Busy busy day!!

Productive morning for lying in bed until 9am! I got up, got the table from the garage and put it in the soon to be office for Butch. Put all the collected camera stuff from MY room to that room. Took down the CHRISTMAS wrapping table, yes, it’s been here since before Christmas...then put IT in his office. Then as though that wasn’t enough I pulled a bunch of junk out from of the cabinet on top of the fridge and slotted it to consigment. THEN I cleaned the one above the microwave out and pulled out a large bin FULL of vases to go to consigment. AND loaded the car with all this stuff for Monday! Next up...paint the two lovely water stains on my ceiling from an A/C leak and storm leak. 😕

The kitchen leak before.





The kitchen leak after:


Bedroom leak before:





The bedroom leak after (still a little wet):


The proof in the back of the car! Stuffed.


AND something that isn’t listed is the new pool booster pump is installed. Whoop!!


AND I even went to the Wax strip and got my pits waxed as well.

Angela’s adventures

Angela was scheduled for her colonoscopy in the 8th so I figured I would leave work and drive straight up there.

I got out of work on time picked up Sherry as she needed to get her car from the shop. I tracked her down and then circled the block to get her as it was raining and she didn’t have an umbrella. I’m not THAT mean. My umbrella was tiny and broken so couldn’t be shared and actually started to link. So. Got her then drove very sorely off base. I was assuming it was so slow due to Green Street being closed. NOPE the light was out. Sigh.

Finally off base and getting calls from Angela. Her water was off in her apartment. This is NOT good when you are having to poop. A. Lot. So the decision was made to go to a hotel.

I get another call and she’s feeling sick. Uh oh. So by the time I got to Macon she had thrown up her prep. I had to get a little mean and tell her to hang up and go to Walgreens NOW before her drs office closes so they can figure out what to do as an alternative. So goes and gets the magnesium citrate instead. Much better taste and easier to get down. Only 10oz instead of 16.

By the time I get there she is calmer and has gotten the first bottle of two down.

I brought her gallons of water to flush her sick down as well. Sigh. We then load up and go to a hotel.

I had told her to get soup.


She didn’t see the wisdom until I got it for her. She was in LOVE.

She finished her soup and most of her 2nd bottle and we called it a night as we were waking up at 5am to go to the clinic.


Look at the cute socks!
They were nice and let me go back with her - they normally don’t but as she was young they cut her slack. She was so cute coming out of the drugs. :)

The results were NO cancer - everyone’s fear. But it was Crohn’s. This will be a chronic thing and something that will have to be watched I’m sure. But for now not the worst diagnosis as there are medications and treatments and diets to address this.

We went back to the hotel and had a bite to eat from the breakfast then upstairs to bed for a bit as I had arranged for a late checkout. Zzzzzz

We got up at noon and started to pack up to head back to her apartment....only to have her go potty and find 𝖡𝗅𝗈𝗈𝖽. Quite a bit of blood. Read the packet again and learned we should go to the ER. Ok. Off to the ER we go.


This was approved...begrudgingly. But approved. She was soooo mad. Not sad, just mad. “The worst part is the prep they said” was what I remember the most of her comments. Ha! Yeah well...the bleed explains about her first one too. Her body simply processes FAST. She was told no BM for 1 or two days and 7 hours after she ate eggs she was pooping them. Wow!! Not sure how she’s not rail thin with that rate of processing. Just WOW.

So after a few hours in the ER they sent her home as they didn’t think it was anything bad. And apparently it wasn’t as this is now a few days later and all is well.

So. Sucks that it’s Crohn’s; Great that it’s not cancer.

I'm dying here....

I get a call from the cancer center.... "Hello, this is Shannon, Dr. Sumerall wanted me to call you and tell you that your CEA numbers are "normal""

I chuckled and said, "yeah, mine were "normal" when I HAD cancer, what are the actual numbers??"

She was a bit taken aback... then saw the numbers.... I was at a 1.0 when I had the cancerous tumor IN me....8 after 6 months and now .6 as of today (yesterday)... so "normal" is relative... I've always been normal - Which I hear a few of you guys rolling your eyes from here as you KNOW I have NEVER been "normal"... but this case, I'm the abnormal cancer patient with "normal" readings at all times.

Anything under a 5 is considered "normal"... so I guess if my numbers spiked to a whopping 2, we would start looking at me hard, eh? Ha!

Pottery day #3

I don’t know if I’m getting better at this or simply less picky about how things turn out ;)

I saved five pieces on Tuesday. I FINALLY got the hang of cylinders!! I think I made three cylinders or more. There is one I’m not sure will make it through firing as I cut the bottom super high and thus made the bottom really THIN. So we will try it either way.

And so today we wrapped them in plastic to allow us to properly trim it next week.

I have to say I am very much loving this class!

12 month CTs

Monday was my 12 month CTs. I understand from most on my sites that there is a lot of “scanziety” AKA anxiety over scans.

Apparently I’m not normal. I just don’t worry too very much. I really never have.

What good would it do?

I could worry however it’s not going to change anything. And so that is the approach I take.


So I started out.... and really it wasn’t horrible this time. Last time I was in the midst of a horrible attack from my gallbladder. I was in so much pain and miserable as well as nauseated. So... this time it was quite easy to chug-a-lug it.


And done. All in record time. Well appropriate timeline.

So two hours later and I’m ready to get scanned. All this fuss and hoopla for a 10 minute scan. So frustrating to sit and wait while that stuff costs your insides.

I also had the joy of getting and IV as well. I guess it’s time to pull the port as most local folks don’t want to use it and it’s seen as more of a trouble as they have to have special nurses to flush it after use. I had already thought had all my scans come back clean that I would have it pulled regardless... and I really think they will all come back clean.

So CTs done. I’ll have the answers to them on Monday as to what the results are. I then have my meeting with the colon rectal specialist next month. It was to happen the day after my CTs....but they rescheduled. Sigh.

Now I have to wait until the 13th to meet with the doc then get my colonoscopy after. Nothing like hurry up and wait, hu? Oh well.

OR I could go to Mayo...no waiting and no fuss. But I don’t want to have to do a prep in a hotel again. So...I wait patiently and hope I don’t get rescheduled again. Then I would find a new doc.

Sooooo that’s what happened Monday. CTs done.

Throwing Pots week two

Week two had us at Rookery for dinner http://www.rookerymacon.com


Their burgers are GREAT and the battered fries are really worth it. Definitely worth going back again.

Then off with full bellies to throw some pots!


Lizzie and Leigh Ann working the clay!


Putting some serious work into getting that pot off the wheel!!


Happily starting a new effort ;)


Marking pots from last week!! Leigh Ann and I took this picture...


The looks I get when I take pictures. Bwahahaha!!


My two pots from this week and my two pots from last week in the back. The cylinder was the goal this week. The one on the left the teacher walked me through. The one in the right I attempted to “shape”. It didn’t work as well as I hoped but it was saved regardless!

Next week I will work on making a mug cylinder. This one was too big to be considered a mug!

First attempt at pour art

While Angela was here she and I made a first attempt at pour art. Monday I dropped by Michaels and picked up paint and canvases. The main goal was to make an art piece for Liz’s apartment. Thus the color choices of oranges, blues and gold. Note the cookie cooking racks and the HUGE black garbage bag AND I used my crappy noodles that were falling apart to create my paint pan! Worked like a charm!


There’s gold in there? Yep. There is gold in there.


Shiny GOLD in there.


And lots of fun swirls and bubbles.
BUT Liz said it’s too dark. Ok fair enough. So she will be coming over to work on another one with me. Good thing I got a two pack of canvases!

Sunday Family Dinner and other things

Sunday dinner was moved to Saturday brunch so we could have Angela with us. Angela came down to go with Liz to her tattoo appointment in Charleston South Carolina.

We chose to go to Dovetail (http://www.dovetailmacon.com ) for Brunch that turned into lunch as we were there at noon. It was pricey but so good. Liz has all the good pictures on her phone.

One was this:


They were yummy!!

She took pictures of food but didn’t post them. Dang her!!

Butch took this photo.


Are you seeing a trend here? I’m a slug when it comes to photos! I forget and just enjoy the moments. It’s just not worth it anymore to stop the moment to get a picture!

So! The food was DELICIOUS. I got a breakfast bowl with Smokey cheese grits (found out after that it was made with their pimento cheese) with ham and potatoes on top. It was Yummy but a LOT of food as we ordered biscuits prior too.

The biscuits were four tiny ones but you got some with garlic and cheese and some plain (we actually split the order in request) BUT you got pimento cheese with the garlic cheese and a bourbon and bacon infused butter with the plain ones as wee as honey and some berry jelly. All of it was YUM!!

When that was done we walked back to Liz’s place and said our goodbyes so they could get on the road.

I thought I was going to be sly and get to go to 7th Street Salvage... but they weren’t open. Dang it!!

Sunday I had my crockpot party. Honestly it was Barbara and I getting together to put together five meals from my plans I had on hand. Again no pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I NEED to get better at taking pictures. We got it all together, BUT I messed up in one of the measurements and only got 1/2 the sweet potatoes needed. Whoops!! No biggie. We substituted regular potatoes instead ;). Mission rescued. BUT my kitchen is so clean and uncluttered that even Angela commented on it when she got home from South Carolina!

So. Liz’s tattoo. I have yet to see it in person as she found out that it can’t be visible at work - good thing she got it on her bicep, eh? 3/4 or long sleeves for her at this job. Sigh. Kids. Permanent decisions. She seems quite pleased with it.
Here is what it looks like.


It’s a nod to my Audrey (Stoma) blue ribbon for colon cancer and even has a hidden semicolon in there.

I’m still not thrilled she has a tattoo, but it’s her body, her choice. And it’s pretty color wise.

How am I doing?

*(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.

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.

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!!

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!

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!!!

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!

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.