Got back last night - very tired but also with a ton of great memories.
I didn't bring my nice camera on this trip and looking back, I'm glad. A lot of things were first time experiences, and I was able to use my iPhone to capture a few, without feeling obligated to lug the bigger camera around and seeing too much through the camera lens rather than in person.
We made a late start of Friday but it helped avoid traffic so - meh. We ate in Sacramento before heading down and got into San
So - still really looking forward to the trip this weekend (San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Monterey). Every thing is set - I've got a friend staying at the house to watch the dogs, reservations are made and kinda packed. Ok, I have to do a couple of loads of laundry today and tomorrow, not only clothes for the trip but also clean sheets for the guest bed. The friend is the only one that's used it, but I figure fresh sheets are the least I can do. He loves coming over, both because he is a big
As I mentioned, I've been having pain and numbness in my right side and pretty much just dealing with it. Wednesday, my left hand started feeling numb so I got a concerned and called my doctor's office to make an appointment. I saw him yesterday and he agreed that the neuropathy was getting a bit much.
When I started on the latest chemo drug, Revlimid, we decided to have me do the full strength of the pills, 25mg per day. A bit part of this is that I'm only 48 and should be able to tolera
So, thankfully today and yesterday have been "good" days. I'm up, able to do simple things around the house and the pain is at a reasonable level. Really happy, especially as Saturday and Sunday were horrible days - where the pain was so bad, I basically spent almost all of the day in bed. I'd get up, let the dogs out, feed them, have a bowl of cereal and take my meds (including pain pills) and then head back to bed. Only time I'd get up is if I had to pee or to let the dogs out. One of the
Today was a pretty mixed bag, and meh, that's not too bad overall.
Healthwise, it started off really poorly. I've been having nerve pain, likely caused by the current chemo drug I'm on (technical term is neuropathy). I've had it in various forms before, but in the past it has been in my feet and ankles. Now one of the worst parts is in my right neck/shoulder, the back of my head and worst of all, my right ear. It got so bad yesterday that I kept taking my glasses off (the arm of the glas
Doing a lot better today, physically, mentally and most importantly, emotionally. Woke up feeling good, and actually did some minor housework that I'd been needing to do (put away dishes, start new load, strip bed and put sheets and comforter in the wash). I was talking on the phone and told a friend that I didn't know what was different, it was almost like I was on prednisone (great steroid - when I do have to take it, the house gets really clean). I think it is just a lull in the hit from t
As many have noted, I do pretty well with my outlook, all things considered. And I do try - sometimes it is a little bit of a facade to get through the day, but overall I do try to look on the more positive side of things when possible. I mean, the alternatives are figure out a way to get through this or just give up - and I don't like the implications of that latter choice. There are too many things that I still want to do, places to see and most importantly, friends to spend more time with.
If you don't know, SCOTUS is shorthand for Supreme Court Of The United States. Utah officials had appealed the recent Federal Court rulings mandating that Utah process and recognize same-sex marriages, and pending appeal, requested a stay of the lower court rulings. This stay was denied first by the lower court, then by the 10th Circuit but this morning, SCOTUS granted the stay.
In my opinion, Utah (and a court challenge in Virginia that AFER is working on) may be the tipping point that for
Thanks for the comments and support on my last entry. It really helped to get it all out - so many times, I start drafting copy of information like this in my mind, over and over (occupational hazard I guess). It doesn't always see the light of day which just makes it easier to obsess about and continue to mentally revise and review, so getting it out - it's done, time to move on.
The year is actually starting out really well. I love musicals and saw a great performance of Cabaret last ni
In the last few days, I've had a few conversations that caused me to reflect about various songs and their lyrics. After hearing "St Elmo's Fire" on the radio, I talked with a new friend about how it and Breakfast Club were the movies that defined my high school/early college generation. I graduated high school in 1983 so both movies were very topical for me. The rebellion of Breakfast Club, and the tight friendship circle of St Elmo's Fire were reflections of what I was living. Originally after
So - I started trying to put some of this in today's News Blog, but it got to be too much info, so splitting off the more personal aspect which involves my birthday this past Saturday.
As I said there, birthdays are definitely a time for introspection. I'm now 48 - four full turns on the chinese zodiac (or 4/5ths of one if you count the elemental aspect too).
This past year has caused an inordinate amount of introspection - with so many changes, many at times overwhelming. I long for a
I saw a Facebook post about a reddit discussion on "Redditors who live in a country with universal healthcare, what is it really like" - from a US posted trying to get an understanding of health care in other countries, ones that do have universal healthcare. I posted a FB reply, but thought I'd share it here since many of you know my recent health history.
Some other details - even with decent health care coverage through work, my out of pocket has usually been about $2000 per year, if not
Update - it's been 12 days since the transplant of my sister's bone marrow/stem cells and I'm still feeling pretty good. Have had mild nausea twice in the past week (but immediately controlled by medication) and minor headaches/body aches, but overall, no major side effects. My platelets have been coming back strong (138 today which is just shy of normal range of 140-440). My white cells also are coming back well at 1.0 (was 0.5 just a week ago and normal is 4.1-10.9), but my ANC, or Absolute Ne
Two recent FB posts
From Mar 18 at 9:49pm near Sacramento:
Day 3 after my transplant - continuing to feel really good, but have been warned that typically 6-7 days after (so this Thurs or Fri), I'll probably dip low on platelets and/or hemoglobin and need a blood transfusion. So, while I wish I was home with Dan and the kids, I know I'm being watched carefully around the clock until things get stable (another 11-17 days). Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and words - they are all mu
So, for those not on Facebook, back on Feb 22 I gave an update on my health status with:
Here's today's update:
Just wanted to give a quick update on what's going on for me. Just finished the first of the two weeks of prep for the bone marrow transplant. My sister's cells were collected back on Feb 21 and are frozen and waiting and I'll get them this coming Friday, March 15.
This past week was daily radiation treatment in the morning - what's called TLI or "Total Lymphoid Irradiation" - w
After constant warnings to the kids about packing for cold weather, it has finally hit. So, we're grateful that so far, it has been nice in the 40's, right now is 30 with strong gusts (all temps in F BTW). Forecast is even showing possible snow on Friday (kids "yay", me "groan").
The trip, as Dan has blogged, has been sooooo fantastic. The kids loved how close we were to the stage at the Inaugural yesterday. Obama's speech literally brought tears to my eyes and both Kelly Clarkson and Beyonc
So... It took me a while to find my blog. Everytime I tried to search, it would just show me the GA New Blog because of all of the entries I've made there. But eventually - YAY - found it again.
Ya, blogging. I'm not good at it. I love FaceBook because I can do quick updates or thoughts on things, but kvetching about my health - heh, an actual blog seems better.
So - nothing as horrible as my last health problem but - meh...
Started a couple of weeks ago. As part of the follow
I've got a personal website - it's www.rjws.com
I came up with the name when I was with my ex - my initials are RJ and his are JWS so it was a merge of the two names. I don't use it for much - occasional updates. More use it to put up private directories of family photos so my brother and sister can see them. When I split with my ex, I realized I could still use the RJWS moniker by changing it to mean Robert Jordan's Web Site - cute, eh?
So - a week ago, I got an inquiry about the dom
To "You know who you are" -
HANNAH MONTANA SONGS?!? WTF!!!!!!!!
In other news - life is good, been back to work for over a month now (went by sooooo fast). Looking forward to Thanksgiving with Dan, April, Tyler and Kaliann - we bought the turkey and stuffing ingrediants this past Saturday. Financially, things are going a lot better as after five months of applying, waiting, fighting, phone calls, etc - I finally got my federal disability payments. Getting caught up on bills
Just a quick note...
1) I've been out of touch with most people recently - sorry. Part of it has been my mood... Ever since early Sept, I'm been down mainly due to having been out of work for over a year, and partly cause still dealing a little with not having my girls (dogs). But I know a lot of you care and have reached out - and I appreciate it, even if I haven't always reached back.
WHICH leads me to:
2) GREAT NEWS!!!
Tomorrow (Wed) morning at 9AM - I report back to work! WO
