Hi Friends!
I guess I haven't blogged for a really long time. It's been a fun, but busy week. On Monday, I spent the morning visiting my gynecologist. I had been avoiding it for as long as possible. They did some bloodwork, which confirmed that I am in perimenopause. Not a big surprise for me! I knew Cytoxin would most likely bring on menopause, but I didn't have a chance to research it much yet -- so I was caught a a bit off-guard. I can start hormone treatment (maybe -- in small doses) to relieve the symptoms, but first the gynecologist and rheumatologist need to confer about it today. Dr. Cohen wants to make sure I'm not prescribed too high a dose or it could make the lupus worse. I also get to have a mammogram and a pelvic ultrasound later this month. We will repeat all female testing every 6 months (Fun, fun!!!). Because of the Cytoxin, I am at increased risk for ovarian, cervical, and breast cancer -- so they will monitor me closely and try to catch the highly curable stuff early!
Also, on Monday -- we had a sad day because Judi's dog, Brandy, died. She had a collapsed lung and the vet tried to save her, but they couldn't. So, I ended up home-schooling my kids and watching Judi's kids all Monday afternoon while she was at the animal hospital. We are all very sad for the Malone Family. But they may be getting a new Golden puppy this weekend, so hopefully that will cheer the kids up!
Tuesday was the calmest day this week. We just did homeschooling and a regular day. Cameron and Bill had Boy Scouts and we got ready for our BIG DAY ...
On Wednesday, Annie and I took Cameron on a special outing to DisneyLand to celebrate his 16th Birthday! We left at 8 a.m. and didn't get home until after midnight. We had so much fun! Cameron said it was the best birthday ever. Because we didn't bring any siblings along, the day was all about him and he got to do whatever he wanted! We took a bunch of pictures using Annie's camera, so I'll post them later after she downloads them to my computer.
On Thursday, it would have been nice to rest and recover after the big Disneyland day, but it was a big day for Molly. She got her braces off. So, we had 2 appointments with her orthodontist -- 1st to remove the braces and make a mold for the retainer. Then later we had to come back to get the retainer. She is thrilled with her beautiful white, straight teeth and can't stop staring at herself in the mirror. She also got new glasses on Thursday, so it's like she's had a whole make-over!
We also had a huge BoyScout meeting at our house on Thursday night, so we had to clean it up. It was a tad trashed after my absence on Wednesday. Let's just say, Bill and the boys and Molly had a lot of fun, but they weren't very tidy.
This morning, I had an 8:00 a.m. appointment with Dr. Cohen. I dropped off Cam and Molly at school on the way to Thousand Oaks and made it in the nick of time. First for the good news -- No more chemo for me !!! I am done!!! At least until May. I can't get into UCLA until May now. They called and cancelled my March appointment with Dr. Karpouzas (the chief there), so that forced Dr. Cohen to make the decision. He says since I'm doing so well with the lupus now, he'd like to stop the chemo after 6 rounds. This is largely due to the side effects of it -- I've lost bone density, started menopause, and am having more urinary issues. (next visit -- a urologist, fun, fun!!) So, he and I both feel comfortable with stopping the chemo now and we can start again if I tank again. Dr. Cohen even gave me his cell phone number so that I can stalk him at all times of the day and night in emergency situations!
Nate and Isaac are finished with school for the day, and they are waiting for Shirlene to come and pick them up for the weekend. And then it will be time for me to pick up Cam and Molly from school. I'm looking forward to getting a little bit of sleep this weekend!
Much Love,
Michele
Facebook Badge
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
DUCK PARK PHOTOS!!!
PLEASANT DREAMS!!!
Hi Friends!!!
I am having a lovely and laid-back weekend. We had Bible Study last night, and today my family let me sleep in until noon. Brandon came over to play with the boys today. Besides puttering around the house, I haven't done much of anything today.
However -- last night I had a very unusual dream. I'm calling it a vision. Because I believe it to be real. It was my Grandma Twohig (my Dad's Mom) and Mrs. Perrone (her friend/housekeeper/nanny). They looked like angels and they told me they've been with me throughout my entire sickness and that they're watching over me and helping me. I woke up with a sense of peacefulness and I believe that God let them come to talk with me to raise my spirits. And no, I'm not crazy or on anymore narcotics!!!
Tomorrow we'll have church and our family day. And then we have a busy week. We have several doctor's appointments scheduled. Also, my oldest son, Cameron, is turning 16 on Wednesday. I'm not sure where the time has gone or how I got old enough to have a 16 year old. But I am definitely proud of the young man he has become!
Much Love,
Michele
I am having a lovely and laid-back weekend. We had Bible Study last night, and today my family let me sleep in until noon. Brandon came over to play with the boys today. Besides puttering around the house, I haven't done much of anything today.
However -- last night I had a very unusual dream. I'm calling it a vision. Because I believe it to be real. It was my Grandma Twohig (my Dad's Mom) and Mrs. Perrone (her friend/housekeeper/nanny). They looked like angels and they told me they've been with me throughout my entire sickness and that they're watching over me and helping me. I woke up with a sense of peacefulness and I believe that God let them come to talk with me to raise my spirits. And no, I'm not crazy or on anymore narcotics!!!
Tomorrow we'll have church and our family day. And then we have a busy week. We have several doctor's appointments scheduled. Also, my oldest son, Cameron, is turning 16 on Wednesday. I'm not sure where the time has gone or how I got old enough to have a 16 year old. But I am definitely proud of the young man he has become!
Much Love,
Michele
Friday, February 20, 2009
WHO STANDS BESIDE YOU?
"A self is made, not given. It is a creative and active process of attending a life that must be heard, shaped, seen, said aloud into the world, finally enacted and woven into the lives of others."
Hi Friends!
I won't bore you with my ups and downs today. This is a story from Barbara Myerhoff in Remembered Lives.
"My grandmother was a tiny woman, shrunken as if some of the juice had been sucked out of her. But her hands, her timeless, precious hands, were an entire landscape, the veins risen to the surface, a network of rivers that flowed from her heart. Her long white fingers were rooted in the wisdom of escorting babies into the world and dying people out of it. When she was telling stories to explain things to me, these root-fingers seemed to point to what was buried beneath the surface of ordinary things. One Sunday she drew a large spiral slowly in the air and called it the Wisdom Trail.
'Each of us travel this path, round and round the spot of grace at our core. As we do, we come to the same intersections, the same challenges, over and over,' she said softly.
Transfixed, I saw what she spoke of in the air in front of us. The taxi horns, the pigeon wings flapping outside the window, the pizza smells from Esposito's restaurant downstairs all disappeared as Grandma's words carried me into the middle of this spiral.
'People walk this trail shifting from one foot to the other -- first a step of risk to learn something new; then a step of mastery so they can live what they've learned. If they use only their foot of risk, they spend their lives hopping nervously from thing to thing. But if they use only their foot of mastery, they get stuck and stagnant.'
Kneeling on the floor next to her in the kitchen while she made bread for the Sabbath, I watched my grandmother's floury hands leave prints on the red oilcloth-covered table as they walked across, illustrating the story.
'Sometimes people might thing they are going in circles, never making progress, even moving backward, but that's not true. It's just that each pass around, you gather more wisdom, so your trail is wider and you travel it with more grace from risk to mastery to risk again.'
She leaned toward me and whispered, 'What's important,' -- Grandma tapped the end of my nose with one dusty finger and then continued -- 'is that, whichever foot you use to walk this path, remember that there's no way to escape from yourself or what you came here to do.'"
Hope that helped you as much as it helped me, friends! I often feel for every few steps forward, I take several back. Now, I'll look at it as gaining more grace and wisdom!
Much Love,
Michele
Hi Friends!
I won't bore you with my ups and downs today. This is a story from Barbara Myerhoff in Remembered Lives.
"My grandmother was a tiny woman, shrunken as if some of the juice had been sucked out of her. But her hands, her timeless, precious hands, were an entire landscape, the veins risen to the surface, a network of rivers that flowed from her heart. Her long white fingers were rooted in the wisdom of escorting babies into the world and dying people out of it. When she was telling stories to explain things to me, these root-fingers seemed to point to what was buried beneath the surface of ordinary things. One Sunday she drew a large spiral slowly in the air and called it the Wisdom Trail.
'Each of us travel this path, round and round the spot of grace at our core. As we do, we come to the same intersections, the same challenges, over and over,' she said softly.
Transfixed, I saw what she spoke of in the air in front of us. The taxi horns, the pigeon wings flapping outside the window, the pizza smells from Esposito's restaurant downstairs all disappeared as Grandma's words carried me into the middle of this spiral.
'People walk this trail shifting from one foot to the other -- first a step of risk to learn something new; then a step of mastery so they can live what they've learned. If they use only their foot of risk, they spend their lives hopping nervously from thing to thing. But if they use only their foot of mastery, they get stuck and stagnant.'
Kneeling on the floor next to her in the kitchen while she made bread for the Sabbath, I watched my grandmother's floury hands leave prints on the red oilcloth-covered table as they walked across, illustrating the story.
'Sometimes people might thing they are going in circles, never making progress, even moving backward, but that's not true. It's just that each pass around, you gather more wisdom, so your trail is wider and you travel it with more grace from risk to mastery to risk again.'
She leaned toward me and whispered, 'What's important,' -- Grandma tapped the end of my nose with one dusty finger and then continued -- 'is that, whichever foot you use to walk this path, remember that there's no way to escape from yourself or what you came here to do.'"
Hope that helped you as much as it helped me, friends! I often feel for every few steps forward, I take several back. Now, I'll look at it as gaining more grace and wisdom!
Much Love,
Michele
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
YOU KNOW YOU'RE A MOM WHEN...
1. You pull the entire blue trash bin next to your SUV to clean it out.
2. Your teen-aged son, says -- "MOM!! Do you know where the potato chip bag I keep under my bed went?" (the day after you dug out his room -- only one week after the maids were here -- because your husbands says you only need them every other week.)
3. You think your 10 year old is a genius because he spends 3 hours creating "projects" out of aluminum foil.
Hi Friends!
I'll keep working on the list. These all happened just today. I am really feeling very good. Today I went down on my steroids to 4mg daily. I used to be at 60 mg. daily plus 3,000 IV monthly treatments. So, that is awesome. I am back to exercising and full of energy. I think I may be coming to terms with my lupus. At least, I'm starting to feel like me again. Like tonight, I am going to put the little boys to bed and then go grocery shopping. It's been a really long time since I've done that. The big kids will watch them. I've bribed them with a PPV movie. ($2 for Scooby Doo -- not a bad deal for me!) Bill has his Men's Group on Wednesday nights.
I'm enjoying homeschooling and spending time with my family again. And I've even been able to stop my sleeping pill at night since the taper down of Prednisone. That helps a lot. I needed to sleep, but it made me really groggy still in the morning.
Today California was sunny again, and Judi and I sneaked in a 2 mile walk. I wore sunscreen, but I'd still be in trouble with Dr. Cohen! There is a great park here in town (Lincoln) with a 1/3 mile track that circles a park. So, the kids play and ride bikes while we walk Judi's dogs around the track. Bingo, unfortunately, is old and even when he was young -- was never walking material!
Bill got another promotion at work, and he is now in charge of the entire lab. I'm proud of him even though it will undoubtedly mean more work in the short-term while he sets it all up. The overtime could be nice, however, and is needed right now for his high-maintenance health-care wife! I think that may be why God has me feeling better and skipping chemo this month.
Well, must go and put the boys to bed. I don't want to be at Ralph's too late tonight!
Much Love,
Michele
2. Your teen-aged son, says -- "MOM!! Do you know where the potato chip bag I keep under my bed went?" (the day after you dug out his room -- only one week after the maids were here -- because your husbands says you only need them every other week.)
3. You think your 10 year old is a genius because he spends 3 hours creating "projects" out of aluminum foil.
Hi Friends!
I'll keep working on the list. These all happened just today. I am really feeling very good. Today I went down on my steroids to 4mg daily. I used to be at 60 mg. daily plus 3,000 IV monthly treatments. So, that is awesome. I am back to exercising and full of energy. I think I may be coming to terms with my lupus. At least, I'm starting to feel like me again. Like tonight, I am going to put the little boys to bed and then go grocery shopping. It's been a really long time since I've done that. The big kids will watch them. I've bribed them with a PPV movie. ($2 for Scooby Doo -- not a bad deal for me!) Bill has his Men's Group on Wednesday nights.
I'm enjoying homeschooling and spending time with my family again. And I've even been able to stop my sleeping pill at night since the taper down of Prednisone. That helps a lot. I needed to sleep, but it made me really groggy still in the morning.
Today California was sunny again, and Judi and I sneaked in a 2 mile walk. I wore sunscreen, but I'd still be in trouble with Dr. Cohen! There is a great park here in town (Lincoln) with a 1/3 mile track that circles a park. So, the kids play and ride bikes while we walk Judi's dogs around the track. Bingo, unfortunately, is old and even when he was young -- was never walking material!
Bill got another promotion at work, and he is now in charge of the entire lab. I'm proud of him even though it will undoubtedly mean more work in the short-term while he sets it all up. The overtime could be nice, however, and is needed right now for his high-maintenance health-care wife! I think that may be why God has me feeling better and skipping chemo this month.
Well, must go and put the boys to bed. I don't want to be at Ralph's too late tonight!
Much Love,
Michele
Monday, February 16, 2009
PHONE NUMBER CHANGE!!!
Hi Again!
Just wanted you all to know that Bill and I have officially retired our land line, and we are now exclusively using cell phones for our family. I have one, Cam has one, Molly has one, and Bill has two (work and personal) -- so the land line was really one expense that was easy to trim. So, call us on our cells, or throw rocks at our windows, whatever!!! If you don't know our cells -- Nanny, nanny, boo boo! Just kidding! But I don't want to put our phone numbers out in cyber space, so call our old home number, and there will be a recording that gives you Bill's personal cell phone number. Just remember that he doesn't have it with him in the secure lab at work, so we may not get back to you immediately.
Good Night!
Michele
Just wanted you all to know that Bill and I have officially retired our land line, and we are now exclusively using cell phones for our family. I have one, Cam has one, Molly has one, and Bill has two (work and personal) -- so the land line was really one expense that was easy to trim. So, call us on our cells, or throw rocks at our windows, whatever!!! If you don't know our cells -- Nanny, nanny, boo boo! Just kidding! But I don't want to put our phone numbers out in cyber space, so call our old home number, and there will be a recording that gives you Bill's personal cell phone number. Just remember that he doesn't have it with him in the secure lab at work, so we may not get back to you immediately.
Good Night!
Michele
RAINY, MONDAY!!!
Hi Friends,
On a day like today, there's not much to do except stay inside and stay dry. (Like my budding artist, Isaac!) For those of you not in California -- it's been pouring rain. We've even had hail and thunder today. Definitely not your typical Southern California weather. We all stayed up late last night and slept in late this morning. Bill finished our taxes in the wee hours last night and the good news is that we'll have enough of a refund to pay our property taxes. God always works it out for us somehow someway, but it is a test of trust and faith at times.
At around noon, I made a brunch with french toast, using the big thick Texas toast. The kids were thrilled seeing as how I rarely cook anymore. I'm definitely not the June Cleaver I was pre-lupus, but we all seem to manage just the same. Bill is doing a lot of carrying us at the moment. So, when praying -- please keep that in mind. I worry about him, because I know it's hard to do his real job and be Mr. Mom, too.
This afternoon, Nate is over at Judi's. Molly is comforting the animals who are freaked due to the weather. Cameron is eating. He is such a teenager! That's all he does. He is now 6 feet tall and rail thin, so I'm actually just jealous! Isaac and Bill are off to where else -- Target -- to pick up more meds for me. It's a never-ending job. I am going to do some housework and laundry while I have some energy as tomorrow is shaping up to be a busy day with homeschooling and errands that need to be done. But no need to worry about that now, because tomorrow will happen in its own time!
Much Love,
Michele
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
