Friday June 13 2008

Another Family Antique

Joe's Mother and probably his grandmother

used this treadle sewing machine.

When I got it, it was at Big Sandy Lodge

and I used it for all the mending there (no electricity),

whatever might need sewing including curtains for the cabins

and miles of patching the flannel sheets to make them last longer.

The turquoise thing is a kerosene iron from how early'

I don't know. I never tried to use it. They yellow can

goes with it to hold the kerosene for refilling the tank.

There's also a separate pump for it similar to what we used to

pump up gas lanterns.

Hmmm. Friday the 13th.

We've had a quiet day here at Beverly's. So not much of any interest to write about. That is not to say that it's boring. We're especially having some wonderful family time together right now. I'm grateful for that. Bev's had several nice bouquets delivered, they are really pretty. Sure hope that she gets to feeling better by tomorrow. She isn't feeling any too great yet and is still in a lot of pain but she is better than yesterday and last night. She's been resting better today. All I've done is make some homemade chicken vegetable soup for our lunch and start the dishwasher.

There is lots of food coming from family and friends though and I don't need to cook much. Clay's out playing at his friends' house. The kids dad (my-ex) and his wife came over this morning to visit Beverly. Debbie stopped by first thing with some muffins from Marie Calender's. She and Curtis are going out to a nice restaurant tonight with Tayler and Jeremy for a belated birthday dinner. My grandson Shane came over for dinner tonight and it was nice to see him. Andrea had to work until 9, so didn't see her but he said they would come back on Sunday. Betty called to check in. She had some good ideas about how to take the return trip to Wyoming from Mesquite without backtracking, so there are a few more options.

Debbie and I will probably go home Wednesday or Thursday now. And I won't take the second chemo treatment down here, but get it back in Jackson. We planned to take a little sightseeing trip instead of going up I-15, but I can't decide on which route to take, since my car is still up in Mesquite. Wanted to see some country in Northern Nevada I've never been to, but because it would be backtracking to get the car and go there, might go on east through Monument Valley instead or someplace like that. Chaco Canyon? Never been there. No telling where we'll end up.

Jackie emailed me some information on http://www.sirtex.com/ which I've been reading about liver cancer treatment that sounds very interesting. Comes from Australia. Her brother in law is having this treatment and I'll be eager to hear how his progress goes. Sure hoping for him to recover with this new technology. I will print it out when I get back home to the printer and ask about it at my next doctor checkup.

Thursday June 12 2008

They Don't Grow in Wyoming

Debbie went off early to get an x-ray and do errands. When she got back we packed up the majority of my "stuff" and loaded it into her car. I'll be at Beverly's for several days now, then Debbie will be driving back home with me. Deb and I went to the hospital about 10 a.m. to get Beverly checked out and drive her home. It was best to take her in the car, since their truck is very high and she would have had to strain to get in. We didn't have to wait too long before the nurse came and took out her IV, and took her down to the front door in a wheel chair.

It was a longer drive than I've been on via the belt loop 215 out to their house. That road is new within the last 5 years or less. It goes clear up on the west side of the valley now, so close to the mountains, that part of it winds through some of the hills and gets up kind of high. I saw where they are putting in another freeway going east and west close to where we were driving.

Well, Murphy's Law kicked in, and when we got to Bev's house, the door was locked and she didn't have any key - i.e. they have a key pad on the garage door which she used and then the back door was locked. She says they never lock that door. The hospital rule was that she didn't bring her purse and that's why she didn't have a key. She had to call Brent at work, who called his mom, who had a key, to come and let us in. We got her into bed and Debbie went back out to the store and got some lunch fixings. We hadn't had any breakfast yet, so it tasted pretty good.

Debbie had some chores at home and a meeting this evening to get ready for, so she left about 2 and we had a quiet afternoon. I slept in front of the TV for a couple of hours, but the phone kept ringing so I know Beverly didn't sleep much. Several friends have dropped by, and Beverly kept getting up too much I'm sure. Bev's also had more phone calls, when she should be trying to rest. We kept telling her to stay down.

Brent's mom had been here cleaning and the house and yard sure look nice, as usual. Friends and neighbors will be bringing meals for some days. I'm sure there will be more than we can eat, and that I won't have to cook much. Brent's mom brought a meal for tomorrow I think. Tonight a friend from church brought a penne pasta similar to lasagna with sausage, fresh bread, and a delicious salad and brownies for tonight's dinner. A friend of Brent's has been giving him buckets of apricots, so this afternoon I made an apricot cobbler with the ripest ones to have with ice cream. The desert apricots are the best. Another lady brought fresh cookies.

Tonight Beverly is having some pain, and wondering if she overdid, so now she is down with a heating pad and I rubbed some liniment on her shoulder. She says they put some gas in to do the surgery and she's had that before with her C sections, and it feels the same. Pretty painful. She probably should have had a softer diet today too, so tomorrow we're going to be more careful. She's supposed to go back to see the dr. for a checkup in a week.

I'm staying in Clay's room and feel bad about taking his space. But they won't hear it any other way. He is going to scout camp on Monday so lucky it's only putting him out for a few days. He's been at a cousins overnight and they went to the movies today.

An interesting thing which I haven't experienced before - at Debbie's they had wireless and I was hooked to the Internet up as soon as I turned on the computer there. But here they don't have that. However ...... I'm getting a wireless signal from somewhere outside and am able to be on the Internet. It's working fine, although it says the signal is very low. I'll try to post this now and see how it works, and then try to get my email. All this technology is amazing.

I miss having the dogs around. They lost their dogs here. You might remember that their two miniature dachshunds got old, so no pets here at the moment.

NOTE:

Finally have all the days I missed while the laptop was down filled in. If you want to go back for about the last week, you will find the new entries. The laptop is working good tonight. Thanks to Curtis.

Wednesday June 11 2008

This is Wednesday; about 2 p.m. It is still pretty pleasant weather, calm and not too hot. By mid-afternoon it was only 85 degrees. The air is very clear today. Put a load of laundry in to wash.

I'm typing at the hospital this afternoon. Curtis pretty much got the computer back together last night, but still has to do a little more on it. This morning I slept in until almost 9 a.m. and ate my breakfast out on the patio with Bella and Max – Bella ever at the ready to play with toys. Debbie took me to get the pump off at 11:15 and have the Avastin infused. All went well with that. Except that the nurse was supposed to give me Benadryl and Tylenol to take this morning and she forgot, so they gave it to me there and it took about 45 minutes longer than it needed to for that to kick in. Other patients are telling me that the Center and the people here are very good. That is good to know. There was a lady there waiting with us who has been having chemo for six years. Back in the chemo chairs some of the people looked very sick. It always makes me feel fortunate to feel as well as I do. After chemo Debbie and I went over to Chili’s for a very fast lunch.

This is Beverly’s surgery day so then we sped over to the hospital and dropped me off to wait with Brent so Debbie could make her pre-surgery tests appointment at 2:30. In about a month they are taking out half her thyroid glad which has a nodule that they don’t like the look of. She has had trouble with not feeling right for quite some time, and not sure this is the main problem.

I brought the laptop along to sit and work on the blog while I was waiting. But…..they don’t have wireless. I’m typing the blog in Word and will be able to copy and post it when I get a connection. If Beverly is alright later this afternoon. Debbie and I might go to see Indiana Jones and have pizza tonight. I haven’t had pizza yet on this trip.

Brent and I are at the hospital waiting room now. Beverly is in the recovery room after her hysterectomy. They haven’t told us how she is doing yet. So they will be coming to tell us she is in her room in maybe an hour or two. They have to discharge another patient before she has a bed, so they must be busy here. It’s a brand new hospital and very beautiful here in the Summerlin area – all of this area is new development maybe in the last 20 years.

I called Joe this morning and he said it was raining there. He’s still doing fine and the dogs are fine. He’s been going out irrigating, except doesn’t have to do it much with the wind and rain they've been having. Says he’s going to town tomorrow to see the hearing specialist because he’s been having an earache. Hope he gets that fixed o.k.

Later: The doctor came and told us Beverly's surgery went very well, and she was doing fine. Soon we went up in the elevator to the third floor and sat with her for several hours. She looked good, just still very sleepy and thirsty. Debbie got there soon too. And Beverly's friend Nancy was there to see her when she woke up. They have been friends since high school. Brent went and got Clayton at home and brought him over. When they got there, we soon left and did go to see the Indiana Jones movie. It was just great. I loved it. But we didn't go for the pizza. I got my load of laundry dried and folded and am seeing how much blogging I can get caught up on. Looks like if I get last weekend done, I'll have all the days recorded.

Tuesday June 10 2008

The wind blew here today with gusts up to 60 mph. It got up to about 104 degrees. I didn’t sleep but about three hours last night, but felt o.k. Today we got going about 10 a.m. and took a drive up into Red Rock Canyon. I have always loved that area since I was a small child. It’s beautiful there. Hopefully when the laptop gets totally fixed I’ll be able to download and show you some photos.

We got back in to town about 2 p.m. and had some lunch, then went shopping – Walmart – where I finally got the nose pads on my glasses repaired. They feel so much better. There has been no place I could find around Pinedale or Jackson to get them fixed. I got a lot of the OTC medicines I need there for better price than at home. I almost bought a small George Foreman grill machine, since I don't have the grill on my new stove like I had with the Jenn-Aire - have to broil or fry, which is o.k. But I kind of miss that grill. Then decided to think about it for a while longer. It's not very expensive, just don't have room to put it away. We also went to Williams Sonoma, and I picked up some things in there for the kitchen. Debbie got some gifts there for a friend who is moving into a new home.

Then we went to Linens and Things where I bought some new blankets. Now when we have guests they will have nice bedding instead of very old blankets that have been in the house for 40 (+?) years. I also wanted a toilet paper holder like one Debbie has for our bathroom, but they were out of those. We might go back for it later. It is configured like one of those holders for pop cans, just bigger. Looked like a good idea for storing t.p. under the counter. It was good to get everything I’ve had on my long term list.

After we got home Debbie fixed salmon and fried rice, and I made a blackberry and raspberry pie using up the berries she had bought for Saturday’s dinner before they spoiled. They seemed to really enjoy he pie.

Today is Tayler’s birthday and her boyfriend Jeremy and she had a date to go to dinner. She is 18 now. Tayler is very small and thin. She looked so beautiful all dressed up in a red strapless dress. He surprised her and made her close her eyes while he took her to his house where he had cooked dinner for them, steak, shrimp and salad. So I teased her about getting all dressed up just to go to his house instead of going to the fancy restaurant he had promised. It sounded like she was really pleased with his plan.

Monday Afternoon June 9 2008 UPDATE

This is Joe's folks bedroom set. When we moved to Wyoming we had too much furniture,

and wanted to use our king size bed. Debbie was able to use this set at her house. She sure fixed it up with a cute country look and saved it from a second hand store or being stored in the barn to get ruined.

Up earlier than have been lately. Got shower and washed hair - cannot shower again until Wednesday when the pump comes off. We got to the Nevada Cancer Center chemo about 9:30. It would be virtually a few minutes from Debbie's house if there weren't stop lights. Waited in the "waiting room", then there was another "waiting room". But boy do they stampede through getting your vitals, the port hooked up and taking blood work. Their hands are flashing so fast they are almost invisible, kind of like a Kung Fu movie except with syringes and alcohol swabs. There are lots and lots of patients go through there, and many trash cans full of needles and IV lines.

Then... can you believe we sat and waited there for a total three hours before I started the treatment. When we asked ahead of time they said I would be there 3 hours, but it was six hours again. Waited some long amount of time for "Allison" (probably a PA), I don't know why because she knew nothing and had most of that wrong. Patience. One of their nurses asked if they weren't lots better here (wink wink) than getting chemo in outback Wyoming. We said we didn't know about that, but we sure waited longer here. And I asked of they'd heard of the Huntsman. Didn't seem to ring a bell.

(And BTW my male nurse from Japan or China never heard of Wyoming, Yellowstone sounded vaguely familiar - next to Montana, Canada, right #?:)) He confidentially told us chemotherapy was big business and he didn't think "they" wanted to find a cure for cancer. When the chemo was finished, although they knew from the beginning I needed the pump, and had to order it, she didn't call for it until I was almost done. Then we waited another 45 minutes for the pump to be delivered from clear across town. I had to sign the invoices for the pump - about $2500 !!!! Yikes !!!! I asked if I was buying it, and they said no, that's just renting it. And then I found out the pump machine costs $10,000 - that is what I'm wearing around my waist. It's about twice as heavy as the one I had from Jackson. No wonder Judy always says, "be sure to bring the pump back", "be sure to bring the pump back.

I missed my home team - and no nice free lunch or drinks or snacks here - no gentle sticking with sympathetic warnings or soft hands, pampering or soothing comments - and no warmed blanket. It was air conditioned to about 60 degrees in that place. I guess I'm spoiled! Lucky I had a couple of granola bars and a cup of water. And I covered my legs with my purse for warmth. But they do have a large TV suspended over every chemo chair, with your own clicker and speakers. However those were not working, because the antenna blew down in the last windstorm.

We go back on Wednesday at 11:15 and see Dr. Wu again, get the pump taken off and the Avastin infused so if today was any indication, may be there a while again. This is the one that shrinks the blood supply to the tumors, and they gave it to me with all the others in Jackson - not after the pump is taken off.

Just something I've observed here is that most of the health care people are not "white people", but other nationalities. That is not a criticism so don't get indignant. The chemo room doctor was some kind of middle eastern person. He told me to stay out of the sun from 8 to 6 and, I couldn't help myself, I said "You mean tonight"? Bad, huh? I think Debbie was saying "MA-OMMMmm! He didn't know where Wyoming was either. He thought it was the other W - Wisconsin - where he heard there was flooding. As in - he was telling me that Wyoming was flooding terribly. We kept shaking our heads no, until he got it.

We made an appointment to have the next chemo treatment taken here. But do not know that I will still be here. Instead of two weeks from Monday, it is scheduled for Wednesday the 25th, because that is the only day Dr. Wu is in this facility, (they have four and he is usually across town) and then the pump would be on until the 27th. (And remember this one should have been last Friday, from which two weeks would have been the 20th. So that was pushing the time away from home to being too long.) If they had set it for Monday the 23rd I might stay. I had planned to stay no later than about the 19th, + or -. So we will probably cancel it and go home and have the next one in Jackson. Just waiting to see how Beverly's surgery goes, and when/if she can come back to WY with Debbie and I, etc. Unknowns. Not to worry now, it will all work out fine.

Wednesday will be a busy day (Debbie doing lots of driving) with chemo, Bev's surgery and Debbie goes for tests which are before/related to her surgery in July. After chemo I'll go to the hospital to be there when Bev wakes up from surgery. She stays overnight in the hospital and when she goes home on Thursday, I'll go to her house and hope I can help them until she feels like getting around.

At almost 3 p.m. we went to lunch at Tia Maria Tamales, and had a taco, and brought home tamales and refried beans for dinner. Beverly, Brent and Clay might come over to have dinner with us. Or they may go to the Emma Smith movie. (Yes they did go to the movie.) I was invited and don't turn down many movies but think I'll stay home this time. (Yes I stayed home).

While we were Tia Maria's Debbie got the expected call and we had to hurry home to let the rental place workers in to pick up the party tables. Tayler went to work today, and now has gone off for her first summer class in Math. I asked what she wanted for graduation and thought I'd get by with a set of luggage, but someone else got that for her and we settled on a Coach purse. !! Guess its a Granny thing so it's o.k.

It's early but I'm feeling pretty good, a little bit of nausea and woozy in the head, runny nose, plus gassssssss. Eyes only slightly uncomfortable so far. They are laughing at me trying to talk coherently, like I'm on a cheap drunk. It's the chemobrain. NOT SO FUNNY! NOT NICE TO GET MADE FUN OF AND LAUGHED AT! And BTW, when I dried my hair this morning I looked just like Andy Worhol! It is still falling out. I might get a crew cut or a spike for the fun of it. Then if it really falls out will shave it.

Called Joe, he's fine, it's snowed there yesterday morning and supposed to snow again tonight. And then called my sister Gloria. She got home from her weekend here fine and had a good flight. She left early this morning. So we had lots to discuss because we hadn't seen each other since Saturday.

Early Monday Morning June 9 2008

This is a buffet that was in our home

when we were small children - early 40's.

Debbie and her family have it in their care now.

Gloria tried to pick up all the toys

but it didn't last long before they were all out again.

Wouldn't you know..... The laptop crashed and Curtis has had to spend hours to get it going again. I'm on their computer to check the email and make a blog entry. Kept thinking each day the laptop would be o.k. He took it to work with him this morning to get the virus protection and spyware downloaded back into it etc. Hope it won't have problems after this. There were no files to speak of in there except 8000 photos and we were able to back those up onto the external drive, which I brought with me. Will write the missed three days news on the blog when I get the computer back.

All is fine here. Debbie will take me to the chemo treatment this morning in just a little while. Been staying really busy with all the graduation happenings and other fun family things. We sat in the jacuzzi last night and I really slept good all night after that. Joe says he is doing fine at home.

Wednesday is Beverly's surgery and I'll go over to help them for the second week of my stay - hope that will be a help and not cause her worry because I'm there - that she thinks she has to treat me like a guest. She says the church ladies will bring meals.

Fortunately the weather has been quite pleasant and not so blazing hot. Up until now. So glad to be here and getting to see so many family and friends.
More later!