The Eyes...

...don't have it.

Eye exam yesterday shows Kevin's vision holding. I, however, have cataracts that will require an evaluation, on Oct. 25th, in anticipation of surgical removal of the worse one (right) first and the left one two weeks later.

There were no signs of cataracts up until now, but it's been a couple years since the last exam and no one speaks to the effects of RadioTherapy so close to one's face. My gums and teeth feel a bit different. My eyes were right up there, too. *shrugs*

Bets are whether I'll need to take a driver's test with this year's renewal. They do random testing as well as testing those they suspect might have problems. ...Uncle Shorty got snagged that way once...or twice. Don't know if we can get the surgery done before what would be my January deadline for renewal...

How much it seems I'm traveling in many of Dad's footsteps of late. I got to be 60 years old taking only vitamin supplements. The tray of _my_ medications on our dresser will soon put Uncle Shorty's tray to shame. *embarrassed wince*

Now the cataracts...and ability to drive *heavy sigh*

Heard today that my Vitamin D count is low, despite my taking the recommended supplement for the past six months...

Mammogram results came back normal. Cervical sonargram is scheduled for Oct. 17th. CT Scan is Oct 24th. Cervical biopsy is scheduled for Nov. 1st.

The burn on my back isn't healing as well as we'd like. There's clearly a center core that's ...itchier/warmer... than the surrounding burn. We're applying aloe (straight from the plant) and using Aveeno lotion, along with cold compresses.

Went to a session of Healing Touch on Tuesday with dd; it's the second one I've attended, dd's first. It's a clinic that happens the second Tuesday of every month. We're still talking about it and are considering going again next month.

Am still backing off the esophogial coating at half-rate. Stepped down to 1/3 yesterday and hope to be off of it by next week. Am still bloated and jittery... My legs tire quickly; I'll be trying to walk again tomorrow.

Last night I found a program on lung cancer that was done by a local hospital and taped by Kevin's channel. I've found it to be one of the better put-together pieces I've seen yet. It runs two hours, and I've taped it in case anyone is interested. ...actually, I taped it even if no one is interested *grins*

Looking foward to some energy this weekend *crosses fingers*

Howz by youz??

Town Car...

...to Carl.




JR drove an Expedition with a trailer attached and loaded with the Town Car on Monday evening. He arrived Tuesday morning, turned around, and returned home.

Took us a while, but the ShortyMobile is now where Dad wanted it to be.



Many thanks to Kevin for going above and beyond the call...again!

*contented sigh*
*notes that contented sighs don't tire her out so much*

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

The Fatigue...

...is just not to be believed -- utterly indescribable and frustrating.

Can't do anything physical without needing to rest at a 5:1 ratio; can't think to write; can't write to think, knitting tires me, reading tires me, not doing anything tires me the most, so I started a new cross-stitch project which is tiring me...

Went to Healing Touch last night; it was calming -- I don't seem to tire of calming.

I slept through last night -- for the first time in a long time. The RadioTherapy Burn on my left shoulder blade is healing well.

Today is better. ...I'm still feeling like I'm jittering out of my skin, but only about a quarter of the time; still drives me a bit buggy.
*considers jitter-bugging*

Happy Birthday, Bree, our 10/10 member of Our Birthdate Club!



Tomorrow I'll write more about:







Our friend, Terry McCall, died this past Saturday; we'll host a BonFire Tree Planting Memorial on Sat., 10/20 at 4pm. Blessed Be!



The ShortyMobile is now where Dad wanted it.
*breathes a sigh of relief*






Stay hydrated and make a great rest of the day!
*hoists up a tall glass of cool, clear water*

Happy Humpday!!

Howz by youz!!!

Unexpected Appointments...

...scheduled late yesterday afternoon -- for this morning.

About a month ago, we spoke with Dr A about scheduling some of my regular medical appointments (mamogram, PAP smear, etc.), which had been postponed because of the Chemotherapy and then because of the RadioTherapy treatments. The appearance of post-coital vaginal blood within the last month prompted her to get some of those balls rolling sooner than we'd initially planned...

So, this morning we did the PAP Smear and got orders for a mamogram, a cervical sonargram, and an endometrial cancer/fibrosis biopsy. I was able to get the mamogram done this morning. We won't worry about a bone-density test for another year.

Dr. A and dd both have concerns about the ever-deepening sredness of the RadioTherapy burn on my back, and we've talked about the ointments that dd is recommending we try. Shea butter was recommended by one of dd's clients, she's found an oil we'll try, and we'll be adding cold compresses to the healing lotion regime.

FYI: Avoid any creams/lotions that contain "parabens." Could have a number of chemical names in front of it, but parabens is a part of the name, are showing as carcinogenic, and are in almost ALL lotions and creams on the market today.

Dr A. has concerns about my blood pressure remaining so high. That, coupled with oncern about lowered potassium from the treatments, got me into the lab for both a UA and two blood draws right after our meeting with her.

Results from all of these tests won't be in for a couple weeks. They'll be in next week, but Dr A will be out of the office, so we'll wait until she returns. Should actually be about the same time that we'll be doing the CT scan on the 24th. The cervical biopsy is currently schedule for the morning of 11/1.

We've also decided that for the time being, I'll be meeting with her every two months, which means again at the beginning of December.

In the meantime, I'm becoming more easily exhausted daily. One of the women in RadioTherapy told me this will get worse before it gets better. dd confirms other clients have said this as well. I just wasn't ready for the ...force of the exhaustion. It took all day to do two loads of laundry next door *sighs*

We're backing off the RadioTherapy Shooters (the steroids) by half. To do this for a week, which is what we're all thinking it may take, we'll need to order another round of the makings for the Shooters...but only a quarter of what we had before.

Didn't sleep at all last night. Up every half hour, leg cramps, hot flashes, cold flashes... Couple that with the climbing-out-of-my-skin withdrawal symptoms from these steroids/meds/treatments, and am probably someone you'd want to avoid for a while...


Our masssage this afternoon was _just_ what I needed; thanks, NancyTurtle!!


Send Kevin your best relaxing thoughts this weekend!?!

And, make a nice weekend for yourselves, as well!

The ShortyMobile...

...began in my memory with the blue-green Kaiser-Frazer in the 1940's. That was followed by the green Plymouth, a forty-something, which we owned in 1951, when we moved to the house on Oak Avenue. I know we have photos of it...

It was Dad who kept it timed, tuned, and running perfectly -- except, of course, for the next minor tweaking it would require. Shade-tree mechanic that he was, Uncle Shorty dispensed a fair amount of mechanical knowledge around the neighborhood, and it seemed there was always some vehicle in some part of the drive being repaired or maintained.

From the Plymouth on, the ShortyMobile was always a green or blue, Chevy or Ford. Actually, despite living in 'Ford Country,' the Fords didn't start appearing in the driveway until the seventies. Buying American meant something different then...

Regarding the blue/green thing: Dad always went to the dealership intending to get the 'hot red one' he'd always wanted. And, without fail, he came home with the special-deal-floor-model -- always green or blue.

Backseat position in the ShortyMobile was critical and is what was "called" in our house. Safest space was behind Auntie 'Rie; Uncle Shorty spit snuff juice out the driver's window. Enough said??

In the seventies and eighties I remember seeing a red car, a Falcon wagon, if I recall correctly; I know he bought it, what's the current expression...pre-owned?? That vehicle eventually made it to Ann Arbor, methinks, along with the other ShortyMobiles that eventually ended up in Carl's care.

Ironically enough, in the eighties, when Uncle Shorty could finally buy the car that he wanted (instead of what he could afford), he'd still wait until someone in the family was due an extra employee discount.

He had a Ford LTD before he finally got the Lincoln Town Car, both of them midnight blue. I remember how big, elegant, enveloping and safe they always felt. I remember needing to accommodate the size differences from my green Volkswagen and gold MG Midget to his big cars in those days, and from our current compact cars, once the current Town Car moved here.

The Final ShortyMobile is a 1989 Lincoln Town Car, midnight blue -- with all of the bells and whistles. Final irony there for me is that one of the things Uncle Shorty always told me about buying machinery was that the more bells and whistles it had, the more things that could go wrong that _I_ wouldn't be able to fix.

On August 11, 1997, the ShortyMobile made its move to IC. Although Mom and Dad had been visiting the area for over 20 years, most of that time was spent in the neighboring Bedroom Community in which we used to reside. They spent much of the fall of '97 re-acclimating to the new part of town, the new roads, the new routes, the new stores, the new services, the new everything...none of which was as nice as, as convenient as, as familiar as, as good as, or as ethnic as we could get in their hometown. *sighs*

One of the things that Mom appreciated about IC is that the speed limits were never over 35 mph, most posted limits in town are 25mph. She understood that Dad needed to run the Town Car on the interstate occasionally, and really appreciated that Kevin was the one to do that with Uncle Shorty. The drive to the VA was five minutes, rather than the two hours and five minutes it took him in MI. All of the stores are within fifteen minutes, as are all of Mom's doctors' offices. All in all, it's a much calmer driving environment for us all.

When he first arrived we applied for, and were granted, permanent handicap license plates. He also got the portable hanging card so that we could have access when we were using one of our vehicles to transport them. Uncle Shorty was a happy camper; the plates were blue and white and looked good on the car.

We found the local Square Dance Club meeting place, and Dad drove himself there a couple evenings a month. He drove Mom shopping almost every day. As his knee/hip continued to fail, Dad would drive, but wait in the car while Mom did the shopping. As his eyes began to fail, he was more comfortable being chauffeured around than when he first arrived. ...one of the toughest transitions we all had to make.

I don't recall when we finally got all of their belongings moved out of the garage so that the Town Car would fit inside...sometime after 2000, I think. The Town Car wasn't cheap to operate. By 2002, we had stashed it on the half-basketball court off da Lane where it remained until this year.

Late this summer, we got it ready for Carl to take home, as per Dad's wishes. He and Patty arrived last week to drive it home. Sensible change of plans put them on the train yesterday morning; we'll be shipping the vehicle in the next week or so.

This, then, is Shorty's Final Wish for the 1989 Town Car:



Delivery should be sometime in the next couple weeks.

May we all know such a ride!

*honks horn loudly*

Family Portrait...

Carl and Patty got tickets to take the train back home on Monday morning. Kevin and I had to leave for the hospital for Kevin's procedure before they left for the train station, so we said our good-byes early.

Sunday evening the ShortyMobile was put in the garage to await shipping.

Mom thoroughly enjoyed her time with Patty and Carl. They provided DayCare for the 9-4 slot that we normally oursource, so their visit was economical as well as beneficial to us all. They went for walks, came to da Green House to visit, watched movies, planted memorial trees, watched birds, helped move the summer plants inside for the winter, and spent quality time together. CraniumMan managed to fit in a visit Friday evening, before NancyTurtle left. The only thing we didn't do that I thought we might was a bon fire; something we may still do.

Patty and Carl were able to make a couple batches of noodles while here, and we still have those to look forward to. Kevin treated them to pesto as well as a new rub for steaks. Also had Mom's spaghetti, and stew, and of course chicken soup. Then again, not eating hasn't ever been a problem for this family. *grins*

Thanks, again, for making a great week for us all!!

October 1, 2007...

....has been looming on our horizon for a couple months now, marking Kevin's second colonoscopy. Since we managed to be done with the RadioTherapy on Friday, we didn't have to contend with that today, which left our backup driver off the hook. We hope you were able to enjoy your morning, dd.

Kevin spent yesterday drinking and evacuating and drinking and evacuating, and evacuating, and evacuating in preparation... I spent the weekend hoping that I could stop taking the Shooters, but that wasn't the case. The sunburn-like spot below my left shoulder blade continues to darken, so we're treating it with aloe and healing oils.

Got to the hospital in plenty of time to walk from the parking structure to the department where the procedure was performed. Everyone was running ahead of schedule, so instead of the 11:30 am alert I was expecting, they paged me at 10:30 to say Kevin was done.

Kevin was up, very alert, and ready to leave when I walked in the door. He felt well enough to ride along while we did some errands so that we could spend the afternoon and evening letting him catch up with himself. He doesn't seem to have the memory loss or spaciness that he did with the last one. He does seem exhausted and I expect he'll retire early this evening.

The preliminary report showed two polyps, probably benign, which were removed. It appears that he also has diverticulosis. For now they encourage a high fiber diet, which we're already doing. It's apparently not treated the way it was when Uncle Shorty first had it some thirty years ago... We should have all of the results within a week or so.

We're waiting to hear that Carl and Patty made it home safely. It was a wonderful visit and we're already looking forward to the next!

So, howz by youz??