We're Coming to Canada!

Well, the whole clan isn't coming to Canada, but Scott and I are. (is that a dangling participle, again? shoot! I'm bad with those, eh? It's not, though, is it?)

Andrew wants to go to Europe. He asked if I wanted to come. I said "yes....can we bring Scott?". Then I got to thinking that I just want to go home. Then, I was talking to my mom and my dad got on the line and just hearing his voice made me homesick and I started crying and wanted to come home. So, I asked Scott if he'd rather go to Europe or Canada for the two weeks and he said Canada so? Here we come!

It also means we're leaving poor Jeffrey here all alone! Oh well, we need someone to take care of the dog, right? ROFL!!! OMG, I am the meanest mother, ever!!

Ok, so update on all my stuff. I went to a different Physiotherapist. I've, actually, gone to her before for back pain. She's helping me with my back pain and giving me pointers on all my hip stuff so that's all good. I have another Mugga test (the heart test to make sure the Herceptin isn't damaging my heart) next week but I'll be in Canada so I'm going to have to try to get that in this week. Hip-wise, my pain is quite minimal. I do have so pain but it's not unmanageable and I'm not going to let it keep me down. Back-wise, I'm in quite a bit of pain. Thank goodness I'm going to Canada. I can pick up a bunch of Robaxicet (I think it's a muscle relaxant/pain reliever - whatever it is, it helps me and it's over-the-counter in Canada so I want some). That's all healthwise.

Kevin-wise? Scott and I took him to school on Wednesday. We got him moved into his room and got him some groceries. We thought he was getting a room with a kitchen but when we got there? No kitchen. Good thing we took the little dorm room fridge for him. He's pretty particular about what food goes into his body so he wanted a kitchen. I guess he'll have to rely on the cafeteria and try to work with that. It's, actually, a really nice cafeteria so he should be fine. Anyway, he was having some troubles with his computer and wanted more milk and juice and, well, the truth is, I wanted to see him before I go gallivanting around the world so Andrew and I went back on Sunday to visit him. Well, you know, on Wednesday? I didn't cry when I left him. I was fine. Sunday? Cried for about 15 minutes after we left him. This sending your kids to college thing is hard!

Oh, also, on Thursday I got my hair coloured. It's too "one tone" so I'm having highlights or lowlights added on Wednesday.

Oh! I never talked about our trip it Orlando, did I? Oh well, I'll just say it was nice. Great, really. But, I have no more time to chat. I have so much to do before we leave. And...when we get back I only have three days between Canada and Donny (I mean Vegas - Donny isn't actually until the Monday night) so I really have to get a move on and do all the things you have to do when you go away for a few weeks.

Have a great week, all! I'll update when I get back from Canada or Vegas. Whenever I have time.

TTFN
OMG!! Exactly 4 weeks til I see Donny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Doctor Appointment

Boy! Have we ever been busy!

First I'll go over the hip thang. I went to see a different orthopedic surgeon today. I just didn't like the first one I saw. He was very dismissive. I found out later that his 18 year old son died about three months ago in a diving accident. I'm sorry for him but I still need a doctor who will listen to me. And, boy, did I find one! I went to a really nice doctor. He was recommended by my surgeon. He let me talk about my concerns. Mostly it's this. I've already had cancer. I could have a recurrence. I know it's not likely but it wasn't likely that I'd have 3 c-sections or almost die from asthma or get breast cancer at age 45 so I'm not really banking on the whole "it's not likely" thing, you know? So...I really need to have a good quality of life. The last six weeks have not been quality. I've been sitting around watching tv, reading and playing on the computer. This is not how I live my life, normally. I want to go for walks and go to the mall and visit with my friends and go to the gym and travel.

I told this to this doctor and he totally agreed. What he said was:

1. I do not have to use the cane.

2. I can walk all I want. If I'm walking a long way, I should make sure I'm wearing good walking shoes. If it hurts, take a break or stop - just like any normal person. (Hear that? I can be a normal person!!)

3. I don't need to have a wheelchair unless I'm in so much pain that I can't walk. If that's the case I should have been to see him and the hip replacement surgery should have been set already.

4. Two hip replacements are inevitable but he doesn't know when. It depends on how much activity I do and how quickly the bones degenerate. Could be in a couple of years, could be in 20 years. There's no way of knowing. In the meantime, LIVE!! yeah!!

5. He would like me to exercise by way of swimming and yoga.

So, I'm going to join Ballys. They have a pool and yoga classes.

As far as what our family has been up to. Hilary came in for Kevin's graduation. Yes, my baby graduated. Here's a few pictures:

After graduation we went out for dinner at a very nice (read expensive) restaurant at the top of a Hyatt Hotel in Tampa. No pictures from that 'cause I don't know how to download from my new digital camera, yet.

Then on Friday, Andrew took the day off and we all went to the beach. Pictures!

You'll notice that Kevin's hair changed from grad day to Friday, eh? And...to my family. OMG!! HOW MUCH DOES HE LOOK LIKE STEVE??? HOLY CRAP!!! He says that's a good thing 'cause Steve's a "pimp". I think my boys are impressed by Steve's ability to date girls 20 years his junior. ROFL!!

Then...on Saturday night Andrew, Hilary and I went to The Parrothead Party. It was really fun. We met my friend, Whitney and her daughter there. It's a party held in downtown Palm Harbor every year. It's free to get in (most of our festivals here are free) and they close off the street and there are bands (a lot of Jimmy Buffet songs) and food and drink (lots of drink!) and crafts.

So, as you can see, we were very busy. I managed to get in a dose of Herceptin on Friday. I also found out that my oncologist is leaving the practice and I'm being switched to a different doctor. Now, I've been getting my Herceptin every three weeks. That's what my doctor ordered. This new doctor doesn't believe in giving Herceptin every three weeks and likes his patients to go every week. Hmmmm. Makes me wonder. Have I been getting "lesser than" care? or is this guy overly cautious. I certainly don't want to be unnecessarily going in to the doctor's office every single week if every three weeks will do, you know? I have things to do!! We'll see, I guess.

We're off to Orlando for the weekend. Andrew's going on business so we're going with him. One day we will relax by the pool the other day we need to go look for an apartment for Scott and Kevin for the fall. Kevin actually starts his summer session on Wednesday (a week today!!) and will stay in the dorms for that but the boys have decided to share an apartment in the fall so we need to find one.

That's all for now. I'll try and update everyone once every week or so. I start with a new physio person next week so I'll let y'all know how that goes. I don't feel the need to update as often since most of my treatments are done. The purpose of the blog was to update everyone on how my cancer battle was going and I feel that it's coming to a slow end so I'll slow down my writing, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

TTFN

only 40 more days till I see Donny!! (and until Karen's birthday)

Shopping

Before I go into my shopping stories I thought I'd do an update on my health. My outer hip pain has mostly subsided. That would be the tendonitis that the doctor gave me the cortizone shot for. But, unfortunately, it seems to have migrated into my back. So, my physiotherapist is trying to help me with that. I'm probably going to go have some cranial therapy done. It sounds weird but it's worked for me in the past. The girl does a lot of different things but it's all about opening up the chakras in the body to let the energy flow freely. I tend to hold all my stress in my back so this should help.

On to the shopping stories. Well, I'm not much of a shopper, really. I get bored pretty quickly but in the past few weeks I've had some fun.

I had to take Scott to go get some passport pictures done. He's such a goof! He got the pictures done and we had to wait for a couple of minutes for them to process and this is what he chose to do with his time:



Then, while Andrew's been away I've had to do all the grocery shopping. Well, I'm not supposed to walk for more than 5 minutes a day so how am I supposed to do that? You guessed it! I've been using those cool electric scooters at the stores! OMG!! Now this is a good thing about being disabled. This is really fun! Well, when I'm not running into people and displays, anyway. Yes, I really did do both those things. Well? They're hard to steer!! ROFL!!

On to the next story. One of the reasons I'm not much of a shopper is that I'm cheap. Yup, I said it. But, I found this carry on bag for travelling that I really, really wanted. This was way back before Christmas. Problem was? It was $200. Now, I could probably talk myself into it and even make it seem reasonable to spend this kind of money but? As I said...I'm cheap. So. I waited and waited till it went on sale. Well, it did. It went down to $125. Still too much for me. So I waited some more. This past week? It went all the way down to $79.99. Well, now. That's more like it. The reason I liked it so much? Well look for yourself!!

Do you see how it has SC all over it? I know, I know, it's really for the designer but it's also my initials!! Anyway, I made Jeff go to JC Penney with me. Oh, I forgot to mention I am now the proud owner of a wheel chair so as long as I can get someone to go with me? I can go anywhere!!! Anyway, I made Jeff take me to the store so I could see it in person and decide whether I wanted red or brown. I decided on red and took it up to buy it and.......it was on sale for $63.00!!!! Can you believe that? I was so excited!!

Then, Scott and Kevin needed some new shorts. I again went to JC Penney (in my wheelchair!). It's one of the only places that Scott can get shorts long enough (he's 6'5"). We found a bunch of shorts and went into the change rooms and this is how they came out to show me the shorts:

I just about peed myself laughing! Do you see how well Kevin fills out that yellow shirt? He has bigger boobs than many women I know!! ROFL!! Can you imagine that these two goofs are going to live together next year at college? Oy!!

Oh, and it occurred to me that I shouldn't have my last name up here to I'm taking down the picture of Kevin's tattoo. If you want to see it, e-mail me and I'll send you some recent pics.

Time for me to go to bed. I'm not tired but Andrew's home from Europe and I just want to go snuggle in and listen to him breathe. I'm so happy he's home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TTFN!