Outrider1

I always loved that show and this was why... (still chuckling!) Dawn

I needed that chuckle! Dawn

Don't forget chat on Thurs. at 11:30 AM CST. We had a lovely time last week and don't want you all to miss it this week. Stop in on your lunch break, we would love to see you. Dawn

Sorry I haven't been able to do the Air this week, but this is the end and the first of the month where I have to do all my running around (ie. groceries, pay bills, etc.) so by the time that I sit down at the computer, in the evenings, I am just too tuckered out. Judy, we finally got that rain, Early Friday morning. YEEEHAW!!! for cooling things down. Rain in the forecast for today and all of next week. The fur babies hate it cause they have to be kept inside and only taken out on leashes (too muddy in the back yard and no fence or shelter in the front). We have nothing planned for the holiday other than to sit back and relax. My oldest daughter's boyfriend got a job with UPS, and has training scheduled for next week. Altho UPS only works warehouse personnel part time, they still get benefits and it's a JOB! He has been looking since the middle of November. So this week ended being pretty good. A highlight for me this week was moderating the chat on Thursday (Thursday's Brunch Bunch at 11:30 CST). I thoroughly enjoyed it. And Katie says we can do it every week. I will be posting a reminder on Tuesdays in the general forum. Ya'll come!!!. Looking forward to seeing you there. Dawn

Randy and Barb, Randy, clinical trials are already taking place. I can not tell you where I read that (except in the newspaper, WebMD and on Yahoo Health news on the internet, Don't have TV) and there was a list of Cities where they were asking for volunteers to take the shot. Barb, also most (operative word here is Most) flu shots do not need clinical trials nor long term trials as they are just a mutation of the flu we normal have sprouting up each year. All the researchers have to do is determine what is different about the new strain and restructure the shot to fit. With this flu (H1N1), it is a totally new strain of flu, so they have to start from scratch. It also (at this point) shows no signs of being able to mutate (which of course could change(with the exception of the animal to animal strain, which has not been completely proven yet)), so hopefully we won't have to worry about new strains next year. I have heard nothing from my ONC. about a serious need to take this shot as of yet. And since I have a daughter in High School, I am concerned that she not get it or bring it home. She now carries hand sanitizer in her back pack and will be told to use it often. I am watching news on this pretty closely, myself. Dawn

Judy, I am glad you are feeling (emotionally) better. You obviously needed that melt down after all the stress you have been under lately. And I am glad that your hubby recognizes it and is doing his best to give you some "air". He sounds like one of the good guys. Lilly, don't worry about the diet...just enjoy yourself and start again the Monday after. Sounds like you are doing good with it anyway and the exercise you are getting helps as well. Well, not another scorcher today in NTX. At 11:30 is was still only 83 thanks to the clouds. I hope they burn off this afternoon as that is the only way we are going to get an rain this evening, but even if they do the high is only supposed to be about 90, so that is still much cooler. Next week the temps are supposed to be in the upper 80s to low 90s with mid to upper 60's at night. It will be so nice to sit out on the back patio or front porch in the evenings and watch the dogs run. Nothing new on tap for today except to listen to the radio and play on the computer. I hope you all have a great day. Dawn

Absolutely great news, Judy!!!! Doing a happy dance for you. Dawn

Another hot one in NTX again today, but maybe a little relief in sight as we are supposed to have cold front come through tomorrow and although they are taking the rain out of the forecast for the weekend and next week a little at a time, the temperatures are only supposed to get up into the mid 80's next week. That is so early for this party of TX! Usually have to wait until October for the Mid 80's in the Day time and that is at the end of the month. My oldest daughter's boyfriend, who lives with us, is going in for a job interview that looks very favorable at this point. He has been looking since November of last year. So we all have fingers crossed here. Judy, sorry you are having so much trouble getting call backs. That is soooo aggrivating. Lily, sounds like you are taking a physical activity break today, which sounds like you need one. I hope you enjoy it. Fur babies here are doing good as well as all the humans. Hope you all have a great day. Dawn

Judy, Great News!!!! Here it is the same ole thing, HOT. Might get some rain, but like all the weather here in North Tx, that will and does change. I was looking forward to a week of rain next week (as of the forecast last night) and that has changed (as of this morning). One thing you can count on here in NTX is if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes, it will change. Hope everyone has a nice day. Dawn

Bread and butter pickles, but I have to have the stacker type slices. My mom used to can home grown cucumbers into bread and butter pickles that were so good! I miss those. Dawn

LOL, Animals. In my case several dogs, who go out each morning, come in about noon to 1 pm in the summer or when it is raining, and then go back out for a couple of hours after they eat. We bring them back in around 8 -9 in the evening. I call them fur babies cause, they have fur and they are my babies, since all of my human babies are for the most part grown up. Dawn

Judy, you and I posted at the same time. You can have my post moved here if you want so it doesn't confuse folks. Dawn

Looks like Judy is busy traveling to her next stop, so I'll start the air for today. Another scorcher in store for north Tx today. I will have to bring the fur babies inside around noon, 1 pm so they don't get too over heated. I am looking forward to the end of the week for some promised rain for 5 days starting about Thu. night or Fri morning, but I am not holding my breath for it to happen. Here lately the closer we get to the day the rain is supposed to start, the smaller the chance of rain gets until the day predicted and it is so low that you wonder why they even bothered to predict it to begin with...Have I ever said that I Hate summer? Give me autumn, winter and spring! Got my youngest daughter off to first day of 11th grade this morning. She was looking forward to it. Now it is time to get washing and dishes done. Everyone, have a great day and keep cool. Dawn

OH! MY!....Too funny.....and scary as well. To think that these people and (with their aides assistance) are the ones making decisions for this country. Dawn

As Judy is out on a hall pass, and everyone seems so busy, I thought I would do the Air for today. I hope ya'll don't mind as I am new around here. Today in North Texas it is working up to be another scorcher, which is usual for this time of the year. I plan on vegging out in the cool, altho I cringe every time the air comes on.. Got a big pot of beans on the stove cooking now so later when it is really warm outside, the kitchen is not heating up cooking dinner. In about an hour I will be letting the fur babies in so they don't over heat. I hope you all have a good day and hope it may be cooler for you than it is here. Dawn

Dana. I just finished up a second round of PCI (preventative Cranial Irradiation) (I cut my first round short as I was so tired of feeling like a specimen on a slide under a microscope.). In June when my head went all wonky and the neuros said cancer mets and the radiologist and the RADOnc, stated emphatically that they saw nothing to indicate new mets at all (there is the controversy of is it MS or is it Cancer(long story), right now, all I care about is that it does not appear to be cancer.) We decided to do a little extra PCI "just in case." It is called PCI, when done a preventative, and WBR when done for mets. Now, don't get upst by that, just the fact that your Onc, stated to you as a preventative just means that she/he may have used the wrong letters and there is no mets there. It might help you to also know that in the "statistics: PCI cuts the risk of mets to the brain from about 35% to 15% or less. You will loose your hair, you might have some cognitive functioning problems. The biggest problem for me in that area, is that I have to grope for words on occasion which started with chemo anyway, just a little worse now than before. You might have ear or hearing issues, such as ears feeling clogged up, and not hearing quite as well as before. Your Skin around you forehead and ears may get slight sunburned or have the texture of a sunburn starting tp peel. However, no lotion untill after the treatments on treatment day as the lotion itself may cause a bad burn. All of this should eventaully go away It really is a piece of cake. You will see the Radiation Oncologist, so address all your concerns with him about what to expect and such. And remember, you can always call a halt if that is what you want. If you want more information on how they set it up and such , let me know. I have a wonderful RADONC. who spends the time it takes to answer all my questions and relieve any fears I have. The upside to all of it is, the skin on your face and forehead will be as smooth as a teenagers, you will have all new hair (after it grows back of course) and you can join Patti B's and my "Bald is Beautiful Club!" RElax and take a deep breath, it really will be okay. Dawn

For expertise in finding out what was wrong, ER. To do the surgery definitely MASH. They are better in a pinch if something goes wrong on the table and thinking fast for a solution. FYI: Alan Alda , I always loved just watching his facial expressions and such and I agree even now he is not hard to look at and yes Dr. Honnicutt (Mike Farrel the actors name) was a Surgeon, whether that was his primary before he got to the mash unit was never stated. (I'm sure you can tell I have watched more than my share of MASH and still love that show!) lol) Dawn

Judy, If I get that reaction, I usually have something very "snarky" (which means sarcastic and just this side of mean and nasty sometimes) to say very loudly just to embarrass the offender, unless the offender is a child. Just smile at the kiddos and move on, but adults and teens should know better. But I usually don't let it ruin my day. I refuse the give other people my power. Meaning to give them the power to make how I feel about the day and myself change to something negative. Dawn

Patti, I have a wig, but when it came in the color was a little more orangey than the sample and it was not cut right and the person trimming it just could not get it right, so I had her leave it a so I could do it myself. I think I wore it once, it was so hot and scratchy! Since my hair had just started to come back in. the mask was not a problem, except I had lost weight, so I had to make a new one anyway (I still had the one from the first time). Now I just have to get the little bit of hair growth that started after I shaved it all off, off my head then I will be trully bald again. Since my daughter shaved it with clippers the first time, will probably have to take a safety razor to it. Yep, we can be bald and beautiful together. Dawn

Judy, I am so glad that you found what I call a "simple joy" to help lift you up yesterday. Your are such a shinning light here and just looking at your avatar pic makes me smile, I came back to the page several times to try to say something that would help and just could not find anything within my chemo brain that had either not been said or sounded trite. I did send you healing thoughts and prayers several times yesterday, just as I do all of the wonderful people on this site. I may not write much but I check in daily and think of all of you. I am so glad that (from your postings today) that today is better for you. Dawn

Randy and Judy, Thank you. Randy, I'm hanging in there, some days by the skin of my teeth, but still hanging. Judy, I wear bandanas when out just so other people don't treat me like I am "catching". It just amazes me how people react to a bald headed 50 year old woman. Sometimes it makes me laugh. But I wear it to sooth other people's angst and beacuse I don't want sunburn. AT home I go "la naturale". A simple joy that I have found, I have some scented body sprays, and when it gets too hot (keep inside air at 80-82 as Tx electric bills are worse than the heat) I just spritz my head. It's glorious! And I smell good too. Win-win as far as I am concerned. So it is not all so bad. Dawn

Rude, discourteous people who think it's all about them. Those that stand in the middle of the aisles at the grocery store chatting with their friends, or the ones that run the aisles trying to run you over with the basket like they are running a race. People who seem to think that I am really interested in hearing all bout their lives via overly loud cell conversations in inappropriate places. And being the person I am, I have an extremely hard timekeeping my mouth shut and not saying something about how I know that their mothers raised them better, or something about how rude it is to do what they are doing, or some such other snarky remark while staring right at the offender/s. That is one thing being diagnosed with cancer has done. I speak up more now and just do not have the tolerance for inconsiderate, discourteous people or the idiotic things they do. My kids bought me a t-shirt that says CSI Can't Stand Idiots I wear it alot when I go out. Dawn

Sorry it has taken me so long to update and that I can't remember if I told you all about the "is it MS or is it Cancer" controversy. I do know that I I came on in June sometime after I got out of the hospital and you were all wonderfully supportive and it helped alot. Anyway. I saw the Neuro Doc and they ruled out ms because of age and my history of cancer. Said most major symptom attacks with MS occur between 20-30 so I was "tooo old". My research says 20-50 and it is not uncommon to have one even later. Then he could not shoe the area on the MRI so I could look at it again (have seen the correct MRI and was wanting to see it again) He kept trying to show me a different spot and couldn't find that one either. He was reading from my chart and would stop in mid sentence like what he was reading did not jibe with what he had read earlier, like it was some one elses chart. Needless to say all the did was re affirm to me that neuro had no clue what was going on and was just throwing out what was easiest. I went back to the RadOnc. and he emphatically stated , "I see nothing here that indicates mets (new or old) to the brain as does the radiologist" Since I had cut my first PCI short, we decide to err on the side of caution and do a little more just in case. Since my hair had starting coming back in and I knew it was fixing to be going back out, I had my daughter just shave it all off. We did 8 days which I finished last week. Am starting the step down for the steroids but they seem to help with the dizziness and balance both of which are better, but still there. Had PET scan yesterday Dr. Appointment the 13th. Fingers crossed for little to no change since last scan, which with SCLC EXT is as close to NED as you can get. That and the fact that so far I am 9 months out from chemo, which is good. Stay tuned for the next installment. I will try not to have so long a break in the action. Dawn

Ann, real buttercream icing is made with real butter not crisco shortening. Found that out from my mom who was a prof. cake decorator. Although still not great for you much better for the taste of things...lol She never got her cakes completely level either. Dawn

Zofran (ondonsetron generic name) comes in tablets and a dissolvable tablet form. My Onc only prescribed it for the first 3 days after chemo as they said it was not very effective after that. I found that to be the not true. It works for me anytime after chemo, so I demanded it. I also have compazine, and phenegran as needed, if the zofran does not work. I know that compazine and phenegran also come in suppositories. Dawn