I am going to share with you a photo that my sister-in-law took of Hubby and I back in 1997 (I think).  Notice how long and dark my hair is?  I hadn’t started turning gray yet.  She put the fade effect around the edges too, neat huh!  I think this was when Hubby was near his heaviest too. 

Oh how I wish we could rewind time and be back there now and not having to deal with cancer.

What a day it has been.  We left out this morning at 9 a.m. for Hubby to get his shot for his red blood count.  When we got to the doctors office they said that he had to have blood work first.  So we did that and then went upstairs to get his shot.  Well he got his shot and then they sent him directly to the hospital for another blood transfusion.  The last one was on April  30.

We waited in admitting for about 20 minutes.  Then the admissions clerk took him up to his room.  This was suppose to be an out-patient procedure.  Once in the room we waited for about 30 minutes for them to come in and start the type and cross match on him.  The hospital does a type and cross match every time, even when you have been there before.  I don’t blame them, you give someone the wrong blood and it can kill them so I don’t blame them for “CYA”.  They finally started the transfusion at 2:30.  The ran the first unit slow to make sure that he wasn’t going to have any kind of reaction and thus it took 3 1/2 hours.  They started the second unit at 6:00.  Around 7:30 Hubby asked the nurse if he could just stay the night.  She checked with his doctor and he had no problem with Hubby staying the night so I came home around 8:15. 

In the middle of all of this I had to make arrangements for someone to come and get Elrod.  We really didn’t anticipate this happening, we thought we’d just be in and out at the Oncologist like we normally are when he just gets a shot.  Elrod didn’t need to spend his day sitting in a hospital room, heck it’s hard enough for me to sit in one that long.  Luckily it was Hubby’s daughters day off so I called her and asked her if he could spend the day with her and Trenton (our 18 mo. old grandson).  She came up and got him, the boys played and had a good time.  She even got this picture of Trenton giving Elrod sugar. 

In the morning Elrod and I will go up to the hospital and bring Hubby home.  It was probably just as well that he stayed the night, we was going to be totally exhausted from the days events.  I just hope they don’t have to wake him up every four hours to take his vitals because he’s going to be cranky tomorrow if they do and that’s exactly why I didn’t spend the night with him in his room.  I can’t handle them turning the light on in the middle of the night because once I’ve seen light in the middle of the night I won’t go back to sleep.

Oh and a perfect way to end a craplicious day…I think my side by side refrigerator is going out.

Several days ago, someone (a spammer) left this comment:
”Wow. It is too costly and expensive”
on this post where I am explaining how much Hubby’s Nulasta shot costs.

Normally I don’t let these kind of things bother me, but this one really hit a nerve.  Even though it was a spammer and they probably didn’t even read the whole post, it was enough to make me see red. 

Yes the shot is expensive, but what price do you put on something that is making that last days comfortable for someone who has a terminal illness?    When Hubby was diagnosed with lung cancer he was diagnosed at stage 4B and told that he had 6-9 months to live without treatment and with treatment an additional 6-9 months.  

We know that chemo isn’t going to cure him (that miracle is in Gods hands), all it is doing is going to make it where his pain is bearable and he has a better quality of life than without it.  His tumor has shrunk but the cancer had already metastasized to his liver and bones to the point that chemo will not eradicate it.  He is not a candidate for radiation because there are too many lesions both in his liver and all down his spine and pelvis.  Radiation was designed to do nothing more than to kill where it hits and we can’t wipe out his liver entirely because you have to have a liver to live. 

Okay, so now I’ve gotten that off of my chest, maybe now I’ll start getting some sleep…one can only hope.

When I was growing up, I longed for those idyllic Sunday dinners at Grandma’s house.  You know the ones that I’m talking about.  The ones like in movies and books where all the family gathers for dinner after church.  It just never happened, my grandmother old (or so it seemed to me when I was growing up) and not physically up to cooking a big meal plus it was only her, my daddy, my younger brother and myself. 

Well for the last three weekends, we have been having those kinds of dinners here at our house after church.  They have consisted of Hubby’s mom, dad and step-mom, his daughter and her son, Elrod and usually one of his brothers or sisters.  

Call me crazy, but I have really enjoyed having them all come for dinner even if it is a lot of extra work for me.  I don’t mind that no one helps me clean up nor do I mind that they don’t help me get the meal ready.  They do offer to help, but I really enjoy having the company and I don’t even mind cleaning up all the mess, especially now that I have the part for the sink and can use my dishwasher.

Evidently Ma really enjoys these Sunday dinners too because she wants to help provide the food for dinner so that we can keep doing this.  Sol for the time being, while Hubby is able to handle the visits, we are going to keep having Sunday dinner here.

In the words of one of TV’s close knit families…Good Night John-Boy.

It’s been a strange week around the Ponderosa.  Hotter than all get out, but not nearly as hot as my friend Diane in Jonesboro has been suffering through.  Just let me go on record one more time…I HATE SUMMER WEATHER.  I can’t take the heat…never could when I was a kid and it don’t look like it’s getting any more bearable for me now as I age.

Elrod has been a really good kid this week but that is nothing new or unusual.  He’s almost always (notice I said almost) a good kid when we have him.  Of course we have to retrain him on a few things when he gets here, such as turning out the bathroom light and leaving the bathroom door open and flushing the toilet when he is finished.  That one is kind of strange, but they leave the bathroom light on and close the door at home.  I don’t know how they know if the bathroom is empty with the light on and the door closed, and they don’t flush to save on the water bill (I think they go with  the idea that if it’s yellow it’s mellow but if it’s brown flush it down) but hey, whatever works for them.

We haven’t played but one game of “Sorry” since he’s been here, Hubby just hasn’t been up to playing and Elrod says it’s not any fun with just two people playing.  I’m planning on picking up a new set of “Uno” card this weekend some time and if Hubby doesn’t feel up to playing maybe I can coax Elrod into just he and I playing.

All week I’ve been trying to get rid of this blister on the left foot pinkie toe. 

Any ideas on what it might be?  I have no idea what it is or how I got it unless maybe it is poison ivy or poison oak.  The weird thing is that it doesn’t itch.  I’ve been putting Benedryl cream on it in hopes that it would dry the stupid thing up.  So far I’m not having much luck.  It would be just my luck that I have to move to the city to get something like this after all the years that I was extremely careful not to get into the poison ivy or poison oak that we had in abundance out in the country.  To be honest, I’ve kept an eye out for it when I’m weed eating the yard, but I could have missed it.  I probably won’t be running the weed eater unless I have socks on from now on though.  I’ll look like a dork wearing sock in the summer with my croc like shoes but at least they are washable and don’t stain like my white tennis shoes do.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping all week and the last couple of mornings I have been down in my back when I’ve gotten up.  I think part of it is the bed, I’m starting to roll into the middle when I sleep facing the edge of the bed.  This bed just doesn’t sleep as comfortably for me as our bed does.  It’s more comfortable for Hubby though.  I can’t move to our bed because Elrod is sleeping in it until he leaves for his dad’s the fourth of July weekend.  Hopefully I can make it one more week, if not I’ll just have to move him to the couch.  He’s like his dad, he can fall asleep anywhere.

So that has been my week.  Oh, and I’ve almost used up the 10 skeins of yarn that I have for my blanket.  I’m on the 10th skein right now and will probably have it finished some time today or Sunday.  I’ll post a picture when I’m finished.  I can already tell that it isn’t going to be as big as I want it to be so I’ll have to check out a couple of other Wal-Mart stores and see if I can find any more of the yarn that I am using.  If not I’ll have to figure out something so that I can get it the length that I want. 

It was a perfect day today.  The weather was absolutely beautiful even if it was warmer than I like.  Hubby is finally beginning to be pain free again and we were able to attend church this morning.  Elrod is here until fourth of July weekend and Hubby got to spend his first ever Fathers Day with his oldest daughter.   Not only did she spend the day with him but she cooked lunch for all of us and it was delicious! 

Then this evening both of my boys called to wish him a happy Father’s Day.  I think that pleased him as much as getting to spend the day with his daughter.  Heather (my daughter) didn’t call but we weren’t surprised by that.  In all fairness, he had no part in raising her as she had already left home and married before Hubby and I married.  She doesn’t look at him as a step father but as the man that married her mother.  At least the boys called and even though they were 15 when we married, he was a step-father to them…and yes they put him through all kinds of H E double L in that three years before they were old enough to leave home.  But they’ve grown up and become fathers themselves.  I think now they understand that the role of a step-father or step-mother is not an easy job.

And now that Father’s day is almost over for another year, I had better get this posted and head to bed.  If Pops is up to it, we may have a “Sorry” marathon tomorrow afternoon.  Must get sleep if I want to kick some Sorry playing boo-tay

Today’s chemo went really well.  We were out of there in just a little over two hours and it was nice to get home before all the rush hour traffic hit.  And that made me a very happy camper.

On the way home from chemo we stopped at the appliance parts place that I had ordered the coupler for my faucet in the kitchen that I needed so that I could use my dishwasher.  I took the piece off the faucet when we moved but wouldn’t you know, the faucet here has male threads and the place we moved from the faucet had female threads so I have been hand washing dishes since the move and I didn’t really mind hand washing them but what’s the point of having a portable dishwasher sitting in your kitchen if you aren’t going to use it.  I am very happy to report that not only did I get the adapter on the faucet, but I was able to run the dishwasher and now will no longer have to give up counter space for dishes to drain dry, and best of all…no more dishpan hands And that too made me a very happy camper.

Now that I have my high speed internet connection I’ve been visiting Facebook nearly every day, especially on days that all we can do is set and let the toxins drip into Hubby’s body that are saving his life…kind of ironic isn’t it.  And, on the day that we had the wreck last month, which incidentally was 30 days ago today, just a couple of hours before the wreck I had gotten a new cell phone and different cell service.  I had made up my mind that if we ever moved to an area that offered Cricket I was going to change to them.  I have been very satisfied with their service, mainly because I don’t travel much to area’s that would be roaming.  I ended up saving over $10+ a month and now have unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, unlimited picture messaging and unlimited internet usage on my phone, all of which would cost extra on my old cell provider, and I got 200 roaming minutes of which I have used exactly two of those 200, and unlimited long distance.    I may never get the text lingo thing, but any one that I text to knows me and knows how I am about that kind of thing, I can type the word faster than I can figure out how to spell it in text lingo.  Anyway here is the phone that I got.

I love the QWERTY keyboard.  It also has a music player but I haven’t figured out how to get the music from my computer to my phone, and it has a 1.3 megapixel camera.  Even though I have a camera in my phone, I still carry my digital camera with me where ever I go.  Old habits die hard. And the one thing that I really needed it to have is Bluetooth which it does.  I refuse to try and fumble around with my phone while I’m driving.  With my Bluetooth I don’t even have to touch my phone. 

And now this happy camper is getting to be a sleepy camper, so with that being said I think I shall drag my weary self to bed.  I have a busy day planned when we get back from getting Hubby’s Neulasta shot.  Oh, that reminds me, we got the statement from the Oncologist in Batesville and we owe a whole whopping amount of $22.77.  I about passed out when I saw how much they charged for his chemo and shot.  The one chemo that he only gets one “dose” of is $3300.00 the other one that he gets all three days is $160.00 each day.  What really made me feel faint was when I saw how much the Neulasta shot cost.   Would you believe $7462.00 each shot.  Thank goodness that we have health insurance.