...can be good news; and in this case, it is. *grins bigly*
Thank you for the flattering comments about our walk! Do come and enjoy it yourselves whenever you can make time.
Another result of 'A Walk in da Woods' was that we couldn't help but inventory all of the yard chores that still need doing. Then, another set of the March-ordered plants arrived on Monday...that's where I've been the past couple days. So much so that I haven't been doing my metered laps, and I'm still getting a mile or more in a day *yeah*
These past couple days, I've actually felt the best I"ve felt in a while. Right on time -- we go in for another infusion tomorrow morning...
If my white cell count has returned to within a normal range, I'll get the gemzar dosage that I couldn't receive last Friday because of the low white cell count.
If the white cell count is still below normal, a protocol of a growth hormone will be started so that the gemzar doesn't bottom out the white cell count...
...I feel like a walking test tube...
nancyturtle, we'll consider buying stock in Neosporin and Bacetracin... I don't walk barefooted any more, I wear gloves when yardening. I notice that insect and spider bites are _very_ slow in healing.
dd, we're delighted to hear that you're well on the mend! It will be wonderful to hear that you're feeling strong enough for a massage next week! *crosses fingers* Hug that wonderful Mother of yours for me??
Cathy and Hannah, we hope you got our email and we wish you a safe trip to Seattle; regards to Arlin!
Connie, it sounds like neither of us will recognize the other; keep up the good work, and we'll do the same! *cheers*
Seth, we're looking forward to your return.
Cranium Man, thanks for the update on R2. Is W the "Namer" in your family? Kevin is the "Namer" in ours...except for Trooley, that is *grins*
Co, I wish you were here to help us ID some of our prairie flowers. How is your prairie project doing?
C-Mo (now reading as Cure-Mo *heh*), we hope that you and yours are on the mend. Feel free to reschedule your visit as you can.
Glad to hear that so many of you enjoyed the Fathers' Day card! We liked da woodsy feel of it *grins* How did you spend the day??
Tomorrow is what we calculate to be Trooley's birthday; he'll be seven.
Tomorrow is also the Summer Solstice; here's wishing you the best! *celebratory thoughts*
Make nice!
11 comments:
I'm back in IC after a visit to NY that was both sad and wonderful. This was no vacation, but a journey to be with family to observe a ritual over my father's grave.
By tradition, his headstone would be "unveiled" to his family for the first time since his funeral. It was a very emotional moment as the unveiling took place on Father's Day, and the seventh anniversary of the death of my mother. They are buried side-by-side.
It was great to see my family. We haven't been together since I moved out here.
It was also a reminder that no matter how far you move, you cannot escape being a schlimozzel. One brief incident of that reminder--I was assigned seat 26A on the flight from NY to Chicago. The jet had only 24 rows.
Thanks much for the card. With all that is going on, you amazingly remembered.
S.
How remiss of me. I read the entire blog and failed to say
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROOLEY!!
And your all back! Just as I was wondering if everyone was lost in daWoods..(and I was jealous!). I just finished posting on the subject as a comment on the Walk post.
Happy Birthday Trooley and Happy Solstice to everyone else.
I sent the Walk in daWoods to my sister in Pennsylvania and she loved it. But it made me aware that I don't have any recent pictures of Diana and Kevin. Do you have any you could send???
Love to all!
N
Thanks for the walk in da woods ... truly beautiful! And happy birthday to beautiful Trooley!
Thanks for the e-card too ... a nice surprise after dropping off the girls for a week at camp!
Let me know if Deb and I can help with plants and chores this weekend!
Jonathan
Welcome Home, sleeves! *hugs*
What a celebratory weekend this now is with your birthday and remembrances of your parents intertwined even more.
I was hoping that Uncle Shorty's marker would have been set last week. Since it wasn't, I called to ask that it be set by this coming weekend. *crosses fingers*
nancyturtle, we'll see what we have for photos.
Jon! Glad you enjoyed the card. Given that we're part of an oak/hickory ...savannah?... it seemed to be us *grins*
...we actually have a dozen or so trees that need to be transplanted -- none of them oaks *heh*. They were bareroots that we intended to move before they got too big... *blinks*
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Make a great rest of the day!
off to your infusion then with high hearts...i'm pretty sure the last chemo dose just did its work a little too well, which made a difficult week for you. hopefully also for the tumor! lets try to imagine some other white cell multiplying mechanism...no growth hormone *ugly face*. causes cancer. just google "human growth hormone, cancer" there are some reputable studies. i feel pretty sure there are less scary ways to increase your white count if it gets too low again.
remember to totally relax your arm and shoulder during chemo...imagine that stuff just going straight to the tumor, and doing its work only there. alla my love as always.
as I was reading dd's comment about the chemo going sttaight to the cancer I was reminded of the visualization I used - I had a favorite spot along the Rogue River in Oregon where the water rushed through the rocks which were on either side of the stream. I felt my whole body rushing along with the water and the rocks cleaning all of the cancer cells away. When I told my grandson about this he immediately planned a trip to Oregon inbetween chemo treatments, took me to that river helped me to the bank and put my feet in the river. What a wonderful memory (and it worked!!!!) My wish for you is the same - and you have a stream right there in da woods! Let it work - love you. Nettie (did enjoy the show last night, thanks)
The human growth hormone was my misunderstanding. The stuff is G-SBC, or something close to that (Diana has it written down). When I used the term 'human growth hormone' with Dr. C. today, he said, "no we wouldn't use that. That would be illegal."
In any event, they aren't giving it to her this week anyway. I think he's thinking that since she has two weeks before the next infusion, she'll have time to rebuild white blood cells on her own.
They were back up to 6600 today, btw.
back up to 6600- Yeah!!! As long as we're sharing visualizations...when I've done my recent runs, I've visualized that I'm actually barefoot...stepping on the tumors and squishing them with each step. Then perhaps they are more easily washed away in Nettie's river! xx00 Katie
I love that image Katie! And thanks for the clarification, Kevin. I knew "Human growth hormone" wasn't the correct treatment. I think it's G-CSF
(Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor) and it stimulates the production of white cells. That doesn't mean it's free of possible side effects so it's great that Diana's counts came up on their own. Let's keep up the immune-boosting visualizations, too.
I read and reread these visualizations and images over and over:
...the ability to create visual images is a mechanism which with I was not blessed. *heavy sigh* ...that apparently applies to other sense images, as well. Only once in my life have I been able to close my eyes and see an image as if I were looking at a postcard. That one time, and never again since...
So you can all imagine *heh* that “guided visualizations” are still very difficult for me, even after working on them since beginning my academic career. By the time elementary school was at end for me, so was my confidence that I could survive in any field requiring visual imagination. Oh well...
Fortunately, throughout my adult life I’ve had the great fortune to learn about mind-body connections and have been making some headway in moving from the cerebral/emotional bind I seem to have been in. *yeah*
The past five years it’s been most directly through massage, which has led me to revisit related schools of thought I’d had the good fortune to touch in past lives and explore newer schools I’m meeting of late.
Reading about white blood cells and understanding where they come from and how they work was how I started with all of that; ergo the posted microscopic view with that post. From the cerebral, but... *shrugs*
And, of course, the cancer has opened new doors on relaxation, stress reduction, mindfullness...all things that I’m still reading about...
Working with Kevin and his staff over the years has done wonders to broaden my appreciation of visual imagery. And I’m currently using one of Kevin’s photos on my desktop so that I can work on actually “seeing” our pond when I close my eyes.
Nettie, the image that I’m using is the one from The Walk that we posted here. Thank you for sharing your wonderful story! And, I’m glad you enjoyed the show Wednesday night. Did you see the results last night?
Kevin/nancyturtle, I posted the generic name of it in a recent post, but fortunately it’s now moot *grins*
Katie, you paint quite a picture! You run, girl! And how terrific that your visualization is augmented by Nettie’s and now nancyturtle’s!
Thanks to all of you reading and posting here!
You make such nice!
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