Retail Therapy

 Look what hubby bought me!  I know, I'm spoiled!

Look at all 72 of those yummy colors! No I haven't really used that much of the pencils already. I had a few Prismacolor pencils that I put in the tins and switched out the new ones. They are the ones rubber banded together.  

First thing I had to do was re-arrange all the pencils to my liking.  The way they were arranged made no sense to me.  Then I did a small color swatch.  Also, to the far right is an in-process colored Zentangle.

Top right is a small pad of hot press water color paper, 100% rag.  (Yes, I'm a paper snob.  100% rag or nothing.)  So I can Zentangle, lay down a little watercolor wash, then go at it with colored pencils!

Let the fun begin!

Next post will be about Zentangles. Well, as long as no more retail therapy gets in the way.  Or some other shinny catches my eye.

Monday was Chemo Day

Monday Morning's Events

Yesterday, I had my third Chemo treatment.  And it is a long day. It's not like half and hour, get chemo drugs put in your veins and go home.  Nope.  It's more like a 5 hour process.

My very supportive husband and I arrived about 7:15 am to check in.  Around 7:30 was blood draw.  They check a lot of things, including red blood cell count, white blood cell count, platelets, electrolytes, and the list goes on.

After that we zoomed down the corridors (okay husband sedately pushing me in a wheel chair) to the radiation lab for a 7:45 radiation appointment.  Radiation treatment takes about 10 minutes.  I get those 5 times a week.  

Next we zoomed back down the corridors to what is called oncology infusion.  Around 8:15 I was in the chair.  She started me on IV fluids.  Once the lab results from the lab draw were in, the RN started me on electrolyte fluids.  And an hour or so after that, some med, including anti-nausea drugs.  Then the main event, the chemo drug.  And that takes an hour.  After that more electrolyte fluids.  And I completely lost track of time.  So that was done sometime after one.  We arrived home at 1:30.  Okay that was more like a 6 hour process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am kicking back in the chair with a crochet afghan I am currently working on.  Crochet as well as a variety of projects are helping to occupy my mind and keep me sane.  More about that in another blog post.

Cisplatin

This is the chemo drug that is being administered to me. And there is a large number of side affects, some of the frightening.  Nausea is the biggest side affect I've had to battle so far.  The anti-nausea work well, but they have side affect as well.  

I have to drink a lot of liquids.  This stuff is hard on kidneys, and I need to keep them flushed out. The effects on kidney function are generally reversible. Generally?!?

Hair loss, however is uncommon.  Given the choice I rather have less nausea and no hair.  But I have to play the hand I've been dealt.

They are about a bazillion other affects and warnings, but I won't bore you (or myself) with anymore of this.

Portacath Placement

Friday, March 12, a procedure was done to place a port to give me the chemo drug and all the other intravenous goodies. I was given conscious sedation.  Only pain I felt was the needle from the numbing meds.  Other than that I spent however long in a happy place.  Even after the drugs wore off there really wasn't much pain, just a little soreness.

This picture was taken this morning.  The went in around my collar bone down to just above my chest.  The bump you can barely see in the picture is where all the chemo business happens.

When I go for the blood draw, the RN inserts a needle, (I don't feel it because of the numbing cream I use) with tubes attached. She draws blood, flushes the tube, leaves it and then I head off to chemo.  When that process is done, the chem RN removes the needle, applies band aid, and I'm done!

Wrap Up

So that was a brief overview of my chemo process, and I don't intend to constantly be boring you with the details of every single chemo visit.  I have other things planned, like fibery goodness, Zentangles,  vegetable garden, etc, etc.  And maybe an interesting car ride or two (or maybe not interesting, who knows).

Let the adventure begin.

And remember if you are post-menopausal and experience any bleeding at all, CALL YOUR DOCTOR NOW! 

Retail Therapy

Today's blog post isn't what I had originally planned.  Retail therapy intervened! Serious retail therapy!

I've been wanting this beauty for a long time:

https://woolery.com/lendrum-original-double-treadle-spinning-wheel.html 

My husband said yes.  And I know I am so spoiled!

In going back to The Woolery's website, I see it is now out of stock.  I checked my account, and it says it's ready to ship.  So maybe I got the last one in stock?

I have been spinning for a few years. I have a single treadle Lendrum that I bought used.  Been wishing for a double treadle for a long time!  I'm so excited!

 My husband took this picture of some beautiful peach blossoms in our back yard. 

Last year we had some late frost and ended up with no peaches, apricots, plums or pluots.  Hope we have better luck this year.

This blog is very much a work in process.  I have several post ideas and hopefully I can get started with in the next day or two. Well, hopefully tomorrow. Monday is Chemo day and it's a long tiring day.

I need to work on the actual layout and graphics of the blog. The background is awful. And my little avatar picture is ancient and needs an update.

I am blaming all typos and grammar errors on "Chemo brain".

Last thing for now is a quote from the movie Galaxy Quest:

Never give up! Never surrender!

Time to get started on this blog!   For starters, here is a picture of some crocus from my garden.  They give me a happy. 😎

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay lets get to the serious stuff, and part of what this blog is about.

Short story, I have endometrial cancer.  And I am going to kick it's derriere.

There is some serious stupidity on my part.  I waited way to long to go to the doctor. My excuses? Blah, blah, blah, blah, covid, blah, blah, blah.   Not really going to dwell on it, can't change anything, water under the bridge and all that.  All I can do is move forward from where I am.

I am post-menopausal and had been having vaginal bleeding off and on for a while. I finally made a doctor's appointment, because it was obvious the bleeding was getting worse.  Ended up going to the ER, because the bleeding was that bad.

I spent a week in the hospital.  There were a multitude of tests and a couple of procedures. And a cornucopia of drugs who's names I can't remember.

First big concerns when they admitted me was hypertension and my blood loss.  I was and still am very anemic.

The test/procedure highlights:

    CT scan with contrast -  Mar 1

    Dilation and Curettage - Mar 1

    MRI with and without contrast - Mar 2

    Uterine embolization - Mar 4

So how bad was the bleeding? It couldn't be stopped with the D & C procedure.  I was given a drug (I don't remember the name) that helped stop the bleeding.  But that particular drug has side affects of causing leg clots.  But what could I do?  I was ordered complete bed rest.

So to stop the bleeding on March 4, a uterine embolization was performed.  It did the trick!  However, the pain was such that I was introduced to oxycodine.  Ugh, I never want to take that drug ever again. 

So at this point, I've been home for a couple of weeks.  No real pain at this point and no bleeding.

This week I finished my second week of Chemo and Radiation treatment.  (W00T the best of both worlds!)

So under the heading of "DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO":  If you are post-menopausal  and are experiencing bleeding. Drop what you are doing and call the doctor NOW!

Mmmm, Popsicle