Color us lucky

Thousands of our fellow Nutmeggers are suffering with power outages and worse after Irene stormed her way through Connecticut.

Here in our neighborhood there was a lot of wind, intermittent heavy downpours and branches and leaves down. 
A dead tree fell into our backyard, but nowhere near the house. 

But we never lost power. The lights never even flickered, and for that we are so grateful.

Yesterday my oncologist told me he and his wife had

to evacuate Saturday afternoon. They live on Long Island Sound and he said the Sound was like the ocean that day.


Ralph's sister and several other relatives in Connecticut have been living without electricity for days, and they can't get an estimate of when it will be returned. I can't imagine their frustration.

A friend who lives about 20 miles away in a more affluent (and rural) town than ours lost power Sunday and still hasn't gotten it back. 

Today she was able to bathe herself and her two kids with water they got from the fire department.

Wow. That is roughing it in my book. 

I pray that everyone gets electricity back soon!

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood

This is how the courtyard outside the area where I get chemo looked at noon today. It's a beautiful setting. 

This was taken through the window. Unfortunately we can't go out and play in the courtyard. 

Today is Chemo Day again...the weeks fly by

Gimme a c - C!

Gimme an h -H!

Gimme an e - E!

Gimme an m - M!

Gimme an o - O!

And what does that spell?  Exhaustion.  

Well at least it's 'chemo light,' as I prefer to call it.



Must be Monday.  ;-)


{And my online cancer journal continues..}

Storm damage recap

We got through the wrath of Irene unscathed, thankfully. 
None of the bigger trees in our yard fell. 
This old dead tree from a neighbor's yard is now lying at the bottom of the hill in our backyard. 

And there it will stay, because it's not in the way.
We have electricity and we don't expect it to go out now. It got really windy here this afternoon after the storm, but that seems to be subsiding.

Sorry to hear about all those people suffering after Irene paid them a visit, including several family members in Connecticut who have no power.
We had luck on our side this time.

A little levity from the e-mail bag

I'm tired of waiting all day for the arrival of that mean Irene. It's nerve-wracking!

Thought I'd share something I got in my e-mail yesterday, just for giggles.

~ ~ ~

A crusty old man walks into the local Catholic church and says to the secretary, "I would like to join this damn church."


The astonished woman replies, "I beg your pardon, Sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?"
"Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!"


"I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this church."


The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the priest's study to
inform him of her situation.


The priest agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that
 foul language..
They both return to her office and the priest asks the old geezer, "Sir, what seems to be the problem here?"


"There is no problem," the man says. "I just won 20 million dollars in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money."


"I see," said the priest. "And is this bitch giving you a hard time?

Getting anxious about Irene

It appears that our family of four is among the 65 million people on the East Coast about to get hit by Irene.

I never did like crowds.  :-(

Waaah!

Ralph just came home with some wine. Both red and white. 

He's good at hurricane shopping!

Minor miracle, horticulturally speaking

Yup, my poinsettia is still with us eight months after Christmas.


This has never happened before. 

Time for 'chemo light' again, tra la, tra la

Actually I joked to a friend last week that going for the treatments is my only break! My days seem to get pretty busy. So it's relaxing to just sit there and veg out.

My mother is there with me, and she goes to the snack bar in another part of the building and gets us a roll or something to snack on, and there is free coffee...

The doctor will even get it for you! How cool is that.

He seems to get miffed if you don't want any!

 

{And so my online cancer journey journal doth continue. Thanks for reading.}

Shadow Shot Sunday ~ fruity

It's Saturday morning here, which means it's Shadow Shot Sunday time ...

Now that statement could confuse someone not in the know!

One sunny morning this week I spotted this shadow when I put a colander of blueberries on the table. 

You can see lots more shadow shots (much more interesting than this one!) at our awesome Aussie friend Tracy's Hey Harriet blog. Check them out!

Building up a tolerance? Could be

Yesterday was "chemo light" day number 4, and miraculously when I got home I was not ready to go to sleep.
I actually stayed up for two and a half hours and worked before taking a nap.

When I told Ralph he said I must be getting used to it.

Maybe my body is building up a tolerance to it or something.

All I know is eight more treatments to go! Or as the doctor said, I'm one-third of the way there. The weeks are flying by.

~ ~ ~

My online cancer journey journal doth continue...

Thanks for reading!

Surreal is one way of describing the process..

My friend Linda said in a comment on my blog May 3 that she was wondering how I felt when I went for chemotherapy.
Well, I've had a lot of treatments since then and her question continues to stick in my head.

The first time I was escorted by the doctor into the spacious room (overlooking a beautiful healing garden and waterfall) where they hook you up to an IV I felt like I was part of a new club - the chemo club - that has a membership list a mile long.

It was kinda like when I became a mother for the first time...you are instantly a member of a club that you never leave.

I suppose I'd describe the feeling as surreal - you know of people throughout your life who have gone through various forms of cancer surgeries and treatments, and you only imagine what it must be like.
But when it actually happens, all anyone can do is take it one treatment, one procedure at a time.
I wasn't scared, but rather grateful that I was getting the medical care I need.

I feel fine, just tired. I've had no nausea, and for that I also am incredibly grateful!

Tomorrow morning I return for 'chemo light' number 4.
Thanks for reading my online cancer journal.

To be continued...

Shadow Shot Sunday

I spied this shadow earlier this week while waiting for a friend at a breakfast/lunch spot.

Luckily I had my camera along.

Snap a shadow and join the weekend fun!
You can see lots of shadowy photos at our awesome Aussie friend Tracy's Hey Harriet blog.

A day later than usual

My usual Monday chemo light appointment got postponed until today.

I just got up from a nap and feel a bit less tired than I did when I got home. I found out what is knocking me out is a dose of Benadryl. It must be a large dose or maybe as one of the nurses said, I'm a cheap drunk.

And I thought it was the chemo light. Silly me.

Dang, it's raining now and we were thinking of going to a free outdoor concert tonight. I figured I have enough energy to sit there and listen.
I guess it will be postponed until tomorrow.

And so my not-too-scintillating online journal of my cancer journey continues...

Ruby Tuesday ~ summer fun

Today I post a photo of some real rubies, or gems as it were! These are some of the members of the next generation of our extended family.
I'm happy two of them were wearing red, which gave me an excuse to use this for Ruby Tuesday!
Oh, and the flagstones are red, so it's all good.

See lots more photos featuring a little or a lot of red at Mary T's Work of the Poet.

Impromptu x 2

I had two unplanned get-togethers with friends Wednesday, thus the title of the post.

First off I took a morning walk with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. I wrote about it and posted a photo here. I'm cool like that. ;-)

I also snapped the photo below while we walked and talked.

Then Wednesday afternoon Duchess Linda of Norwich Upon Thames Facebook messaged me to see if we could meet her for dinner after she picked up daughter Amanda from the New Haven train station.
We could and we did! It was great to see them again.

All in all Wednesday was a lot of fun. Note to self: Need to do more of that!

Straight out of the camera

Took a short walk with a friend this morning. We should do that every morning! Anyhow, this is what I saw along the way.
Looks bucolic, doesn't it? Well it isn't! haha

It's located directly under a highway bridge that spans the Housatonic River between Derby and Shelton, Ct.
It's pretty but it's also kinda noisy around there.

What the hail happened?

Like many of my Facebook friends in this neck of the woods (southern Connecticut) I posted two photos of the hail we got during an early evening storm yesterday on Facebook.

And I thought I'd also post some here, just for the hail of it.
It was a freaky storm and it seemed to last quite a while. It was soooo noisy on the skylight. I was afraid that the hailstones were going to make their way through the skylight. Fortunately they didn't.
Some folks were able to capture rainbow photos, but I didn't see one or else I would have as well.

As you can see Allegra was out there with me taking pix.

It was so nice and cool after the storm. Felt great.

Here's one of the smaller hailstones in Allegra's hand. A lot of them seemed to be the size of quarters.

Guess that's about all I have today. Hope everyone has a good Tuesday ~

OK, it's another Monday morning

...and time for some more "chemo light." That's what I've decided to call it.

Woo hoo!

Happy August to all my blog friends.