Christmas was Great

We had a great Christmas, Neil was with us for Christmas Eve and we spent a quiet day for Christmas watching Christmas movies and relaxing then went for Chinese food! The food was great but the service was terrible, but I don't think our waitress was actually a waitress, so that excuses it. Today we went to Whole Foods for lunch and now we're going to go see "Little Fockers" that looks like it will be hysterical and laughter is so good for your health! It's pretty chilly, but when I looked at the TV in Whole Foods, there was a football game on, which was in Ohio - I'm not sure if it was in the stadium in Cleveland, but the announcer commented that they were getting light snow flurries, no accumulation but with the wind chill it felt like 40 below zero! I'm just wondering if it's possible that could have been in Cleveland and if the temperature is that different across town or if we're crazy and just don't realize how cold it feels???

I have to start getting up early and taking a nap in the afternoon if necessay, otherwise I'm having trouble working in my routine. It's hard to take your vitamins and do pranayama 3 times a day if you don't get up until noon and go to sleep at 7:30 or 8:00! It does seem like I have more energy, though. I'm going to have to start watching it, could be a cycle in relation to my chemo treatments! My aunt is taking the same chemo and that's what happens to her - she knows exactly which days are when she's really tired. I need to pay more attention and make my schedule accordingly. I still have cookies to bake! They aren't Christmas cookies, they are winter cookies! I'll take some pictures of them once I make them and we can see how they compare to my Christmas cookies. We'll see if they are up to Martha's standard! I think they will be, but we'll see :-)

Well, I'm going to run so we get to the movie on time. I doubt it will be crowded, I assume everyone will be shopping for after Christmas deals, we'll see if I'm right! Have a great afternoon & evening we'll talk tomorrow!

It's Almost Christmas

Bharata arrived yesterday, timing worked out perfect, his flight was delayed in Charolette, so he arrived later than anticipated and my chemo went quickly, so I had just finished as he arrived, didn't even have to park the car! Is that perfect timing or what? I had been craving a BIG breakfast all afternoon, and my nurse told me where I could get one so we headed way out somewhere and I pigged out! It certainly hit the spot, not really the best food choices but sometimes you just gotta treat yourself!

Today we went to Whole Foods to stock up on some things I needed, ran in Target fo a car charger for the cell phone and exchanged my shoes at Macy's. I was surprised, Target & Macy's weren't that crowded, now Whole Foods on the other hand was a zoo! Neil is going to try to come by tomorrow afternoon and spend Christmas Eve with us and fly to Chicago for work on Christmas morning! That will be great if the flights work out!

I'm feeling pretty good today, I didn't actually get out of bed until 11:30, but I don't count that, I was up at 10:00 but there were 3 episodes of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on back to back - that show would almost make it worth getting a TV, except I would also have to get cable - but I will check to see if it's available on iTunes! Let's face it, it isn't like I've seen all the old episodes. But none the less, I count myself as having gotten up at 10:00. That isn't too bad when you take into account the fatigue from chemo. Plus after we got home from Whole Foods, we walked a quarter of a mile around the second floor balcony that overlooks the lobby - so I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. It isn't the actually walking that's difficult, it's just boring going around in circles over and over, it took 13 laps to make a quarter of a mile. They have chair yoga on Tuesdays & Thursdays, I may just boom out and try that next week. I'm just going to feel really bad if I'm the youngest (which I probably will be) and the only one with a husband with a yoga center (which I'm sure I will be) and then I'm the worse one in class! At least it's exercise and if I start going, I'm sure I'll improve, so I just need to mark it on my calendar and force myself to start, otherwise I'll do what I did this week, be tied up doing something else and say I'll go next time and once again find myself otherwise occupied! It's the starting that's key - so hopefully Tuesday will be the day, maybe I can get Bharata to push me to go.

Well, we're at Starbucks and it's already dark, which means even colder, so we're going to head back home before the temperature drops much more and we turn into ice sculptures :-) just kidding, it's not that cold! Talk to you guys tomorrow. Have a great night and hope if you have anything left to do for Christmas, you get it done tomorrow!

Christmas Chemo

I got the best chemo nurse I've had yet, I didn't even feel it when she put the IV in! That's amazing! This is my last time before I have my port put in, so I won't be using the veins anymore, but if I was, I would want her - she's the best!

Bharata's coming today, actually he would have arrived by now, but his plane was delayed in Charlotte, but that is a great airport to be delayed in! I'm always disappointed when I fly through there, because I never seem to have much time between flights, I always hope for a delay! I'm hoping he will agree to go to the Chicago Deli when we get through here, and I'm hoping they do breakfast all day - because I could really go for pancakes, eggs & grits! The cafe here isn't terribly vegetarian friendly, they have hotdogs on Wednesdays and they have macaroni and cheese but I didn't want that much dairy! Some how the Mac & cheese just doesn't send me and the soups on Wednesday are both meat soups. That reminds me, when I was in the hospital they got my first few meal orders messed up, so they sent one of the supervisors down to see what I wanted and straighten things out. He told me he would have them send vegetarian menus for me to choose from. I was talking to my sister on the phone while making my selections after that and she asked about the vegetarian menu, I told her I never got those. The next day I happened to think about it and looked a little closer, they did send what they considered a vegetarian menu - no meat or poultry, just fish! I haven't looked that careful before to see all the non pasta options were fish, I just assumed it was the regular menu because I saw fish on it. So obviously the hospital is of the belief that vegetarians eat fish! Surprising how many people don't know what a vegetarian is, frightening actually! We found a vegetarian place we're going to try out, even has raw food and then I see there's another place in a neighboring town that Chrissy Hines from The Pretenders started, so maybe we'll check that too if we have time! Meanwhile all I want now is a BIG breakfast!

Luckily I've finished all my Christmas shopping and everything has been shipped, so I can just chill - I don't mind going shopping or out and about at the holidays if it's just for fun, it's when you have to get things that it becomes stressful! Now all I have to do is figure out where we can go for Christmas dinner - I think I'll check out the yellow pages for places that look like they'll have vegetarian options and then see who's going to be open! Actually I'm assuming those two vegetarian places are closed, but I should call and verify that! I like eating out on holidays, it seems more festive, a different environment, a lot of people, things all decorated & festive - plus you have nothing to clean up and you can linger if you feel like it or get up as soon as you're finished eating if you're tired, it isn't rude like if you did that at someone's house! Plus you can each have whatever you're in the mood for, there's no set menu. One year we had Chinese, and that actually sounds pretty good, not sure if it's because I'm hungry or if it really does sound good!

Looks like it's stopped snowing, so that's good, I didn't want another mess like two weeks ago. First, because it would be horrible to try to get here from the airport in such traffic and bad weather conditions and then the second reason is because I don't want anything interfering with my BIG breakfast. You'd think I was back on steroids the way I'm talking about food! I think I will look up the deli and call to see if they do serve breakfast all day. Otherwise I need to find a Denny's or a Pancake House - talk about bad food choices! Who cares, it's Christmas and I deserve it!!!!!

Well, I'm starting to feel woozy from my premeds, I'm going to go before I really start rambling! You all have a great night and I'll catch you tomorrow.

My Daily Trip to Starbucks

I'm back at Starbucks, the energy here is much more uplifting than at the bagel shop. It seems like the people who go to the bagel shop go to eat, but here, there are students working on homework, people catching up with old friends, others surfing the Internet, it's just a real mix of people. It makes for a more stimulating environment, so I rather like it!

I understand Friday is when they're expecting a lot of snow, at least that's what the nurse said this morning. The forecast calls for snow each day, but probably like today just little flurries, nothing terribly substantial, I'll have to watch the news to see what they expect Friday! I wonder if it will be like that storm w had a couple weeks ago - that was a mess! That's one up side to not being able to drive :-) I don't have to drive in the snow! See every cloud has a silver lining!

I'm feeling much better the last couple of days. Soaking in Epsom salts really helps the achy joints (side effect of chemotherapy) and I'm working on the fatigue, I have to find a balance between just giving in to it and staying in bed all day and pushing myself too much and overdoing it! Staying in bed too long gets you down, so that's not good, but I do need my rest, so I'm trying to find the balance. That's not exactly my strong suit, but I'm working on it and getting better at it - so I'm making progress! Watching Christmas movies is a good compromise, it's not just vegetating in bed, but it doesn't require a lot of energy. I'm curious what's on tonight, apparently there is no such thing as a TV guide other than if you have the paper delivered to your home. So watching TV is not something you can plan out, because who knows what's Ginger to be on. I'm beginning to get use to it, actually this is a very good exercise for me, because when I use to watch TV I would go through the TV guide on Sunday and figure out what wanted to watch for the entire week. That's really pretty anal, so this is forcing me out of that, I just have to wing it!

I went to Aladdin's - it's pretty good, I had a falafel salad and hummus - it was good, plus I didn't have to fix anything or wash any dishes :-). It's pretty chilly out, I'm going to guess the low 20s and since it's starting to get late (usually gets dark around 5-5:30) I'm going to head back home shortly so I don't freeze. The temperature should begin dropping soon. Sitting here in Starbucks gave me time to warm up after having walked from Aladdin's to the bank and then to Starbucks.

I just noticed, they have the same hanging lamps that we used in the lobby of Bella Mare, they look a little better here because they're higher rather than hanging low over the table. Although I must admit, they really don't do much for me. Well, before it gets too cold, I'm going to sign off and head back home! I'll catch up with you guys again tomorrow. Have a great night.

Another Lazy Sunday!

Here I am again just lazing around, i didn't get up until 1:00, but it took me until after 2:00 to get dressed! I finally got motivated enough to walk down to Starbucks, that way I get out, post to my blog and get some exercise - Starbucks is further away than the bagel shop! I might walk past the bagel shop the other way and see what this Middle Eastern restaurant I was reading about on the Internet. It sounded pretty good, I have to see if they have a menu in the window, and also what their hours are. Might be a place for us to try while Bharata's up here at Christmas!

There's a little snow falling, they are just tiny, tiny snowflakes, in fact they almost look like raindrops but they're dry! The forecast has changed again, now they're calling for snow everyday this week! The key will be how much snow! Tomorrow is going to be a real test for me, I'm going to get up early - that means leave home by say 8:00 AM - so I can go to the post office and mail some packages - if I don't go tomorrow I'm afraid I'll miss a pre-Christmas delivery! I can't have that, what kind of Santa would I be? That reminds me of a Christmas movie I just watched, I can't remember the name, something about Santa Claus, Santa only reins as Santa for 200 years, then someone else takes over, in this case Whoopie Goldberg took over - just think, that could be me, with a white wig, red suit & a sleigh with reindeer! That would be awesome! I could totally go for being Santa Claus! Last year we had a great time, buying Christmas presents for kids & their siblings in the Head Start program in West Palm Beach and Bharata played Santa at their Christmas party, it was so much fun! I heard about the program and need for toys a couple of years ago on the radio and have so enjoyed getting presents for these kids. This year we had planned to do the Santa thing again and even thought we'd schedule to go a few days early and do Santa pictures with the kids and then take them to the parents at the party. Most of these families can't afford to but pictures of the kids with Santa, but I'm sue they'd appreciate having one. That will just have to wait for next year! Hopefully they got enough toys for everyone.

I'm realizing I feel much better when I get out - it's just getting myself out that's the difficult part! I'm trying to come up with some sort of plan to make this easier. I think I've hit the saturation point where the cumulative effects of the chemotherapy have built up in my body causing it to be a bit more difficult to stay active and remain as positive. So that means I have to bring out the big guns (first, I have to figure out what the big guns are). I refuse to let these toxins get the best of me, they have their purpose, to destroy the cancer, and I fully intend to allow them to do that, but I have to use other alternative therapies to dispose of the by-products which aren't needed for fighting the cancer so they don't pull me down. I think the secret to all of this is to understand the effects the toxins have and to combat them, rather than just letting it take you over not really understanding what's happening. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people don't understand this and are overwhelmed by it without knowing why and once it's pulled you into it's vortex, getting out because almost impossible - which is why I intent to gain control of the situation before it gets to that point!

I'm just looking across the street and I see the door to the India Community Center is open, I actually thought the place was closed and the sign had never been removed because it looked sort of abandoned, but I guess not. I wonder what exactly they have and or do there? I'll have to check it out and I can tell Pooja, the little girl I sponsor in India through the Christian Children's Fund. I try from time to time to write something in Spanish to Tania (not that my Spanish is very good) she's the little girl I sponsor in Bolivia. I've thought about sponsoring a child since I was in my teens but never got around to it. This sounds crazy but it was a Jack Nicholson movie that gave me the push I needed! It's quite rewarding, I'm really glad I finally made the commitment.

Well, I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but it looks like it's getting colder out there, so I'm going to sign off and head back home. Have a wonderful rest of the afternoon and evening and I'll be back tomorrow.

Can't believe it's the weekend again

Here we are, it's Friday again, I can't believe it! It's about 28 degrees, but it feels pretty mild because it isn't windy. We are having some very light snow flurries, it's a very dry snow, so it's nice, although I'm not sure if it's sticking. It's hard to tell because it's so light! Perhaps another month or so I'll have the hang of this whole snow thing! :-)

Well, last night I buzzed my hair off to 1/8" length - the chemotherapy is making it fall out and then what's around the area that fell out sticks out, haven't figured out why, but this takes care of that. Who knew it would be so easy to eliminate a bad hair day! I think my hairdresser might freak out, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her! I think tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, but I'll see when I get up. Ohio seems to be like Florida, if you don't like the weather wait 15 minutes! They give these forecasts and then a few hours later or the next day it's totally changed. I just check the weather if I think I want to go out and then decide based on what's happening right then. It's actually kind of a good thing, sort of keeps me in the moment! I also don't put things off for later, because who knows what later will bring, so if the weathers nice and I have something that needs to be done, I do it because I don't know when another opportunity will present itself!

I think I'm going to schedule some treatments from the Reflections program, I was going to before I ended up in the hospital and things got crazy. It's a program that provides free alternative treatments to cancer patients, like massage, reflexology, reiki, etc... It's great! Just have to decide which treatments to go for! Well, if I can't decide I'll just close my eyes and point, like pin the tail on the donkey, without the pin! :-)

I think I'm going to run, well not run actually, go take a nap! I'll talk to you guys later. Have a great afternoon and evening!

Talk About Feeling Stupid!!!!

When I got home from chemotherapy I did my pranayama, took my supplements and went to bed, I was out for the count. I didn't wake up until 7:00 and my home care nurse would be here at 9:30, I had to hurry. I did my pranayama, cleaned up, got dressed, had breakfast && started making my green drink to take my supplements with; something was niggling around in the back of my mind, not really a conscious thought, but there nonetheless. What was it? I had not quite an hour before the nurse would be here, I needed to hurry, I stopped the green drink and got everything ready for the nurse first, just in case she's early, I opened the blinds by the dining table and resumed getting everything out for my drink. The niggling thought had made it's way to the front of my mind and was forming into a conscious thought, all of a sudden it popped out as a question. Why is it still dark outside, it should have been light almost 2 hours ago? My first thought was what could delay sunrise? Luckily that was just in passing (or I would really worry about myself) then I thought, is it morning? I went to my iPhone looked at the time and saw it was PM, not AM! The good news I hadn't finished my green drink and taken my supplements yet, since I'd just had taken a few hours before, the bad news I was rushing around getting ready for an event that wouldn't take place for 12 hours! I'm not sure why I just assumed it was morning when I woke up rather than that I had just taken a nap as I had intended. When I woke up it never even crossed my mind it was still evening, I must have felt extremely well rested. I did feel foolish! I'll have to start checking AM or PM from now on unless it's clearly light outside! :-)

I feel like my energy is coming back, could be from the steroids in the premeds, but I don't think so, but that would account for a the burst of energy when I woke up around midnight! I even did some yoga, no inverted postures or anything too strenuous, just some leg lifts, the tree and some triangle variations - i figured those would help strengthen my legs, improve my coordination & balance and not bother anything else. I didn't want to do any inverted poses, figured those could be detrimental to the brain, not worth taking a chance. It's 17 degrees today, but the wind has died down so that shouldn't be so bad. The wind is what causes the cold to just cut through you! I'm going to walk over to Dave's Market after the nurse leaves, just to pick up a few things, the weather is so unpredictable I figure when it's nice I need to take care of things because tomorrow might not be an option! Other than that I'm just going to stay inside and keep warm! Well, one other thing I plan to do is trim the hair to an 1/8" see how that works. There will still be a layer of hair to hold in heat, but it'll be shorter and should stick out in all directions around the patches that have fallen out. Otherwise, it's henna tattoos and keeping my fingers crossed the hats hold in enough heat. I wonder if the make silk under hats, like the long underwear they make for skiing - if not I need to add that to the list Kasey and I are making of ideas to research and perhaps pursue! Personally I think that's something there's a market for, especially for women, because a lot of winter hats look great (which is why we buy and wear them) but they aren't very warm, this would solve the problem! I'll google it, if it's out there, google knows! I don't know how we survived before google. I'll bet term papers and reports for school are a piece of cake compared to what we had to go through to research them. Well, actually that's not fair, truth is they probably expect a lot better papers from kids these days because there's so much available information. Everything's relative! Maybe that's why 12 year olds can use Facebook and I still can't figure it out! :-)

Well, I'm going to run, I want to be ready when the nurse arrives considering I was up 12 hours early! It's going to take me awhile to get over that. What was I thinking? I mean come on that's taking punctuality to an extreme :-). Can I count it even though it wasn't intentional? I didn't think so! Oh well! Have a fabulous day!

A Milder Day

I'm having my fifth chemotherapy treatment today. I've already had my pre-meeds so if I start sounding loopy or rambling, that's why :-). It's actually not as cold as I expected and is a pretty nice day, I do see a few scattered snowflakes, but nothing to speak of! As long as it doesn't turn into a repeat of last Wednesday, I'm fine with it! I understand a lot of the employees couldn't even go home last Wednesday because the weather was so bad! To think we complain about hurricanes, at least we get some notice and have time to prepare!

I'm finally having a few side effects from the chemotherapy, some fatigue which isn't so bad, it slows me down and forces me to rest which I wouldn't always do otherwise! So that's a god thing. My hair is also coming out, I have to decide about the henna tattoos, I thought that was a great idea back when the temperatures were probabLy in the 50s & 60s - now with temperatures in the 20's & teens, I'm sort of rethinking that concept - my head gets kind of cold even with hair (even with a hat) so I'm not sure how cold it will be with a naked head! I've heard that you lose most of your body heat through the head, so I'm giving that some thought. Guess my option would be a wig or something, which seems like it would be rather uncomfortable but having a cold head will probably be uncomfortable too. So we will see how that goes - decisions, decisions, it's like going to the hairdresser and going through all those magazines trying to decide on just the right " do"! Actually it would be great to have one of those old- fashioned hairdryers you sat under (I remember my mom had one when I was a kid) I could just pop under there and warm up my head if it got cold - but I haven't seen one of those in years! I wonder what Kojak did during the winter? Should be the same for bald men, right? Who knows, I'll figure it out I'm sure! I should have such problems, there are people with no food and all sorts of other problems, keeping my head warm is hardly a big deal!

I can feel myself starting to doze off from the Benadryl - don't know why it always throws me for such a loop, but it does! I always want to get stuff done during this time and it doesn't cooperate very well! Probably another one of those signs I need to slow down and reattach, whether I like it or not! Oh well, don't guess I have much of a choice, so I'm going to sign off and take a nap! Have a great afternoon, I certainly intend to! Ciao!

Brrrrrrrr!

Well this morning it's 18 degrees according to my weather program, they were saying the windchill would be zero, so I'm assuming that's the case because it's very windy - but I'm not going outside to find out!  :-)
I'm feeling much better this morning, I had a great Theta healing session last evening, there were 3 practioners, not just one.  It really got me back on track, I've been sort of discombobulated since being in the hospital - my schedule got all out of wack and it's been difficult to get back on track - but it's coming together. 

The fever seems to be more or less under control, when I do have one it isn't very high, so it doesn't zap my energy the way fevers do when they are high.  So that's a good thing!  Even though the hospital stay disrupted my visit with my sister, I think it was very positive, it gave me more peace of mind since they did so many tests to basically rule out possibilities of what was causing the fevers and they came up with a new wound care plan that seems to be working much better, so all in all, even though I didn't necessarily think so at the time, this too was exactly what I needed.  It's just amazing how things just keep falling together.  It's like a perfectly orchestrated concert - amazing how that works when I just listen rather than try to conduct! 

I'm starting to work on my artwork, I'm adding to my Postcards to God series.  When I get home I'll be uploading all of them to my website, so I'll have some from this experience to add to the collection.  I've found working on these postcards to be very cathartic while documenting my life experiences over the past several years.  It's good to be getting back to this, it reconnects me to who I am.  So here again another positive thing I'm receiving from this experience.  Well, I've got to run, will be back later!

Snow Picture

OK, here's the picture I promised you of the snow - i took it through the window screen, but you should be able to see how much snow we got.  It is just so pretty!

My Latest Wild Adventure

Sorry I've been incommunicado for the last week, I've had quite an adventure. My elbow was a bit swollen, red and a little sore last Friday so my doctor put me on antibiotics and told me if I developed a fever to call immediately. My sister was coming to visit on Saturday. After I got up and got it together on Saturday I took my temperature just because he said to watch it, not thinking I actually had one - well I did and it was fairly high, but I tend to run high fevers so I wasn't terribly concerned. Since it was the weekend I put in a page to whoever was on call, shortly after my sister arrived, he called me back and instructed me to go to the emergency room! After about 30 minutes of driving. And stops at several wrong buildings, we finally arrived at the ER. I was there for about 6 hours having all kinds of tests, they finally decided what he had thought when he sent me over, I needed IV antibiotics, so they started those and admitted me to the hospital. I was a bit stunned considering prior to taking my temperature I thought I was fine. Guess that's why I'm not a doctor :-). I was quite impressed with how thorough they were, they leave no stone unturned! After I was admitted, they did even more tests. The most stocking part of all this, at least for me because until all of this started I had never been in a hospital, was how little rest you get. I've always thought of libraries for sick people, a place where you whisper and be very quiet and the patients rest - they are nothing like that! They're fairly noisy but the big thing is they wake you up all night long to do tests, I was extremely fortunate, the techs who came around every few hours to check my vital signs would come and take mine early if it was only 30 minutes or so before the scheduled time because they knew I was awake because they just changed my IV or did blood work I thought that was so considerate.

I saw at least 8 different doctors during my 3 day stay, which I find amazing, everyone here is specialized but they confer with each other to make sure they are giving the patient the best possible care and with that many opinions I felt quite comfortable they were on top of anything I needed. It wasn't a bad experience at all, except it occurred during my sister's visit. They never found anything, like an infection, causing the fever, but apparently just having cancer can cause fevers, but I feel much better knowing they checked me from head to toe so that's probably all it is. I was still running fevers when I got home so I just have to take Tylenol. They seem to have gradually made their way down so when I run one it's just slightly over normal, which is great. I had been a bit tired for the past few days, from the fevers, I'm sure, but today I feel pretty much back to normal.

Here's the best thing, it snowed, we probably have about a foot in the courtyard, it's almost to the seat of the chairs! I doubt very many people up here find that exciting, but for someone from Florida, it's great, especially at the holidays! The beginning of the week we're supposed to get a lot of snow, something called the Lake Effect and it will be in the teens with 30 mile an hour winds and a windchill around zero - so I plan to be watching all the snow out my window while I stay nice and toasty! My sister got me all stocked up, she lives in upstate New York, so she knows about not being able to get out when there's a big snow storm. Apparently there is a Nor-Easter coming through her place and then here contributing to next weeks weather. Doesn't bother me, Hallmark channel is running Christmas programs almost 24/7 - what more can you ask for? I'm going to try to get some good pictures of the snow and I'll upload them - it's sooooo pretty! It's not icy this week, it's more like powder, so this is giving me time to relearn how to walk around in it! I haven't spent much time in snow in a long time, this way I'll be prepared for next week when it's icy snow!

There's something interesting I've noticed, quite a few women wear fur coats! I was surprised, of course I don't see that in Florida, but seems like I was always hearing about PETA people throwing red paint on people in fur! So either they stopped, they don't do that in Ohio or all these coats are faux fur, be interesting to know which one. As they say, inquiring minds want to know :-)! Well, I think I'm going to sign off now, I'll be back later. I've missed you guys, thanks again for all the prayers, love & support!

Last Treatment this Round

Today (actually right now) is my third/last treatment of this round. I have a treatment each week for three weeks then the fourth week off, then start round two. The really amazing thing is, so far, I have no side effects except after I brush my teeth, they don't feel slick/shiny and clean - but I can certainly handle that! I am just so fortunate and extremely grateful - everything is just moving along beautifully!

We are having snow flurries, it's just a very light dusting so it's beautiful to watch but it doesn't cause problems with traffic or getting around. I love it! I have always loved Christmas, I wait all year for it. I believe this may be my most meaningful Christmas so far. I have to admit that in the past I got so caught up with decorating, parties and finding the perfect presents that I lost sight of what Christmas is all about. This experience has put me in a situation where most of those distractions have been removed. I bought a few gifts earlier in the year and will pick up a few more things, but nothing like in years past, this year I've been slowed down enough to remember what Christmas is really all about and to take the time to really appreciate and be grateful for the incredible gift God gave us. This is another gift I've received from the cancer. It's really amazing the way they gifts just keep coming! I'm just so grateful for all of this. I'm sure some of you probably think I'm crazy, because if I were in your position that's what I would have been thinking before all this happened; but now everything has changed it's as if my life began on October 25! Instead of choosing to accept a death sentence I chose to begin a new life, although I had Divine help sent thru all of you - because I had no idea the beautiful journey I was beginning! Everyday is a new and wonderful adventure, it's absolutely incredible!

Today I feel fantastic, I basically did nothing but sleep for the past two days and that's obviously exactly what I needed because I woke up early feeling refreshed this morning! I've decided I need to start writing down everything I'm doing in addition to my medical treatments; my nutritional supplements, theta healing, green drinks, pranayama, gratitude practice, etc... Because I believe it's those things that are the reason I haven't experienced any side effects, this way maybe somebody else could benefit the same way! Whatever happens to each of us, if we can share the expeience to help others it makes it more meaningful! Something I've learned from an experience and tell you (so you don't need to go through the steps of learning it yourself) frees you up to learn something new that you can pass on to the next person. We become a chain, bonded to each other through shared experiences, it's quite beautiful.

I think my pre-meeds are kicking in because I'm starting to doze off, so before I drift off to lala land I'm going to say good day and sign off, I'll be back tomorrow. Ciao!

Lazy Lazy Day

This is going to be a very short blog today.  This is my rest day - I slept for 16 hours, woke up at noon, finally got up and took a shower at 3, then laid back down and watched a Christmas movie until 6 so I've been out of the bed for about 2 hours including my shower!  Needless to say I haven't done much today, but that's OK because I need to get me rest.  Here's the cool part - I was checking the weather on my phone so I would know what to wear to go for my chemo treatment tomorrow - it said Wednesday & Thursday would be high 33 and low 28 and it showed snow - so I go over to the window and open the blinds and there's snow in the courtyard!  Not a lot but some anyway, so that is cool.  I'll see how much it snows tomorrow!

I'm actually looking forward to my chemo treatment, it's very relaxing because of the benadryl they give you as premeds - I go to sleep for most of it.  Of course I have to wonder how much can I possible sleep since I'm getting ready to go back to bed now.  So I hope to blog a lot more tomorrow while I'm having my chemo.  Good night.