TOTALLY forgot

 It's Tuesday... LOL...I forgot to post my weekly Sunday blog because we did a little get-away.

On Saturday night, we stayed at a real BnB with a full breakfast, and then went hiking at Roman Nose State Park early in the morning.

The BnB was booked through Air BnB, but was not a private residence, like many of them are.

It was a really cool, old hotel, which was restored starting in the 1990s.  It has guest rooms upstairs, with a full restaurant down stairs. It even had a ghost!

It's in the closest town to the park, which is about an hour from home.

SO... our weekend was busy, but also very nice. Just the right balance.

My next tattoo is happening this coming Wednesday.  I would not normally be doing this, but I have the money now, and I have wanted these for a looong time.  

Summer time is the best time to get tattoos so that they can be uncovered to heal.

Okay, off to work! Have a good rest of the week. 

New Sunday routine?

 We set an alarm and went out to hike at the park where we often see deer this morning.

We had hoped that getting there by 8 am, there wouldn't be many people there yet.

We were wrong.

Maybe next week, we will aim to get to wherever we decide to go by 7.

Had a nice morning walk, though, and then tried to go out for breakfast, thinking, once again, that there wouldn't be many people out yet by 9 am.

Wrong again.  Every place we checked was packed.  Not an option to be in a crowded restaurant where no one is wearing masks, and also not an option to wait an hour and a half to be seated.

Fast food drive through did the trick, but it was disappointing.

Doing this was Dave's idea, since we missed our hike last week, and he wanted to get back on track.

This pleases me no end.  

With the intense summer heat upon us, the earlier we go, the better, and hopefully, we will have better luck next time if we go earlier.

Covid numbers in Oklahoma are skyrocketing.  The statewide positive test rate was 18% as of Friday.

Not much is going on in our lives this week.

Frank continues to return to more normal behaviors, but we are still keeping the litter box in the living room until he goes back and forth to the laundry room freely and without any sign of trepidation.

Had my shot and port flush this past week, all went fine.  The new nurse was the only one there, and she did a great job this time. Phew!

My sister got the wires taken out of her mouth on Friday.  They are leaving the brackets, though, for another month... in case they have to wire her shut again.

Please pray that this does not happen.

I'm working on completing the last lesson in the year long course I have been taking.

I look forward to finding out what it will mean to me as my life progresses.

Have a good week!

Here we go again? I hope not....

 This past week found my pain levels going up and up.  

The hormone blocker is starting to cause issues, I am afraid.  It's been okay for the past 6 months, but now, I am starting to have issues, just like with all of the other ones.

I've talked about these problems in this blog for years, now.  The joint and tendon pain caused by this type of medication can sometimes be utterly debilitating.  It forced me to retire as a massage therapist.

This medication that I am currently on was actually the first one we ever tried, and we stopped it back then because my finger joints started to lock.

We switched back to this one in January, after running the gambit of every other possible drug over the years, including the one where I had to get two large needles in my butt every month, and the one that injected a pellet deep into my belly fat. 

The gambit also included several months of tamoxifen when I was temporarily cancer free. The tamoxifen caused me NO side effects, but it also allowed the cancer to come back.

Then, when the IV chemo failed in January of last year, we started this chemo pill/hormone blocker routine I am on now, and by December of last year, I was unable to walk due to leg tendon pain, as you may recall.

You may also recall the cortisone shots in my thumbs and wrists, and the nights with 30 leg cramps and no sleep at all, over the years.

Anyway, this time, it's my right shoulder again.  Only this time, it's worse than ever before, and for no reason at all.  It's not like I played tennis or something.  The left one is starting to hurt a bit, too.

SO, fortunately, I am a former massage therapist, a practitioner of yoga, and of myofascial release techniques.

I've been working on the shoulder myself all week, and then, yesterday, I got a massage, and I can now raise my arm to dress myself, wash my hair, and get dishes down out of the cabinet, etc....but it was nearly a week of being unable to move the arm at all.

In addition, my right thigh tendon is starting to act up as well, and I am getting glimmers of memory from last winter when, eventually, I could not walk.

Just going to try to stay ahead of the pain with self-care and body awareness....but it if continues to flare up like this, we may have to come up with a new plan.

Last summer, Doc mentioned another alternative chemo-like pill that doesn't require the hormone blocker partner.  

He also said I needed to decide if I wanted more QUALITY of survival, or QUANTITY of survival.

Yeah.

In other news, Frank is acting more like himself, but is still not willing to go through the kitchen into the laundry room, so we still have a litter box in the living room.

Every day, though one of his normal behaviors returns.  He now goes into the bathroom with me, and if I manage to get in there without him, me meows outside the door.  He had not done that for 2 weeks...so I am happy to see that back again.

Hoping that, with time, he will fully be himself again. 

We were going to go to the woods this morning, but Dave isn't into it.. so his idea that we should go every week lasted exactly one week.

Sigh.

We do have a lot we need to do around the house today, though, so I guess it's okay.

The new COVID numbers in Oklahoma spiked this past week, and I emailed my supervisor with my concerns.

Why is it that I was being forced to sit with another person in my area... a person who IS NOT VACCINATED... when everyone else on all of the rotation days, was sitting alone?  Couldn't she sit somewhere else, where there is a vacant desk, to protect us BOTH? 

Did they FORGET that I have, and always will have, a compromised immune system??

I worded it differently, of course, and my reward was that I get to go to the office on Mondays, starting tomorrow, and I will be there completely alone.

This pleases me no end.

In the meantime, Okies continue to refuse to wear masks, or get the vaccine, and our positive test rate was the highest in the country as of yesterday.

Dave and I have started using the grocery delivery service again, and only go out if we can be relatively isolated. 

I am off to shower and get breakfast going.   Have a good week!

Sunday, beautiful Sunday

 There was a big storm front that moved through here last night, and this morning, we woke up to 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine.

We are going out to walk at the park where we see the deer all the time, while it's still early.  Then, a trip to Costco, a stop at the pharmacy, and then treating ourselves to a visit to another local brewery.

Dave has decided that we need to get out in nature every weekend... I guess it had to be his idea, HAHA!

We'll see how long it lasts...

I'd go by myself, but it's not necessarily safe these days.

I can't remember if I blogged about our cat Frank getting sick.  

He's only a year and a half old, and we lost a kitty who was that age before, so it was a scary time for all of us.

Almost 2 weeks ago, Frank's behavior changed completely and suddenly.  After a normal Frank day, on a Tuesday evening, Frank became terrified of the kitchen.

He crouched on the dining room side of the threshold in the doorway leading into the kitchen, and stared, hackles up, pupils dilated, for hours.

It seemed that he saw a gang of poltergeists in there or something.  It was so weird.

He also stopped vocalizing (he's normally VERY talkative), playing, cuddling with his brother, etc, and took to hiding.  He also will not go into the bathroom, for some reason.

We gave it a day, and he was still acting really strange, so Dave took him to the vet.  In the meantime, we moved a litter box into the living room.

The vet palpated him, and said he seemed FINE... no intestinal blockage, no bladder issues (PHEW!), so he did a blood test.  The blood test shows inflammation somewhere in the body, and a couple of the other numbers indicated pancreatitis.

He explained that un-expelled hair in the stomach can cause a blockage of the pancreatic duct that empties into the stomach, and this can cause the pancreas to "back up," and become inflamed.  This can be quite painful, apparently.

SO, Frank was given an injection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, and a bag of sub-cutaneous fluids because he was dehydrated (We hadn't thought about the fact that the kitty water fountain is in the kitchen).

Since his visit to the vet, we've installed a second water fountain in the living room, and are keeping the litter box in here, too, because of his lingering fear of the kitchen.

Frank has gradually been improving, and yesterday, he even jumped up onto the top of the front door, using the covered litter box as a launch pad!  This was wonderful to see.

He's also been more vocal, playful, affectionate, and has ventured part way into the kitchen to eat for several days in a row.

He seems to be more comfortable going in there, without the enticement of food, if I am in there already. However, he will only go about as far as the stove.

My guess is that he became afraid of the kitchen because he probably had the onset of pain while eating in there, OR while back using the litter box.  That's all we can figure.

He still won't go THROUGH the kitchen to the laundry room, where the litter boxes are normally kept.  We're REALLY hoping he gets over this completely, and will go back there again eventually.  I don't like having litter all of the wood floors in the living room, and we don't have room for one in the bathroom, where he won't go anyway.

I miss him coming into the bathroom with  me. He and I had a routine when I would take my shower in the mornings.

The vet said nothing about dietary changes or anything, so we made that decision on our own.  All cats are getting hair ball remedy on the regular, and we are changing the dry food to a hair ball remedy formula.

Hopefully, this will help Frank to process hair more efficiently, and will keep this from happening to him again.

Okay, that's my report for this week!  Time to get OUTSIDE!

The sun is out!

 After several days of flooding rains, and witnessing the death of my garden because almost everything is rotting from too much rain, the sun finally came out yesterday.

We had one last deluge on Friday, bringing the rainfall total for OKC to 12 inches in 6 days.

Things started to dry out a little bit yesterday, and will do so more today. Our plan is to get out there and mow this afternoon, after the grass dries out a bit more.

It's supposed to be another beautiful day, with much lower humidity, and highs only in the mid 80s, which is cool for OKC in July!

I am hoping that my squash plants will recover, but I doubt it.  They dropped their baby squash already (stem end rot), and are dropping leaves now.

The only plant that's thriving is the volunteer cucumber.

We will also go to a city park today and take a walk where there are trees, because I am going stir crazy from nature deprivation.  Dave promised to take me out to hike last weekend, but it never happened, and the weather was iffy anyway.

It's been many weeks since I got my nature fix, and I am "shriveling up."

Then, since our offices both have tomorrow off, we are going to take a day trip so I can REALLY be in nature at one of the state or national parks here in Oklahoma.  

It's supposed to be another spectacular day, so off we shall go!

Our 4th of July celebration will be low key, as Dave is not a fan, and no one has invited us to celebrate with them.  That never happens here, anyway, so there was no expectation.

My family will be doing it up right, as always, but we are not there, which is just as well, because my sister is still recovering from her broken jaw, and my brother is recovering from elbow and hand surgery.

Their celebration will also be somewhat low key this year, but at least they will be together.

My tattoo has almost completely healed, and it didn't itch much at all.  It is definitely the simplest one I have ever gotten, just being an outline, for the most part. 

That being said, we got into out hot tub last night, and it was glorious!  I was conscious of the new tatt, though, and tried to leave that shoulder out of the soaking process for most of the time.

Dave has committed to making breakfast today, and I need to go get in the shower so I am ready to go for my hike.

Happy Independence Day to my readers in the US!  (like I have an international audience for these posts, HAHAHAH!)

Rite of passage

 This past week, I allowed myself the privilege of getting a tattoo that I have been thinking about for a long time.

All of my tattoos are of significant, spiritual meaning to me, and this one is no exception.

Having finally closed the chapter of the condo, having been given good news about the cancer actually resolving in two spots (when I had assumed this drug I am on would just slow it down, not eliminate it), and having come to the last lesson in the course I have been taking for the past year.... I felt that it was time.

With my nurse's permission (she looked at my blood work, and said that the critical factors for me to be safe going through a tattooing process were looking great...normal for a normal person, not just for a person on immune-suppressing drugs), I got an appointment, and had the tattoo done on the full moon.

Here is a picture of it....

The story behind this design goes back approximately 2,500 years.  

In 1993, the extremely well-preserved 5th century BCE grave of a young woman was found in Siberia.

She was covered with tattoos that appeared to have a mystical, Shamanic pattern.  Between the tattoos, her clothing, and her grave goods, and the remains of SIX sacrificed horses, it has been determined that she was a  woman of high social status.  The presence of the tattoos, and some of the symbolic items in the burial chamber, indicates that she was probably a Shamaness, Seer, and/or Priestess of her people. 

She was dubbed the Siberian Ice Princess, the Princess of Ukok, or the Altai Princess.

A detailed reconstruction of her face has been done, and she appears to have been European (without the Mongolian features of native peoples of Siberia), and DNA testing has also shown that she was of European heritage.  The Scythian tribes of the steppes are thought to have been a mixture of Caucasian and Mongolian peoples. 

Further research found that the probable cause of her death was stage 4 breast cancer, combined with injuries from a fall.  She was buried with her medicines: cannabis and opium, which would have been used to ease the pain she was surely suffering.  Coriander seeds, which were thought to be used as incense, were also found. 

This design is on her left shoulder, just where I have it now, as well.

I will not be "ordained" until October, but this summer marks the completion of my formal studies and training to become a priestess of a Goddess regarded as the most ancient deity archetype.  Evidence of the reverence of this Goddess has been found all around the northern hemisphere, and even in some ancient sites in the southern hemisphere.

After 29 years as a practicing Pagan, I have finally found a path that really resonates with what I have always felt to be true for myself.

FORTUNATELY, I understand that a person's spiritual evolution (should they take the choice to pursue spirituality) is just that... an evolution... It is a process, not an event.... 

The adventure that started for me as a child, collecting natural treasures- feathers and stones, pinecones and bones....and arranging them on a rock under the protective branches of the spruce in our front yard, has led me down many interesting and transformative trackways... 

I am confident that this evolution will continue.

At last....

 My threat to withdraw the contract worked!  The condo sale finally closed on Friday, June 18th.

I am just so glad it's over with.  I really felt nothing but that. 

The disappointing amount of money will be rolled into the mortgage on this house. 

It's been dangerously hot this past week.  Today will be no exception.  Summer Solstice in Oklahoma City will see a minimum high temperature of 97 degrees, and will probably be hotter than that, in reality.

We've been getting up early and taking our first walk at sunrise, and our second one at my morning break time.  However, it's been almost too hot to be outside at 9:30 am.

There's some relief on the way, though, and they're saying that it will actually be in the 50s on Tuesday morning.

Crazy.

Unfortunately, the cooler temperatures will be temporary.

Had my scans last Tuesday, and all is well.

In fact, two of the lesions that WERE in my liver (at the beginning of this treatment protocol) are GONE.

I think it's pretty unusual, at this stage of the game, for things to IMPROVE, so I am very happy, and very relieved.

With all of the terrible news around me (two friends being diagnosed with breast cancer last month, and both needing double mastectomies, one of whom had to put her beloved cat down due to his having cancer, then my sister's injury, finding out that my brother needs surgery [while his cat is slowly dying, as well], and all of the condo bullshit), I was convinced that my scans would bring bad news.

What a TREMENDOUS lifting I am feeling right now, despite my worries for others.

So, I will be celebrating the solstice by lighting a fire in the chiminea, and burning all of the paperwork I have related to the condo.   

AFTER the heat of the day, of course.

This morning, we are going to Costco, and then treating ourselves to brunch.

Happy solstice to any who celebrate! 

Happy Father's Day to any who celebrate!  This is our first one without Pop, not that we could see him last year anyway, and Eric has cut us out of his life, so I forgot to add this when I originally posted this.