I know you're out there and waiting for it.

Up one. That's what you're waiting for. I'm up one pound. Sigh.

Honestly, it's not as bad as I had feared it would be. I have not behaved very well this week, so I was actually relieved that I was only up one. Sadly I was up several last week, too; however, I'll leave you with a good note. For the entire month of February, I'm down a half a pound. HA! I'll take it.

Today and tomorrow we will be eating dinner out. Friday we will be eating lunch out. Saturday we may or may not eat out at the Hollywood Studios since we are going to see a preview showing of the new movie John Carter just for annual passholders. We are leaning toward coming home for dinner, but we might change our minds. Sunday we are going to a cast party, so you know that means food. Then I'm back to normal on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Well...hard to say if this will be a good or bad week.

Rehearsals for the Starliters show are going very well. Tonight is the final rehearsal for the Purim Spiel at SOJC. The show is Sunday afternoon. It's been busy with rehearsals four days a week. I am going to be glad when the Sunday/Wednesday rehearsals are over!

We plan to go to the gym for weights and take a walk later this morning. It's going to be hot, sunny, and 87 degrees here today. Walking in the middle of the day might not be such a good idea, but I hope to get something aerobic in somehow today.

Happy Birthday, Cindy!

Today is my step-sister Cindy's birthday. For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that I rarely use the word "step" in front of that word when I talk about Cindy, Kip, and Mark (not my husband Mark). These three are every bit as much my siblings as Flyn, in my opinion. I only hope they feel the same way about me.

I have almost no childhood memories that do not include the three of them. I can remember reading stories to Cindy when she was little. I remember Kip as a baby in a crib and babysitting Cindy and Kip when Jackie (their mother) went to the doctor to find out she was pregnant with Mark. After Mark's birth, there were several years when I rarely saw them because they had moved away from Laurel. Our relationship began again around 1973. Cindy was in high school; Kip was in junior high; and Mark was in elementary school. My dad married Jackie in 1974. From then on, we were officially a family. For that I have always been grateful.

Cindy is the one who graciously opened her house to Mark and me when I knew I would have to do surgery and chemo in Baltimore because of the insurance. This blog chronicled those days in detail, so those of you who have been reading this for the last few years already know that. Mark and I will forever be indebted to Cindy for that generosity. Once more I just want to thank her publicly in this blog for allowing us to live with her from August of 2010 through the end of January of 2011. It made a horrible experience a lot more tolerable. We love you, Cindy!

So, Cindy, I know you read this blog. I want to say Happy Birthday to you right here. Although I'm sure you are going to work today, I hope you can still have some fun. And...hm...your present is in the mail. LOL! Or at least it will be later today.

Today's pictures cover a lot of years. Two of them are from back in 1979 at Jackie and Daddy's house in Pasadena, MD. Lowell was an infant then. I included one of my all-time favorite pictures of me and Cindy. That is the one where she is in gorgeous red and I'm in emerald green at Evey's wedding. I thought we looked like Christmas tree ornaments. Seriously, I do love that picture. Then there is a picture of Mark, Cindy, and me at a kosher Chinese restaurant in Pikesville just before we left Baltimore to go to Florida. The other picture is at the hotel in Farmville, VA last Thanksgiving. Jackie, Cindy, and I are having breakfast together. It's the morning that Cindy taught me how to use the waffle machine in hotels. That was a mixed blessing! LOL! I love those waffles, but I shouldn't eat them. I asked her to show me how to do it, and she did! Yummy.

Have a fantastic day, Cindy! And look for a package to arrive next week.

Pirate Show

Last night we all went up to the Pirate Adventure Dinner show. Wow! It was really something. If you've ever been to Medieval Times, then you have some idea of what it was like. There was a big pirate ship in the center instead of an arena for horses. The show was quite amusing, and we were able to get a vegetarian dinner, too. I had a delicious, fancy, alcoholic drink. Then I slept in this morning until 8:30 a.m. I bet that was not a coincidence. LOL!

Mark and I did our exercises and walk today. It was quite warm and humid today. We saw a lot of birds and alligators on our walk. Fun times.

I played Mahj and won two games. Then tonight I went to my Starliters rehearsal. I'm kind of tired now. I am going to chill out and watch some TV!!

What a day!

I only have twenty minutes before I need to leave the house for a marathon dress rehearsal for our Purim spiel. Then we are heading up to the Pirates Adventure Dinner and Show with Rudy.

This morning we watched our Disney movie for the week from 1952, Robin Hood. Wow! I had never seen it, or at least I didn't remember seeing it. It far surpassed my expectations, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Yesterday we had a fantastic day checking out old downtown Kissimmee, something that's been on our "to do" list for quite awhile. Here are a few pictures of the gigantic Monument of States, Lake Toho, and some of the outdoor art exhibit. We plan to go back when it is not a Shabbat so that we can also go inside the shops and buy things! There are some great little coffee shops and restaurants as well as music stores and antique/collectibles shops. Then Rudy bought us a fantastic dinner at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort.

He has not been feeling well, so we were able to get an early dinner around 5:15 instead of waiting for our 6:45 reservation. This allowed us to be home by 7:30, and he went right to bed. Today he is going to a walk-in clinic to see if he needs antibiotics. I am afraid he is passing this, whatever it is, on to me. I'm coughing; my eyes are watering; and I'm clearing my throat a lot. OY! I cannot afford to get sick because next Sunday is the Purim spiel and April 21 is the Starliter show. Monday night I'm practicing my duet. Whenever I get a cold or any virus, it goes straight to the throat and causes laryngitis, which typically lasts for MONTHS! Seriously. MONTHS! So....please pray that Rudy has not brought something nasty and contagious into this house!

Walk for the Cause

This morning, Mark and I participated in Solivita's Fourth Annual Walk for the Cause for the American Cancer Society. The man who started this four years ago announced today that there were 340 walkers and runners. The first year, he only had about 50 people. Last year, Mark and I also participated and there were about 250. I wrote about last year's walk on March 18, 2011 blog entry.

The course is supposed to be a two mile walk or a three mile run. Last year I did this in the middle of my radiation therapy, and I know I was sluggish. I was third to last, just barely coming in ahead of two octogenarians, and it took me 48 minutes. I had walked two miles on Wednesday with Mark in 50 minutes. My goal today was to beat that time, so I really felt like I was walking faster than ever. Even so, when I hit the finish line and Mark announced a 31 minute time, I could hardly believe it. He had finished in about 25 minutes. Hm...that just didn't seem right. We got in the car and drove the track. Nope! It was not two miles, just about 1.4, maybe one and a half. Still, a mile and a half in 31 minutes is faster than my usual, so I'm happy about that.

Last year when we went up for the walk, we did not know a single person there. Today I was excited to meet and greet about a dozen people that we know from Starliters, my neighbors, and the cancer support group. This community is just amazing!

Afterwards, we did some shopping and then went to the Palms to do our weight machines. All in all, it has been a good morning.

Now we are doing some things around the house. Mark is making our Shabbat dinner. I'm doing emails, blogging, Facebooking, reading, and working on my new jigsaw puzzle. Oh, yeah, I should mention napping, too.

At 4:30 we are heading back up to the Village to attend a Billy Joel tribute artist performance. I hope it's great! Rudy is here now and will be going with us. When we come back, we'll eat the delicious pot roast dinner that Mark is working so hard on right now. Oh, it smells GOOD in this kitchen!

Enjoy the pictures. I included one from last year's race, just so you could see how much my hair has changed!

Gonna be fun!

Yesterday was fine but not great. It started off with being disappointed that I had gained weight. I did go to the gym and do all my weights, then Mark and I walked a full two miles in 50 minutes. I was excited about that. Then I just wimped out on running to play Mah Jongg with the new group of ladies that I met last Wednesday. Instead, I went with Mark to the comic book store and local health food store. We were both exhausted after that and took naps! We were supposed to go to a synagogue rehearsal in the evening, but a huge storm came up. The wind and rain were CRAZY! We looked out there and just decided we didn't want to drive forty-five minutes in that, especially on the two lane country roads that are not well lit. About a half hour later it was over, but by then we would have been too late to make it worth it. We watched a lot of TV shows that we had missed while on our trip.

Today is going to be a lot more fun. I'm enjoying watching Live with Kelly from Disney's new Aulani resort in Hawaii. We went to Hawaii in spring of 2010 on our cruise, and I plan to take the family back in the summer of 2014 to stay at the resort with Mark, Lowell, Emily, Evey, and Eric to celebrate my 64th birthday. I'm doing it that summer so that I can save money to pay for it. I'd pick my 65th, which seems like more of a milestone, but hey, why wait that long?! LOL!!

Soon I'll be heading up to my cancer support group followed by a few relaxing hours at the pool, where I do plan to put in 25-30 minutes of swimming. It's a gray, overcast day but no rain is predicted and upper 80s. Sounds like a pool day to me.

Sometimes between 3 and 5 p.m. our friend Rudy will be arriving to spend a week or so with us. That will be fun. Our cleaning lady will be here between 1 and 3, so the house will be all ready for him. Tonight we'll take him out to dinner at Solivita's Stonegate Grille and then go to the movie at the ballroom. Fun times ahead!

We're back from our trip.

Oh, this blog could be long. First, I apologize for saying that I was going to write blogs while I was gone and take my laptop. I did neither. At the last minute, I decided not to take the laptop because I thought I could write blogs on my new Kindle Fire; I was wrong. It would let me read the blog but not write one. I have no idea why it won't give me a keyboard, but it won't. So that's why there were no blogs while I was gone.

Second, I forgot to charge my camera battery, and I didn't take the charger either. That means there aren't many pictures from this trip! So not like me. LOL!!

Now, it's weigh-in Wednesday. My goodness, but I am no good AT ALL at knowing what I'm doing without that scale. I thought I was eating very well. Most of our meals were prepaid buffet tickets with little options and people serving the food. That meant that I got what everyone else got (or less because I never took any meat entrees) and did not pile up bigger portions than anyone else. I never went back for seconds. That covered five days of lunches and dinners. There were no between meal snacks, and I took dessert (which was super small) only two of the five days. Breakfast was at the hotel every morning, scrambled eggs and either a small bowl of Cheerios or a mini bagel with a small amount of cream cheese. Last Wednesday morning I ate breakfast at home and last Friday I ate it in a restaurant, so that breakfast was bigger than the others. I had a veggie omelet (no cheese), a small bowl of grits, and rye toast. At bedtime I ate the usual banana twice, an apple once, and nothing the other nights. I walked at least 25 minutes or swam at least 25 minutes every day. So...I really thought I was having a great week.

WRONG!! I gained two and a half pounds. I must say that I was shocked. I thought I probably stayed the same, but I really felt like I had dropped one or two. That's why I say I just have no sense at all about what my weight is doing. Sigh.

We had a great time on the trip. We visited our friend Ellen, who was renting a condo in Delray Beach for three weeks. We had breakfast with her and saw her condo. In fact, snapping a picture of her is what made me realize that my battery was low in the camera! We also spend several days visiting with our friends Walter and Lore in the RV campground where they were enjoying Florida sunshine instead of West Virginia cold. Several other friends of ours were also there, including Cathy and Ed B. and Jonathan and Susan S. It was almost like a family reunion.

On the last day we decided to visit a museum in Stuart, Florida where we were staying. It was Gilbert Bar's House of Refuge. Of the ten Houses of Refuge along the Florida Atlantic coast, this is the only one remaining. The houses provided food and lodging for those who were shipwrecked. Originally they were not Coast Guard stations or rescue places. They were charged with watching for survivors to wash up on shore and then provide help. It was fascinating because we never knew about such things. Since it was the last day, I snapped more pictures than I had because it didn't matter if I wore out the battery at that point!

So here are some pictures. We are at the House of Refuge, with our friend Lore in front of her new condo, with our friend Ellen at the restaurant in Delray, with my Valentine's Day flowers from Mark. We actually took those with us to the hotel for the week. They made the hotel room look so beautiful.

It's Wednesday.

Although my calories were not as low as the previous week, I guess they were low enough. I lost a pound and a half. This morning I weighed 253.2, and I was thrilled! I walked a half an hour yesterday, and we had walked two miles in 48 minutes Monday. I'm sure the consistent exercise helped me with my weight loss this week, even though my calories were averaging more like 1500 to 1600 instead of 1200.

I feel like a new woman today! LOL! That normal biopsy gave me such a wonderful, light-hearted feeling. I knew that I was nervous about the possibilities, but I really didn't know how much it was weighing me down. Wow! I was almost euphoric, and I woke up with that same feeling today. I'm a normal BC survivor. Most of us think another cancer is right around the corner. I think I was pro-active and not just paranoid. At least this lovely lady doctor treated me that way.

I'm up extra early this morning because I wanted to eat breakfast early since lunch has to be very early, 10:15! LOL! I know that seems absurd, but when I was working, my lunch period at school was 10:45 for the last six years of work. My other alternative was to have a "brunch" at 9 or 10, but Mark is now getting up very early for breakfast to help his sugar levels stay down, so I decided to get up early and eat with him.

Why do I need lunch so early today? Because I have to leave the house at 10:30 to go for a mani/pedi. When that is over, I'm immediately going to go play Mah Jongg with a new group of ladies. By then it will be nearly 4 p.m. and there would have been no time for lunch. At 4, I'm going up to the gym for my weight machines and somehow I have to work a walk or swim into the day. At 5:15 Mark and I are driving over to the Disney area for dinner at Denny's and then a rehearsal at the synagogue from 7-9 p.m.

And NO! The day isn't over then. We will get home near 10 p.m and then PACK! Yes, we are leaving for a one week trip down to the south Florida area. Our plan is to bust out of the house at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, so we can arrive around noon and have lunch there. We are going to a Clarion Hotel in Stewart, FL. While we're down there, we will have time to visit our friend Ellen from Buffalo, NY! She's renting a condo for a few weeks in that same area in Delray Beach. Friday morning we are going to meet her for breakfast. It should be a lot of fun. The rest of the time will be spent touring, relaxing, and eating, hopefully not eating too much. We plan to take some nice long walks, too.

Of course, a trip means eating all the meals out for a week. Sigh. Not my strong point. I will only promise to do my best. We will be arriving back home next Tuesday night, just in time for the next Wednesday weigh-in. I will be happy if I stay the same for this week. That would be a small triumph for a week away from home. I am taking my laptop, so I hope to write some blogs while we are gone.

I already mentioned that Mark got me a cute Mickey card and made me a delicious dinner for Valentine's Day. (His low-cal, lo-carb Kung Pao Chicken was AMAZING!!) What I didn't know when I was writing yesterday was that he had also ordered flowers to be delivered to the house. Aw...so sweet. Only thing is, they didn't come! He was on edge all day waiting for that delivery and they never came. He did, however, pay a bundle on a credit card for the online purchase. Now, today, he has to try to track it down and get his money back. Well, his heart was in the right place and I appreciated the thought. Had flowers shown up at the door, I would have been very, very surprised. I only remember him sending me flowers once before for a Valentine's Day and that was when I was teaching at Pikesville Middle School in the late 1990s. They arrived at school and I put them on my desk. My students were very impressed! So was I.

At this point, I hope he can at least get his money back.

Tomorrow, I'll be blogging from south Florida! YAY!

The results are in...and they are GOOD!

I just returned from the GYN/ONC's office. GOOD NEWS!

My prediction, written at the bottom of the previous entry, was absolutely CORRECT!

The biopsy was normal. The mass on the ovary does not concern her too much, but I am having another ultrasound in mid-April and a follow up visit with her on April 26. She also drew blood to do a CA 125 tumor marker test. She fully expects that to come back normal, too.

The doctor was excellent. She took a lot of time with me. We sat in her office for a long talk and complete history, then she did a complete exam. She did not detect any signs of cancer anywhere. She is a surgeon, so, of course, she said she likes to do surgeries, but she would never recommend that someone have one if they didn't need it, and I don't need it. YAY! I feel like a weight is off my shoulders.

Still, I asked her why I have the symptoms of menstrual-like cramps. She said many things could cause them, none of them bad. The Arimidex could cause them. I didn't know that. The three hernia surgeries could be having new scar tissue forming on the mesh that could mimic that kind of pain. Didn't know that either. She agreed that setting up the new couch on Friday probably did set off the intense round of pain on Saturday because it was too close after the biopsy. Yeah, I should have known that one. As long as I don't bleed and the pain is not terrible, she would not be too concerned since the biopsy was normal.

On the other hand, if the tumor marker test shows anything, or the I start to bleed, or the pain became intolerable, then she would recommend a hysterectomy. Until then, we will just monitor things and keep checking in with her periodically. I can do that!

Meanwhile, my day just got a lot brighter!

Thanks to everyone who has been checking in with me and showing their concern. I love you all!

Check Back Later and a Prediction at the bottom

I really enjoyed yesterday because I did everything I planned to do and even won one game at Mah Jongg. That doesn't sound like a lot of wins, but many people didn't win at all. It was an odd day full of wall games (no winner), so one win was OK with me. Now my car runs smoothly and quietly, and Mark put together one of the new DVD towers and emptied an entire box of BETA tapes on to it. We went to the gym and walked a full two miles in the sunshine. Plus, the Starliter rehearsal was especially fun because I got to rehearse my duet. Yes, it was a good day yesterday.

Now it's Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine's Day everybody. I hope you are all sharing it with someone you love, or at least doing something special for yourself if you are alone. Alone or together, maybe you can have a bubble bath, read for pleasure, listen to some music, eat some chocolate, take a walk, or do whatever will make you happy. I gave Mark a box of sugar-free chocolates and a card. He gave me an adorable Mickey card with the promise of a homemade, low-cal, Kung Pao chicken dinner tonight. He also plans to put together another DVD tower, and I get to go to another fun rehearsal for Starliters tonight.

Well, now for the other shoe to drop. I also have a 2:30 appointment with the GYN/ONC this afternoon. I'm hoping they have the biopsy results because if they don't, this appointment will be somewhat less than satisfactory. When I had the biopsy last week (Wednesday), they said it would take a week to get the results. Today is one day short of a week, and I told this new office that information when they were scheduling the appointment. They promised they would do their best to get the results early, but when they called to confirm the appointment yesterday, they did not have the results yet. They are still trying.

So please check back to this blog entry later this evening. I should get back from the appointment by 4:30 or 5 and log on to put up the results right away. I have to leave for my Starliters rehearsal at 6:10 and dinner will be at 5:30, but I still think there will be plenty of time to write up what happened at the doctor's before then. For some reason, I have a strong feeling that this biopsy will be normal, but then I felt that way about the ultrasound, too, and I was wrong. I guess there's just no way to predict the results, so I am going to spend the day taking a walk, balancing my checkbook, reading, and enjoying the day before we leave for that appointment. After all, it is Valentine's Day!

OK, it's hours later than when I wrote the previous paragraphs. I balanced my checkbook, read my book, took a 30 minute walk, and looked at the mail. Now I'm eating lunch and in 40 minutes, we will be heading up the road to the GYN/ONC's office. Before going, I want to put my prediction into writing, then I'll see if I'm clairvoyant! LOL!

I predict that my biopsy will be negative and that we will decide to wait six months to repeat the ultrasound to check on the status of the ovarian mass and thickness of the uterine lining. That's my prediction. I'll be back later to give the final report!

Kosher Barbecue

It was an easy drive to our cantor's ranch in the Clermont area. We got there and found dozens of people enjoying the kosher hot dogs off the grille, along with a variety of salads, chips, and sodas. The funny thing was that everyone was bundled up! It was sunny but very cold and windy. I was wearing a long sleeved turtle neck, a heavy pull over sweater, a cardigan sweater, and a hoodie. I even wore gloves! It was hard to remember we were in Florida.

The cantor had a lot of pine tree seedlings, and a park ranger taught the kids and adults the proper way to plant them. Then everyone had a chance to plant a little tree, if they wanted. Mark and I just watched. We are not good with plants and didn't want the responsibility! LOL!!

Then they shot off rockets and took a nature walk. There were horses to look at and a beautiful white standard poodle who absolutely loved everybody and loved running around all afternoon. What a fun way to spend the day and celebrate Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of trees.

Once we got home, we stayed bundled up and relaxed on the new couch, watching TV until 10 p.m. I went to bed early because this morning I had to get up before 6 to get ready to go to the car repair place. I have an 8 a.m. appointment to have a part installed underneath to stop a rattle.

It's 33 degrees this morning. YIKES! The TV news show is telling people that if they need to scrape their windows and don't have a scraper, then they can use a spatula or a credit card. Haha! I have still have a scraper. Sadly, my car is also sitting outside right now because the old couch is in the garage in my spot. The bulk pick up isn't until Wednesday morning for that. I hope that by the time I got out at 7:25 to leave there is no frost. I really don't want to scrape, even though I do still have my scraper.

Once I get home from the car repair place, I will go to the gym for weights and walking on the treadmill (hey, too cold for outside walking!), Mah Jongg, early dinner, and rehearsal. It will be a good day, but COLD all day!

Installation was great.

First, let me say that most of yesterday did not go as planned. As the morning progressed, my cramps got very, very bad. I mentioned them to Mark, and he said he was very tired and it wouldn't take much for him to go back to bed instead of going to shul. I jumped on the chance, and very soon after, we were both asleep again in bed. First, I tried to find my old heating pad. I haven't wanted it since we moved down here, but I can't believe I would have thrown it away in Maryland. It used to work just fine. Well, I never did find it.

I slept from 9 to 11 or so yesterday morning, but when I woke up the cramps were still there. I lay on the couch and read for awhile. I took it very, very easy. If I stayed still and stretched out, the cramping was less. Around 3 p.m. I went back to bed until 5 p.m.

When I got up at 5, I definitely felt better. No matter how I felt, though, I was determined to get to the new rabbi's installation dinner at the Rosen Center. We both got all dressed up and around 6:15 we headed up to Orlando. Wow! The place was amazing.

This was like going to a fancy wedding! There was an hors d'oeuvre station, which included grilled asparagus, carrots, artichokes, and other veggies, plus three hot hors d'oeuvre chafing dishes holding mini spanakopita, mini potato knish, and mini egg rolls, all vegetarian. Everything was delicious. I had three asparagus and two carrot slices, 2 mini egg rolls, 2 spanakopita, and 1 mini potato knish. I also had half a glass of white wine, which they were passing around. Later, the sit down dinner included rolls and butter (which sadly I ate), a mixed green salad, a huge portion of baked fish in cream sauce, new potatoes, mini carrots and string beans, and an amazing mocha cheesecakey type thing for dessert. They were also liberally pouring my favorite wine, Bartnenura moscato d'asti. Oh, yes, I had two glasses of that! At least there was also dancing.

Mark and I sat with three other couples that we did not know, but we enjoyed talking to them and getting to know them some. There was a raffle, and the lady next to me won a gorgeous silver menorah. There was a silent auction, but Mark and I did not indulge in any of the items. From what I saw, they had fantastic items and everything was selling very well. This affair was to be a huge fund-raiser for the synagogue, and I suspect it was very, very successful.

I felt pretty good throughout the evening, so I was very grateful for that. This morning I feel better than yesterday, too. In an hour we are heading up to Clermont, about an hour northwest of here, to attend the Tu B'Shevat barbecue at the cantor's ranch. It should be fun. Just in case, I plan to take another 800 mg of ibuprofen and the two extra-strength Tylenol before I go.

It's COLD here this morning, and I'm not kidding! It was only 33 degrees out there this morning. Depending on which report you check, the high today will be between 52 and 62 with some wind. I am going to break out my sweatshirts this morning because the party is outdoors noon to three.

Today's pictures include the rabbi's father (also a rabbi) making a presentation to his son (our new rabbi!), our cantor leading havdalah, Mark with friends Jules, Judy and son Ilan at the cocktail reception before dinner, the rabbi and his wife watching the cantor, me and friend Marian, the rabbi and his wife again, and the yummy dessert. At least I only ate three bites of the dessert and let the rest go. If I had cut the hors d'oeuvres in half and skipped the roll, it would have been a better night for me, but I am hoping the dancing helped!

Good Work

Setting up my new sofa yesterday was a 90 minute job, but I'm proud of myself for getting it done all by myself! Mark was at his NARFE District meeting, and when he came home, that new couch was all done and looking good. In fact, while putting the cushion covers on, I discovered that the reason last year's couch never seemed quite right was because I did NOT put those covers on correctly. Once I finished this couch, I went right into the living room and removed the covers from the two seat cushions and put them on correctly. Huge difference! The picture with the blue blanket is the new one in the kitchen/family room. The one with the pink blanket is the one from last year in the living room. Both have double beds hidden inside. On my computer the new one looks sort of beige/ecru like. It must be the lighting because they are both identical, white.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week Mark has plenty of time in the house. He's going to put one DVD tower together each day. That will allow us to empty maybe two or three of the four boxes still sitting in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to that. Then we are going to the Miami area for a week and our friend Rudy is arriving the day after we get back to stay a week or so with us. He is ready for some warm air again! I know it will be awhile before Mark can do the last two DVD towers or get to those three bookshelves for the den. I'm hoping he can have them all done by the end of March when our other company starts coming down for Passover.

Today is Shabbat, so we are heading out to services in the morning. We plan to have a relaxing afternoon, watch some TV, take a walk if it's not raining, nap, read, and then head out around 6:30 to a hotel near the WDW area for a big, formal evening. Tonight is our new rabbi's formal installation dinner. It should be a lovely event, but we have never gone to an installation for a new rabbi that didn't take place right in the synagogue. Maybe this synagogue's social hall is too small to hold all the people that they needed to invite. I'm not sure. It is a fairly small social hall in this building, for sure.

Meanwhile, my calories remain excellent. I am staying in good control. I just hope tonight's dinner out and tomorrow afternoon's barbecue doesn't change that. Also, I am fully recovered from the biopsy, but I'm having some pretty strong cramping this morning. It's quite uncomfortable, so I plan to take 800 mg of ibuprofen with breakfast. It's kind of scaring me, but I'm trying not to think about it too much or worry about it yet. I have that GYN/ONC appointment Tuesday afternoon. Time enough to worry then.

Furniture Fun!

I found shopping at IKEA yesterday a lot of fun! Mark said he didn't get it at all. I'm wondering how my blog readers feel. Is shopping at IKEA fun or not? How about shopping in general?

Usually, I'm not a big fan of shopping of any kind. I have never had enough money or time to really enjoy just going out and buying things for myself. I do like to shop for holiday presents for other people, but for the last five or six years the shopping has mostly been from my laptop! LOL! Mark does all the grocery shopping for us, and has for so many years that I can hardly remember ever doing it, and he does NOT enjoy that experience at all. It's a chore he has to do, and he does it well, but there's no real enjoyment there.

We didn't spend much time in the store because we had a very specific shopping list, knew where to find them, and didn't look at anything else, just like Mark does grocery shopping! We got a sleep sofa that is identical to the one in our living room that we bought last spring at IKEA, five more DVD towers identical to the ones in the TV room, bringing that total up to 13, and three brown bookcases like the one in the dining room to line one wall of Mark's den. He can put one of these pieces together in about forty-five minutes and will do one a day until they are done, starting on Monday.

I'm so excited for the DVD towers because we'll finally be able to empty the last boxes of VHS tapes out of the family room and den. The sofa in the TV room will allow us to have two more people sleep over, in case we have a houseful of company some day. (See me crossing my fingers and hoping that this happens? I guess you blinked because I did do that! LOL!) I also am excited to see the bookshelves in the den. Currently there is a broken metal shelf that is probably over fifty years old, a leaning wooden bookshelf that I bought in 1968 at a drug store, and a nearly useless old computer table. These things are falling apart and do not hold enough books and things. They are currently full and yet there are several unopened boxes still in there. These new book shelves will hold everything and more, I think, plus they will just look so much nicer. On the opposite wall, there are two file cabinets, an antique "secretary," and an antique library style glass door book cabinet. We will never get rid of those items, but they are also packed tight and can hold no more. The fourth wall has my father's giant wooden desk facing that window and opposite are the French doors leading into the room. It's going to be a beautiful room when it's done.

Much to our surprise, everything is being delivered this afternoon between 1 and 4 for the small fee of $59. That was faster and cheaper than we expected. Mark is going to spend all day out of the house at a NARFE District meeting. He'll be gone from 8 to 4:30, so I'll be here accepting the furniture delivery. We dragged the old sofa out into the garage last night, and the bulk trash people will pick it up Wednesday morning. We cleared other things out of the room to make it easy for everything to be delivered into the same room since that's their rule. If they come early enough, I'll have that sofa unwrapped and assembled before Mark gets home. It's really already assembled. It just requires a lot of unwrapping of cardboard and plastic wrap, draping the cover over the frame, and stuffing the cushions into their zippered covers. That was the part that was the hardest on the last one. I was never satisfied with how I did on those cushions, so maybe this time I can do it a little better. Otherwise this small, sofa is really attractive, sleeps two in a sturdy double bed, and is fairly comfortable to sit on. My little house will now sleep EIGHT!

As I started off saying today, I was excited to shop at IKEA and now I'm excited to have the new stuff in our home.

All over.

The biopsy wasn't something I'd want to do everyday, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I must admit that my adrenalin was pumping when I got to the office. In fact, my blood pressure was 142/79. I never have a top number out of the 20s unless I'm upset about something, and I don't ever remember getting a 142. Oh, well...I knew my adrenalin was high. The good side was that I was down 9 pounds since they weighed me the first time two and a half weeks ago, so they were very amazed by that! I was pleased.

The doctor put me at ease, as much as he could, and he was everything I wanted him to be: skillful, quick, relatively painfree. It was uncomfortable, but not nearly as painful as I had anticipated. I was pleasantly surprised. I did feel like a limp dishrag the rest of the day as the adrenalin high went away. I was cautioned not to do anything too strenuous for the rest of the day, so I took his advice. I took it easy and even skipped going out to the synagogue rehearsal last night. I took Advil and Tylenol again later in the day and mostly tried to rest a lot. If I moved around too much, I definitely got more pain and uncomfortable feelings.

BUT, this morning, it's all over! I feel completely back to normal. Now I'm waiting for the results, which should take a week. I also made the appointment with the GYN/ONC for Valentine's Day. That office is going to see if they can fast track the biopsy results so that they are ready by Tuesday for the Onc doc to see that day.

Now it's just back to life as normal while I wait for the results.

This morning I will go to my cancer support group and report what has happened. I know everyone there will offer support and advice. Then Mark and I are going to go spend some more money! LOL! It's time to upgrade the house again. We're going to IKEA for a second sleep sofa to put in the family room, five more DVD towers so we can empty some more boxes, and 3 bookshelves for the den. I'm excited for all of that.

In addition, we will probably be able to take a nice walk this afternoon. Because of the IKEA run, lunch will be out at Subway today, always good for the calories. Dinner will be at Lakeside with free wine, salmon, double veggies, and salad, no bread, no dessert. Can't be too bad for me. I'm excited to wake up in the morning and feel in control of things.

Weighing and Worries

My weigh in this morning was FABULOUS! I was completely rewarded for my hard work this week with a three and a half pound loss, going from 258.2 to 254.7. I was elated when I stepped off that scale. Now I'm gearing up for another great week!

This week I will be eating three meals out, one lunch and two dinners. First is my usual dinner on Thursday night at Lakeside with the free wine. Mark and I have both made the decision to skip the potato choice in favor of double vegetables. Also, I will eat out on Saturday night at a hotel. That is the big Installation dinner and ceremony for our new rabbi at our new shul, SOJC, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation. It's a catered, sit-down dinner in a hotel. Often portions aren't that big at those things, so hopefully I will maintain control there. NO BREAD! That's one big key for me.

The third meal out is lunch the following Sunday afternoon. This is the one that I am the most worried about. It is a KOSHER barbecue at our cantor's ranch in honor of Tu B'Shevat. Now that doesn't happen very often! There will be kosher hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill as well as veggie burgers. I have no idea what else will be there, but it will ALL be kosher, so it will ALL be available to me in a buffet setting. YIKES! Be afraid, be very afraid. Mark and I plan to help each other behave, me with calories and him with carbs. I'll let you know how we do!

Now for the worries mentioned in the blog title today. In 30 minutes, I'm driving up to the GYN office for that endometrial biopsy. I can feel my adrenalin already starting to pump from the fear of pain. Who likes pain? Not me! I actually had this biopsy twice before in my life. The first time was in my early 30s to see why it was taking so long to get pregnant the second time. I didn't know it was going to happen, so I had no time to think about it. The doctor just said he was going to do it. It HURT A LOT! I can't stress that enough, but the best part was that I didn't know what was coming, so there was no time to stress about it.

The second one was in my late 40s to rule out uterine cancer. It showed nothing, which was great news, but I did know it was coming because it was scheduled. Like today, I was very nervous because I remembered the time from my thirties. Then, it didn't actually hurt as much. I was amazed because I was prepared for much worse. Of course, it was a different doctor performing it, so that might have had something to do with it.

So today I don't know what to expect. It might be terrible like in my thirties, but it might be not so bad like in my forties. I hope that this doctor is skillful, quick, accurate, and keeps the pain to a minimum. It's scheduled for 9:20 a.m.

One thing I have now that I didn't have then is the internet. That is both good and bad. LOL! I have read all about the actual procedure, and it sounds easy for the doctor to do yet painful for the woman to endure. I did get one good tip, though. I am going to take both Tylenol and Motrin (actually, generic ibuprofen) an hour before the procedure to help minimize pain and cramping. I hope that helps. I actually have a huge bottle of oxycodone in the medicine cabinet left over from surgeries! Don't think I didn't considered taking them this morning! LOL!!

I'll let you know later how it went. Meanwhile, I'm still flying high on the three and a half pound weight loss and looking forward to another loss next Wednesday.

The results are in...

and they are NORMAL. YAY!

I called the doctor's office on Friday to get my blood test, mammogram, and ultrasound results. Everything is perfectly normal. I was elated.

The seroma that showed up last July on the ultrasound, and which prompted the doctor in October to say I should see a surgeon, has shrunk by one-third. It is no longer necessary to see the surgeon. That was excellent news.

The mammogram was completely normal!

The blood work was normal! This time I asked about the tumor marker tests, which I knew they were doing. They did two different ones. Unfortunately I did not have a pen with me when I was talking to the nurse, so I can't remember the name of the first test. I do remember that normal is under 3.something and I was 2.something, so that was excellent. The second test is CA 27/29 for breast cancer. Normal is 30 or less, and I was 17. FANTASTIC!

I don't know much about these tumor marker tests, but I did read up on the CA 27/29 test. It's not terribly reliable, and it's a trend over time that is more important. It tests for proteins in the blood that are released by cancer cells. Unfortunately, a really high number doesn't mean that other tests will find a cancer or a metastasis of a previous one, and a really low number doesn't necessarily mean there isn't a cancer present somewhere. Still, it's another test in the doctor's arsenal which some use and some don't. No matter what, I have to admit that I felt pretty good hearing that 17!

Now I need to prepare for Wednesday morning's endometrial biopsy and what those results might show. I'm not sure whether I want them to be normal or pre-cancerous. If it shows pre-cancerous cells in the uterus, then the decision is clear cut, hysterectomy. If it shows nothing, then I need to make a decision for myself which is far less clear. We'll see.

Meanwhile, today will be fantastic. I'm leaving in a few minutes to go to a lady's house to try on four dresses as potential costumes for one scene that I'm in for Starliters. Then Mark and I will drop his car off for an oil change, head to the gym for weights and walking, play Mah Jongg at my neighbor's house, and go to the Starliters rehearsal this evening. The day will be wonderful.

I'm also really looking forward to Wednesday morning when Mark brings back the scale. I did reasonably well on the two days of travel, but I've been very strict all the other days and have exercised most every day. I swam or jogged in the water for 25 minutes yesterday afternoon and ate 1300 calories for the day. For some reason I'm feeling more in control of my eating than I have for a very, very long time. I just hope I can keep this feeling long enough to drop another thirty or forty pounds over the next six months. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Pill Boxes

Sunday is pill day at the Silverstein household. This morning, Mark and I sat together to fill up our new pill boxes. I take all my pills at the same time at bedtime, so I haven't used a box before. One or two times, I have wondered the next morning whether or not I took them, so I got a box for myself. I filled it this morning for the week, so now I can look at it and know for sure if I did or did not take those pills that night.

Mark's box has four compartments, and he sat and filled them all up. He doesn't take any pills at noon, but he cleverly used the morning and noon compartments to be the Before breakfast and With breakfast pills. He has a few that have to be taken 30 minutes before a meal and then some that are taken with a meal.

Anyway, we are both very sure that the new system is going to help our brains a LOT! LOL!!

We had a relaxing day yesterday. After getting home from shul, we just had lunch, napped, and watched a lot of TV. We watched our next Disney movie, Treasure Island. That's the last movie that was released before our lifetimes. It came out in 1950 a few months before I was born. I don't think I had ever watched it all the way through, so it was pretty entertaining. Then we watched our daily Star Trek: Enterprise episode, although we have recently skipped a lot of days. It was a good one, too. Finally, we finished up the evening by digitizing another home movie from an old Beta tape. This was the trip to Atlanta;s Coke Museum, Six Flags over Georgia, Universal Studios, and lots of time at Walt Disney World, staying in the Port Orleans resort. It was 1992, so Lowell was 13 and Evey was 5. I love watching my kids!

As for me, I was on the way up in weight. I could really see the difference between the 1990 trip to NY and this trip two years later. In between I had had the accident where the wall hit me on the head and I was in a neck brace for awhile. I then stopped going to Weight Watchers and was in constant pain for over a year. Naturally, I dealt with that stress by eating. I was definitely on the way UP in weight by 1992. The brakes didn't stop on the weight gain until 2009. Scary.

I have had some excellent days since we got home from the trip. We have taken some long walks, and I have made note of every calorie, staying in the 1200 to 1400 range. We also did our weights on Friday. I hope this week will show a nice weight loss despite eating out for the first two days in Arlington.

Today we have to go get Mark's comic books, rehearse at the synagogue, do some grocery shopping, take a long walk, and end up with some TV. It's going to be fun. Time to get it started by taking a shower and getting dressed. In an hour we are out the door. Hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are.

Arlington National Cemetery

Our flights up and back to Reagan National Airport went smoothly. Once we arrived and checked into our motel, we headed out to a great Mexican restaurant to meet up with our friends John and Bev. We have not seen them since we left Maryland over a year ago. We had a heck of a hard time finding the restaurant because we were unfamiliar with the area, but once we found it, we had a blast. The food and company were both fantastic. Then, as an added bonus, our friends Sean and Ngoc and son Kevin called to say that if we just waited another fifteen minutes, they could join us, too. Well, that was a no-brainer! Of course, we waited.

We had seen Kevin as an infant and now he's a two year old! Wow! Sadly, Ngoc's father had passed away Monday night. They were out that night attending a private family mass for him and preparing for viewings and a funeral in the next few days. At least we were able to visit with them for an hour and convey our personal condolences.

Enjoy these pictures of our visit with them.

Thursday we attended the funeral, and it was an honor to be there. Mark and I were not too familiar with Arlington National Cemetery, so we also had a bit of trouble finding the Old Post Chapel. We still made it in time. Mark was able to visit with some of his other Goddard co-workers who also came to honor Sharon and Gordon. I had never attended a military funeral, so just seeing all the ceremony attached to it, including handing Sharon the flag, was awe-inspiring. It was a fitting ceremony for a great man.

Afterwards, Mark and I went to the Visitors Center because he needed a men's room. He had not been feeling well all morning because he ate too much dairy (Mexican for lunch and dinner!) the day before. He also felt just generally tired and worn out. It wasn't until later that evening that he realized he had not taken his heart medication. OY! No wonder he felt like he couldn't move.

While we were at the Visitor Center, I wanted to walk up to the Kennedy grave sites. I vaguely remembered being there once, probably on a school trip, but I hardly remembered them. I had forgotten that Jackie Kennedy is now buried there next to John. We also saw Robert and Edward Kennedy's graves. If I had known that Mark had forgotten his heart meds, I would not have insisted that we walk up those hills to get to those graves. That was way too much for him without the pills, but at the time we just thought it was the gastric distress from his lactose intolerance. I made sure to stop at a CVS later that day to buy some Lactaid pills for the next time he feels like pigging out on cheese enchiladas with sour cream and guacamole! LOL!!

He took his heart meds later while we were at the airport, shortly after he remembered that he never took them. Within two hours he was feeling himself again, at least in the chest. It took a few more hours for the tummy troubles to finally subside.

We were both very glad we went to DC for the visit with our friends and for the funeral, but Mark would have enjoyed himself more on Thursday if he had taken Lactaid the day before and his heart med in the morning. He had forgotten that heart medication once or twice before, so we should recognize the symptoms by now. Sadly, we did not this time because we were so focused on the lactose intolerance symptoms instead. I'm really going to try to be more sensitive to this in the future.

One thing I did today was buy new pill boxes. He has all of his pills in one container, but since he takes pills four times a day and some of them are the same ones more than once a day and many look alike, he sometimes take some pills but not others. I bought him a case today that has four containers: morning, noon, evening, bedtime. Now he can sort them in advance and take everything in that particular case all at once. Maybe this will help. We'll see.

Quick weigh in report

DOWN TWO!! I'm quite pleased with that because I feel I did work hard this week. I weighed 258.2 this morning, down from 260.3 last week. Now I'm going to work hard again. I'm 8 pounds up from last year at this time when we arrived here to stay. I checked my weight records and found that I weighed 250 that day. Chemo took me up from 220 on the day of surgery, September 16, 2010 to 250 when we arrived here on February 1, 2011. That's 30 pounds up from chemotherapy. The sadder part is that I didn't lose it when it was just 30. Instead, I added more. Well, that's all behind me now. I am feeling more in control and motivated than I have in a long time. I'm partly motivated by fear of an impending hysterectomy, but, hey, whatever it takes! Right? LOL!

This afternoon we are flying to D.C. for tomorrow morning's funeral at Arlington Cemetery. That means eating out today for lunch and dinner, then tomorrow's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After that, there are no more eating out times during this seven day period. I know that lunch today will be good. Breakfast tomorrow morning will be in the hotel, so I will try to keep it low. It's tonight's dinner that has me worried. We are meeting our good friends John and Bev at a Mexican restaurant in Falls Church, VA. I love Mexican, and it's hard to keep the calories low. I'll just do my best to make wise choices. Next Wednesday will show how well I do tonight. Tomorrow's lunch and dinner will be out, but I'm not sure where or what. I can only do my best to make appropriate food choices.

There will be no opportunity for long walks today or tomorrow either, but we at least are going up to the gym for the weight machines before we head to the airport.

No blog tomorrow, and then I'll write Friday morning to tell you all about the funeral, the visit with friends, and the food choices.