Change of Plans

Dr. Report: My surgery, that was scheduled for next Tuesday, has been postponed. I won't know the new surgery date until next Thursday. I will post here when I learn the new date.

Is it Spring Yet?

Jesse got the garden bedded and ready for planting on Saturday. Now if we could just get some rain!




Dr. Report: My surgeon's office called me this morning and they have set up my test for this Wednesday at the NE Baptist Hospital, and my surgery the next week on Tuesday, 2/3/09 at 12:30.

Second Glance

I haven't read much since I started chemo treatments many months ago. I still have no idea why I lose my desire to read while having chemo. I have read several books since my treatments ended, but nothing like I used to.

I picked up Second Glance by Jodi Picoult a month ago as it was the GRINS Bookclub book for January. I would read a few pages and then put the book down for a few days. With still over 200 pages to go, I started seriously reading it yesterday. Our club meeting is this Monday night and I wanted to finish the book before I heard a discussion about it. I finished it today and I am so glad that I did read it. I am amazed at the detail in Picoult's books. She does a tremendous amount of research while writing her books. After reading about 30 or 40 pages of Second Glance I decided that I should have written notes on the many characters so that I could keep them straight. But after awhile I began to know these people. Some of this book was based on history - The Vermont eugenics project in the 1920s and 30s. It is an amazing book to read and I would definitely recommend it.

Other books by Picoult that I've read are My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Pact, and Vanishing Acts. They were all good books. My Sister's Keeper was a New York Times Bestseller and another awesome book to read.

The Yayas are Back !

Yesterday was an interesting day. Joyce called me and we decided that she would drive to Nixon and we would have lunch together at the Tea Cup Café. She called back 10 minutes later and said that Elaine and Cathy would be joining us. Yeah! A Yaya Get-together!

Joyce got to my house first. We were visiting until Cathy came in. The minute she walked in the door she told us that she couldn't eat lunch with us. Then she turned around. The seat of her jeans had a 10 inch rip in them! Cathy said she had no idea when the rip happened and she hadn't noticed it until she was walking up to my house. She wasn't sure if the rip occurred before or after she went into the store to buy a glass of iced tea to drink during her drive here. Joyce and I were laughing so hard that we could hardly breathe. LOL

We couldn't miss lunch so we fixed Cathy up with a pair of Jesse's army green pj bottoms, which actually matched her blouse. And off we went to the café. Elaine soon joined us and we had to tell her, between fits of laughter, what had happened.

We enjoyed a nice lunch with desert. The owner told us we could stay as long as we wanted to. I think she knows now that when we get together we can talk for hours. Joyce told her that if laughter was medicine, we had overdosed!


After lunch we went to the Dollar General Store to see if we could find some pants for Cathy. That's the only store in Nixon that has any clothes for sale. She found a nice pair of warm-ups. I told Cathy she could keep Jesse's pj's, but she decided to change into her new duds.

The Yaya Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.


Dr. Report: My surgeon called yesterday afternoon and the plans are for me to have a test at the hospital next week and then my surgery the following week. As soon as the surgery is scheduled I will post the date here.

Happy Birthday Joyce

A couple weeks ago several Yayas, husbands and parents went to the Dragon Place to celebrate Joyce's birthday. We had so much fun! Enjoy the pictures. Since they don't make songs for turning ??, I had to use the 16 song. :o)

Dr. Report: I called my surgeon yesterday to find out when my surgery would be. She has requested the report from my liver procedure and wants to go over it before scheduling me for surgery. So....I am now just waiting to hear from her.

The Best Day of the Year !

Yesterday was definitely the best day, so far, of 2009. Jesse and I decided to ride the bike to Texas Pride BBQ to meet our club, the Comal River Riders. It was so great to see some old faces and make some new friends!

MaryAnn, Liz, Shelley, Sarah & Maria

This is the entire group (minus Earl's 2 friends who snapped the pic for us) that rode to the BBQ place.

The weather was perfect for riding...lots of sun and temps close to 80°. We had some good BBQ and lot of fun visiting. I'm so glad that we have some new members in the club and guests showing up to ride. One of the things I look most forward to after getting through all my medical problems is to ride each and every ride with the club. I sure miss the members and the great rides.

On my post below reminiscing about 2008 I didn't mention our motorcycle club because we didn't get to ride with them all that year. If I was to post about what I missed the most in '08 it would definitely be riding and hanging out with the Comal River Riders!!!

Thursday's News

I got an e-mail from my grandson, Justin today. He, along with Kevin Fowler and the rest of the crew, will be leaving Sunday for Washington DC and the Inauguration. They will be performing at the Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball. He promised to bring back photos. :o)
Justin & Kevin


Dr. Report: I saw the lung surgery specialist this morning. The plan of action now is to have my other surgery done in a couple of weeks and then see the specialist again to plan the lung surgery. His plans are to make a 4 inch incision on my back to go in and try to remove the spot in my lung. If he can't remove the spot then he will remove the top lobe of that lung. He said my hospital stay should be 3-6 days.

Looking Back on 2008

When I think about the past year I can honestly say it was a good year. You probably all think I'm crazy for feeling that way. Even though the chemo treatments, surgery, etc were not fun to go through, the good times far outweighed the bad times.
The times that stand out in my memory as being really wonderful times are:

In January, after living together for quite a few years, Jesse and I tied the knot. Of course we had felt married for years. We just made it official. (no pics of the event)

I had an awesome time on my trip to Florida to see my sister and BIL. We spent part of my visit in Orlando and then went to their condo in Sarasota for the weekend. It's absolutely beautiful there! While in Orlando we shopped, ate out and did lots of visiting. In Sarasota we walked on the beach, went to several book stores, ate out, and enjoyed the unbelievable view from their condo.

My sister, Faith, and I standing on the balcony of their condo.

My Brother-in-Law, Bill, and I on the beach.

Another great time in '08 was when Faith came to Texas.

We had a family get-together at Harold and Loyce's house.

Faith and I drove to Brownwood to see our brother, Dan. It was the first time the 3 of us had been together since our Dad died in '82. We had so much fun catching up and just visiting and laughing.

Me, Faith and Dan

After spending the night in Brownwood, Faith and I went to Karen's Alamosa Wine Cellars. It was fun getting to see Karen and rehash old times. She has used the old counters, etc from the Billings of Nixon store in her gift shop. That old furniture brought back lots of memories.

Me, Faith and Karen

And receiving honorable mention for the year, (LOL, you all know that you are very important to me!) are:

Times with my wonderful group of old friends, the Nixon Yayas. We've all been friends for most of our lives and are still as close as family. We celebrate with each other in the good times and are there for each other in the bad times. Elaine, Joyce, Cathy, Penny, Patsy, Ellen, Gail, Gloria & me

The wacky, crazy breakfasts with the Nixon Breakfast Club....all 3 of us. Lisa, Dorothy and me. We usually get together once a week for breakfast, ranting, laughing, griping, etc. We have fun through it all.

Staying in touch with my childhood friend, Jennifer, by e-mail. We spent so many nights at each others houses when growing up and have so many crazy memories to laugh at now. Jennifer was the rebel and I was the rebel-wanna-be. LOL

GRINS Book Club monthly meetings, which at times can be a little wacky and crazy too. We have read some really good books and had fun discussing them. We also visit and eat and have lots of fun. There have been times when we went home with sore ribs from laughing so much. Lisa, Laura, Yvette, Joy, Tom and me

Chatting daily with great friends in my online KT group and my Ebay group. We've been friends for many years. We support each other, laugh together and sometimes fuss at each other, :o) They have really added tremendously to my life and I look forward to meeting more of them in real life.

See, I told you it was a great year. I do think that 2009 will be even better!

My Three Sons

Remember that old TV show? Well, here are my 3 sons. Harold, Dusty & Chad

We all got together last night to celebrate Christmas one more time. Dusty had to work during the holidays and finally came home this week. We ate tamales, tuna salad, chips and dip and then opened presents.

Now I am free to take down our Christmas tree!!! I have enjoyed having it up, even into January.

One Down and Three To go.........

Well, I had the Radio Frequency Ablation on my liver lesion yesterday. I'm glad that's over! Jesse and I got to the hospital at 7:30am and didn't leave till after 9:00pm. It was a long day. My procedure was scheduled for 10:30, but the anesthesiologist was tied up longer than expected in the operating room. So it was around 1:00pm by the time they were ready for me. I was asleep for the procedure and don't remember waking up till around 5:00pm. I was very uncomfortable and had some dull pain which got worse. Finally I ask for something to stop the pain. It took a while before I could be given anything because the meds that the doctor said I could have couldn't be taken on an empty stomach. So I had to eat something. Thankfully the meds didn't take too long to ease the pain and I was soon feeling much better. Obviously, when dealing with the liver they watch you for several hours to make sure there is no bleeding. So that's why it was so late when I was released.

I slept well last night with no pain. The nurse had told me that about half the patients that have this procedure have no pain afterwords and the other half do have pain and have to take meds when they get home. I guess I'm in the first group as I've had no discomfort since coming home. Yes! I'm supposed to have 3 days of bed rest. The nurse says that means get comfortable in the recliner, sofa or bed and only get up for bathroom visits and to eat. Jesse told her that's what I do anyway. LOL

Thanks to all of my friends and family for their good thoughts and prayers.

The title for this entry? The one down is the liver procedure. The three to go are the surgery to reconnect my colon which will be done in 2-3 weeks, lung surgery to remove the top lobe of one of my lungs, and the removal of my medi-port. The port won't be removed until I'm finished with chemo. I'm not sure when that will be. I will be seeing the lung specialist next week.

News!

Dr. Report: I'm going into the hospital in the morning for my liver procedure. They will burn off the lesion on my liver. It's called invasive radiation. I will be able to come home in the afternoon.

I will be going back in about 3 weeks for surgery and will probably be in the hospital 3 or 4 days that time.

I am ready to get it all done!!

Farewell to John Michael

Yesterday several of my Yaya sisters came to Nixon to attend the funeral services for Penny's husband and Ellen's brother, John Michael Cardwell. John Michael had been sick for many years, but was remembered as having been a wonderful husband and father. There was a large group of friends and family at the services which were held at the Methodist Church.

Before the services Yayas Joyce, Elaine and I met at the new Tea Cup Café in Nixon for lunch. It was the first time for each of us to be there. After the services we met there again and were joined by Fay for a cup of hot tea and pumpkin bread. It was good to be around old friends, but sad for the circumstances of our get-together.

Time to Fertilize

We had a beautiful day on Saturday. Our temperture reached a little over 80°. Gotta love that! We decided it was time to put out fertilizer on our veggie garden-to-be. Below is Joshua. He came over to help us with the job.

And here is Jesse doing his part.

Harold, Madisyne and Preston came by to visit for awhile.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra

We (Harold, Loyce, Jesse and I) went to the TSO concert last night in San Antonio. I'm having a hard time thinking of words to describe the performance. Awesome and fantastic just can't describe it. Maybe take those two words and throw in extraordinary and that will cover the performance.

I think Loyce and I enjoyed it more than the guys. Harold said that you can only listen to so much guitar and Jesse said that after the first few songs they all sounded alike. Loyce and I enjoyed all the songs, plus the lights, fire, and snow, and the good-looking guys!!!

I would love to make "going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra" a holiday tradition.