Month: October 2023

31 October 2023

Happy Halloween! Tonight I cut off my porch lights and hide away in the house so as to not attract Trick or Treaters. It usually works. For years I would buy candy and since I didn’t decorate the yard, no one would stop by. One year after I started hiding away, people kept knocking on the door. When I don’t buy candy they come, when I do buy candy they don’t. I finally chose not to participate.

Halloween has always been my bane. For years, I came down with tonsillitis and couldn’t go trick or treating. Then when I did go, the costumes were ill fitting and uncomfortable and the eye holes in the mask never matched my face. Later when I learned to enjoy it, the churches in town decided collecting pennies or dimes for some charity was more important than candy. It’s a no win celebration for me.

Night sweats are new. Night before last I woke up with dampness on the fitted sheet and pillows. It wasn’t bad enough to do anything so I flipped the pillows and went back to sleep. Last night it got so bad I put a towel down on top of the fitted sheet. I’ll change them this morning. I sometimes get night sweats around the nape of my neck but this is a first for me – my back and nape and soaking the bed.

Of course, I was wide awake at 3 am this morning. I read a little and finally got out of bed close to 5 am. Nap time this afternoon!

So, what do you think? It’s my new kaftan. Recently, I was reading a story about a woman in a mumu. Later, I read another story about a man wearing a kaftan. Tomato, toemahtoe. I decided to see what the kaftan was all about. I ordered from Linenbee, run by a mother/daughter team in Latvia. The price was OK and the selection was pretty varied. They ask for measurements and make it custom for you in the chest, hips, and height. As you can tell by the name, it’s made of linen. The weave is pretty tight so it’s not as breathable as tropic weave linen but it’s perfect for watching television when the A/C feels too cold and when South Florida winter arrives. I looked for a more colorful pattern but didn’t see anything I liked so I went with dull gray.

Depending on how the day develops and how I feel, tomorrow night I’ll go to dinner with friends at the Secret Garden. Hopefully, weather will cooperate and we’ll sit outside by the intercostal. I’ll probably know by noon whether or not I’m up to it. I still stagger a good bit because of the numbness in toes and soles of my feet. I’m a little better on stamina. We’ll see.

Tomorrow is All Saints Day and I turn 75. This year I had my doubts. Unless something drastic happens tonight, I’ll have made it. I’ve always suspected I was born on Halloween (see above – trick or treating) and my parents bribed the hospital staff at St. Joseph’s in Meridian, MS to write the birth on the birth certificate as early morning, November 1. If that is the case, I’ve already reached the ripe old age of 75. Now about 76….

Stay tuned!

30 October 2023

I maybe overdid it yesterday by a tad. I got out of bed around 6 this morning and by the time I finished a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, I was reeling. My blood pressure was 81/56 and I was so dizzy, I had to go back to bed for a while. I slept until 8:45. I feel OK, just a little lightheaded. I retook my blood pressure first thing and it had climbed out of the abyss and was 112/75. However, I plan to take it easy today just in case.

If you are wondering, the Chile rellenos casserole was pretty good. I don’t think I’ll keep the recipe but it was good for a couple of meals. I’ll set aside some to freeze in case I get the taste for it again.

Fall is in the air. You can tell because when you step outside the house, you don’t melt. Our lows are in the low 70’s and the highs are in the mid 80’s with the humidity below 80%. Practically sweater weather. We’re entering that part of the calendar where South Florida has the highest temperatures in the nation. It’s also why wintering in South Florida is a booming enterprise. I suspect our population increases by 30% during winter months from snow birds moving down. It’s also that time of year to never get behind someone on the roadway that has a Quebec license plate on their vehicle.

As you might guess, I discovered another problem yesterday. I didn’t hear the generator test at the usual time. I got occupied with the laundry but when I did check the generator, a low battery light was flashing. The generator has more than paid for itself in convenience when lights go out during hurricane season and even the short term outages due to smaller storms, but it does take some upkeep.

I used one company for years and had problems with their servicing. I think they eventually went out of business. These days I use Don Hillman, Inc. to service the generator twice a year. I left a message over the weekend for someone to come service the battery. It is either low on fluid or I need a new battery. If I were 100%, I would take the top off the generator and check but I’m just not up to it. If it was low water levels, I could handle that but I don’t have the strength or energy to lift the top off the generator just yet and certainly not to change batteries.

As I wrote previously, we’re in the dry season. That means I need to add water to the pool. It got lower this week than I thought and I spent a good bit of the evening adding water. My water bill will spike over the next few months because of evaporation.

When I worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Miles City, Montana, part of the organization was heavily involved in approval/disapproval of ponds/lakes to be added to property. There was a complicated formula based on the proposed depth, area, location and evaporation rate. People would often spend a huge amount on a pond for their land and later learn to their regret the evaporation rate was so high, the pond would never fill up and would often dry up. Unscrupulous companies would say yes, it’ll work, take their money, build the pond and walk away. The Bureau was good at telling people what they didn’t want to know – their pond idea wasn’t going to work because of evaporation rates.

At certain times of the year, you can watch my pool loose up to 1/4 inch a day due to evaporation. In our case, it’s mostly wind that’s the big problem, not necessarily the heat and sun’s rays.

Just checked with the generator company. They’ll send someone out as soon as they can (no guess as to when). Apparently, either they didn’t send or I didn’t receive a renewal notice for my contract with them. That’s why they didn’t call me back. Looks like the week is starting out expensive.

Stay tuned!

29 October 2023

Yesterday was a good day. I washed clothes, cleaned at the house, got a surprise birthday gift from Jimmie and Stephen, a phone call from my cousin Jo, and a free meal from Holley and Jim. Oh yeah, I also felt pretty good.

Jimmie and Stephen sent two canisters of King Leo soft peppermint sticks (a childhood thing of ours) and I got Jo’s birthday card. It’s usually either early or late. She called to tell me I opened it too soon, but with today’s postal service, timing anything is pretty much impossible, mail wise.

Later, I got a text from Jim that he and Holley would be bringing me over chicken for dinner and what did I want for sides? The choice was collards or salad and I said either was OK. He then told me they were out of collards at Publix and he took the canned collards to his mother-in-law in Orlando. I wisely chose salad. When they arrived, I had a great tasting chicken breast, a Caesar salad, raspberry pastries, a banana and a new dish cloth. Talk about service! I thought they were going to bring me something from a restaurant but Jim cooked the chicken.

To make the day better, both FSU and Ole Miss won their games going away.

This morning I checked out the sprinklers. There are about five heads that need cleaning out. Chris is going to walk over later this morning and give me a hand. I’ve already done two (and it was exhausting) but by the time she gets here, I’ll be rested and ready to go again. Small, baby steps. Work a little and rest a little.

When doing laundry yesterday, I noticed that most of my tee shirts were either getting religious (holy) or stained. I also noticed my briefs were getting briefer. The briefs have lasted a lot longer than the tees. It was time to replace them. I ordered them yesterday on Amazon and at 5:45 am this morning, someone was delivering two packages to my door. They are now in the wash. I always wash new clothes because I can’t stand the sizing agent on my skin.

The next project was to remove a splinter from my left lower arm. It got lodged when I did the trim of the Heliconias. You can never escape the bougainvillea growing next to one patch and the thorn got lodged under the skin. I’m an old hand at splinter removal. Mother taught me well.

I wipe down the area with alcohol, sterilize the needle with a flame, then cool the needle in alcohol, pick away, re-sterilize where the splinter came out and then bandage it. With all the chemo, I didn’t want to chance it getting infected.

Chris came over a little after 9:30 and we worked on the sprinklers. Or she did and I sat down and rested. It’s amazing how little stamina I have. Working together, we got all the sprinkler heads sprinkling. Maybe I won’t have a brown yard after all.

While waiting for the briefs and tees to dry, I was watching reruns of Home Town. It’s based out of Laurel, Mississippi where the husband Ben is the carpenter/woodworker/construction guy and the wife Erin is the designer. Both are Ole Miss graduates. It’s one of the better home improvement shows and it has a Mississippi tie.

In the rerun, one of their parents had to make a trip to Jackson and they stopped in at Primo’s, one of the more famous and longest serving restaurants in the state. They brought back gingerbread men for Ben. His parents always brought him gingerbread men from Primo’s. My grandmother Ruby used to take me to the one on State Street and she would often buy me a gingerbread man after our meal so I could take it home for later. The State Street restaurant is no longer there but they still sell gingerbread men at the other venues!

I took a stab at the Chiles Relleno Casserole today. It was a lot of prep. I could not find the poblano peppers in the can and had to use fresh poblanos which meant roasting them in the oven, steaming them and peeling the skin, then deseeding. It was a process. Otherwise, it went smoothly. Here’s what the final version looks like.

If it is any good, I’ll freeze what I don’t eat tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully, I didn’t waste a lot of time on something that will not taste good to me. Lately, that’s been a fifty-fifty proposition.

From my earlier work with the sprinklers, to washing, drying and folding new underwear, to Chris and I working on the rest of the sprinklers to the effort of cooking, I’m beat. The great thing is I don’t feel terrible, actually, I feel pretty good. I just have to sit down and rest periodically. Not so terrible, I guess.

Stay tuned!

28 October 2023

I’ll admit to feeling moderately better than I did yesterday. I did get some sleep last night after taking a Temazepam. Usually that doesn’t help but it did last night.

Today is wash day and house clean day. House cleaning has taken on a whole new rhythm: strip bed, rest, blow nose; make bed, rest, blow nose; empty garbage, rest, blow nose; shake out rugs, rest, blow nose; vacuum, rest, blow nose; mop, rest, blow nose; clean toilet and basin, rest, blow nose; mop bathroom, rest, blow nose….

My energy level is pretty low. On Tuesday, when I met with Dr. Velez, I provided him a list of side effects I’ve been experiencing since the Taxol treatments. Here it is:

• bloody nose (every morning)
• runny nose all day long
• petechiae
• joint aches
• vertigo
• peripheral neuropathy
• lack of energy
• diarrhea/constipation
• black stool
• low white blood cell count
• low libido
• diziness
• shortness of breath
• bloating
• taste bud damage

I asked which of these would abate after Taxol treatment. His reply was approximately 90%. I failed to ask the most important question: “Which will not abate.”

The more I read about peripheral neuropathy, the more I see that it may never abate. They don’t say it won’t, they just don’t say it will, either. That scares me. As it is, I have no balance because of the effect on my toes and I am constantly bumping into things in the house or almost falling.

I did get most of my house cleaning list done. Of course, when I went to turn on one of the bedside lamps, it didn’t come on. I figured the bulb was burned out or it was somehow unplugged. I hoped for the burnout. Not the case. I had to move the bed out from the wall, vacuum dust bunnies, and plug the lamp back in. Rest, blow nose, repeat.

I’m pouring liquids down as much as I can. Not sure that’s an effective way to combat dehydration in my particular case but I’m giving it the old college try.

Sometime this week I need to tackle the sprinkler system. It’s been off for about 4 months and I’m sure some of the sprinkler heads are clogged, although how, I don’t know. How can you clog something that is not used? We are in the dry season of South Florida so I need to get that back up and running or just accept a brown yard.

The Washington Post had an article on the 30 most loved recipes over the years. I printed out a few and thought I’d give them a try. The first that caught my eye was Mustard-Parmesan Chicken. Here are the other ones I’m going to attempt: Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, Pillowy Pull-Apart Dinner Rolls, Simply Perfect Pot of Beans, and Chile Relleno Casserole.

Stay tuned!

26 October 2023

My friends keep a close check on me. The other day, Judith and Chris asked if they could stop by and deliver some flan to satisfy my sweet taste buds since I seem to have lost salt, sour, and bitter. I think I have the umami but not in a good way. When they arrived with the flan, Chris had put together a beautiful bouquet of flowers from his yard.

The beautiful red flowers are Caesalpinia pulcherrima, sometimes called peacock flower, red bird of paradise, or pride of Barbados. It’s a member of the bean family. The blue/purple flowers are Chromolaena odorata, sometimes called Jack-in-the-Box, Christmas bush, and devil weed. It’s a member of the aster family. Chris has a green thumb and can grow pretty much any native plant in his yard. The arrangement was spectacular!

I admit to feeling better today. That’s even with very little sleep. It seems not only does a saline infusion make me feel better but it keeps me wired all during the night.

That’s even after I took a souped up Xanax called Temazepan.

Even with the lack of sleep, I feel 100% better than yesterday. I may even try to do a little yard work sometime today – between naps. I need to trim the Heliconia again and it’s time to turn the sprinkler system back on since we’ve officially entered the dry period of the year. Of course, that means re-working the sprinkler heads to get rid of clogs.

As I got up this morning, I looked at my bedside table/chest of drawers and was overwhelmed by the number of medications on the top. I decided to group all the medications together and get a real idea of what I’ve been taking over this period of cancer. Understand that all these medications have nothing to do with the cancer treatment I receive. These are medications to relieve the side effects of the cancer treatments. Check it out below.

That’s 17 drugs and doesn’t include the Pepsid and Zofram and Benadryl they injected during the infusions. It also doesn’t include the urinary ketone test strips required when I take Jardiance. What sticks in my mind is the old scientific law “for every action, there’s an opposite and equal reaction.” How much of what I’m going through is the Taxol/Herceptin treatment and how much is affected by the medications to treat the side effects?

On the 23rd of October blog I put a time line of diagnosis, surgeries, treatments to help me keep things straight. Holy Cross has now provided me additional dates into January for treatments. Here’s the breakdown in case you are curious.

Somewhere in here I’ll have another echocardiogram or MUGA scan – probably in January.

Forgive any typos. With the numbness in my fingers, I can’t feel the little bumps on the “F” and “J” keys to find the home keys and sometimes when I type, I’m on the wrong letter.

Stay tuned!

22 October 2023

Today is much like yesterday which was like the day before…. – painful numbness in toes and fingers. My energy level is very low and I spend most of the time in bed. At least I’m getting some sleep in between pee breaks.

I made a scheduling mistake with a hydration infusion. I have it and my wellness visit scheduled within 30 minutes of each other next Friday. Monday, I’ll call to reschedule the wellness visit. I think the hydration infusion more important.

Since I have so much time on my hands, I decided to go a little crazy. I’ve always wanted a Dutch oven and Amazon was too tempting with a significant price reduction (over 50%). The result is I now have a Dutch oven with no place to store it and too little energy to use.

It’s made by Lodge is and is cast iron with an enamel finish. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to use it. It’s pretty enough you can leave it out to be seen, at least. That and it’s too heavy to move too frequently.

I wrote about the new gloves. I can report they actually work with electronic screens. The only problem I’ve found is the fiber is so soft, it’s hard to hold on to any electronic device even though you can scroll and tap and open any screen with the gloves.

After the gloves, I decided to replace the old gripper socks Tanis bought me years ago – they were wearing out. Jimmie recommended Bombas to me some time ago. They are an interesting company and when you buy a pair of socks, they donate a pair.

I like them for the gripper surface to wear around the house. Because of the numbness, my fingers and toes are always cold.

Then today I got a surprise. Jimmie sent me salt water taffy. This is a thing of our childhood and when I visit them in North Carolina, I try to bring them some from Gatlinburg. Today, I had a package of it at the front door.

The one taste bud that hasn’t been affected is sweet. Happy taste buds this week.

Walgreens let me know my Jardiance is ready to pick up for $118. When I went to my Medicare Part D site, I found that was the price after insurance paid over $1000 for it. In essence, it will run $353/90 days. When I checked on the other two drugs that were recommended by my endocrinologist, they were either equal to or more expensive even with insurance coverage so I’ll stick with Jardiance. It costs a lot to be sick these days.

Tomorrow is my eye appointment. Joel has volunteered to take me and unless I’m feeling much better tomorrow, I’ll take him up on it. Tuesday is my appointment with the oncologist and I have a bunch of questions to ask. Friday is hydration. My next “chemo” appointment is for Herceptin on November 9th and then every three weeks.

I didn’t watch the Ole Miss football game last night but I was pleasantly surprised when I got up this morning and found they won the game against Auburn!

Stay tuned!