I hope you and yours have (had) a great Christmas. I hope nothing was delayed, but if it was, this may be the reason:
This may be another:
Not just another Stumbling Blog.
25
Dec
I hope you and yours have (had) a great Christmas. I hope nothing was delayed, but if it was, this may be the reason:
This may be another:
Tags: Christmas
15
Dec
Today was my first day back at work following chemo. I have been dreading this day just because of the toll it would have on me. Chemo could have certainly been worse on me, but it does have an effect. I am tired, worn out, beat down and sort of walking in a fog. That is not exactly the condition to be in for work. That being said, I plodded off to work this morning and arrived at about my usual time. I have a good view of my desk area from the employee entrance. I noticed a purple balloon at my desk. I thought that was nice. Purple is the awareness color for Hodgkin’s Disease. (For those of you who don’t know) I got to my desk and saw it had a card attached to it. Upon opening the card, four purple wristbands fell out. One for each member of my family. I bought two wristbands during my last MD Anderson trip, but Debbi’s broke Sunday night. That is perfect timing. I was almost brought to tears at the the thought that they put into this. I do not recall the exact words on the card, but it certainly was full of support. I later learned that there will be a shipment this week of more bands for just about anyone who wants one. My guess is in the neighborhood of 200 or so! Okay, now I really am about to cry. There will be enough bands for anyone at work who wants one with enough left over for me to hand out to friends at church and such. I was (am?) completely floored by this. Many thanks to the people that pulled this off.
Tags: cancer, chemotherapy, SHW
20
Nov
The drive home on I-45 was similar to the drive down, just not as pretty. The sky went from blue to gray to black. Not really any pretty colors like during the sunrise.
I left the hotel parking garage at about 2:10 and got home at about 7:23. I had two stops, one for gas, and one for dinner. I ate at a Subway (thanks Life Group) near I-20 and I-45. The only problem was that it was 5:30 or so. I stopped to let traffic wind down a bit. It was less than a 30 minute stop and got into downtown at about 6:10 or so. That is when the traffic started and it could have been worse. It took about an hour to get home from downtown during rush hour. I did not think that was too bad at all. I just would not want to do that every day.
MD Anderson went well. The shuttle dropped me off with over an hour to spare. So I did some more exploring. This time I stayed away from nuclear medicine. I found a couple of new lobby areas. One was the ‘fountain’ and the other was the ‘park’ MD Anderson also has the aquarium, sundial, and the gazebo. I also found another gift shop, florist, and many places to eat. I also explored the patient library there and checked out a book too.
The time with the doctor confused me because I remembered something wrong from the last time I was there, so that threw me into a tailspin. I was wrong? She did confirm the diagnosis, and that was the main point of me going down. The next step is to get treatment lined up. I have place calls to the local doctor to get that started. I also hope to hear the results of the bone marrow biopsy.
Tags: cancer update, MD Anderson
18
Nov
I weighed myself this morning and I was a half pound down. Not anymore after tonight’s meal. I have not kept the entire South Beach diet the last month or so due to cancer and vacation. I keep hoping that chemotherapy will take off the rest of the weight. I may have a few South Beach conflicts with this meal. Please note I did not eat everything.
So, the healthiest things were the salsa, guacamole, and the beans. I still anticipate being only one to one and a half pounds up when I get home. I can’t complain too much about that. The food and the company were great.
Tags: South Beach
18
Nov
This has been quite the day. I backed out of the garage at 4:20 this morning heading to MD Anderson in Houston. That is about a 270 mile drive. 10% the way there, or 27 miles, I was at 75 and Mockingbird. Go figure. Ennis was just past the quarter mark on my trip. My appointment was at 10:00 am, and I arrived at 9:30. Not too bad. I did hit some Houston traffic, but the Dallas traffic I deal with seemed worse.
Sunrise was right around Buffalo, Texas. It was kind of fun to see night turn into day.  The sky went from black to a real dark blue to a purple to a light purple to sunlight right in my eyes. I stopped in Madisonville for breakfast with the lights on. I left with my sunglasses on. I also had a pit stop right before hitting the worst part of the Houston traffic. That was timed well. I did not know how smart that actually was.
My two test took about an hour and a half, I spent about an hour exploring different parts of MD Anderson. The people in nuclear medicine seemed a little cranky. I guess they don’t like explorers. All I wanted was some isotopes so that Trey would have something cool at show-n-tell. Sheesh!
After that I drove to the hotel, unfortunately it is a different one from last time. It’ll do. I had lunch at Subway (thanks Life Group) and saw the new James Bond movie. The movie was $7.50 (matinee price) the theater parking was $3, and a small popcorn was $5.75. I skipped the popcorn and drove four blocks away, parked at a strip mall and walked. I still had to pay for the movie though. I then got a cafe mocha grande from Starbuck’s after the movie. I have Starbuck’s card, so the mocha grande was essentially free.
Tonight is Mexican food with Cousin Di then Clone Wars! ttfn
Tags: cancer, driving, Houston, MD Anderson
16
Nov
The beachhead is secure. Like really secure. Like the posts should be coming from the front lines, not the beachhead. I guess it gives me the excuse to type the word, ‘beachhead.’ I am still maintaining my weight loss of 28-29 pounds. I have not lost anything more for quite a while. I have enjoyed the smaller me, but the motivation is lacking. I am wanting more news on the cancer front. I hope to get that this week. I am still a fan of the South Beach diet though.
Tags: cancer, South Beach
2
Nov
The beachhead is secured. The diet is going well. I have, at one point, lost 30 pounds. I have no idea where I am at right now. Do you really think I brought the scale with me on vacation? Lemme see….this week I have had fried shrimp, fried fish, french fries, rolls, baked potato, pasta, hamburgers, key lime pie, several margaritas, ice cream….need I say more. Yeah, I think I have gained some of the weight back. Do I care? Uhh…no. Should I care? Uh…no. That was just on the first day too! I am not bulking myself up for chemo, but I think I deserve to get off the wagon during vacation. I will get back on when I am home. Maybe I should rename the diet to the Dallas diet. You only diet when you are in Dallas. Good thing I work in Plano, live in Fairview…….
Tomorrow is a big day in this lymphomaniac’s life. I will hopefully learn if UT Southwestern is on target or not. My appt. is at 10, so therefore I show up at 8. Two hours to fill out paperwork? Wow. Sounds absolutely thrilling. I am hoping to catch a Southwest flight home at around 4ish, but who knows. I have the room for Monday night if I need it. Tonight I am having dinner with my Dad’s cousin. We just call her cousin Di. It is nap time now. Safe driving, Debbi.
Tags: lymphoma, South Beach
26
Oct
We are storming he beach, literally! We arrived tonight, after an eleven hour drive, at our vacation destination: South Padre Island, Texas. This is out third time down here as a family, and we do like it. The condo is great and the weather has been fairly cooperative the times we have been here. One year we had some chilly drizzle, but that still was not too bad. We will do out routine things, visit the sea turtles, drive on the beach, eat seafood, etc.
The diet has gone well this past week. Both of us dropped back down to our previous lows, but did not drop below that. I still have about 26 more pounds to lose, but I do feel good about what I have lost. I do not anticipate losing a whole lot of weight this week. The chemo diet should take care of that soon enough. I am on vacation. I think I will eat higher carb meals than I normally would.
Tags: South Beach, South Padre, vacation
23
Oct
I took that meaning literally today.
I voted this morning on my way in to work. I will at MD Anderson on Monday, November 3rd, and am not sure if I will home on election day. So, I voted today. I have voted early. Should I vote on Tuesday the 4th to vote often? I’ll have to think about that one.
Tags: vote
12
Oct
THE SOUTH BEACH UPDATE HAS BEEN PRE-EMPTED FOR THIS IMPORTANT NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT!
There will be no South Beach update this week due to an unforeseen hospital stay. Please come back next Sunday for the next scheduled update. Thank You.
Tags: hospital, South Beach diet
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