Sunshine!

We mowed the back yard again on Thursday, after my treatment and before dinner, because the forecast called for rain on Friday.

It rained for 5 hours on Friday.

I mowed the back yard again yesterday.

Dave will mow the front today (it grows a little less quickly, as it is a different kind of grass).

The sun is out, and it's only 70 this morning, so the windows are open.

We sure are happy about all of the rain, and about the cooler than normal temps for August!!

It's just been a lot of work to keep up with all of the lush growth.

Well, our trip to Missouri (9 hours one way) for the eclipse was fun, but the eclipse itself was sort of a bust.

We could see perfectly at first (our hosts got the approved glasses for everyone way in advance, as this gathering had been in planning for over a year).

Then, approaching totality, a huge bank of thick clouds rolled in, and completely blocked our view of the sky.

The birds stopped singing, the bats came out, and it got as dark as midnight, but we couldn't see totality.

Then, the MINUTE the sun started to peek out from behind the moon, the clouds cleared away.

We could see the tiny sliver of light, which looked like a scythe.  It was really cool, but at the same time, disappointing.

It also rained during the darkness, which was interesting.

Even though we couldn't see the few minutes of totality, when the heavenly bodies were in perfect alignment from our place on one of them, it was still pretty cool, and powerful to think about what our ancestors might have done with an experience like that before they understood the science of it.

It was fun to be with friends new and old, to play games and eat and drink and relax.  OH, and with so many tech heads in the house, they figured out a way for us to watch Game of Thrones, too! 

The very best part, though, was a three day work week!

In other news, I saw my oncologist on Thursday, and told him about the return of the tendon pain.

As a result we are trying the last option for hormone blocking medication.  I started on the new med that night, thanks to a sample bottle from the nurse.

Hopefully, it will be the one that works with my chemistry.  If it doesn't help, then I am stuck with sometimes debilitating pain in my wrists, hip, ankle, knee.... (it travels).  But I will just keep moving through the pain as best I can, as I have been doing.

Doc also gave me permission to actually TRY to lose weight.  I only need to lose 8-10 pounds, but I really want it gone.  I hate how my body looks in the mirror, and I hate that my clothes don't fit right.  This is a common side effect of the hormone blocking medication.

I have no choice but to take this medication for 7-10 years, so I need to adapt so that I don't gain 50 pounds like many patients do.

I remember when my sister was on Tamoxifen, she gained weight, too.

First step is to, once again, curtail alcohol consumption.  

Second step is to increase resistance exercises.  More hand weights, push ups, and therapy bands, as well as increasing the resistance level on my elliptical at intervals.

The diet is already pretty clean most of the time, so there's not much I can do there.

I also already get about 45 minutes of cardio exercise every day, so there's not much I can do there, either, aside from maybe using the elliptical when we watch baseball games or tv / movies.

That's QUITE do-able.

I think laying off the cocktails during the week will help a LOT.  It had started to when we decided to stop drinking before, but that decision didn't hold, after all of the stress this spring.

Dave tends to drinks heavily, and he inspires me to drink (I enjoy it, and I don't want to miss out), so it's a bad situation. 

Stress and worry also make us want to drink, but we need to find other ways to handle our stress.  How about exercise?

This time, it was HIS decision to NOT go to the liquor store on our weekly errand trip. That's very good news.

The only way it will work is to not have any in the house.  

We both have multiple health reasons to NOT drink,  but it has become such a habit, and a part of who we are, that it is clearly more of a challenge than we were prepared for.

We can do it, though. We have done it before, and it was wonderful.

In other news, Dave's hospital bill came, and his car needs a repair, so there goes our "trip fund" for Wales.

No more planning a trip overseas for next spring, because now we have to completely start over saving up the money for it.

Bills don't care that one of us is a cancer patient, who would like to LIVE her life before it's over!

So.  Shit.

It might still happen later next year (especially if we put all of the money we aren't spending on booze into the trip fund!), but it definitely will NOT be in the spring as we had been planning.

I am off to make a hearty breakfast, and then the front yard will get mowed.

It should be a pretty relaxed day today, with a Cubs game this afternoon, and the season finale of "Game of Thrones" tonight.

Have a good Sunday!

Seriously, we have now had enough rain!

HAHA!!

We've broken records for rain fall in OK in August, so it can stop now for a couple of weeks, and let things dry out!

The grass is growing so fast that we had to pay someone TWO TIMES this past week to come out and mow.

We had planned to do it ourselves yesterday, but it rained again (twice) after the crew we hired did it for us on Tuesday.

The grass was deeply wet, and had grown so much in a few days.

We would have to have waited until afternoon for the grass to dry out enough to mow, and by afternoon, it was 98 degrees and insufferably humid outside.

Neither one of us wanted to have to mow in those conditions, given the fact that we had so much that had to get done yesterday, and there wasn't time to spend recovering from the inevitable heat exhaustion.

So yesterday morning (when it was already 85 out), Dave flagged down the guy who the neighbors use to do their yard work, and he came over and mowed for us when he was finished with their yard.

That was $80 we REALLY DIDN'T WANT to spend in one week.

We're trying to save as much as we can in the event that we can go to Britain next year.

We had friends over last night for dinner to thank them for taking care of our house and pets for a week back in July.

SO, since I didn't have to mow the back yard, I was able to get all of the laundry and cleaning done, and even relaxed a little to watch part of the Cubs game.

This morning, we leave for our eclipse adventure up in Missouri.

Other Radio Paradise People are coming from around the country. Some are camping at our friends' place, some are lodging elsewhere, and some (as in "we") are staying in our regular room at their house, as we were the first ones invited to this gathering.

Our house sitters are coming later, and all is set.

We just have to shower and throw our bag in the car.  Oh, and I am taking a big batch of my crowd- pleasing broccoli slaw.  I will get the dressing put on, and get it packed in its insulated cooler/carrier right before we leave.

The only draw back of this trip is that our friends do not have HBO, or a smart tv that we can cast to (which is what we do with an app on my phone), so we will miss Game of Thrones tonight! We won't be able to see it until we get home on Tuesday!  GAH!!

Lush and tropical

It's been so rainy that there are mushrooms growing in the grass in a neighbor's yard.

We can't tell if there are any in our yard, because we can't mow our grass, and it's too tall to be able to spot a mushroom!

We are going to have to rent a mower, or hire someone to mow for us.  There's been no chance to get out and cut the grass, and it is now FAR beyond our reel mower's capability.

It rained part of last week, and almost all day yesterday!

This is a good thing, as I have mentioned before.  We usually have this kind of weather in May, and then everything dries up (and catches on fire) by August.

I much prefer this to 110 degrees every day.

One creepy part, though, is that the spiders are out in force.... I guess they're having to escape from all of the water.

There was one on our back patio yesterday that  was so big that I screamed.  It was freaking huge, and had "white stuff" all over its rear-most, swollen-looking abdomen.

Dave stomped on it, even though I told him not to kill it.  He said it was too close to the house, and he didn't want it going inside.

Turns out, the white stuff was eggs.  Big enough eggs to see them clearly in the goo.

I cringed about that for HOURS.

Dave calls those "grass" spiders, because they live in the grass....but I think they are actually wolf spiders.

There was also a big orb web and weaver in the middle of the front porch, under cover.  Fortunately, Dave saw it before I did, because that would have been another blood curdling scream.

He didn't kill that one, but relocated it.  I hope it stays relocated.

I can't handle much more arachnid activity!

Due to being indoors all day, I got all of the chores done, AFTER I cooked two batches of meals for Pop.
My stamina has definitely improved since the lowering of my chemo dose!

Dave waited until I was finished cooking to go do his weekly check in and grocery shopping.  Pop has some home made food for the next couple of weeks.

After Dave got back home, we raised a glass to my Aunt Hazel, who passed away in May, and who was being celebrated yesterday.

Then I made dinner, and we watched a movie.

By the end of the movie, the rain had stopped, so we got to enjoy our hot tub.

Today, there will be some cleaning and tidying, but it will be a much more relaxed day.

Where are you going to go to watch the solar eclipse 8 days from now?

Rain!

We had a lovely thunderstorm last night.  Nothing dangerous or severe in our area.  Just some thunder, and lots of rain.

Our poor Pete got so scared, though.  That truly horrendous storm (when we were gone for my birthday back in April) really terrified him, and he freaks out now.  It's very sad to see.  He spent the whole night cowering in the bathroom, even after the storm moved on.

We got to use our hot tub (which we have turned down to 90 degrees for the summer) before the storm, and watched the sky change and the wind come up while we were out there.

Dave is doing great (see my post from Tuesday).  He feels SO much better without the high doses of BP lowering medications.

His BP readings have been right around normal every time he has used the cuff, too.

He will get his blood draw done tomorrow morning.

We went to Kohl's yesterday, which we do a couple of times a year (IF I get a good coupon in the mail).  We rarely purchase new clothing, but once in a while, it's nice to do so.

Oklahoma has a sales tax free weekend every year around the beginning of the school year, to help families save a little money on clothes and shoes for back to school.

We took advantage of that, as well as using a 30% off coupon that I got in the mail.

We bought socks and underwear, jeans, tops, and pants, and the receipt showed that we SAVED $240 and SPENT $140.

Not bad.  This is why I have a Kohl's credit card!

All of the laundry is done, and I cleaned and vacuumed yesterday, so today should be nice and free-flowing.

I am planning to grill a chicken for dinner and left overs, and will make a broccoli slaw.  If it's raining, we an put the grill under the car port.

There's more rain in the forecast for the whole week, which is HIGHLY unusual for August.  We are supposed to see temperatures in the 80s!  It was 100 yesterday before the sun went down.

I am loving this break from the heat!  Yesterday was actually the worst day since the week before last.

I've been able to get out and walk more this past week, and I've lost 2 of those pesky 10 pounds I have gained (and can't seem to get rid of, no matter how carefully I eat) from my meds.

I did an experiment with my hair yesterday.  There's finally enough of it to dust off my old flat iron to straighten it!  I couldn't get it completely straight, but it worked pretty well.  Now, this morning, after sleeping on it, it looks good!

Now I know what to do.... iron it at bed time for the next day when I want to wear it straight.

It will be nice to have options as it continues to grow out.

I'm totally not used to NOT washing my hair every day, either, but my "new" hair is different from my pre-chemo hair in many ways.

I can go a day without shampooing it now.  I never could before, because it would look dirty.

Anyway, I'm off to make breakfast.  Have a good Sunday!

An extra post this week....

I am so relieved that Dave finally went back to our GP, after spending a couple of years going to his company-sponsored clinic, and being seen by a PA.

Sure, no copay....but also, no real doctor.

For the past month or so (including when we were on vacation), Dave has been having a REALLY hard time doing anything like yard work, or taking his walks, or doing his morning work outs.

This is new since he was in the hospital in April, and his BP meds were changed.

This past Sunday, he got really light headed and winded, and could not recover. I made him come inside and sit down (bringing a chair into the kitchen so he didn't have to walk far), and I had him take his BP. It was 72 over 41.

72 over 41.

Once he convinced me that he did NOT want to go to the hospital, and that I was NOT to call 9-1-1, I looked up the meds he was on.

I am not a pharmacist or a doctor, but it seemed to me that he was being HIGHLY over medicated.

Once he recovered enough to focus, he looked at the information on line as well, and decided NOT to take his evening BP pill.

I suggested he call first thing Monday, and make an appointment with the cardiologist who saw him at the hospital (since that Dr. has all of the records of the tests that were done that weekend in the hospital, AND he was the one who prescribed a DOUBLING of one of the med dosages), OR go back to our GP. Either way, though, I insisted that he call and get an appointment with a REAL doctor.

He had already been thinking of going, but this made it clear, he needed to make a decision.

He chose the GP, called first thing yesterday, and got an appointment for this morning!

She had him stop BOTH meds-- cold turkey. She was amazed that he had not been passing out on a regular basis with that much medication in his system.

For a month, he will take his BP every day at the same time, and keep a spread sheet.
He will get labs drawn some time in the next week or so, and between the labs and the BP spread sheet, she will be able to determine a SAFE level of the meds for Dave, and start over.

He WILL still need to take both kinds of medication (one is an ACE inhibitor, and one is a BETA blocker--and as a heart attack survivor, he does need them), but he will be on MUCH smaller doses.

SHEESH!