please help

Yes, it's chocolate and magazines on the couch all day with a 3 1/2-year-old. Chocolate and magazines sitting untouched on the couch all day while you ride herd, feed, clothe, educate, and tolerate. My grandson that age has been visiting and my place looks like a nursery school after an earthquake!!! But aren't they cute, though?...lol Kudos for what you do, and hugs for what you have lost to this ungodly detour. Rant away. We all understand.

Barbe,
Yes WTF that must have been horible I could not stand that pain!!!!!! ridiculous. I was never offered a mammo since my bilateral masectomy, I would not accept it, if I ever find a lump I think I would call every hospital around to see if I can get one that will do only the ultrasound. What good is looking at only a piece of 1/2'' of skin. Incredible. Here we have several doctros that went private and are out of the system and some of them take patients for only one consult even if they never had them before. I guess walk in clinics are not an option if they are congested like ours. Don't give up, it's a hasell but for your own peace of mind. Sometimes what I did also is book myself for a mamo (when I had breast) even though I did not have the doctor's refence yet telling them I had one, since we only got to show them when we go to the appointment, so that made a shorter wait.

Welga

I got called today by the mammogram center saying it's time to come in. I let them know that I no longer have mammogrammable mammaries. They said they'd take me off the recall list.

I saw the GI surgeon today. He doesn't want to dilly dally. I'm on for June 25 to yank out the part of my colon that is filled with diverticuli. I don't want to lose another body part but, like my breast, this one is trying to kill me. I don't know whether to rant or hide my shaking self under the rug. It will be okay. No worries. I'm tough. I'm a @#$% liar too.

Anyone want a supposedly adorable Mini Schnauzer???? Mr. Jasper has reverted to pooping on my Chinese rug. Often just after we come back from a walk to enable him to put it in its proper place. I'VE HAD IT!!!!

Jane, I want to hear about your art class and what you created...that would bring smiles! I would love some smiles right now. Please?

Judie - I'm so sorry to hear of your health issues and hope it all goes smoothly and is over soon so you can return to health and strengh. That's terrible about Jasper's newly developed bad habit. Surely there's a way to get him out of that?

Art has been fun lately. We had a model the other day - a sweet girl. It's always so good to have a live model and the time flew. We did 2 minute warm-up sketches to begin with and proceded to longer poses to allow shading and more detail. I love to sketch - particularly "blind contour" - where you don't look at the page but just mentally feel the form of the subject and draw blind - great at freeing up your style. I did some of our teacher the week before and also of a lamp and got some interesting results.

Nettie - I'm thrilled that you got a good result for your scan and hope and pray you will be feeling better soon. It's sad about your dear little baby (niece?). I hope they can make her better soon. No wonder you have been so stressed - and the poor parents - it must be dreadful for them. Hope you have a happy time with your other relatives and sweet little baby.

Must close and go off to bed.

Love to all

Wow, Nettie! Long but packed with drama.

Hooray for the bone scan news. I'm so relieved. Sounds like you have your "bowels in an uproar" though. Not such good news. Your high fiber diet has probably been beneficial in delaying problems. As you probably found on the net there is total chaos as to opinion on diet and diverticular disease. Don't eat nuts, seeds, popcorn. Nuts, seeds, and popcorn help prevent diverticular disease. High fiber. Low residue, low fiber. You can choose any weird diet you like and it will fit somewhere as the ideal diet or the worst diet for diverticulitis. It looks like the only consensus is that removing that portion of colon is the only thing that works. I'll bet it would help the IBS, too. My episodes of diverticulitis feel just like bad menstrual cramps...the dull ache in the pelvis and cramping just above the pubic bone. But when they press on my belly, it hurts more on the left side. After a few days, the fever starts and goes to 103 (39.4).

I'm so sad about Wee Amy. Has she been diagnosed with a "syndrome" or are her problems unique? It breaks my heart when a sweet baby is so longed for and ends up with so many challenges. But then I guess her specialness needs exceptional parents. Hugs all 'round, especially to Auntie Nets!

I hope you are able to enjoy the time with Lilly Rose and have lots of energy.

Love hearing about Whisper the miracle cat.

I think one reason Devin enjoys you so much is your shared taste in music. His travels on the continent have been very, very difficult, but not enough to bring him home. Spain brought him very close to giving it up. But he has come to realize that rest and seeing what is important trumps meeting a tight schedule to "collect" places on his list. I haven't heard for a couple of days, but his plan was for Vatican Friday, Ancient Rome today, Pompeii Sunday, meeting a friend and staying with her until Thursday, then going together to Venice.

Love your comment "I have now decided that I am going to be there for my family and friends, not strong for them." Here here!!!

Jane, bless you my dear friend. The vision of you doing "blind contour" and one of you in a sunny room sketching a model brought such a feeling of peace and inspiration. Thank you so much. These moments bring me back to a beautiful place that is life.

Barbe, your words echo those of the surgeon. I knew it but didn't want it to be true. I've decided to forge ahead and focus on improved health on the other side of this hurdle.

Judie, Nettie, Towhee, Barbe ... thinking of you all and sending PV's your way.

Judie - just watched the video and found it sooooo cute!! That boy has rhythm! Loved hearing his delightful chuckles and shrieks when Jasper joined in too. So gorgeous! Thinking of you and hope you are not feeling too bad.

Love to you and everyone else here.

 Jane oxoxo

I assume people are very busy and/or tired of posting to BC and FB both. But this place has a special quality not possible on FB, and I miss it...sigh. At least you and I are here today, Jane. What more is needed?!!! Others will show up. We tend to be a sporadic but cohesive group these days.

Judie and Nancy - good to hear from you. Yes, good weather and being out and about - sounds good. Judie - hope you are feeling a little better. What date is your surgery?

Weather has been wild here. A small tornado hit the north coast, a couple of water spouts came ashore in Sydney (not a lot of damage there) and it's been wet, cold and foggy. This morning the sun is out - almost forgot what it looked like. I need to get out and walk and feel the warmth on my face.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Love,

Jane oxoxox

Sheila, I just had my Relay last night too! Another yellow t-shirt and another blue ribbon. Was hard to do the Survivor's lap this year, my cane made me feel conspicuous....sigh.

Do I have you on FB?

Barbe, we are face book friends. I commented on your posting about relay. Check out my photo album.

Sheila

Please Help...this seems like the right title for me today..a few months ago my husband announced that he had spent the past 8-10 yrs not wanting to be married, that there was nothing to work on nothing to fix and he did not want to even if there was. He also told me that he'd been having an affair with someone I know for the past 5 yrs and they wanted to pursue it more openly to see where it would go. He sees no reason for a divorce since he does not want to get remarried and wants to share the house (so he can be around to help me). We can just live separately on a gentleman's handshake. This has been a real shock, no warnings that I noticed...in fact NO ONE who has heard had any idea....family, friends, coworkers ...I can not put together this person with the one I have been married to for the past 24 1/2 yrs...I hear the words, I know what they mean but nothing makes any sense, the more he talks and explains the less sense it makes and his reasoning seems so odd, off, bizarre.  If I were healthy and able to work and support myself (not on disability) I know what I would do but I'm not and feel so dependent on him. I am so tired of trying and working hard at keeping it together for the past 3 1/2 yrs because of the cancer, now I have this. I am angry and really scared.

Frankly, Elaine, what you are facing might not be literally life-threatening, but is more deeply painful than just about any life event. My heart is with you. I walked a similar path just months after my diagnosis three years ago. Words are inadequate. Truly. You will be constanly in my heart.

Judie

Elaine....went through something similar, but it was long before my breast cancer. I hate that expression, "We just want to see where it will go." My ex used the same line on me.

Well, I'll tell you...it went into the toilet. Once they were together openly, the bloom was off the rose. It took a couple of years, but he finally saw her for the crazy, irresponsible person she was. Wait...that was how he described her with a more glowing expression when he left. When he said it a few years later, it was in a hard and ironic tone.

I'd have mixed feeling about letting him hang around "to take care of me." On the one hand, if there is no one else, what are you going to do? If there is ANY way you can find someone else, I'd boot him to the curb. There's a part of me that would never trust him...

Elaine just popping in to send HUGS XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I am reliving some emotions today as Blaire starts her treatments first rads at 8:15 this AM then back in this afternoon for first chemo -  a 6 hour infusion -  and her DR has warned her the chemo cocktail she is receiving will have much ill side effects,  I so recall those first treatments  -  I was a mess-  I was more scared of those then the actual cancer  -  freaked out about the POISON they were putting into my body.  She is doing pretty well,  but getting tired of putting on the BRAVE FACE for people. She had a bad week last week while changing the bandage around her feeding tube she clipped the tube it self,  which sent her back to the surgeon and created some nasty effects -  we are scheduled to have lunch on Friday - she insists she is going to make it ,  she has my B'day present,  I keep telling her not to  overdue it,  buttttttttttttt,  of coarse she won't be able to eat, but  it is a tradition with us,  she is exactly 2 months older than me.  Wonderful PET scan results she received though  - nothing noted anywhere else in the body - SOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY for that.

Hope everyone is having a GREAT HUMP DAY - XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO