Engine, engine #9...

Now that'll be in everybody's head:

Engine, engine number nine, going down Chicago line. If the train should jump the track, do I get my money back? Yes, no, maybe so, maybe 40 years ago! 

I KNOW Lisa just read that with the claps in the right places. 

I've been dealing with a sinus thing lately. Not a bad one, but the kind where even when your head feels okay, when you blow your nose your tissue then indicates that things are NOT okay. Also, when you bend over to retrieve anything from below knee level it feels like perhaps your head would like to take a field trip to a bowling alley to just roll away down the lane. 

So I was a bit concerned yesterday when I had my blood draw sent to the lab and was preparing to ask for at least a bag of fluids if my numbers were too low to proceed with chemo #9 (and there's the tie in to the title). To my great delight, my nurse said, "You're good to go for chemo- your white blood cells are back up, almost twice what they were last time! They're at 5 today and they were 2.6 last week!" 

Wahoooooooo! Thanks to any of you who have been praying over that. I was fully prepared to get things pushed back despite desperately not wanting that to happen. Yay!

My weight was down a tad from where it had been two weeks ago when I weighed in at my heaviest. That was a little alarming because my doc had told me at the beginning, "I really don't want you over X" and I thought with a scoff, "no problem. I will never weigh X" and then that weigh in two weeks ago was a single pound under X! Yikes! Granted, I did forget to factor in that this is winter so the clothes I'm being weighed in are also heavier than when I'm not wearing anything on my scale at home! 😅 I ALWAYS forget that!

In addition to the wall paper paste I'm blowing out of my schnoz, there's plenty of small blood clots as my membranes are pretty dried out by the combination of heated indoor winter air and the drying effects of chemo. My throat is dry even despite drinking 64+ ounces of water most days and I'm going through more eye drops than usual, as well. I know it's just a season, but I'll be glad when the ickiness is over. I'm ready to air out the house big time and I miss outdoor recess! 

Being inside with small germ factories children is taking a toll on everybody. Our teachers are sick or their kids are sick, and the subs are sick or our kids are sick. We need a 2319 like in Monsters, Inc or, better yet, decontamination spaces like in the movies so everyone who enters or exits school is cleared. Maybe someday. And then I'll probably wish I'd kept my mouth shut. WHOOOOOOOOSH!

No personal doc visit yesterday. I think the next one is at the end of the month, for my final visit. Only 3 chemos to go! Please keep praying that I stay healthy enough. I need to get this over with. I love seeing my nurses, but I'd like to see them OUTSIDE of a clinical setting, haha!

Fat Tuesday

{Incidentally, I love how Skulduggery Pleasant is peeking out between the scissors like he's up to something.}

Thing One took me to chemo #9 yesterday and we celebrated Fat Tuesday by getting FAT. We went to Olive Garden afterwards, ordered lasagna and unlimited soup and salad, and let's just say...

Do you remember what it looks like when Cookie Monster devours food? That was me. I practially inhaled my first bowl of chicken gnocchi soup and my first plate of salad. Then I polished off Thing One's unfinished soup and had another plate of salad whilst somebody dug through lasagna and snarfed down breadsticks. Our excellent and patient waiter then brought me a bowl of the Zuppa Toscana with Italian sausage, potatoes, and kale.

Kale.

Now, I LOVE lettuce. But kale is a different level for me. So I tried a spoonful. And then I tried a spoonful with kale in it. And THEN I inhaled the rest of the bowl, like my body had just discovered raw materials for the first time. I would have had a vat of it if I wasn't already so full. It was amazing! I've even hunted down a copycat recipe! 

Nobody is more shocked than I am.

Our waiter, pleased, asked if we'd like dessert, which was a no-brainer as they'd left the photo of the Black Tie Chocolate Cake on the table the entire time. We split it and then just about split our pants. So. Full. Of. Deliciousness.

We came home with lasagna, breadsticks, and a small bit of salad. Definitely fatter. #WeDidItRight

Glad my weigh in on the rhino scale was BEFORE lunch...

 

Fun date night

This handsome fella had a band concert last night and, as usual, it was terrific. Our band program is excellent, with passionate teachers and invested students. We got to hear from the Jazz Band, the Big Band, the Concert Band, and the Symphonic Band. Each performed three pieces and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them!

(All critical thinkers just crossed me off any type of list for judging panels of any kind, haha!)

Way to go!

 

Final day of February

 February, to me, is always a long month despite being the shortest of the year. How can 28 days take sooooo long?! We’ve had rain, fog, snow, ice, and GERMS. I can’t think of anyone who isn’t ready for March… so now we have WIND.

Just don’t make ‘em like they used to

Thing Three and I needed new bath scrubbies so I found a cheap 3-pack and got his all set in the bathroom for him. The next morning, I went in there to get a washcloth, spied the completely deteriorated scrubbie and laughed so hard I forgot the washcloth. I asked what happened and he said, “I dunno! It just unraveled! I had to use it like a snake!” He shimmied an invisible towel back and forth behind him for my viewing entertainment. This kid! Single use! Sheesh.

 

Offering hospitality

 I’ve no idea how or when this sweet little sister got into our house, but I am offering the bee version of bread and salt and safety. She was on the edge of the dogs’ water bowl and I didn’t want to have to fish her out, so I scooped her and gave her some water and honey. Whether it’s cruel to prolong her life without her hive remains to be seen, but if she wants to hang out inside where it’s warm, I don’t mind. I wonder if she is critiquing the honey and has figured out which branch of her humongous family tree made it and from which kind of flowers…

Snack time!

 My after school charcuterie, hehe:

Friday follow up

 I'm halfway done with chemo, woooHOOOOOOO!

Thanks for all the prayers, you guys. The port has been working well. All I needed was a position change at my last visit, meaning the nurse tilted my chair back so my feet were elevated and that turned the blood draw from "sluggish" to "there! That's better!"

Getting weighed at the doctor's office is a loaded issue for a lot of people, but it cracks me up every single time because my doc has one of those in-floor scales like a vet uses where you try to fit ALL of your dog's paws on and make sure you're not also standing on a corner and getting them to sit and STAY and so forth. Each time I step onto this rectangle, it goes CHA CHONG as if I were a rhino or a hippo or something similarly humungous. It's such an ego hit. I've given up worrying about which shoes will be lighter or that I'm wearing compression socks, a sweater  AND a scarf and all the other ridiculous layers. My port is about two inches under my clavicle so I have to be in a tank top so I can slide the strap down my shoulder for the nurse to access it. But it's February in Ohio, hence the sweater and scarf. A collared shirt of any kind won't work because the fabric will keep ramming up against the IV stuff, and I tried a button down shirt but that hitched up weirdly too. I much prefer my scale at home, haha! Oh well. This too shall pass. I suppose it'll keep me humble, even as it makes me think of Law & Order...

I'm still picking up the taste/smell of chemicals more than I would be if I were not having chemo, which makes some things a little weird- like sugarfree gum starts off tasting a bit bizarre until it softens and then is dreadful once it's lost its flavor- but my appetite is good and most things are behaving the way they are supposed to. 

Only six more chemo sessions left. I'm trying to stay healthy, though I've been thrilled to be able to sub some. I spent Wednesday with some energetic kindergarteners and we had a pretty good day! I even stayed awake during their quiet time, so I'll count that as a win. Heh heh heh.

Weatherwise, things have been rather disgusting and depressing... we've had two Thursdays in a row of cancelled everything because of ice. Thing Two keeps laughing about his chemistry lab not happening because that is Thursday afternoons. At some point this week, I'd checked the weekly forecast and just about had a fit when it said 7-9" of snow predicted for NEXT Thursday. They've since changed that to 0, thankfully. This is not the east side of Lake Erie. Been there, done that. Thing Three gleefully slides in his tennies down the ice rink that is our driveway whilst I follow along in my huge boots with arms out, penguin style. A friend mentioned falling and said, "years ago I'd have bounced. Now I just thud." I hear that, and what I desperately don't want to hear is the *SNAP* of any bones! 

Energy level is much better than it was during last autumn's AC chemo, and it leads me to moments where I have to talk to myself:

Me: Why am I so tired? All I did was XYZ.

Myself: Listen here, you had chemo on Tuesday. Your body still has to use energy to clear out all the dead cancer cells, remember?

Me: Oh yeah. I guess I AM doing more than I thought...

Myself: Yeah. Go crash on the couch for a little bit!

And I: And then we can bake cookies!

What we have here is a failure to communicate

 This turned out to be the fault of a spelling error, but it's funny nevertheless so I'll share it. 

We were working on a crossword puzzle, and I still firmly believe what I told my mother once: I am either not smart enough or not old enough to do these well. 

Me: What's 22 down?

Him: "Recipe direction, sometimes," ..............Farts. 

Me: What are you cooking with!? Ogres?!

Him: It's five letters and the middle three are A-R-T... what am I SUPPOSED to think?!

(I do believe it turned out to be SAUTE, but that's besides the point.)

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed

 Last night at our small group meeting, we discussed 1 Corinthians 7... specifically verses 25ish to the end of the chapter, but we had a good time puzzling over 29-31:

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

In other words, live open-handedly and don't get too bogged down in the Stuff of this life because it's just a blip on your eternal timeline, right? We then backtracked to verse 4 which says:

The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 

We talked about how that would have been revolutionary at the time because the first part made sense in that ancient culture but the second half would have rocked their world. 

I raised my pointer finger, and rather smugly added, "so when your wife tells you to make your doctor's appointment..."

One of the other married guys didn't miss a beat. "But now I'm living as if I don't have a wife...." 

Yeah, well played, buddy.

Go schedule your stuff, everybody. It's halfway through February already. Heart health, GI health, mental health, all of it. Go make your appointments and then reward yourself with a Valentine's Day treat! Love you all!

Made you look

 Gonna be great for the resale value of our home. One of our children, who shall remain nameless, decided it'd be a good idea to write the word Gullible on the ceiling. Truly. 

I can't even. 

***

Me, hoping to clear stuff in a staging area out into the attic where it belongs: If I turn the space heater on now in the attic, how long do you think it'll take to get comfortable?

Dada: About four months.

***

It's one of those craptastic weather days here. Even our neighboring district that we laugh about never cancelling is CLOSED. The boys are spread eagled, "WHAT!? Whaaaaaaat?! They CLOSED!? No WAY!" We used to live in that district and would sigh as we got ready and wonder why in the world the district we are in now always seemed to delay or close. "Those kids are NEVER in school. Those poor (or "lucky" depending on who was lamenting) kids! They never go! We are always in school!" Once we moved here, to a much more rural district, we understood. With all the farm fields, you have a totally different relationship with weather in all its forms. All that laying water lends us tons of humidity, so we have fog. Lots of fog. Sometimes freezy fog, which is oddly beautiful. The district north of us is much more condensed into city/buildings/etc and there is a line where we pretend Gandalf stands, staff out, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" It's crazy to drive up there and the fog just... stops. In a line. Like it knows there's a boundary it can't cross. And that's why we don't have school on time and they do. 

But we are all in pajamas today, haha, wheee! The children have already been warned that there will be housework today. Heh heh heh heh...

***

Be careful out there. Or, as the Muppets say, "watch out for the ICY PATCH!"