into my lunchbox and dashed out the door... I made it into work RIGHT after the 7am bugle call.... so "on time" ... sort of.
So, if you are paying attention to the bedroom layouts, Angela WAS in the front bedroom and Liz was (ages ago) in the back bedroom with the office between them... when Liz came home she moved upstairs to the bonus room, however, 80% of her stuff was still in that back bedroom. So... with her moving out of BOTH rooms, we have (or will) convert the upstairs bedroom back into our guest room with a bed and a futon for extra sleeping for larger families AND keep the back bedroom as Angela's room when she's home for holidays. The front bedroom will now become Butch's office, but not a built in office. So he will now have ample room to store all of his cast iron and camera equipment in his very own office. No more shared office space for us. YAY for both of us as I'm a scrapbook supplies hoarder and I had tried to get myself to ONE side of that office, but let me tell you, it was painful!! So, problem solved!!
I'm making progress on getting Angela moved back to the back bedroom... I have her closet moved back there, but need to get her desk items moved back, getting her desk out to the garage for her to either a) take to her apartment or b) take it to consignment. SO a bit more culling and shorting still needs to happen in the back bedroom to get it ready to move Angela's bookshelf back there and her desk items to the desk that is already back there.
I would post pictures, but it's very, very messy and honestly that would entail making this update at home, which I never seem to make time to do!
So... after going to Sam's Club with me on Sunday she discovered the bed frame I was talking about was $37 new... so, yeah, she was going to buy that instead!! Smart gal, smart gal.... too bad it then took us one MORE trip to Macon with the box springs yesterday - ha! Oh, well, we were going up to help her hang her curtains - all 118" of them and they are NOT at the ceiling, they are a few inches below the top of the window and a few inches shy of reaching the floor, however, they are nice curtains - in a dark navy blue. She has promised to share pictures on Facebook at some point as my phone was in the car and I was NOT running downstairs to grab it, thanks!
So, what DID I do for the 4th? I went with mom and dad to get a lawnmower. He has finally give up on his old mower that is probably 12 years old... it keeps throwing the belt all the time now... they just barely put the thing back on and he went 10 feet, put the blade on and slip... there goes the belt! Sigh... so it was time for it to go! They had called at one point early in the week to ask me where a John Deer place was, but NOT in Macon... so I found one in Unidilla... just down the road from them. I guess my instractions and map confused them as they went down 41 instead of the freeway, but they eventually made it to the place... and they didn't have any smaller yard mowers, just BIG tractors. Guess even if you live in the country, you are going into town to Lowes and Home Depot to get a mower... So, Lowes and Home Depot were visisted... and a mower was picked. I had offered to use my military discount to get the mower, saves them 10% - can't beat that!! They picked one on earlier that morning and called me to let me know that they had picked one and could I go with them to get it that morning... Yep, sure! So I stopped my culling and cleaning in the back room and went to Home Depot with them to get the mower. It should be delivered to their house today.
Then I went back home and worked on culling some more... Butch and I had gotten up and pulled the mattress up off the back bed, pulled OUT the box springs for Eliabeth, which, honestly was a good thing as it makes that bed SUPER high as it's a super thick mattress - as in hip high to ME.... yeah, THAT tall. So, that done, I had started realy going through the closet identifying what was Lizs left behind stuff and what was Angela's stuff.. which was easy as I had brought in most of Angelas stuff and put it on the bed... but now it's all mixed.. whoops! I went through it all again. The stuff that had been identified for consignment was slowly moved out to the living room in prep of moving it to the car this weekend.
AND I knew about my dresser having an issue with one of the drawer pulls, so I pulled it off, went to Lowes, picked up what I thought was the right size... it wasn't. Sigh. Too tight.. so I have to take that BACK to Lowes today probably to get the other one instead. Fun, fun, Fun. I did stop in GoodWill at the same time, because, well, it's RIGHT there!! Ha! Found a few things that I thought I couldn't live without - whopping $2.50 worth of stuff. Then back home... more culling and packing and tossing. Would you believe I found some Moster High Dolls in Angelas stuff. I laughed at that as she's 18+ ... apparently she hadn't cleaned her closet in a LONG time either. Well, it's cleaned now!! (she did consent to me getting rid of these dolls - ha!)
SO.... there we sit, box springs in the living room, Angelas bedroom pulled apart and her bed frame sitting there.. so we took the bottom of her bed (platform) and put the boards on the frame of the back bedrooms bed - and walah, no need to get extra slats for the bed that didn't have a boxsprings anymore - yay us!
What else did we do? Oh, yeah, drive said boxsprings along with a ladder and some levels to Elizabeths place in Macon so we could help her hang her curtain rods. She bought some new fangled pressure plate ones that fit right inside of the frames for a window, but soon discovered that heavey duty 118" curtains are WAY too heavy for those types of curtain rods! Amid lots of curses for windows that were coming apart, pressure that wasn't enough to hold up 5lbs of curtains and instructions coming from two adults to a 20-something person on a 10 foot ladder, they were finally hung sucessfully with a screw or two augmenting their hold! They are very nice and a great length for how they are hung. Butch also leveled her bookshelves for her to be able to load her books on them. When we left her she was going back to Walmart to get a cube set up for her entertainment items. Next up for her is a sofa and some kitchen chairs. She has one arm chair from Ikea that is quite comfortable. And now, thanks to our shopping trip to Sams, a bed and boxsprings that is off the floor and her mom discovered that the decorative pillows that I could not place where they belonged, belong to HER bed ... good thing I noticed that as they were going to go to the consignment shop next week! She'll come rescue them shortly I'm sure!
After that it was now 5:30pm so we headed to the house thinking we would get food on the way home... the first three places we chose to go were closed for the holiday - how sad for us! The last was just a nearby option that didn't sound too horible. (Bojangles fried chicken). And with that we were done for our ONE day off in the middle of the week... besides stepping out to watch quite a bit of the fireworks going on all around us. There was quite a bit going on - sounded like there was a war going on outside of our house... non-stop booming and banging for hours. Didn't bother me... I only jumped once for a close mortar before going to sleep... but after that I slept so hard I pressed the wrong buttons on my alarm clock and overslept this moring - ha! I woke up a full 1/2 hour after I typically wake up... got ready quickly, shoved some food into my lunchbox and dashed out the door... I made it into work RIGHT after the 7am bugle call.... so "on time" ... sort of.
So, if you are paying attention to the bedroom layouts, Angela WAS in the front bedroom and Liz was (ages ago) in the back bedroom with the office between them... when Liz came home she moved upstairs to the bonus room, however, 80% of her stuff was still in that back bedroom. So... with her moving out of BOTH rooms, we have (or will) convert the upstairs bedroom back into our guest room with a bed and a futon for extra sleeping for larger families AND keep the back bedroom as Angela's room when she's home for holidays. The front bedroom will now become Butch's office, but not a built in office. So he will now have ample room to store all of his cast iron and camera equipment in his very own office. No more shared office space for us. YAY for both of us as I'm a scrapbook supplies hoarder and I had tried to get myself to ONE side of that office, but let me tell you, it was painful!! So, problem solved!!
I'm making progress on getting Angela moved back to the back bedroom... I have her closet moved back there, but need to get her desk items moved back, getting her desk out to the garage for her to either a) take to her apartment or b) take it to consignment. SO a bit more culling and shorting still needs to happen in the back bedroom to get it ready to move Angela's bookshelf back there and her desk items to the desk that is already back there.
I would post pictures, but it's very, very messy and honestly that would entail making this update at home, which I never seem to make time to do!
Friday, June 29, 2018
Moving day
Ok Lizzie started moving yesterday but today she moved the big things. BUT she didn’t think it through and move the WHOLE thing she only loaded her books and NOT her bed. Goof!! So the first load was books and book shelves and stuff from her car.
THESE are the stairs to her apartment. Steep and very narrow for your feet.
Boxes and boxes of books. 21 boxes to be exact.
Lizzie coming out.
And BACK up the stairs!!
Alec is such a goof.
The two center windows are hers. The door below is NOT her entry. This is on the west side of the building. Her entry is on the north side on Poplar. This is off Third Street
And back we went for the bed. May as well get it all done tonight while we have help and we had muscles. That would be Butch and Jerry pulling the bed out of the back bedroom.
And into the truck.
Alec is getting shipped back to the apartment in the back - ha!!
We finished up at about 9:30 and went to Doughboys Pizza for a very late dinner. It was too hot earlier than that! Good pizza.
The funny thing is that Lizzie isn’t staying at her apartment tonight anyway. Weird.
Tomorrow we go through the rest of the stuff in her room to see what she wants and doesn’t want anymore. Time to cull!!!
THESE are the stairs to her apartment. Steep and very narrow for your feet.
Boxes and boxes of books. 21 boxes to be exact.
Lizzie coming out.
And BACK up the stairs!!
Alec is such a goof.
The two center windows are hers. The door below is NOT her entry. This is on the west side of the building. Her entry is on the north side on Poplar. This is off Third Street
And back we went for the bed. May as well get it all done tonight while we have help and we had muscles. That would be Butch and Jerry pulling the bed out of the back bedroom.
And into the truck.
Alec is getting shipped back to the apartment in the back - ha!!
We finished up at about 9:30 and went to Doughboys Pizza for a very late dinner. It was too hot earlier than that! Good pizza.
The funny thing is that Lizzie isn’t staying at her apartment tonight anyway. Weird.
Tomorrow we go through the rest of the stuff in her room to see what she wants and doesn’t want anymore. Time to cull!!!
Update on the poop front...(or is that back?)
I realized that I hadn't updated on the poop issues... so if potty talk is NOT your thing, move on dear readers, move on :)
I have to say that for 4 months after surgery, I'm feeling good. NOT 100% but really, really good. The good days are outweighing the bad, but there is still a factor of "you are NOT quite up to par just yet..." as seen by my reactions for the events from Saturday. Really, all that activity was FUN, it was good while I was doing it, I was tired, but not EXHAUSTED. But then Sunday hit and really? I was drained - fully and completely drained... it was so sad. I didn't get out of jammies and even Butch commented that even AFTER a nap I looked tired... and I was. Bone tired. It was weird. I don't think I truly recovered all week. I have just been tired and grumpy and out of sorts.
Add to that that this week was a bad week. Although I have had those recently, they are getting fewer and farther apart. I know the last one was just a few weeks ago, but really, I think the last time that I had a bad day at work was almost a month ago.... OK, maybe two weeks ago... but not recent enough that I'm thinking "good lord, aren't we past this yet?" So in my mind, this is a definite improvement.
This week, although bad, wasn't horrible. I had some issues with what I think is constipation in that I felt like I needed to go, but wasn't really able to get the job done.... THEN after walking out to deliver some stuff to Elizabeth (we missed each other earlier), I was walking back into the building and my bowels decide THEN is a good time to go ahead and let loose.... to which in my mind confirms this isn't a constipation issue as everything is smooth and didn't have one little issue eking out (thank goodness for protection and baby wipes!!)... it's a matter of my innards not passing waste in an efficient and consistent manner... it hoards it for about two days then purges. Sigh. On a plus side it's all over in a matter of an hour or so and a few trips to the potty... and on the good side this week's wasn't a "go through four pads doing mad dashes to the potty" day... as it was a few weeks ago. AND this week's purge was nicely followed with a few more days of reasonable almost "normal" potty stops where I was purging without the follow on diarrhea, Which at this point is about as normal as I have been in a long time.
Now for even more TMI data. My colon is still not doing its job as it's designed. As in its not pulling out water efficiently as it could be. To its defense we are about 20% shorter.... so there is less area to actually pull said water out. What does this mean to me? There are not fully formed stools. This is good in a lot of ways as it's easier on your bum (soft and not solid, not stretching any scar tissues low in the bowel), but bad in some ways as its harder on your bum (rash, retention issues as it's not solid). So... trying to get things back on an even keel as I went to bed last night and had the desire to go to the restroom... OK, I'll bite... let's see if this is squirrel turds (small amount and really reminds me of what a squirrel would produce). I got up and low and behold my body produced what I would consider a "normal" movement... not normal in consistency, we're still loose, but in amount - I'm sure if it was compacted as a normal colon would compact it. Mine's not compacting it, but it did a good job of holding it until the end of the day and releasing it in one go, not bits here and there. To my body's defense I have also learned to just "sit there" for a bit and relax and see if things will continue to progress. This wasn't good for my sleep pattern... well, I guess in the long run, it IS good for it as I'm not up and down multiple times. But having to pass a BM at 10:30 didn't make me happy I was just drifting off after going to bed... sigh. Oh, well, progress is progress, it's not looking at the clock. I should be grateful it wasn't at 2am, and I AM.. that would have been MUCH worse.
So progress. Baby steps. I should report that I'm now out of depends. I don't wear them at night any longer. I'm confident that if I get the urge to go I will wake up. This wasn't the case in the beginning... so there is HUGE progress in that... I think I stopped wearing them about a month ago with only once in that time I put one on during the day as I was running back and forth to the potty and NOT making it, so I relented... So there is that little bit of sunshine in my life! I'm still wearing pads daily - I can't foresee ever getting rid of those, but I'm sure the day is coming as I AM getting more control, just not being able to forecast when I will need them, so they are a daily thing - BUT I have downgraded from the BIG ones to smaller ones and they are doing the trick. The only time they sort of failed me was the day of my hair appointment weeks ago... and that was one of my worst days/weeks in a LONG time.
My bum is sore this week, but there is hope.
On the neuropathy points. I was going to try acupuncture and found one that is local, but then found out that although my insurance covers acupuncture, this gal isn't in network, so would not be covered at all. And care to guess what she costs? $245 for the first visit ($215 if you aren't covered by insurance)... and $115 an hour after that. The closest that I think we have on in network is in Atlanta... so, I don't think I'll be trying that after all. Sigh. Frustrations. BUT this isn't a horrible thing either... I have numbness on my toes and the ball of my feet ... and it's not horrible. It's Annoying because it's a hybrid feeling of both numbness and hypersensitivity. I can feel every single grain of dirt on the floor and they hurt, but I don't know if they are hot/cold and they are sort of numb to the touch at times... either way, numb toes are not a deal breaker in the long run. There are also a few things that they can try medically as well, but I have avoided those as most of the drugs they offer come with so many horrible side effects, I just don't want to deal with them. I did try Gabapentin and it worked to some extent to wake up those nerves, but it also caused my ankles to swell horribly. So, I have choices to make. I don't know that my toes are worth $500 (as I'm sure it would take multiple visits). And who knows, time may take care of this and it may just go away on its own.
Speaking of things going away on their own. The weird nerve thing where if I put my head down I would have a nerve shock all the way in my toes is now gone... I can look down and there is a slight pulling feeling in the nerves (if that makes sense) but there is no electric shock anymore! So that's a thing! Yay for that resolving... so there is hope that the toes will come back.. but for now, they feel cold to me at all times, but when I use my fingers to feel them, they are as warm as can be... dang nerves need to get uncrossed there!!
So - progress, things are moving in the right direction all at 7 months post chemo, 4 months post reversal. Someone told me the exhaustion won't ever go away, which made me sad... I was hoping that would eventually go away too.. this came from someone else who had chemo in the past ... so I believe her to some extent. I'll just blame mine on getting old instead of chemo :) For now I do have my spurts of energy, followed by some down time where I'm recouping... I can live with that.. for now!
I have to say that for 4 months after surgery, I'm feeling good. NOT 100% but really, really good. The good days are outweighing the bad, but there is still a factor of "you are NOT quite up to par just yet..." as seen by my reactions for the events from Saturday. Really, all that activity was FUN, it was good while I was doing it, I was tired, but not EXHAUSTED. But then Sunday hit and really? I was drained - fully and completely drained... it was so sad. I didn't get out of jammies and even Butch commented that even AFTER a nap I looked tired... and I was. Bone tired. It was weird. I don't think I truly recovered all week. I have just been tired and grumpy and out of sorts.
Add to that that this week was a bad week. Although I have had those recently, they are getting fewer and farther apart. I know the last one was just a few weeks ago, but really, I think the last time that I had a bad day at work was almost a month ago.... OK, maybe two weeks ago... but not recent enough that I'm thinking "good lord, aren't we past this yet?" So in my mind, this is a definite improvement.
This week, although bad, wasn't horrible. I had some issues with what I think is constipation in that I felt like I needed to go, but wasn't really able to get the job done.... THEN after walking out to deliver some stuff to Elizabeth (we missed each other earlier), I was walking back into the building and my bowels decide THEN is a good time to go ahead and let loose.... to which in my mind confirms this isn't a constipation issue as everything is smooth and didn't have one little issue eking out (thank goodness for protection and baby wipes!!)... it's a matter of my innards not passing waste in an efficient and consistent manner... it hoards it for about two days then purges. Sigh. On a plus side it's all over in a matter of an hour or so and a few trips to the potty... and on the good side this week's wasn't a "go through four pads doing mad dashes to the potty" day... as it was a few weeks ago. AND this week's purge was nicely followed with a few more days of reasonable almost "normal" potty stops where I was purging without the follow on diarrhea, Which at this point is about as normal as I have been in a long time.
Now for even more TMI data. My colon is still not doing its job as it's designed. As in its not pulling out water efficiently as it could be. To its defense we are about 20% shorter.... so there is less area to actually pull said water out. What does this mean to me? There are not fully formed stools. This is good in a lot of ways as it's easier on your bum (soft and not solid, not stretching any scar tissues low in the bowel), but bad in some ways as its harder on your bum (rash, retention issues as it's not solid). So... trying to get things back on an even keel as I went to bed last night and had the desire to go to the restroom... OK, I'll bite... let's see if this is squirrel turds (small amount and really reminds me of what a squirrel would produce). I got up and low and behold my body produced what I would consider a "normal" movement... not normal in consistency, we're still loose, but in amount - I'm sure if it was compacted as a normal colon would compact it. Mine's not compacting it, but it did a good job of holding it until the end of the day and releasing it in one go, not bits here and there. To my body's defense I have also learned to just "sit there" for a bit and relax and see if things will continue to progress. This wasn't good for my sleep pattern... well, I guess in the long run, it IS good for it as I'm not up and down multiple times. But having to pass a BM at 10:30 didn't make me happy I was just drifting off after going to bed... sigh. Oh, well, progress is progress, it's not looking at the clock. I should be grateful it wasn't at 2am, and I AM.. that would have been MUCH worse.
So progress. Baby steps. I should report that I'm now out of depends. I don't wear them at night any longer. I'm confident that if I get the urge to go I will wake up. This wasn't the case in the beginning... so there is HUGE progress in that... I think I stopped wearing them about a month ago with only once in that time I put one on during the day as I was running back and forth to the potty and NOT making it, so I relented... So there is that little bit of sunshine in my life! I'm still wearing pads daily - I can't foresee ever getting rid of those, but I'm sure the day is coming as I AM getting more control, just not being able to forecast when I will need them, so they are a daily thing - BUT I have downgraded from the BIG ones to smaller ones and they are doing the trick. The only time they sort of failed me was the day of my hair appointment weeks ago... and that was one of my worst days/weeks in a LONG time.
My bum is sore this week, but there is hope.
On the neuropathy points. I was going to try acupuncture and found one that is local, but then found out that although my insurance covers acupuncture, this gal isn't in network, so would not be covered at all. And care to guess what she costs? $245 for the first visit ($215 if you aren't covered by insurance)... and $115 an hour after that. The closest that I think we have on in network is in Atlanta... so, I don't think I'll be trying that after all. Sigh. Frustrations. BUT this isn't a horrible thing either... I have numbness on my toes and the ball of my feet ... and it's not horrible. It's Annoying because it's a hybrid feeling of both numbness and hypersensitivity. I can feel every single grain of dirt on the floor and they hurt, but I don't know if they are hot/cold and they are sort of numb to the touch at times... either way, numb toes are not a deal breaker in the long run. There are also a few things that they can try medically as well, but I have avoided those as most of the drugs they offer come with so many horrible side effects, I just don't want to deal with them. I did try Gabapentin and it worked to some extent to wake up those nerves, but it also caused my ankles to swell horribly. So, I have choices to make. I don't know that my toes are worth $500 (as I'm sure it would take multiple visits). And who knows, time may take care of this and it may just go away on its own.
Speaking of things going away on their own. The weird nerve thing where if I put my head down I would have a nerve shock all the way in my toes is now gone... I can look down and there is a slight pulling feeling in the nerves (if that makes sense) but there is no electric shock anymore! So that's a thing! Yay for that resolving... so there is hope that the toes will come back.. but for now, they feel cold to me at all times, but when I use my fingers to feel them, they are as warm as can be... dang nerves need to get uncrossed there!!
So - progress, things are moving in the right direction all at 7 months post chemo, 4 months post reversal. Someone told me the exhaustion won't ever go away, which made me sad... I was hoping that would eventually go away too.. this came from someone else who had chemo in the past ... so I believe her to some extent. I'll just blame mine on getting old instead of chemo :) For now I do have my spurts of energy, followed by some down time where I'm recouping... I can live with that.. for now!
Saturday, June 23, 2018
FULL day part 2!!
On the way home we headed to an estate sale near Hawkinsville. I found a nice walker for dad. It was perfect timing as this would save him from having to go to the doctor to get a prescription for a new walker. Yay for dad!
Afterwards we headed into Hawkinsville proper to get some breakfast at Huddle House. Think Waffle House but more County :) if that’s even really possible.
Since we were in Hawkinsville we decide to go ahead and go to another estate sale in a warehouse there in town. I found a bread pan cast iron and a cute brass fish ashtray to go with my brass crabs.
Butch is gonna clean up the pan and I’ll sell it :)
From there we headed to Mom and Dads house and decided to stop off at the nursery in Perry to see if they had Hydrangeas. They did and a few other plants as well!!
We ended up with three Hydrangeas, three Hostas and two “Lucifer” canna lilies - the name cracked me up!
Then we headed over to the folks to drop off the walker then headed home. It was then about 1pm and WAY too hot to plant anything so we have settled down in the house to cool off for a bit.
But we did drop the plants on their rough spots before going in:
These are multi colored ones! I’m so excited to see what these are going to look like as they grow up!!
About three I tossed on a swim suit and headed out to plant some canna lilies. I shoved my volunteer snapdragons to the side and plopped the lilies in. They’re going to be pretty!!
Tomatoes are coming in. Not quite as well as I hoped, but they’re coming in. I will just keep fertilizing and hope for the best!
This one is for mom. This is her plant she gave me as a rescue. I had to deadhead it and cut off the dead stuff. It’s coming back great. Should be happy here for the long term!!
At about 7pm we finally went out front and planter the hostas and Hydrangeas.
Afterwards we headed into Hawkinsville proper to get some breakfast at Huddle House. Think Waffle House but more County :) if that’s even really possible.
Since we were in Hawkinsville we decide to go ahead and go to another estate sale in a warehouse there in town. I found a bread pan cast iron and a cute brass fish ashtray to go with my brass crabs.
Butch is gonna clean up the pan and I’ll sell it :)
From there we headed to Mom and Dads house and decided to stop off at the nursery in Perry to see if they had Hydrangeas. They did and a few other plants as well!!
We ended up with three Hydrangeas, three Hostas and two “Lucifer” canna lilies - the name cracked me up!
Then we headed over to the folks to drop off the walker then headed home. It was then about 1pm and WAY too hot to plant anything so we have settled down in the house to cool off for a bit.
But we did drop the plants on their rough spots before going in:
These are multi colored ones! I’m so excited to see what these are going to look like as they grow up!!
About three I tossed on a swim suit and headed out to plant some canna lilies. I shoved my volunteer snapdragons to the side and plopped the lilies in. They’re going to be pretty!!
Tomatoes are coming in. Not quite as well as I hoped, but they’re coming in. I will just keep fertilizing and hope for the best!
This one is for mom. This is her plant she gave me as a rescue. I had to deadhead it and cut off the dead stuff. It’s coming back great. Should be happy here for the long term!!
At about 7pm we finally went out front and planter the hostas and Hydrangeas.
FULL day!
Today Butch and I headed to Eastman to visit with my prior boss and visit her sunflower field.
I am so glad we did.
Butch wanted to BE there at 6:30am. I said no way!! I also didn’t want to go at 8pm as it would be too hot and buggy.
We compromised with us showing up at 7:30 A.M. what does that mean? It means we had to get up at 5:00 (Butch) 5:30 (me). We headed out at 6:30 so we could there at 7:30. I felt bad because she was still in her jammies! She was a good sport about it. :)
One super tall little guy right out in the middle :)
Yep he is standing on the topper in the back of his truck. Fun stuff!! I was the lens handler for him. I would wander away and take pictures on my own and he would concentrate on doing his own thing.
There has always got to be one in the crowd! Backwards and awkward but still happy and cheerful :)
I was taking pictures of bees but had to capture this picture of Butch. Yep, he’s still standing on his truck still ;)
Selfie in the flowers!!
There were so many “hit and runs” with bees flying everywhere being as busy as, well bees!! No stings and no close calls. Just lots of buzzing around!
One final parting shot before we go! We had a great time!!
I am so glad we did.
Butch wanted to BE there at 6:30am. I said no way!! I also didn’t want to go at 8pm as it would be too hot and buggy.
We compromised with us showing up at 7:30 A.M. what does that mean? It means we had to get up at 5:00 (Butch) 5:30 (me). We headed out at 6:30 so we could there at 7:30. I felt bad because she was still in her jammies! She was a good sport about it. :)
One super tall little guy right out in the middle :)
Yep he is standing on the topper in the back of his truck. Fun stuff!! I was the lens handler for him. I would wander away and take pictures on my own and he would concentrate on doing his own thing.
There has always got to be one in the crowd! Backwards and awkward but still happy and cheerful :)
I was taking pictures of bees but had to capture this picture of Butch. Yep, he’s still standing on his truck still ;)
Selfie in the flowers!!
There were so many “hit and runs” with bees flying everywhere being as busy as, well bees!! No stings and no close calls. Just lots of buzzing around!
One final parting shot before we go! We had a great time!!
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