Chemo Starting Sep 09

JANE - so sorry to hear your DH needs a pacemaker... but so glad they are finally doing something to help him!   How are your eyes doing?  Are you able to keep working?

WANDA - good to hear from you.  Hope you get some answers.  I haven't had reconstruction, but I had some pain and it turns out mine was lymphedema related!  Did they take any lymph nodes during your surgery?

RONNIE - it is interesting the "after effects" of the cures we go through are so life-changing.

We didn't leave for California yet... delayed due to DH passing a kidney stone!  We will likely leave in a week or so.  Plus, I took the kids on a hike in the woods at a local county park and ended up flat on my face on the gravel and woodsy path!!  I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, but didn't actually break anything... scraped hand and knees, and bruised both as well as my ego.  Doing OK now.  In fact that ugly lymphedema glove I have to wear actually saved my right hand from a good scraping!  It got a bit damaged, so I'm getting a replacement.

Oh... and my son said when I got home and he heard the story: "only you would turn that into a teaching moment."   As I was lying on the path, I was explaining to the grandkids that I was OK.  But if I had broken something, I asked them what they would have done.  Did they know where we were?  Did they know the name of the trail we were on?  And then I sent them to find me a walking stick... 

Anyway I hurt enough in my shoulders that it would have been hard to drive all the way to California.  With my lymphedema and shoulder pain (before falling and after falling), it's been getting hard to drive our manual transmission...  and we had no air conditioning in our GEO Tracker.

So for my birthday (Thursday) we went out looking for a car.  I hate car shopping.  I was very stressed.  But out of all the cars we looked at, we found one car that made me smile.  And Friday we went back to purchase it!  We bought a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse (you'll have to google that)... it's so cute!   It will be great fun to drive it to California.  Oh... it's pearl white and in great condition for an older car.

And in other news... If anyone's interested, I started writing and posting a daily devotional on Facebook this month.  https://www.facebook.com/Biblewalk?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Hello all!   Jane, I pray your DH is recovering well from surgery.  Ronnie, I hope your scans show good results.  Wanda, we're glad you're still here too!  Barbara, where are you, sister?

We'll wait to see how Jane's DH is doing before we plan our reunion!

We only stayed 6 weeks in California.  We sold our trailer and Suburban and some stuff and headed back to Kentucky partly due to the wildfires in California.  The smoke was really hard to breathe.  We got back here a month ago.  Just 2 weeks ago, some old friends (nearly 80 years old) lost their home and shop to one of the forest fires.  Very sad.  She has gone through chemo 2 times for ovarian cancer, and the week she lost her home, she was diagnosed with a recurrence.   Can you imagine losing everything in a fire AND finding the cancer? 

Kentucky is so green compared to California.  I did use the excuse of the fires to make at least 4 trips a week to my favorite Trinidad Beach (it's only an hour from our son's house), where I could breathe some salty air and enjoy the sound of the waves.  It's so therapeutic for me.

Still adjusting to Kentucky, but with the drought and fires and smoke (many thousands of acres of pot plants are involved in the forest fires too!), it gave me a new perspective about being here!

Miss y'all!  And glad we're checking back in...

OK... so here's a funny story.  I had this great idea that I would contact Dollywood about hosting our reunion.  After writing about our group,  I asked if they would consider giving us a discount at their resort.

Two weeks passed with no replies, but today, I received an email from Paula at Dollywood.  She was gracious in telling me that they just weren't able to sponsor groups as they had so many requests, but she did offer us 30% off admission tickets to Dollywood theme park.

Here's a quote from her letter:   "Thank you for your email regarding discounted tickets for your dancer survivor friends."   

YEP!  Dancer Survivors! 

HAH!  Puts a whole new slant on things...

 So what about Myrtle Beach, SC (spouses included?)?    Never been there... but that's only a couple hours from Jane, so her husband might be OK for that trip?   We're about 10 hours away so that would be drive-able for us.  Don't have to pick the fanciest place to stay... LA Quinta was like $89/night per room.    I'm thinking like the last weekend in September (25-27)?   Any input?

Can't believe a month has passed!  Hope you're all doing well. 

My hopes of a Fall reunion didn't pan out.  But that's OK.  One day! 

I've been seeing a rheumatologist since July.  I've been told I had osteoarthritis (which is true), but there's more to the story and now I finally have a diagnosis... Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS).  I know, huh?  Great name anyway. 

 If you're going to have some disease, then it should have an impressive name.

It's related to rheumatoid arthritis but has its own quirks.  2/3 of my spine has extra bones that have grown, causing some fusion between the vertebrae and therefore limited flexibility and pain.  It's an autoimmune disease and there's no "fix" for it, but there are meds that can slow the process and hopefully avoid some major complications (involving heart and other major organs).   So pain and bouts of extreme fatigue. 

Here's the rub.  Today the dr. tells me that if I was his mother, he would treat me with these drugs.  Humira is one of them (injectibles) and the big concern is it can cause cancer, and I suppose awaken those dormant cancer cells left inside???  I don't know about that, but it's a concern.

He said I also have Fibromyalgia.  So my joints and tendons ache from AS and the Fibromyalgia makes my muscles hurt...

The thing is, I've had this probably since I was 20.  But being who I am, I've always just "bucked up" under the pain, complaining occasionally to a dr. here or there, but thinking everybody has a bit of pain to deal with.  And my father's voice in my head, "just go outside and work it off!"

 But with age, comes the progression of the disease and the bone growth.

Oh well.  Now at least I know WHY I have pain and that it's not "in my head", and that does help a bit.

Thanks for letting me sound off.  DH is retreating into his computer with headphones on... he doesn't deal with me in pain very well.

I hate cancer.... but AS runs a close second.

Just in case anybody's still checking in... I miss you!   Celebrating 43 years of marriage on Wednesday!