Changes

 The days are definitely getting longer.  My daffodils are coming up, which they usually do some time in January... and then they get frozen, or covered in ice.

We'll see what happens this year.  Some of them actually manage to bloom some years....

My visit with the doc went well.  My lab work looked perfect, after a month off of hormone blockers, and a week off of chemo.

For now, I am continuing with the same chemo pill, with the original hormone blocker that I was given years ago.

Back then, it caused my finger joints to lock, so we will see what it does now.

The good part is that I can still walk and hike and dance without pain. I've got that going for me so far, but It's only been 3 days, though....

If this doesn't prove to be tolerable, then there IS a different chemo pill out there that *can* be used without a hormone blocker to support it... but my doctor asked a pointed question.... do I want quality of life, or quantity of life?

Ugh.  I've gotten used to having both...

Anyway, it was really warm here yesterday, while my various Illinois folks were dealing with cold and snow.  

We opened up the windows, and I did my chores, and included getting the area rug out of the office, and mopping in there.

I used the clear floor space to practice some dancing, and hopefully start on a choreography I need to create and master by the end of the month if I want to perform in a virtual show.

I can always back out, but my director really wants me to do this.  It's a challenge, because I do not excel at creating choreographies.

Must focus on living day to day, as I usually do, and not think about Doc's question too hard, HAHA!

Sunny and colder here today, but Dave put off the yard work he said he would do yesterday, and now he has to do it in the cold.  That's what you get for procrastinating!

This is the cutting back and raking out that he has been saying he would do since after the ice storm....it has to be done!  Our flower bed and areas in the back still look absolutely awful.

I am going to try to dance some more, and I have a couple of celebratory things to do for the course I am taking. 

The coming week has no appointments or plans, and I am hoping to switch to a different dance class, as the one I have been taking is just drills.  I want to learn new combinations and transitions, and maybe that will help me with my choreography project.

Have a good week, and if you live where it snowed, try to enjoy the beauty of it! 

Foggy morning

 I LOVE FOG!  We have a beautiful ,foggy morning here in OKC right now.

My week off of chemo AND my last week off of the hormone blocker has resulted in me being almost completely pain-free.

It's like a miracle.  But it isn't.... I am so happy and so physically functional right now!  It's SO nice.... I wish it could last.

I will have a long talk with my doc on Wednesday.

Lab draw on Monday after work.

Not much else is going on.  We are headed out to run a couple of errands this morning, while the anti-maskers are still at church.  Chances are, I will wait in the car, but it will be nice to get out of the house.

Then, maybe to a park for a walk, even though it's supposed to rain.  I need to take advantage of my free mobility while I can.

We went out for our afternoon walks this past week, and it was SO good for me!

Have a good week!

Whoops!

 It's a long holiday weekend for us, and I thought yesterday was Saturday all day!

Sorry I forgot to post my blog.

My hip and leg pain is almost completely gone after two full weeks off of the hormone blocker.

This is great, but I know that I have to go back on it in a couple more weeks.....it, or something like it.

SO, I am taking advantage of being pain free as much as I can, by working out more, and today, we are going hiking.

This past week, my employer sent out an email about the COVID vaccine being made available to admin and support staff, so I signed up.

A few days later, they opened it up to family, so I signed Dave up!

We went on Saturday (maybe going to my office on Saturday was why I was confused about what day it was, HAHA!), and got our first round of the Pfizer vaccine.  

The paramedic who was administering the shots said that we are also guaranteed to receive our second round in three weeks, despite what we may have heard on the news.

The only side effect we have experienced is pain at the injection site.

We've heard that it's the second round that is more likely to produce uncomfortable immune response symptoms, so we are prepared for that. 

We're having a few days of temperatures above 50 degrees, so we went for a good brisk walk yesterday.  

I realized how being in pain for so long has me out of shape.... but we did our full, usual "break time" route, and it was very good for me to do that.  It started to hurt in my hips, but then, as we went along, things loosened up, and I felt better by the time we got home.

Also, the crews have FINALLY come through our part of town and removed the huge piles of ice storm debris (read: downed trees piled on the curbs and sidewalks)!

Having clear sidewalks will encourage us to get back out and take out walks again, too.

SO, I am off to make pancakes for breakfast, so we can get on the road to our hiking destination,

Have a good week!

Movement and momentum

 After a week without the hormone blocking medication, my tendon pain is definitely improving, but not yet gone.

I was doing fine until yesterday, when Annabel got under my feet, and I stepped on her foot, and reacted by moving wrong.  

This started a cascade of pain all over again in my right leg, where the knee stabilizing tendon has been the worst.

It was SO frustrating that I burst into tears: not just from the pain, which was substantial.

Hot tub helped last night, and I will do yoga, and myofascial release, today.  

I had hoped to go for a cold weather walk at a local park, but we'll see.  Getting cold definitely causes the pain to intensify.

We should have warmer weather this coming week, and I really need to get moving again.  Being sedentary only makes my issues worse.  Movement is KEY, and we have not been walking regularly for weeks, with the arrival of winter wind and weather.

Once I can get walking without pain, I look forward to building up some momentum, to stay ahead of the pain and stiffness.

I also have not taken dance class for weeks due to the pain.   I need to start that up again, and just do what I can.

Dave and I made a pact yesterday.  If it's not raining, or icy, we will walk, no matter how cold, once I get my pain sorted out.

I have been out of the house so little, and so infrequently, that I was starting to really have some mental health issues.

SO, yesterday, since Dave still can't get his Instacart grocery shopping app to work, we went to the grocery store together (he really needs to get that fixed, though, and will call their customer service line, yet again, since we paid $100 for the service).

We went in the mid-afternoon, and we went to a store that is usually not very crowded, and we were able to shop in relative safety.  

We wore our N95 masks, and we stayed away from other shoppers, and we washed our hands the moment we got home.

It wasn't much, but it helped me tremendously.

That's one reason I really wanted to go for a walk at a park today----so I am hoping that ibuprofen, and doing my bodywork techniques, will get my leg loosened up enough to get out.

Dave has to cut more branches off our our big, beautiful shrub at the corner of the house.  Last weekend's heavy snow broke 4 more of them.

The October ice storm debris is still piled up out at the curb all along our street, so he can just add to the pile. 

Some streets in our area have been cleared, but not ours.  Many streets are still piled high with depressing, huge piles of tree branches, limbs, and trunks.  

Our stimulus money showed up in the bank on Friday.  Finally.  

I put most of it in my condo account.  I like to have a little buffer in there, in case my tenant has any problems with the home.  The buffer I had has been gradually drained away by the fact that I pay out more than he pays me, due to the ever increasing association dues.

The hope is that we will be selling the thing soon, though.  More news on that later this year.

Dave and I got ourselves on the registry for the COVID vaccine.  Even though we both have underlying health problems, we do not qualify for the first round yet, because we are under 65.  

Apparently, they have now separated those two categories, and we have to wait.

There's not much else to report.... I refuse to engage in the hysteria around the indescribable events happening politically.

I can't go there, or I will fall into an abyss.

All I can do is have faith that the insurrectionists, and their seditionist leader, will be rounded up,  and quelled.  

I didn't fight cancer for 6 years to die from a virus, or to witness the complete implosion of my country.

Wishing you a peaceful, good mental health week! 

Happy New Year!

 We made it!  

A year of unprecedented, world wide change, fear, suffering, death, violence, and upheaval is now, thank the Gods, behind us.  2020 is HINDSIGHT, HAHA!

May 2021 bring us all many blessings, as those of us who are left adapt and move forward into a new reality.

This virus has touched the lives of many people I know here in Oklahoma, because people here do not take it seriously.

We had our highest single day number for new positive tests for New Year's Day.... think about that.... there was snow on the ground, it was a holiday, and we had our highest number yet....over 5,000 new cases.

Oklahoma's current positivity rate is 22.9%, and our governor still refuses to call for a mask mandate (Okies wouldn't comply anyway), or to do a shut down in any form.

I saw my oncologist this past week, and he has allowed me to take a month off of the hormone blocking medication, to see if my tendon pain, muscle pain, and cramping go away.

If it doesn't make a difference, then the issues are possibly being caused by the chemo pill.

My eye doctor changed my eye drop prescription to Restasis. We will see if that helps my terrible dry eye.  The first prescription drops only made it worse, especially my light sensitivity.

We had a BEAUTIFUL snow storm overnight on New Year's Eve.  

It started out as rain, and ice, though...which caused more damage around the state (we lost a few more branches from our shrubs, but the trees have recovered okay)....but then it turned to snow, and we woke to a winter wonderland.

Of course, it's all melting, and is ugly and worn out-looking already, but New Year's Day was beautiful, and quiet, as that much snow forces people around here to stay home.

(That's why the high covid rate for that day is utterly terrifying)

A representative from the City of Oklahoma City proudly declared on the news that the City owns 22 plow trucks!  That made me laugh out loud!  OKC is what?  700 square miles?

They only plow the main roads, and that, they do badly, HAHA!

Residential side streets turn into rutted, frozen wastelands until the snow melts, which usually happens pretty quickly.

This was the largest snowfall ever measured on New Year's Day, at 5 inches in OKC proper.  Areas west of us got lots more!

Today, Dave will be going out to get groceries, because our grocery ordering app isn't working again.... they won't give us a refund for the service, either....so we're out $100 and have to go shopping during a major covid outbreak. 

We MIGHT get my car back from the body shop tomorrow.  It's been there for a month now.  Maybe over a month....I've lost track... because the at-fault insurance has not paid for the repairs yet.

In the meantime, we are paying out of pocket for the rental car we have had for all this time.  We will eventually get reimbursed, but who knows how long that will take?

We are basically being held for ransom by the accident in OCTOBER.

It's supremely aggravating.  

After two short work weeks, tomorrow, it's back to the grind.  

Wishing you the very best as we step into the new year, and move on.