Joppette

Hi all, Had a busy day cleaning the house. Then caught R trying to do something that has me very upset. He wanted the old LP gas tank to get to 10% so we wouldn't be charged $150 to pick the tank up. In the meantime, I got the new LP tank there. Well he didn't check it and it got too low, and he's leaving for deer camp tomorrow morning. So he decided to hook up the new tank himself rather than wait for the LP company to come out. They are scheduled for Friday and he knew I'd run out of gas before then. So he just did it! He tried to hide it from me, but when I took a shower and the water was cold, he was found out. I am freaking out. This is a giant tank of LP gas and I don't know anything about it. He showed me what he did and it seems simple, but isn't that why we have experts to do this stuff to make sure it's done safely and correctly? I think I'm going to place an emergency call tomorrow after he leaves and ask them to come out and check his work. If you don't hear from me again, he did it wrong and we blew up in the night. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. MI Judy

Ginny, if you have issues like the mousey problem again, let me know. Function = fn on your keyboard. Fn F9 disables your mouse on the computer. You hit Fn, then F9 pressing both together and it disables that pesky mouse and you can use an external mouse. I know, it took me forever to figure that out and it was making me crazy! LOL They would have been scamming you if they kept it overnight. Those greedy buggers. It was nice chatting with you yesterday! MI Judy

Thanks for the upbeat post Geri. Ten years is awesome and does give us hope. MI Judy

Hello! Well Becky, you red necked woman! LOL. Waaaaay to much information. Actually all he kept was the loins. He feels the same about a deer hit by a car too. He's taking the loins to deer camp for the guys. That is fine with me! Eric, I hope that Joey can be active in Sally's life and help her back to freedom from the addiction. As for your speech? I think if the politicians realize that 60% of all new lung cancers in being diagnosed in non-smokers and folks that quit smoking 20 years ago, that it would be important. Also try to find statistics (maybe Katie can help) on how young people are being diagnosed now. It used to be an "old persons" disease. No so anymore. We need research to not only find out why, but to find a cure! It's so critical. In my little support group, there were five of us with LC, 3 were in their 30's. Judy you sound so busy and I love hearing about your life. I love how you are living it so well! I love Mums. So beautiful. Sad about the accidents, but boat races are so exciting aren't they? And a shout out of THANK YOU SO MUCH for all Veterans out there. Because of your service, we are free to believe what we want, do what we want and live how well we live. Thank you, thank you, thank you. MI Judy

Maybe Becky will see this. R got his deer tonight. It was very dramatic. He is driving and goes to turn on our street, and there she was. Someone had just hit her with their vehicle. Rigor had not set in, so she is hanging in our garage, and he is doing whatever deer hunters do after the deer dies. I just don't want to know. I do know we are now about to have a freezer full of venison! MI Judy Thanks for the welcomes back!

Ah Judy. You know I can relate because of the friends I have at Gilda's Club. Since Spring we lost one to lymphoma (age 44), one to breast cancer (age 40), one to lung cancer (age 37), and several really struggling right now. Sometimes I think that I should just not go anymore. But I volunteer in the afternoon, and when the regulars get in, they always say to me "we're going to see you upstairs right?". I can't seem to stay away when they get that look in their eyes. And I've come to love them. But it's tough. HUGS to you. MI Judy

Hi there, Judy it sounds like you got a ton of good stuff done. That is such a great feeling of satisfaction, isn't it? I'm not usually around on Thursdays because of Gilda's Club, but I didn't go today. Have caught a heck of a chest cold, and coughing so hard. Can't be around sick people with that. Been resting a lot in the last two days and trying to kick it. The weather here is howling. The wind is so loud it's kind of scary! We got our first snow today. It came in squalls, and didn't really accumulate, so that is good. I kept turning the furnce up to 69 and brrrrr. Figured out that no matter what I set it at, it defaults to 66 unless I over ride that. I now know how to do that. Now that I'm back volunteering at church, my days feel so much more full and that is a good thing. I'm not a sit around the house kind of gal. Nor am I an excited to be dusting and vacuuming kind of gal. LOL. Anyway, got some home made spaghetti sauce on the stove, and going to boil some noodles now! Hope all have been well. MI Judy

I echo what all the other wise folks here shared. There is hope. There are lots of stories from folks that proved the doctors and the statistics wrong. Your doctor gave you a statistic, but the good news is you are a people! Let us know your plan when you have one and we'll help you along the way. MI Judy

Having a slow morning so I decided to peruse some unread posts. Becky, this one perked my eyes because my man has been sitting in a tree with his crossbow for a couple weeks now. The only thing he's shot is lots of pictures with his cell phone! LOL. I think the older he gets, the less he wants the work after the hunt, and just enjoys quiet time in the woods with Mother Nature. Ginny, loved your comment. It was very nice talking to you yesterday. MI Judy

Very good info Randy. I have a friend at Gilda's that could use this information! I will print it and share it with her. MI Judy

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Hi Judy, Oh how I remember the steroid high. It was crazy. I'd take an ativan while at chemo to help, but it still didn't lead to good night's sleep. I tended to sleep in 2 hour segments anyway. Since I was not working, it was okay, because I could take cat naps during the day. Laughed at the supervising Stan who is supervising the kid comment. I hope they can solve his hip problem quickly. I didn't get in to post until late last night. It was a tough night at Gilda's. To sit and listen to a young 30 year old woman talk about telling her 4 and 8 year old about dying, and trying to help them understand that Mommy is going away soon was heart wrenching. She said she'd try to come to group more, but wanted us to know that it's likely that after the last WBR, she would most likely go into Hospice care. Well, I will be a widow this weekend. R got tickets to the Red Wings hockey game in Detroit. The idea of sitting around watching a bunch of guys whack at a little puck and whack at each other is not something I want to do. LOL. So he is going down with a buddy and they are going to stay overnight, and have a nice time. Good for him. Hope you have a nice weekend. MI Judy P.S. If the activity here stays at this level, maybe you and I can just email each other every day to keep up. It's a mystery to me how the boards got this quiet, but it is what it is.

Hi Judy and Steph, (since no one else posted) Judy I wish you had someone to sit with you through chemo too. Though I must admit it was hard being chatty with someone for 8 hours, which was how long my infusion lasted. I hope you won't have bad days after this. I get it about the hair. I am afraid that if my hair was really thin and it looked fried, I'd probably shave it off. I really didn't mind being bald (except for losing my eyelashes and eyebrows). No shaving legs for a long time was great! Shower's were much shorter. It was a really good time saver. LOL. I love wearing hats, so it was fun to find cute cheap hats, and coordinate them with my "outfits". That dinner your neighbor made sounds so amazing and delicious! My mouth is watering as I type this. So was at Gilda's all day. It was a tough evening. One of our women with breast cancer is dying. They've exhausted all options, and Hospice is the last one. She is doing well right now, as she is almost done with 20 rounds of WBR, and it's providing her some relief. But listening to her as she talked, coming to grips with the end of her life broke my heart. She is in her 30's with a 4 year old and 8 year old. Another in our group has decided to stop chemo. She has lung cancer. She hoped this last round would do the job, but the tumors are not responding, and she announced last week that she would be ending the treatments. She has exhausted all possible treatments, so another in the group that is coming to grips with end of life issues. Really sad stuff. Anyway, life is full of sad stuff right? Everyone of us at this place gets that. Looking forward to tomorrow for absolutely no reason other than "glad to be alive". MI Judy

Sad, sad, sad. So young. MI Judy

Hello all, It's a dreary Wednesday here. Uncanny warm too. 61 degrees. Well it's "date night" tonight, so I'm going to work on the house for a few hours and then get dolled up for an evening out with my sweetie. Other than that, not much going on around here. Judy, don't work too hard. Sounds like you have a lot going on! Have a good day! MI Judy

Hello all, It's beautiful, sunny and 59 here. So thankful for days like this. Ginny I can understand about the snow when the trees still have leaves on them. It can cause so much destruction. Had a pot pie cooking in the oven last night when R called to say I needed to meet him at the car dealer because one of the brakes on his truck was broken. He needed it fixed immediately, and offered to take me out. So I took my home made pot pie out of the oven half baked. I'll re-bake it tonight and hope that it's not ruined. Not sure how pie dough does with food on it over night. Well, it's time to head out. MI Judy

Steph, LOL! I do moo when I pass cows. How funny!

Ann, I had to comment on the candy. I found a good sale, and bought five large bags of candy bars for the church trunk or treat which is tonight. I don't know where that candy bar stealing mouse was, but there were these teeny tiny little holes about the size of a finger in each of the bags. Now I didn't even know mice liked candy!

Good morning all, Eric, I think our time goes back an hour next weekend. They call it Daylight Savings Time here in the Midwest. We don't get the kiddos here. Our home is set so far back, it'd be a huge walk to get to our front door, and there are only four homes on our road, so it's not attractive for the kids. Went out yesterday to church, and then to breakfast. As we were reading the paper, I see that there is an Alpaca show at the arena. My eyes lit up and I looked at R and said " I want to go!!!!". So off we went. It was like a dog show only for Alpaca's. They are adorable, with huge soft eyes, majorly soft fur. And they hum!!!!! I never knew that. As we walked around petting them, I heard this soft noise. I asked the breeder what it was and she said they hum when they are happy! It was the coolest thing ever. Well, I am starting to go back to volunteering at church again beginning today, so I'd best go and get busy! Have a good one everyone. MI Judy

Congrats! I was dx in June of 07, so we're at about the same in our survivorship! Four years rocks! MI Judy

Hi all! Bruce, we've missed you! So glad to hear all is well. So nice of you to help the friend out. I won't complain about weather because we did not get that nasty snow storm. I remember one year we did get an ice storm when leaves were still on the trees. Tons of trees came down, and we lost power for over a week. That is why I now have an auto-on generator. Slow weekend here. Not feeling great with the pleurisy. But I'm okay. R is at his buddy's house. They are sitting in lounge chairs outside, shooting at ducks. Dorks. LOL MI Judy

Thanks Eric. I sent you an email.

Wow Dawn! Thanks for the update. You've been through so much! But it sounds like good news all around for the most part! I'm so glad. Hope you can join us back on the daily Air again. We missed you. MI Judy

Wow Eric, that is so very cool about the Niagra Falls! Very cool. I agree with you about Bruce. Another big MIA is Snowflake. Others flit in and out, but those are two that have not been here in a long time. MI Judy

Hi All, Up early today. Frost is on the grass and trees. It's finally getting to that time of year. Need to haul those sweatshirts and sweaters up from downstairs now. I think it's safe to put the summer stuff away. Didn't sleep well at all last night. The pain from the Pleurisy kept me up most of the night. Just took some ibuprofen to supplement the Vicodin to see if that will help. I've had this before, it's just painful when you move or cough. It's just an inflamation, and they confirmed it was not from pneumonia, so I'll just have to wait it out. Have an appointment for the PCP on Monday to follow up. The scheduler from Onc. is calling me back to get me in, now that a CT scan has been done. Steph, I understand that 5 mm is tiny. The Onc's first thoughts were that if it grew enough to be seen on the Pet then he wanted to have surgery done. We will be having a lot of questions about this. Every 3 months it seems to be growing 1 to 3 mm. It's a tough call to know when it is right to take action. They can not biopsy it at this size, but the "growing" is the indicator of when to do something. If it can light the Pet will be the "take action time" in his opinion. We'll see. If there's one thing that is "nice" about being considered a high risk patient, it is that we get immediate attention in the ER. They had me in a bed immediately and administered morphine very quickly. Anyway, today I'm taking it easy and going to read some books I've been meaning to get at. That sounds nice to me. Hope you all have a good Friday. MI Judy