Chore Day

Today's chore list:
1. BJs to get new tires for Mark's car as well as pick up some supplies;
2. Cable company to get two new cable boxes for the bedrooms;
3. Comic book store;
4. Another load of laundry;
5. Guys and Dolls rehearsal from 6-9 p.m.

That's not too bad!

Our rehearsals for the radio drama It's a Wonderful Life are coming along really well.  The show is next weekend already!  Wow.

Yesterday I won FOUR games of Mah Jongg.  Three were right in a row and one was a closed hand, which is really hard to get.  I would say it was my lucky day, but another lady did the same and several others all won three games.  It was everybody's lucky day!

I finally got around to posting my pictures from Tom and Cathy's visit, so here's a few of those for those of you who didn't already see them on Facebook.  LOL!

Enjoy the pictures. I have to go get ready to head out for chore day.

 We took them to the Boggy Creek Airboat Ride on Lake Toho, not far from our house. It's a lot of fun and you get to stand in front of the giant alligator hide.  Below is a picture of Mark and me holding Fluffy!

 We also went to Boma's at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  It's one of our favorite restaurants, so it seems we go there with everybody who comes to visit!

 We also had a day at Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival.  Yummy.

 Tom loves beer, so he really enjoyed the four-beer-flight in Germany.

 Cathy is an avid and talented gardener. She helped to get my philodendron, Treeful, all tidied up and some new potting soil added.

Friday night was our usual Shabbat dinner.  They were happy we included chopped liver and gefilte fish!

This Little Piggy Went to Market...or my neighbor's backyard.

Last night was the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower.  I read in the paper that the best viewing would be in the southeastern sky around dawn, but some FB friends here were going to go out after 11.  Since our backyard has no light in it at all, it would always provide the best star-gazing, but we often hear loud noises in our back yard.  That's why we have decided not to eat dinner in the succah in the dark!

Still, I wanted to see the meteor shower, so I went out the front door and down to the end of the driveway around 11:15 last night.  I was by myself at first, and I saw there was a lot of cloud cover, a bright street lamp, and almost no good visibility. I also thought I heard some animal rustling noises in the backyard across the street.  Those houses are perpendicular to our street since they have addresses on side streets, so their backyards form a large open space that goes straight out from our driveway about four house lengths and end in a wooded area, like our backyard does.  Hm...I went back to tell Mark that I couldn't see much, but he was already coming down the sidewalk.  We walked together to the end of the driveway. I was just about to tell him I had heard animal rustling noises when we both heard a LOUD animal noise, a cross between a big SNORT and a loud GROWL!!  Boy did we RUN back to the front door!  I was behind Mark screaming, "Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!"

LOL!!

We got inside the house with our hearts pumping full of adrenalin and just laughed and laughed.  YUP!  THAT is why we will NEVER eat dinner after dark in our succah!

Loving my busy life, but not the weight.

It's Wednesday. Life is great and I'm living it to the fullest.  LOL!  Of course, that means lots of overeating, so I'm up this week.  Last week, 257.6; this morning, 260.4.  That's a gain of almost three pounds.  I am not surprised.

We have fantastic company here this week, Tom and Cathy from NC.  We haven't seen them in over two years, so it's been a lot of fun.  There is also lots of eating out!  Today will be no exception.  We are about to head over to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival. Lunch and dinner will consist of eating tapas sized portions of many, many delicious foods and drinks from countries around the world.  At least we have to walk several miles while we work our way around the World Showcase Lake to eat all these foods.  We also hope to hit a few rides in Future World and hear Air Supply perform at the American Pavilion.  It's a cloudy day with a 30% chance of rain, so we are carrying a back pack full of rain ponchos just in case.  Eventually, I will have a photo album up of the visit with Tom and Cathy.

Short blog, but no more time.  Got to run out to Epcot!

Chemo Brain is a Reality

I have been wanting to write about this topic for over a week, but since I didn't write any blogs this past week, this one didn't get written.  I guess today will be the day.

This is from an article in the Orlando Sentinel, dated October 7, and titled " 'Chemo Brain' not just in cancer patients' heads."  It is a report on a large new study done by the Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.  Researchers analyzed 17 other studies that looked at cognitive function in breast cancer patients after chemo.  Most of them did have difficulty with finding words and getting lost, far more than women who had not had chemo.  I have definitely had more trouble finding the word I want, but when you are in your 60s, it's not uncommon.  I don't usually get actually lost, but I sometimes forget where I'm going and wind up in the wrong place or miss my turns because I forgot where I was going.

Although many doctors do bring it up as a possible side effect with their patients, many other doctors have been dismissing this as an "old wives tale" or just a side effect of the drugs while you are actually on them.  They have not warned patients that this is a reality or taken their concerns seriously. Most patients do not mention it to their doctors. One patient mentioned in this article said she told her doctor she was having memory problems and his response was, "There's this thing called chemo brain, but I don't believe in it."  I read about it on the internet and heard other women mention it, but I never mentioned to my oncologist in Maryland nor did she bring it up with me.  There has also been no discussion of it down here in Kissimmee.

The lady who mentioned it to her doctor also said that she has trouble finding words and her attention is much shorter. I really related to that.  Finding the right word is becoming more and more of a problem for me, but I also have a much shorter attention span. I used to be able to sit and read books for hours at a time.  Now I can't focus for more than a few pages, so I'm reading far less.  Even having a conversation with someone is difficult.  I often find my mind wandering onto other topics instead of listening.  I've actually caught myself changing the topic in mid-sentence, which is rude if nothing else. 

Although most studies have focused on breast cancer patients, mostly because there is such a huge pool of them, chemo brain is true for survivors of all cancers.  This study is showing that even though not all survivors report cognitive impairment, most do.  Animal studies show that after exposure to chemo drugs their brains have less nerve cells in the memory center.  Interesting, right? Functional MRIs of breast cancer patients that track blood flow to the brain show that survivors are tapping more areas of their brains to perform tasks than those who never had chemo.  It also shows that gray and white matter in the brain are smaller in post-chemo patients.  Geez.  None of that sounds good.

Although scientists are now trying to find ways to help with this problem, like some new drugs to administer with the chemo to prevent it in the first place, most doctors are recommending mental exercises and list-making to help out.  I already make lists, have my whole life, and love them.  Maybe that's why I don't really complain too much about chemo brain.  Except for forgetting the word I want, which I've blamed on my age not chemo, and sometimes forgetting where I'm going or why I went into a room or keeping myself focused on a book or conversation, I'm not doing too badly!  The article does say that survivors are truly grateful that the chemo cured them of cancer and that chemo brain and its effects are a small price to pay for being alive.  I second that!

SSI

I have now entered a whole new category of "old."  Last Tuesday I had two teeth pulled, so now there are no molars on the lower left.  And yesterday I had my first Social Security check directly deposited into its own special savings account.  Haha!  And I have successfully managed to plan how to spend the entire deposit already.  But that's a story for another time. Yeah, I think toothless and on social security definitely bumps me into a new old age category!  LOL!!

I am sorry I have not written a blog in over a week. I don't usually wait that long.  I feel like I was mostly either too busy (I know you've heard that before) or too lazy.  There were also three days of either Shabbat or Yom Tov (Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah) which made it harder to write.  Also there's BASEBALL!  I have been watching a LOT of baseball because the Orioles made the playoffs!  Whoooeeee!  Actually, we've been watching ALL of the play off games whenever we can, so there is a lot of post-season play going on in our house.

So there it is; my sad excuses. Now for the news.

My mouth is healing up just fine.  It's still sore and tender, so I don't let any food go on the left side, but it's progressing as expected.

I had my six month check-up with the medical oncologist yesterday.  All is well.  The tumor markers are normal; the mammogram and ultrasound from July are normal; and my weight was the same in her office as six months ago (not necessarily a good thing!).  I am now going to have mammos only annually like a normal person. I think that's a milestone.  I will have a second bone density scan in February since the Arimidex can cause bone loss.  I will still see the med onc every six months for at least three more years, as long as I am on the Arimidex. 

Weigh-in Wednesday yesterday sort of came and went without much fanfare.  I weighed 256.7, so I think that was down almost one pound for the week.  Don't care.  As long as I'm in the 250s, it's still bad.  I must admit I've fallen off the wagon again. I'm overeating on snacks, grazing during TV at night, not exercising at all, not logging in my calories in the Lose It! program.  In short I'm doing everything WRONG.  I know that, but I'm at the point where I don't seem to make the right choices.  I've been in this place before.  They know me here.

Guys and Dolls and Starliters have started up again.  That takes up two nights a week. I had to miss several due to the holidays and the oral surgery.  I haven't even really started Starliters on Monday nights because of the holidays and company.  I do enjoy both though.

I also got busier because my part in a Solivita drama changed.  Instead of teaching five women at my house a few times to sing three songs (Christmas Carols with other words to them) in two-part harmony for the commercials in the radio drama version of It's A Wonderful Life, I am now one of the singers.  Three of the five women dropped out, and one of the ones left can't match pitches.  She wants to quit, and the director wants her to quit, too! So the director asked me to move up from choral director to performer.  That means a lot more rehearsals!  It's fun, but it's taking a lot of time, three mornings a week from 9:30 to 12:30 for the entire month of October.  Mark is doing a superb job of playing Joseph, the Head Angel!  It's fun watching everybody rehearse.  The show will have four dinner theater style performances the first weekend in November, and it is already sold out! 

The two ladies are coming to my house this morning at 10:30.  I am hoping the non-singer will make the decision to quit.  If she doesn't, I'm pretty sure she's going to get fired by the show's director on Monday.

We have some company coming on Sunday, our good friends Tom and Cathy.  We have not seen them in over two years!  Mark and I are really looking forward to their week long visit.  I expect there will be much overeating and no writing of blogs next week!  LOL!!

Hope all is well in your world.

Post Season Play

The Orioles were shut down hard by Tampa Bay last night, losing 4-1, and New York ran all over Boston, winning 14-2.  That was one of our worst case scenarios, so the Os end up in second place for the season.  Still, we have clinched a Wild Card spot, which means we will play one game against Texas on Friday in order to advance to another play-off game. I think it's been 15 years since the Orioles went into post-season play, so this is still a big deal for us Oriole fans!  It was fun last night to see so much orange in the stands.  And the fans were nice to us!  During the game, they cheered for their team, as they should, but when it was over, several people stopped us and wished us well in the playoffs.  One even said, "Get those Yankees!"  The lady manning the escalator even high-fived us on the way out!

Best case scenario:  We beat Texas on Friday; we win the series against Oakland; we advance to the final round of AL play to beat either NY or Detroit.  Then we would go into the World Series against, hopefully, the Nationals, a Beltway series.  Odds of this happening, virtually nonexistent!  LOL!  Still, we can dream...

I'm healing up really well, surprisingly so.  I had a little aching in my jaw yesterday, which Advil took care of.  Things are looking pretty good in there.  I stayed on soft food all day yesterday, but it's truly amazing how those calories can mount up.  I ended up eating about 2400 calories yesterday, and I'm up one pound this morning.  Geez.  I'm going to stay on soft food today, and then tomorrow we'll see if I can eat some real food.

Tonight is a  Sisterhood event at SOJC.  There hasn't really been a Sisterhood for a long while over there, so they are trying to get one kick-started. I paid my annual dues of $36, and tonight I'm entitled to meet at the shul for Sangria in the Sukkah!  Sounds fun.  There will be Sangria, desserts (which I won't be able to eat), and games of Bunco. There will also be an opportunity to socialize with the other women of SOJC, which is really the most important part.

This morning I"m going to work with the other two lady singers from the show It's a Wonderful Life.  I was supposed to be only the choral director, but now I'm one of the singers.  AND....we are the only ones in the cast who have to have everything memorized. Yikes.  There are four songs, one with five verses, and some random lines here and there.  This is more than I bargained for in the amount of work to be done. I'm also selling back the four tickets I bought to the show since I'm now in it.  At least it will be nice to get the $100 back.

Better get started.

Toothless

Yesterday I got two teeth on the lower left pulled out.  Now there are three teeth missing there.  It was pretty smooth all in all except for the wait.  My appointment was for 11:30, and because it was my first appointment at that office, I was told to arrive at 11.  We got there at 11:05 and an hour later a lady came an announced they were running about two hours behind.  Hm...there were many disgruntled patients in the waiting room.  I got called back at 1 p.m., only ninety minutes late and was all done by 2:30.

I didn't know if they were going to use IV sedation or not, so I fasted, no food or water, from 11 p.m. the previous day.  It was unnecessary because they used Novocain and some gas to relax me.  I was not asleep, just thirty and hungry!  When it was over, I obviously couldn't eat much.  I'm on a soft food diet for two days, so we stopped at Publix to get my pain prescription and some Advil along with more yogurt and ice cream and tomato soup.  Unfortunately, they said it would be an hour before the prescription was ready and I accidentally bought Tylenol instead of Advil.  Oops.

So we went home and I took an oxycodone left over from the breast cancer surgery. I had hardly used any of them.  They had expired in February, but I took one anyway. That might have been a mistake because it made me horribly sick to my stomach for the rest of the night.  I did have one dose of Advil left in the house, so that helped.  Mark went back to Publix for me and got the hydrocodone prescription, but since I felt sick way past the time I was due to take a second pill, I did not take any of them.

I slept fine and this morning I am fine.  I have no intention of taking any narcotics today!  I guess they really don't agree with me. Maybe that's why I didn't use them after the breast surgery, but I really don't remember.  I will stop and get some Advil today and take more of that if anything starts to hurt later.

So that's it about the teeth.  The sick teeth are gone; I got three stitches; I will heal up.  The surgeon said to wait as long as possible, maybe at least three months, before considering getting fitted for a partial denture. He said the longer I wait, the better the fit will be.  I can do that.  No problem.

This morning I am fasting yet again, but not for so long.  I have a blood draw at 7:55 for the oncology follow up appointment next week.  As soon as I wrap up this blog, I'm heading to the lab.

Now for some much better news. Tonight is the LAST regular season Oriole game, against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg.  We have tickets!  Yesterday I was concerned about making it, but this morning I see that I feel fine, no pain, so off we go. Unfortunately, we thought it was an afternoon game.  Somehow I put 3 p.m. on the calendar, but it's really a 7 p.m. game.  We've never gone to a night game, but we are doing it today.  It means driving the two hours and 10 minutes home late tonight, but it will be worth it.  Baltimore has done such a great job this season.  They started this final series tied for first place with the Yankees.  Sadly, NY won its first game against Boston in their final series and lost to Tampa.  Last night both Baltimore and NY won, so we remain one game behind them in first place.  Best case scenario: NY loses, Baltimore wins and Voila!  We are tied again for first place, which would mean a one game play off tomorrow night against NY.  If we both win tonight, we remain one game back; NY is the division leader; and we play Oakland Friday night for the one-game wild card series.  If NY wins and we lose, well then, we still play Oakland Friday, but we would be two games out of first place at the end of the season.  Still not a bad place to be!  Baltimore hasn't seen post-season play in a very, very long time.  This has been an awesome season for them.

OK, time to go to the lab for my blood draw.  Have a great day everybody!

Oh, wait. I almost forgot that it was weigh-in Wednesday. Yesterday I only ate 600 calories yesterday of yogurt, low-carb ice cream, and sugar free jello, so I thought I'd be down more.  I was 257.6, which is what I was Friday morning. I have not exercised or kept my calories down, so I guess I should be happy that ti's not worse. Well, soft foods today and tomorrow might help!

OK, NOW I'm going to the lab.