Catching Up, The "Port" and Hair

DeBary, FL.

66 deg. overcast, NE wind @ 3 mph.
Cloudy. High around 80F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph.

Wow!!! I've really gotten behind with this blog, so I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening around here for the last 4 or 5 days.

Let's see now,    ,   ,  ,  ,  ,  ,   Christmas Eve, Laura, Lindsey and Anna stopped by for awhile just to visit and then Christmas morning, Jim and Linda took CLT and headed over to their house to exchange and open presents with Laura, Lindsey, Ashley, Chris, (Ashley's boyfriend), and Anna. From there, they all headed over to Marv and Inez's, (Lindsey's parents house in DeLand), where they had a nice meal and visited for awhile.

Again, Jim and Linda want to thank Marv and Inez for their hospitality. It was really nice of them to include Jim and Linda in their holiday celebration.

Jim and Linda didn't exchange gifts this year because they had just bought this new laptop computer for Jim and the Kindle Paper White for Linda. Besides that, they both said that they have just about everything else they need and there really wasn't anything else they needed or wanted this year.

Thursday was a busy day with 2 appointments. First they had to go over to the Florida Hospital in Orange City for a pre-op procedure, so they could do blood test and get all of Linda's medical information in preparation for getting the "port" inserted on Friday. After that, they had to hurry over to the Chemo place where they took more blood to make sure Linda's white cells were still plentiful so that her immune system keeps working.

Thursday was a hard day for Linda.  First of all, she wasn't happy about having the "port" inserted in her body and then, when she took her shower in the evening and combed out her hair, the comb was full of hair!! :-(   Yep, the chemo is doing it's thing on her hair and it's starting to fall out. This was expected, but was still was a traumatic time for her. :-(

Yesterday morning, bright and early, Jim and Linda headed over to the Florida Hospital where they implanted the "port" in Linda's upper chest. This was what they call an "outpatient procedure", so by about 3:00 or so, they were pulling back into the driveway.

Linda doesn't like the idea of the "port" thing at all, but she's trying to look at the good points. It will now be easier to get blood drawn for tests and will be easier on her veins when they are giving her further chemo treatments. As for the hair thing, she says that she won't have to worry about washing and combing her hair for awhile and will be able to easily wash her head.

Yesterday evening, Laura stopped by for while because she knew that Linda wasn't having a good day. By the time she left Linda was in a much better mood and was feeling much better though. :-)

So,  ,  ,  ,  that catches you up on the blog. Linda is feeling fine and only has minor pain from the insertion of the "port" yesterday. I don't know of anything special planned for today, but Sunday morning, because she has worked as a beautician,  Ashley is going to come over here and shave Linda's head before she starts getting bald spots. She will also be helping Linda with some eye make-up.

Yet again, Linda and Jim want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement. It has really meant a lot.

Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!!

Did you know that New Year is the oldest of all holidays, as it was first observed in ancient Babylon as many as 4000 years ago?

Woof!!!