Some Good News

DeBary, FL.

77 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast =Saturday Night 04/23

A few clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 62F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday 04/24  Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 86F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.

This past week has not been the best for Jim, but then I think it was better than the week before it. You see, he's still had a lot of bone and muscle ache and it's been especially bad at night, making for some very unrestful sleep periods. His appetite hasn't been too bad, but much of the food he's eaten didn't taste right and some of it, really tasted bad to him. And, he also still has a lot of fatigue, making it hard to do just about anything.  :-(

Yesterday morning, it was time to go back to Dr. Saferali.s office and get another blood test to see how the counts were doing. The test went off without a hitch and when Brittney, (the lab tech), looked at the results, she said, "Wow!!! Your test results look really good!!!"  :-)

Yep!! Almost all of the counts are right in the "normal" range, and those that are not, are just barely outside the normal range!!!!

Tuesday, Jim has his PET Scan and then Wednesday he and Linda will go to see Dr. Graham to get the results. I hope they're good results.


Did you know that all rose species have 5 petals, except for the Rosa Sericea, which has 4 petals?

Woof!!!

A Rough Week

DeBary, FL.

80 deg. mostly cloudy, E. wind @ 2 mph.

Forecast = Cloudy early with scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 87F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.



Yeah!!! I know!!!! It's been over a week since I've last posted, but I wanted to find out what happened at Jim's doctor visit yesterday before I did.

If you remember, Jim was scheduled to get a larger dose of the Chemo treatment on Friday the 18th than he had been receiving in the past. Well, that went off without a hitch, but he did have to go through 5 hours of treatment instead of the normal 3 hours.

Saturday, Jim was feeling fine and Dave and Dee Dee, (the part of the "Illinois bunch" that wintered over by Tampa), stopped by for a couple hours. They were visiting some friends in Orange City and were able to swing by here for a visit. It sure was good of them to come as we hadn't seen them since last fall, up in Rantoul. From here they were heading over to Ocala to see someone else and then heading home to Illinois for the summer.

Sunday Jim was still feeling pretty well, although he was starting to get some bone/muscle aches from the heavier dose of Chemo. He was pretty much able to control it with normal pain meds though.

Monday, Laura took Linda over to an appointment with Dr. Molpus, the doctor who did Linda's surgery at the Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach a few years ago. Linda was real worried as one of the tests that she had when we returned here last fall came back "abnormal"!!! Everything turned out OK though and a further test and an examination confirmed that there was no cancer present!!!!!!!

Yaaaaay!!!!!

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch" Jim was dealing with some severe bone/muscle pain throughout his whole body, that even the pain meds that had been prescribed by the doctor would not help much. He was also experiencing very heavy fatigue which made it very difficult to even walk from one end of the house to the other. This pain and fatigue was to last all the way to Wednesday when the pain subsided some but the fatigue persisted.

Then, Wednesday night nausea set in and he battled that until well into Thursday. Being that he was feeling lousy, he didn't eat or drink much, so by the time he and Linda went in to see Dr. Saferali  on Friday for a follow-up appointment, he had lost a bunch of weight and was dehydrated!! :-(  Dr. Saferali strongly suggested he stay for awhile and get an infusion for the dehydration, so that's what he did while Linda waited in the waiting room.

Jim's white cell blood count had also fallen quite low, so he received an injection to help that and was given instructions not to be around too many people for the next week so as not to get any kind of infection or virus as his immune system would not be able to fight the off and he could get very sick.

 Of course, this Sunday is Easter Sunday and Jim and Linda have been invited over to Marv and Inez's house for an Easter Dinner, but being that their small home will be packed with family, it's been decided that because of Jim's low white cell blood count, it would be better to be more "safe than sorry" and just have something here at home. :-(

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  that pretty much brings us up-to-date. Jim seems to be feeling better right now, (Saturday afternoon),  with less fatigue and not as much pain, but that injection he received for his blood count may cause more bone/muscle pain in the next few days. We'll just have to see what happens.

His next appointment is this coming Friday, where they'll do another blood test and see how he's doing. Then if everything is going well, the week after that, (April 8th), he'll get another large Chemo dose which should be the last one of the series. After that, he'll have another PET Scan to check for cancer and then it'll be a matter of trying to recover from all the chemo and radiation treatments, which could take months.

A Quote to Ponder :  “When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”
Sydney Harris

Woof!!!

Catching Up

DeBary, FL.

60 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast = Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.


Well, let's see!!! When I last posted, it was Thanksgiving and Jim and Linda were getting ready to head over to Lindsey's parent's house for dinner. They had a great meal with turkey, ham and all the "trimin's" and lots of excellent deserts. they must have had a good time talking with Lindsey's family too, because it was late afternoon by the time they returned. :-)

Saturday evening,  Jim and Linda headed over to Gram's Kitchen where they both had nice meals. It was their first visit to Gram's since we've been back here and it didn't seem like much had changed since spring.

Monday was grocery shopping day. Lots of groceries were purchased at Winn Dixie.

Thursday, Linda had an  appointment with her cancer doctor, (Dr. Saferali). She had a blood test and everything looked good. Linda's next appointment with her will be sometime next spring. :-)

Friday finally came and by a little after 9:00, Jim was having the CT scan. Everything went smooth but by noon, Dr. Mathura had called and was telling Jim that there definitely was spot on Jim's lung that he called a "small mass". After explaining things to both Jim and Linda he said that he would call a pulmonary doctor and a cancer doctor and have them call the first of this week to set up appointments. :-(

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  that's where we are right now. not good news, but I suppose it could be worse. They're not even sure if it is cancer or not, so I'm thinking that a biopsy will be required before any treatment is done.

Even before we left here this last spring, Jim and Linda have been talking about getting a small car for Linda to drive and to use down here in FL. Well, Jim's been doing a lot of research online and he found one that he thought would do the job. So, Saturday morning he and Linda headed down to Sanford to take a look to see what it looked like.

To make a long story short, they ended up buying it. It's a 2014 Hyundai Accent sedan that has 35,000+ miles on it. It's still has some of the factory warranty left on it and seems to be in really good condition.

Here's a couple photos of it sitting in the driveway here at the double-wide in DeBary.

Introducing, "Lila"

Yesterday morning, Laura and Lindsey came over and helped Jim and Linda put up their Christmas decorations. Jim had set up the tree, but no decorations had been put on it before they arrived. It has become kind of a "tradition" for Laura, (and sometimes Lindsey) to come over and help decorate. Linda usually puts out some snacks and they all seem to have a good time decorating. :-)

Here's a photo of the decorated tree.

Don't know what's going to happen now. I guess we'll just have to wait until those doctors call. Today,  This morning Linda has an appointment with Dr. Bernard, (her retina doctor down here in FL), to see how her eyes are doing. She's hoping that she won't have to have any of those injections.


A Quote to Ponder:   “In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.”
Daniel L. Reardon

Woof!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Somebody Told Jim and Doctor Visit And Tests

DeBary, FL.

65 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Showers early, then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 78F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%.


First of all I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a great day with family and/or friends. Most of us really do have a lot to be thankful for.


Somebody told Jim that I let everyone know that he wasn't feeling well, but to my surprise, he really wasn't all that upset with me. :-) Oh, he scolded me, but I can deal with a scolding.

Monday, the 23rd, about 1:00, Big RED took Jim and Linda over to the doctor's office where Jim had to fill out bunches and bunches of papers. Then, he was taken into one of the rooms where he and Linda  met Dr. Mathura.

After the "meet and greet", Dr. Mathura proceeded to check Jim out. He looked in his ears to make sure that the passageway to the other side was unobstructed, ;-) ,  stuck a wooded stick down his throat, listened to his heart and his lungs and pushed on Jim's chest and stomach with his hands. After he was done poking and prodding, a nurse came in and hooked Jim up to a machine that had a whole bunch of wires which connected to little band-aid like things that the nurse pasted all over Jim chest.

As you may know, this machine and procedure is called an EKG and soon after the nurse was finished with the test, the Dr. came in and told Jim and Linda that everything looked OK.  Then, as expected, the Dr. told Jim that he wanted him to have chest X-Rays and get a blood test.

He also gave Jim prescriptions for an inhaler and some pills to try to help his breathing.

There's a place called Orange City Imaging right in the same complex of buildings, so after leaving the Dr's office, Jim and Linda headed over there and had the X-Rays done right away.

Jim couldn't get an appointment for the blood test until Wednesday, so Wednesday morning, Jim took Big RED and headed over to the Quest Diagnostics place in Orange City. After sticking him in the arm and draining out some blood, Jim headed back home and had something to eat, cause he couldn't eat anything before the test.

Wednesday afternoon, a nurse from Dr. Mathura's  office called and told Jim that the Dr. had looked at the X-Rays and found something on them that needed further inspection. The Dr. recommended a CT Scan and the nurse said that Jim could have the scan done at the same place as he had had the X-Rays done if he wanted to. Jim said OK and soon Orange City Imaging called and Jim now has a 9:00 appointment for next Friday to have the CT Scan.

As you can imagine, this did not make Jim and Linda happy. It's never good when the Dr. finds something wrong on a test and tells you that you need further tests.

Today, Jim and Linda are invited to go over to Marv and Inez's house, (Lindsey's parents), for Thanksgiving dinner. At first, Jim said that he wasn't going to go, but after Laura stopped by yesterday evening and talked to Jim for awhile, he decided that he may as well go, rather that sitting around here, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and feeling sorry for himself.  :-)


Did you know that The pilgrims arrived in North America in December 1620 and by the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived? The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to give a thanksgiving feast.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Woof!!!

Good News, Next Appointments and What Does This Mean?

Rantoul, IL.

51 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast = Mostly sunny. Highs around 72°F. Northeast wind to 7 MPH.

It was about 10:45 when Big RED pulled out of the campground and took Linda and Jim down to the South side of Champaign for Linda's follow-up appointment after the cataract surgery on her right eye. The appointment to see Dr. Anderson was at 11:30 and Big RED said that they made there with time to spare.

The follow-up went fine and after some vision tests and her looking into Linda's eyes, Dr. Anderson said that both eyes were doing well and that she wanted to see Linda once more in about 2 weeks. ;-)

Good News!!!!!

OK, now let's see what this means.

Linda's appointment with Dr. Gandhi, (the retinaologist), is on the the 30th of September, so that means that for the next 12 days, there are no doctor appointments at all!!!!

Then, 2 days later, on the 2nd of October, Linda has the appointment with Dr. Anderson.

If everything goes well at that appointment, we'll be "good to go" as early as the 3rd of September!!!!

That means that we'll be able to leave here about a week earlier than originally planned, which will mean that we won't have to hurry or cut short our visits with Mike or Joe and their families. It also means that we'll be able to take our time heading down the coast on our way to FL and if Roland and Louise are still at their house in North Carolina, we can stop by there for a few days to visit!!!

And, you know what else it means??? Linda will not have a Doctor's appointment for as many as 45 days!!!!!  That has not happened for more than a year!!!!

So, ,  , , , , ,  , , in the next few days I expect Jim to be getting out that big eraser again and making a new plan for our trip. (I think this will be "Plan D")   ;-)  As soon as he gets it penciled in on the calendar, I'll fill you in on our "tentative" schedule.

Did you know that today is Jim's Birthday?

Happy Birthday, Jim!!!!!!

Woof!!!

They're All Gone, Yet Another Dinner With Mike And Terri and Going For Tests

Rantoul, IL.

69 deg. cloudy, SW wind @ 5 mph.
Forecast = Isolated thunderstorms this morning. Skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 84F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

They're all gone!!!! Yep, yesterday, the CG just about emptied out!!!! Early yesterday morning, some of the RVers started packing up and by mid-afternoon, they had all left. From now on, this park will be mostly empty and the only campers here will be a few like us who are staying for longer periods of time or the occasional travelers who stops by, some of them heading South for the winter.

Louise says that she has a couple "clubs" coming in this next weekend, but I don't think that they're very big clubs.

Mike and Terri came over yesterday evening and everyone ordered sandwiches from Monical's Pizza. Jim and Linda both had the Italian Beef, Mike had the meatball sub and I think Terri had the turkey sub. Anyway, they all said that their sandwiches were very good and really seemed to enjoy them. :-)

After eating, talking awhile and h and h, (hugs and handshakes), Mike and Terri left and headed to their RV. They'll be leaving here this morning to start heading to Virginia, where they used to live. It's sure been good to have them here and I know that Jim and Linda have really enjoyed visiting and sharing some meals with them.

Safe Travels, Mike and Terri!!!! Maybe we'll see you down in Florida this winter!!! :-)

Jim and Linda won't see them again this morning because Linda needs to go and have those test for her cataract surgery. (You know, the EKG and the urinalysis test that I told you about the other day.)  She and Jim decided to go to the Gibson City Hospital to get the test done rather than try to find their way around in the very large Carl Hospital down in Urbana.

Carl is closer and it's where Linda will have her cataract surgery, but Gibson City is smaller and Linda has had test done there before and knows where to go once they get there.  

Did you know that until the 1960s, men with long hair were not allowed to enter Disneyland?

Woof!!!

Jim's Test, Linda's Pre-op and Two Big Boxes

Rantoul, IL.

64 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast =  Partly cloudy with isolated showers. Highs around 82°F. East northeast wind to 7 MPH. Chance of precipitation 20 percent.

About 1:30 yesterday afternoon, Big RED took Jim and Linda down to Dr. Anderson's office. Jim had to take a field of vision test, (which he passed with flying colors), and Linda needed to see Dr. Anderson for the pre-op for cataract surgery.

Linda's pre-op went well and she is now scheduled for the procedure to her left eye on the 8th of September.

They dilated Linda's eyes so when Big RED brought her and Jim back here to the CG, she was wearing some large dark glasses to help with the glare.

While they were gone, I had some excitement!!! I was taking a little nap when all of a sudden I hear a noise just outside of the door. I'm not big enough to see out of the window next to the door, so I couldn't see what was happening but I knew someone was out there doing something!!!

I didn't find out what was going on until Jim and Linda returned and Jim brought 2 huge boxes inside.

And, I couldn't tell what was in the boxes until I jumped up on top of the large one and read was it said on the box.

Yep!! A new Sleep Number mattress!!!

I knew that Jim and Linda weren't happy with the original mattress that came with Nora, but I didn't realize that they had ordered a different one. I shouldn't have been surprised though because neither Jim or Linda were sleeping too well on the old one.

Jim and Linda have had Sleep Number mattresses before. They had one when they had a house, before we went full-timing and then purchased another one when they had Myrddin. That mattress was moved into Emrys, but stayed there when Emrys was traded for Bobbie T., because it wouldn't fit in her.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  Guess what today's big project will be????  I hope everything goes well, because it just won't work to have these 2 big boxes sitting inside of Nora for any length of time.

Linda seems to be doing pretty well. By the time she went to bed last night, her eyes were feeling much better. She said that her right eye still felt a little scratchy from the injection though.

Did you know that the average blink of an eye lasts for about 1/10th of a second?

Woof!!!

Good Test Results and Laura and Lindsey Come For Dinner

DeBary, FL.

44 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast = Sunny. High 56F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.

Haven't written because there hasn't been much to write about.

Linda's doing fine, but is tired all the time. Thursday, she had her blood test and everything looked good. Evidently that shot that she gets 24 hours after each chemo treatment is working, (its the one that makes her bones ache), because her blood test look real good and her immune system seems to be functioning well.

The last few days, Jim has been putting all the yard/garden items that were in the workshop/storage shed into the new little storage cabinet that he bought the other day. It really holds a lot of stuff and he was able to make some room in the workshop.

A few days ago, Linda put a large roast, some potatoes, carrots, and onion into her crock pot and let it cook for most of the day. (It sure smelled good in here while it was cooking). ;-) She and Jim had some that evening for dinner, but there was so much left over that yesterday she invited Laura and Lindsey over to have some for dinner. With Jim's help, everything was ready for the table when they arrived about 5:30 and in no time at all, there was just a little bit of the pot roast left. :-)

Everyone said that it really tasted good, and Jim made the comment that he thought that it was even better after being reheated for the second time.

Today I think that Linda and Jim will be doing laundry. The bedding needs to be washed and the clothes hamper is bulging at the seams.

Did you know that on this date in 1948 - "The Original Amateur Hour" debuted? The show was on the air for 22 years.

Feeling Better and More Appointments

DeBary, FL.

51 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast = Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 82F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

By Tuesday, Linda's joint/bone pain was mostly gone with just a few aches here and there. It looks like the side effects from this injection, (she will be getting an injection after each chemo treatment), are going to last about 3 days or so.

In fact, Linda was feeling well enough that she, Laura and Jim went over to the Florida Hospital complex  where they went to an American Cancer Society office, where a very nice lady who was also an RN, showed Linda some of the hats, scarves and hair pieces that they had for cancer patients. All of the items that they had have been donated or purchased with donations so there was no charge for the 2 hats and 2 small hair pieces that Linda selected.

They also had a whole wall of informational  booklets available covering different treatments and types of cancer so Linda brought home some of them too.

Wednesday, Linda and Jim headed over to the doctor's office who is going to implant the "port". She still has a whole lot of reservations about the whole "port" thing but it sounds like she's going to go ahead and have it installed. In fact, she now has an appointment for pre-op on Thursday, Dec. 26th, and an appointment to have the port installed on Friday, Dec. 27th, all at the Florida Hospital in Orange City, which is only about 3 or 4 miles from the house.

The inserting of the port is an outpatient procedure and she should not have to stay overnight.

Yesterday, Linda had to go to the chemo place to get a blood test to see how the chemo drugs are effecting her immune system. The test results were satisfactory so it appears like the treatment is proceeding as planed.

After the test, and stopping by Walgreen's to pick up a prescription, Linda and Jim returned here to the house. Then, soon after they returned, Ashley stopped by and spent a good part of the afternoon visiting with them. ;-)

I don't think that there's anything special planned for today, or for this weekend for that matter. I think Linda would like to go out to eat somewhere, but the chemo doctor has told her that she should avoid large crowds or groups of people if possible because her immune system is compromised from the treatments and it would be easy for her to pick up some germs that could effect her health.

Did you know that in 1836, Alabama was the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday?

Woof!!!  

PET Scan and Company Coming Sunday

DeBary, FL.

63 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast = Clear. High of 86F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Just a couple things to keep you up to date.

Linda had the PET scan yesterday morning. She said that it really wasn't too bad, but took a long time, (about an hour and a half), because they had to inject some sort of dye/tracer into her blood stream and then wait for it to circulate throughout her body before they did the scan.

While she was having the test, Jim went to the Bob Evans Restaurant and had some biscuits and gravy. While he was there, Mike called from N. Carolina to find out if it was still OK for he and his family to stop by on Sunday.

Jim gave him directions on how to best get here to the house and Mike said that it would be sometime Sunday afternoon when they got here. He said that they would only be able to stay an hour or two because they have reservations down in Orlando for Sunday night and they want to get settled in before it got too late and the kids got too tired.

I['m sure glad that they'll be stopping by. It's been way too long since I've seen them. ;-)

After Linda was finished with the PET scan, Jim took her to the Perkins Restaurant so that she could get something to eat. She wasn't allowed to eat anything except a few crackers before the test so she was really hungry. While she was eating breakfast, Jim had a piece of apple pie.

No big plans for today. The house needs some TLC before Mike, Gina and the kids get here on Sunday. The weather has turned really nice here. The humidity has dropped way down and the temperatures are in the 80's instead of the 90's, so Jim may cook something on the grill for dinner.

If you'd like to learn more about the PET scan you can click on this link.  PET Scan It and the links off of that site should give you all the info you ever wanted to know about the procedure. (It's all way over my head!!!)  :-O

Did you know that there are about 2 billion $1 bills in circulation?

Woof!!!