Roses from Trader Joe's

2/21/16 - Check out these roses I received from Randy for Valentine's Day.  He got them at Trader Joe's.  Aren't they beautiful.  For the first few days I had them, I had to hide them in the back room at Randy's  because his cat, Jenny, would not leave them alone.  We were afraid they might make her sick since she just wanted to bite/eat them.  Luckily, here it is a week later and they are still beautiful. They opened so BIG!  As big as a peony!

Not much else is new here.  Approaching my last week of treatments.  I have one more brachytherapy session on Thursday.  That knocks me down for a couple days.  I guess it is the anesthesia.  Last week my regular doctor was off and the replacement guy looked like Richard Gere!   My regular doctor who is like a big, black, cuddly Teddy Bear (I really like him) will be back.  I suppose there will be scans and a few more hydrations before I hear how successful the whole course of treatment went.  Then it will be a period of rest and recuperation.  Then it will be Spring and time to get off my lazy patoot and get some work done around this place!!!

Goody Bag

2/11/16 - Thursday - I am receiving hydration with Potassium today.  Four hours of that followed by another 2 hours of chemo if I pass the blood tests they took upon arrival.  I should have brought my "adult" coloring books and pens.  Yes, I received the most wonderful goody bag on Tuesday from some old school friends.  Check out the photo.  In fact, there was so much in the goody bag - which was Vera Bradley by the way, with matching change purse - I had to take 2 photos!

Contents: Two adult coloring books, a stand with 30 Gel Pens, the Vera Bradley bag contained a nail file, fancy hair tie, hand lotions, Burts Bees lip balm, water bottle, colored bendy straws, two pair of Aloe infused footie socks from Bath & Body, Word Find book, Crossword Book, Country Garden Book, Home & Garden Book, and a Beautiful navy blue plush throw!  It was like Christmas!  Thank you, Steve and Camile!

Since I will be at the Chemo Lounge for about 6 hours, I brought my laptop with me today.  It was needing a Microsoft Securities update.  That wasn't going through on my home connection so maybe at least I will get it done here.

My Friend's Lime Chicken and Some Frozen Treats

February 8, 2016 Monday - In Indianapolis, we have Trader Joe's grocery,  with innovative, hard-to-find, great-tasting foods under the “Trader Joe’s” name. For example, this package of Linguine with Pesto and Tomatoes is something I really liked. When I opened it I found these little nests with a dab of sauce and little tomatoes. Quite tasty!  I am also looking forward to trying the 5 cheese Greek Spiral shown at right.   Trader Joe's carries an interesting line of beauty products, oils, teas, soaps, etc.   Their Oatmeal Dunkers are quite popular, too.  In case I get the urge to cook, I am adding the baked chicken dish below to my blog.  It was given to me by a friend who is a very good cook. 

Baked Lime Chicken:  person who taught me to make it used a whole cut up chicken, but I would use several similarly sized pieces. Line a 9-13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay chicken pieces in the pan. Lay rings of sweet onion over chicken as well as two or three garlic cloves cut up. Depending on how many pieces of chicken, halve 2 or 3 limes and squeeze over chicken. Lay the limes in the pan among the chicken pieces. Marinate for several hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously dot chicken with butter. Bake for about two hours. I know that seems like a long time but it works. If you use legs you might shorten the time some.

 

Coming to an end - treatments and Doodler

2/3/16 - Wednesday, Here is my finished Doodler.  I don't think I need anymore scarves so my next project will be something different --- hat, baby item, something for charity.

In addition to finishing  my Doodler, I am on my (I think)  last week of external radiation with one more on Friday.  Tomorrow I go for my second internal radiation treatment and will have 3 more to follow.  My chemo doctor said one more chemo next week and that may finish that off, too.  I guess I am on the downhill of treatments!  Of  course, radiation stays with you for some time after treatments so it will be a little while before I am back to my old self.   This week started off at Community Hospital where I had stents put in the kidneys.  I had a left stent put in Christmas Eve, it was replaced and a stent put in on the right side also.  That procedure on Monday, plus tomorrow's Brachytherapy (Internal radiation therapy) will make two times this week under anesthesia.  I am beginning to feel the effects!  Here is the little prayer I say when going in for treatments:

Creator, Infinite Spirit, Mother Father God, I request the presence of the Angels and Archangels of Healing, my Reiki guides and forces, and the purest and most holy spiritual guides.  I ask that these energies gather with me at this time to allow this session to be used for the highest good and healing of __me__.  Thank you for this guidance.  Amen.

Cold and Treatments

1/14/16 - It has been frosty cold here with temperatures in the teens and snow, blowing and drifting!  Today has warmed up and the snow is melting but more zero weather will be here by Sunday.  I guess it can be expected in January (my least favorite month, with February a close second).  I didn't mind it so much as a retired person who could just stay home, but with these treatments EVERY day, it is a real challenge.  Randy has been great about taking me.
    I did my second chemo yesterday.  Again, no nausea.  I did stop and fill a prescription just in case.  I had to be given an extra bag of fluids and was told to drink more water.  I looked at my info and it suggests 3 quarts  (96 oz) of water a day to protect the kidneys.  I guess that is more than the extra 2 (12 oz) bottles I thought had me covered.  I've decided to just put a gallon of water in the refrigerator and drink that every day then I will know I've had enough.

JackPot!!!!!!

1/9/15 - I went to the casino this morning to play the last of my holiday casino money won at the Christmas Party in December.  All invited members were treated to a nice dinner and allowed to go down to the casino stage and pick a box which contained various amounts of casino cash.  I think the highest amount you could receive was $1,000 for 4 weekends.  My box contained a voucher for $250 casino cash for 4 weekends.  The last installment was today.  And, it paid off ---  I hit a Jackpot of  $2,078.28.  I got out of there a winner today.  I even stopped and bought 2 Powerball tickets hoping my luck would continue.  The Powerball is currently something like 940 million dollars!  Largest ever!


I do have something in mind for my winnings.  My electric blanket has died on one side.  I will take the control apart tonight and see if I can fix it.  If not, I believe one of these plush heated blankets available at Carson's will do the trick.   They are predicting snow and temperatures in the teens for tomorrow morning.  I wish I had the new blanket now.
 

The Doodler

1/7/16 - At left is a picture of my WIP knitting project.  It is another Stephen West Mystery Shawl.  I waited until the others were finished with their shawls to begin mine so I would know what to expect.  I still didn't get the colors I wanted.  I thought the Zauberball would be really bright.  The colors, although bold, are more of a drab intensity.  I also wanted bright gold or a turquoise for accent colors.  Not available in the $11 yarn price range.  So, I settled for a teal blue, a red and a black.  Like I said, it is still not turning out as expected.

This picture is my PIC line.  I must admit the nurse who put it in was wonderful.  The dangly things get in the way but I can still knit and type!  My first chemo was yesterday.  It included several other drugs; i.e. steroid, Benadryl, and the cisplatin, something to hydrate me and God knows what else, Oh, something for nausea.   The good news is, it hasn't really bothered me...... the only noticeable effect other than being sleepy is my cheeks are red and feel flushed.  The nurse said the steroid would do that.  I only do this once a week, so maybe I will make it.