God Bless Us, Everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas 2007

Our Christmas Tree

Sleepless in Willimantic

Well folks here I am again. Chemo number 2 was today so I have been bustling around all day and here I am awake and typing...earlier than usual I must admit. It was a lively chemo! The room was full and the conversation was abundant.

My neuropathy was instantanious, anything cold that I touched sent needles into my finger tips. I am very careful when drinking and hold even cool beverages in my mouth to warm up before swallowing. A couple times when I swallowed the cool drink I felt a prickly feeling in the very back of my throat but nothing past that. Thank goodness!

There is one other side effect that I get which is a strange feeling in the jaw joint for the first couple of bites of anything...almost like a small electrical shock...weird!

Well anyways there really hasn't been much going on. We have been working on cleaning up the two spare rooms. A little at a time. They are beginning to look good.

The Christmas Tree is still not done. Just lights so far no ornaments.

My next chemo is going to be Dec. 24th...I guess I'll be awake to see Santa!

Well, I'm going to watch CSI NY and just lay down for a while...so till my next post...TTFN!

Still sleepless in Willimantic.

ME

Yes folks this is an update on ME! Back in late August I stopped chemo so I could have a bunch of test/biopsies. First they did a regular broncoscopy just because they wanted to. Then I met with the Thorasic surgeon again. He still was not ready to take me apart so he sent me for an endoscopy with an internal ultrasound with a needle biopsy of the lymphnodes behind my lungs. The Dr who did this was only able to see one node and he biopsied it...Good Grief ...Good News...it was clean! So as of then at least the cancer had not reached there. Then he sent me to Dr Pope (aka Dougie Howser) 34 years old ...Looks 16! He is a pulmonary guy...he sent me for a pet-ct scan and scheduled a broncoscopy with a needle biopsy on my glowing nodes in the middle center of my chest. This took place in the Broncoscopy Suite of Htfd Hospital on October 29th. He did tell me that my Pet/CT was even better than the June Pet/CT so the chemo was still working...another Hurrah! Later in the week he called me to confirm what we both knew...the nodes front and center have rectal cancer in them! At this point and time surgery is not an option. So I gave my three Musketeers a week and a half to confir (the would be Pope/pulmonary...Baker/Oncology...and Underhill/Thorasic Surgeon. Then I called Dr Baker...we spoke about the results and he confirmed what Dr Pope said that surgery was not an option but he also confirmed another comment from Dr Pope that this was by no means a death sentence. Dr B told me we would switch to the other chemo regimen FolFox with the avastin chaser and then after 8 to 12 treatments with Pet/CTs after each 4 treatments to see how its going. I met with Dr B the day after Thanksgiving and we also dicussed other things we might do such as irradiate those suckers in my chest to vaporize them and there is also a cryo procedure to freeze anything left of the tumors in my lung, plus there is an infusion drug called Herbatux that is for colon cancer. He said it is now just a matter of co-existing with my cancer and staying one step ahead! So all and all I am still feeling good and yesterday I had my first dose of FolFox which is why I am up so bright and early telling you all this. Yes folks I am getting the steroid decadrom and although I do cat nap from about midnight to 3am I am basically awake all night...but I will sleep well tonight...the effects only last for 24 hours. I know this blog was a biggie but since I really didn't know what was going to happen till last Friday I figured I'd save it all up.

Well Ta Ta For Now...the 2007 Christmas tree will be coming soon!

Love you all!

Mary aka Moose and Cancer Woman

New Hampshire 07

Hey folks! Got back yesterday from a trip up North to see my good buddy Jim. It was a very relaxing weekend for both Lou and me. We left on Friday about 1pm right after Lou got out of work and we had lunch and packed the car. We got to the Motel 6 in Nashua by quarter to 4pm. We then left to go to Jim's place in Hudson where I was to get my first look at the infamous Queen Porsche! I came bearing gifts as any good subject would. She is truly beautiful and much deserving of a tiara! As you can see in the picture. Unfortunately I was unable to find one in her size so I brought a toy, which I think pleased her magesty.

We went to a great Chinese buffet for dinner and then to Walmart for a quick errand then back to Jim's. We watched most of the movie Wild Hogs and then made our way back to the Motel 6 and truly they had left the light on for us!

Now I have to tell you that getting from Motel 6 to Jim's was easy except of course for the traffic and the road construction. But in the dark those sneaky NH people switch the roads all around and nothing looks the same. No horror stories just a few laughs at the wrong turns.

Saturday we got to Jim's at about 8:30 and about 10 we started out for our days adventure. We got to see where Jim works and experience his long commute frought with 19 traffic lights. Ugh! Then we went to the NH state liquor store ( I love shopping there!) Then we made our way to the Sherwood Forest Mobile Home Park to sneek a peek. What a beautiful place. From there we were off to Kittery ME for more shopping!!!!! Very specific stuff, we went to the Corning Outlet where I purchased a couple of things on my must have in the kitchen list and then to the two most important places the Russell Stover outlet and the Lindt chocolate outlet. Those were my desires and then Jim popped into a couple other places before we started back to seek out lunch. We ended up at the 99 in Salem NH where I consumed a 12oz prime rib and a baked potato. We tried to find the Olive Garden originally but it must be a secret rendezvous type of place cause we couldn't locate it. Its location is certainly a secret.

We were so stuffed that we just had dessert back at Jim's (and I had half a glass of wine with mine) and we were only there till about 7:30 before starting back to the ever elusive Motel 6. I can't tell you how comfortable the bed was. I haven't slept that well in I don't know how long.

Sunday at 9am we were back at Jim's after checking out of the motel and about 10:30 we toodled over to Cookie's Chuck Wagon Cafe for a great breakfast. We went back to Jim's and stayed there till about noon and then we started back to Willi. We were back home by 2:45pm with a coffee stop along the way. What a great relaxing weekend. I am looking forward to spring so we can do it all again.

Signing off and still looking for the Motel 6.

Mary

Hey! What do you know? Its only the 7th of November and here is the tree of the month!

Presenting

NOVEMBER!

Introducing

Meowy Purrone

All dressed up in her Halloween Witches costume.

Yes, I'm 61 and yes, she is a build a bear cat!

Ya wanna make something of that?

October

Isn't it Bootiful!

I think its Spooktacular!

I just love my Bat tree topper!

Coming soon to a Blog near you!
The October Tree!

SEPTEMBER

AUGUST

(The Birthday Tree)

JULY

JUNE

MAY

I know you all have been holding your breath for this.

Here is the moment all of you have been waiting for! I am posting my trees of the month. Got a little behind (No, actually I have quite a big behind! Oops, did I type that out loud?!) Little things like Doctors, tests, and biopsies bogged me down.

Well here we go folks!

A Work in Progress
Living with Cancer

Here we go again!

My life has become a comic strip! Yes folks this happened to me. Not quite as severe as the comic strip case but if the person reading the CT scan that was done 8 months earlier had been more observant I would have been dealing with only one tumor and my lymph nodes probably wold not have been compromised. But my cancer is small and hopefully not really aggressive and luckily was found quite by accident before it could silently take over the lower lobe of my right lung. Like Lisa in the comic strip I wanted to scream but I just called my oncologist and told him and asked where do we go from here?

I had two choices of chemo regimen both equally effective. I let my Doctor choose for me. So far so good I am tired but not to the point like last time where all I did was sit and stare at the tv. Part of my treatment is Avastin...a chemical that shrinks the blood supply to the tumors so they will dry up and go away. Another part is Decadrom...a steroid that keeps me awake all night after having the 3 hours of chemotherapy. It is too frustrating if I try to go to sleep so I just stay up all night...but I sleep really well the next night. I also have to take home a chemo pump for 2 nights it has my dose of 5FU another chemo drug. Its not so bad , in 2003 I had to wear the Chemo pump for 6 weeks straight and have 5 day a week radiation for the six weeks...I was really cooked and poisoned that time!

Well I am on treatment 9 now and have been to see a Thorasic surgeon to talk about taking out that part of my lung with the tumors in it and one lymph node. The ones in the center of my chest can't be removed without creating complications. My case goes to the Thorasic Tumor Board on August 23rd. There a lot of really smart people will discuss my case and decide my fate. I promise to keep you posted.

Your Back?
My, my, aren't we glutons for punishment!

Well here we are folks my March and April trees. The April tree has jelly beans on it that look like they have a glandular condition.


Actually they kinda look like multi-colored kishkas!

All you Polish people out there know what that is!

A New Cousin!

Welcome Nathan Michael Edgar! Congratulations to all, parents, grand parents , aunts and uncles!

Born May 16th, 2007 at 9:05am, weighing in at 7lbs 1 oz and 20".

It seems so strange that my little cousin David is a grandfather!

I have not officially reached the grandparent status as of yet but I am told that it is a good place to be.

So again WELCOME little one to our family!

Still Alive and Well!

Yes folks, I am still here. I know I dropped off the face of the web while waiting for Lou's computer. I sort of slid into a black hole. But I am slowly...oh so slowly returning to normal???(what is that?). I have lots rolling around in my head and there is plenty of room in there for it to get up a good bit of momentum. So suffice it to say I have some new blog material that I am working on and will be posting soon. Also, things have been changing in my life, not all good but certainly not all bad. And yes, the question on everybodies mind! "Will the trees be back?" The answer is a resounding YES! Sorry folks but I really must amuse myself by torturing you somehow. So stay tuned to the Mooseberries channel and I hope I will not disappoint!

Love you all!
WW . . WW
.....(. .).......

Patiently Waiting

We are waiting for Lou's baby to arrive. On Saturday we went to Manchester to the Office Depot to get a computer desk and a chair. It was like being with an expectant mother in Babies R Us. He was so funny! We came home with the desk and chair and he immediately started rearranging our bedroom and then to assemble his new desk. It came together really well and I got him to fix the keyboard tray on the existing desk. BONUS! The printer and some small accessories should arrive today and the computer by Friday. I still have to get a wireless thingy so he can hook up to our network and a new surge protector. Because you know he will want to get his computer up and running as soon as it is on the doorstep.

Sunday was a lazy day. Monday, the weather was yucky, and we had to go to the VA in Newington. Going to the VA is always stressful so we figured we would start out early and go to Aldi for groceries before our 2:00 pm appointment. It worked out well and we even got taken in earlier at the VA. It wasn't fun but it was Ok and now we have to wait again till someone is assigned to Lou to manage his meds. Can't wait to see how long this takes.

Well its Tuesday and its still snowing, yuck, Just waiting on the delivery of Lou's printer. Of course tonite is my favorite show, NCIS, with hunky Mark Harmon. It, along with Bones, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers, and Las Vegas are my favorites. I used to watch Close to Home but Las Vegas is on same day same time slot so I opt for Vegas. I can't remember the name of the actor who plays Ed De Long (he is famous and it will come to me) but the woman who plays his wife was one of the original Charlies Angels. It is a good show.

Well got to get moving...dishes to do...cat boxes to clean...I lead such an exciting life!

Ta Ta For Now!

WW . . WW

SNOW ! YUCK !

I am sitting here listening to the snowplows digging up the street! There is a couple inches on the ground, just enough to make it messy. At 3:30am, when Lou went to work, they had not scraped or sanded our streets and Rte 289 was snow covered. I was wide awake this morning and decided to stay up. I played some Stackem on Pogo and got our badge and I still have to enter Lou's diabetes log and sooner rather than later I am going to have some breakfast.

TGIF ! Three beautiful days when I don't have to get up at 3am! YEAH! Well I did it last night !...No I didn't mean THAT. I ordered Lou's computer from Dell. Now he should be able to play his games to his hearts content and it should not freeze. He will have 160Gig hard drive and 1Gig of ram and a good video card. Plus he will have Windows Vista Premium...that should be interesting. Then I can clean out my computer andwhip it into shape. I will save all my info on a flash drive before I try my upgrade to XP and then I will consider upgrading to Vista. I'm in no hurry.

Well I am off to the kitchen in search of FOOD and COFFEE !

Have a sparkling day!

WW . . WW

Its Monday!

I know, I know, its Tuesday. But its Monday for Lou and me because this is his Monday which is really Tuesday. Our weekends are three days long now with his new hours. The only down side is the 3am wakeup time. I am hoping he will be retiring soon and then we will get him his own computer so we aren't competeing for PC time. Lou loves to play games and has a subscription to Pogo...I must admit I enjoy playing some of those games myself. He also loves to check his email and visit different military sites for info on different subjects. So it will be good for him to have his own computer with a super duper graphics card so some of the games he has won't freeze. Our Gateway PC is now 7 years old and a true dinosaur. I just recently added more memory because we only had 128 MB now we have 640 MB and it has helped. I think maybe we will try Dell this time but I will call for prices to see what I can get for the money.

Yesterday I had company, my friend Sophie, came over for a visit. I met Sophie thru my best friend Jane. They used to work together and Sophie and I got close when Jane got sick. We have both been busy and she still works so it has taken some time for us to get together. She works for the state of CT and she had yesterday off so it worked out well. We gabbed for about 3 hours and had a really good time.

Well its time to start getting stuff done. Have to take Heather to renew her license and then go to the bank and drop off some donations for the Salvation Army. By the time we finish it will be time for Lou to come home so I also have to figure out what is for lunch. I already have supper planned which is unusual that I am that together at this time of the morning.

So until next time I will sign off.

Hope everyone has a sparkling day!

Love you all!

WW . . WW

T.G.I.F.

I am going to hibernate all weekend!

OK! I'm up on my (environmentally friendly) soapbox again and my subject this time is the Homeless.

First of all I know that being homeless is not just a problem in my town. It is everywhere, men, women, whole famlies are homeless. This is a national shame! I have to say up front, I don't have a solution to the problem but I do have an opinion. No one should have to sleep in the park, under a bridge, or in the 24hr laundromat. This does happen in my town and I am ashamed that it does.

There are organizations that help and we have emergency shelters but I really want to know why we have turned into this throw away nation. It was always a problem with animals, people move and leave them behind or the novelty wears off and they just turn them loose to fend for themselves. But come on folks...these are human beings we are now discarding. Whole famlies in some cases.

Times are hard and the last tax evaluation I did call my town hall and tell them that if my taxes go up again I will be residing in the last cardboard box on the right under the frog bridge. The response to my statement was silence...everything goes up...but not our fixed income and even the working man is lucky to get a 3% raise a year.

When you can't pay the rent you become one of the homeless. A pretty frightening spectre. During the day you can see them walking the streets (this breaks my heart) alot of our homeless also have psychiatric issues. The shelter hours are from 8pm to 8am and those are better hours than most shelters. We all know the cold weather doesn't let up at 8am or hold off till 8pm. Some shelters are only open 9pm to 6am. Where are you going to go to keep warm at that hour?

Our NO FREEZE shelter here just down the street has a couple of bathrooms and even a shower. Can you imagine being denied the necessity of something as basic as a shower...to feel clean is a spirit lifting experience. The shelter asks for donations of paper towels, toilet paper, socks, and underwear.

How sad is this?

What few possessions they have are in plastic garbage bags and luckily, if they are a guest at "No Freeze", they can store their belongings there but again the shelter is only operating from October to April.

What happens May 1st?

Until I can come up with an answer to the problem I will keep donating what I can and saying a prayer for those that are homeless and hope and pray that I am never in that position.

Happy

Valentines

Day!

Just you wait!

My next blog will be a little more serious...I have been thinking about it for a while and I think I should climb up onto my soap box once again. So till tommorow I wish you all a shiny day!

Tree of the Month Club

Well here it is the day before Valentines Day and the big snow storm the weathermen are promising. If we never saw a flake it would be allright with me. The snow is supposed to start tonight so that means at 3:30am, when I take Lou to work, it will probably be snowing. Oh Goody! Oh well "say lavy"!

Anyway I have been meaning to blog for a long time but with Lou's new hours I don't get the time on the computer that I use to. Now he is home 3 days a week and the other four he is home by noon. I can not blog with someone peeking over my shoulder and asking "whats that?". No matter how much I love him!

I have decided not to take down my Christmas tree! Yes! its artificial! But I love the light and the reflection of the light on the 2 walls of mirrors in the living room and also there is no convenient place to store it! So it will become a year round tree! In January I called it my Ice tree and now it is my Valentine tree. March should be covered in Shamrocks and April an Easter tree and so on. So hence I start my Tree of the Month Club!

Pressure! Pressure to Perform?
Well now I know why it took me soooooo long to share my blog with everyone. Now I will be under pressure to blog...LOL...NOT!

If I thought that, Mooseberries would never have gotten this far. I think it is fun and very theraputic! A hell of a lot less expensive than a shrink! Not that shrinks don't have a place in the world...just not in my world.

I am crazy and proud of it. Most of you know me well enough to confirm this fact! I may be crazy but I am a Happy crazy and I can make something funny out of most everything. This statement coming from Cancer Woman with the purple hair! Also, from the worlds largest Firefly in the world. When you get enough radiation in the area I got it in, then you never need a nite light again cause your butt glows just like a firefly's.

Well thats enough lunacy for now!
We'll talk again soon!
Mary WW..WW

Well, I finally decide to share my blog and what do I do, I put the address in wrong! Ugh!
I hope everyone is able to access it OK. I will try to correct the address with you all and I apologize for the goof!

I just did it! I sent out my blog address...now its not a secret blog anymore! Yippee!!!!

Hey everybody! Oops, I forgot to tell people about my blog...so no one (except maybe Lisa) is out there. I really have to get the word out.

Anyway, Lou has new hours at work. He used to work 8 to 4, Monday thru Friday. Now, are you ready for this? He works 4 am to Noon, Tuesday thru Friday. Yikes! What a change...but he loves it! I am still getting use to having him around so much. I guess this is preparing me for when he retires! We only have the one car so I take him to work and he takes dial-a-ride home. Getting up a 3 am is hard only because I don't know what time to go to bed at night. I am sure after a month or so I will figure it all out.

The cats are all doing well. Shyanne and Whiskars will be going Jan. 19th to be fixed...this will be a good thing...but for now everyone gets along OK. Both boys are scared of Shyanne so she most definately is "The Queen".