Knitting and the Eternal Optimist

I always think it will be different this time, but it never is.

SW gave me some amazing hand spun silk/cotton/wool blend yarn. Like most hand spun yarn, it was in a great big loopy hank that showed off the colors nicely. The problem with those great big loopy hanks is that they tangle the first time you look at them. In my head, I know for a fact that they tangle. But my heart and my fingers are usually itching to get started on a project, and so I dive in, believing that *this* time it will be different. *This* time it won't tangle, so there is no need for me to wind it into a nice neat pull-from-the center ball.

Uh-huh. Right.

On row 20 of my project, I had to give up and find the opposite end of the hank. I spent two hours untangling the mess and winding that opposite end into a ball. The cat, who was watching patiently and hoping for an opportunity to pounce, eventually gave up and took a nap on top of my knitting pattern. He opened one eye to check my progress each time I muttered under my breath.

I'm nearly finished with the tangle. The rest can wait until the morning. Hopefully the cat won't decide to "help" while I'm asleep.

I Want To Be A Kid Again

I just finished registering Spiff for summer day camp at the Yale Peabody Museum. Last year he learned what museum curators do and got to go behind the scenes at the museum. He learned how the displays are made and how to make a cast of a log and paint it to look real. He had a BLAST.

This year he will be participating in Bones & Stones: Anthropology Camp

If you have always been interested in ancient cultures and archaeology, this camp is for you!




Each day of this 5-day program will be devoted to different topics, including archaeology, cultural anthropology, forensic anthropology, Egyptology and art history. Behind-the-scenes tours of the Yale Peabody Museum’s collections, local field trips including a real archaeological dig, and lots of exciting hands-on activities are planned.

Doesn't that look fun?

A Praise and A Quick Prayer Request

I am now 1/2 done with radiation!

So far, my skin only looks like I got a bit too much sun. Please pray for healthy skin for the remaining half of radiation. If it starts to break down into open sores I will have to do saline soaks and a whole bunch of other not as fun things. So please pray the cream I use 3x daily does it's job and that my skin stays healthy!

Overall, I'm tolerating it well except for fatigue. The fatigue, combined with my trying to wean off Lexapro, is stepping up my migraines to 1-2 a week. My migraine meds are doing well to keep them under reasonable control once they start, but they are a mighty disruption to life when they occur. The Lexapro was helpful during chemo (the chemo drug Taxol, along with the general stress of cancer, can cause depression) but now I am ready to feel ups and downs again. The Lexapro has made things too flat lately.

And Now for Something Completely Different. . .

Extreme Sheep LED Art

I'm Glad I Checked the Calendar!

I'm getting a massage today! I would have forgotten if I hadn't checked the calendar.

Last week, while I was waiting for my turn at radiation therapy, a woman plunked herself down next to me and said "You're a patient, aren't you?" (Gee, do you think the scarf tied around my head gave it away?) She was signing radiation patients up for Complementary Massage. She had the most wonderful accent--German perhaps? Anyway, my appointment is for noon today.

Joe has been in Maryland, and I had a horrible migraine yesterday morning. I had to call the mom of one of Spiff's schoolmates to come pick up the boys to take them to school. She works at the school and they only live a few blocks away, but it was a hard morning for all of us. We were all in bed by 8 pm last night.

I am so looking forward to that massage today!

I Don't Have Attention--Oh Look! A Butterfly!

I haven't blogged for a while. I've thought about it, but by the time I got over to the computer I got distracted and did something else. That is the story of my days recently. I am so very easily distracted.

Chemo left nothing but Swiss cheese in my short term memory storage. Instead of things being written in stone in my brain, they are written on post-it notes. Every time a breeze blows the little notes flutter away. Look! Aren't they pretty?

On the bright side, my word recall has come back. So, if I could remember what I wanted to talk to you about, I could actually use the correct words to do it.

Let's see. . . to update, the tingling in my fingers is gone completely and 95% gone in my toes. My hair has grown back to the point that it now looks like my "after" photo from my hair-shaving last fall. It started coming back white at first, but now the dark hair has started to come back as well. The first to fall out was the first to come back in, so it isn't an even length all over.

I can see that my eyebrows are starting to come back in, and my eyelashes are just long enough to put mascara on now. It's nice to have eyelashes again--my face doesn't scream "Cancer patient!" now that I am getting eyelashes.

I'm done with 8 of my 25 radiation treatments. My skin was starting to show some redness on Friday, but the weekend and lots of cream has helped fade it. At the end of this coming week, I will be half done with radiation.

Radiation leaves me tired. It isn't the mind-numbing, all-encompassing tired that chemo brings, but I am tired none the less. Since I have to go to radiation every day, I don't get a day to just kick back and have an unstructured day. I suppose the structure is good, but it is a pain to have to organize life around those daily appointments.

Waiting For Me By The Door

I just got home from a radiation therapy session to find a box of paper plates, paper cups, and napkins on my doorstep. There were two magazines in there too.

Whoever dropped them off: THANK YOU!!!! They will make mealtime that much easier. The nurse today told me I'd likely be my most tired on Fridays and Saturdays due to the cumulative effect of the radiation. So Fridays and Saturdays will be our paper plate days!

One Day Down, About 25 More to Go!

Today's Radiation Therapy was a dry run--they had me lay on the table and made sure everything was set properly so that they can put me in exactly the same position, etc. every day.

It was totally cool to watch the machine that directs the radiation field. It has all these little lead rods in it that move forward or back to make sure the radiation only goes where they want it to. The machines get pretty close, but I don't tend toward claustrophobia, so it was fine.

I start in with the real rays tomorrow. They'll also sit down with me at talk about skin care, creams, etc.

Today it only took me about an hour to go there, have my appointment, and get back. I'll be doing the trip daily, so I'll be able to do errands to places like Trader Joe's and other stores on the Boston Post Road whenever I need to. Hmmmm. I'm thinking that there are some Trader Joe's nitrate-free hot dogs in our future!

Radiation Starts Tomorrow!

I got a call from Yale Hospital's Radiation Therapy dept--I start radiation therapy tomorrow at 12:15 pm. Tomorrow will just be imaging to make sure once again that everything is set up exactly as they want it. The 12:15 time slot is mine until I am done with therapy.

It takes a while to get the treatment plan set up, but once it is ready everything just chugs along like clockwork. Lord willing, I should be done before Easter!