Post Op

Today is my 3rd post op day since my sinus biopsy. I’m slowly feeling better. About the time I’m feeling back to normal it will be time for the next surgery.

Going into surgery the surgeon was reasonably sure we were dealing with a metastasis from my ocular melanoma. The good news is the tumor is not a melanoma, saving me from stage IV melanoma for now. The tumor is a very rare tumor seen most often in men and smokers. Go figure! It is the first time my surgeon has seen such a tumor. The incidence is 5 to 10 per million people, so almost as rare as ocular melanoma. We will know this week whether it is benign or malignant. Either way it must be removed. Squamous cell cancer tends to be hidden within the tumor. The tumor is also aggressive and tends to erode the bone. It frequently recurs.

I am relieved it isn’t a melanoma. It will require on-going treatment and follow-up whether benign or malignant but that’s life.

The day I had surgery it was about 40 degrees below zero wind chill. Today it is actually pleasant enough out I have the windows open. It’s in the 20’s. There were beautiful big snow flakes this morning. I haven’t been out of the house yet so I’m looking forward to getting out this week. I see the surgeon Wednesday and set up the next surgery.

My Birthday

Well, today is my birthday. First, the good parts. Alex and Camila took me to lunch at TGIF, my favorite place. I always order the flat iron steak with Jack Daniel's glaze. It was good as usual. They gave me roses (from Colombia), and Camila brought me a pretty porcelain box from Colombia, along with a string bracelet in Colombia's colors. When I got home there were tulips from Emily and roses from my sister Helen. Wow, three flower gifts in one day! This morning Arthi gave me a porcelain box she brought from her recent trip home to India, it is very colorful. I didn't have any porcelain boxes, now I have two. I will use them to store earrings.

Now, the not so good part. On Monday I had a PET scan done. I have CT scans every 6 months because of having ocular melanoma. OM tends to be an aggressive cancer with a high incidence of spreading, usually to the liver. My oncologist decided I should have a PET scan this time instead, and I'm glad she did. When I saw my pulmonary doctor Tuesday a.m. he shared the PET scan results with me. It showed uptake in the right maxillary sinus, indicating a possible malignancy, likely mets from the eye. This morning I had a CT of the sinuses and saw the ENT surgeon. Well, my sinuses show no infection or sinusitis, I have a tumor in the posterior maxillary sinus on the right. I have been having a lot of facial pain and assumed it was dental, I have a dental appointment next week. I'll have to cancel that for now because I am having a surgical procedure next week to get a biopsy. I will have more surgery but just what depends on the biopsy. If it is recurrent melanoma we are hoping we can get a vaccine made. Melanoma doesn't respond well to chemotherapy. I will probably look for a clinical study if this is melanoma. So much to think about. Cancer, the "gift" that keeps on giving.

I see my oncologist tomorrow a.m. I have the very best medical team. There aren't many places where you'd have a PET scan one day, report the next, and everything set up the third day. For that I am very thankful.

Then Friday I go scrapbooking for the weekend. My favorite The Scrapbook Shop of St. Paul has moved to Lexington/Circle Pines. It's about 20 miles away, it used to be 2 miles away. I'm staying overnight at a motel so I can scrap two whole days and forget cancer for awhile.

Catching Up

I returned home today from visiting my daughter and her family in northern Wisconsin. My 11 y.o. grandson went with me. He and my 4 y.o. grand-daughter always have fun together despite the age difference. Yesterday we all went to see Bedtime Stories at the local movie theater, that still remains open in these days of big cinema plexes. One movie feature at a time. They just recently added some seats with cup holders, hopefully all the old seats will be replaced. It is still much finer than the theater we attended in Thurles, Ireland in 1967. Just wooden folding chairs. The movie was I Saw What You Did and I Know Who You Are. Very scary!! Fortunately Bedtime Stories wasn't scary. It was funny. I enjoyed it, not expecting to for some reason. I have now seen 2 movies in a week (Marley and Me was the other), which is more than I normally see in a year! I'm planning to start seeing more movies this year.

I'm sure we were all sorry to hear about John Travolta's loss of his son. On the news tonight they mentioned he had had Kawasaki Disease at the age of 2 and they wondered if it had contributed to his death. He was diagnosed after 2 days, much earlier than my grand-daughter, who was diagnosed late and had a very rough course. Kawasaki is a rare disease that attacks the blood vessels of the body. It occurs primarily in children under 5 and more common in Asian children. The complication that develops in some children, and can occur at any point in time, are aneurysms, most often aortic aneurysms. Travolta's son had a history of seizures and reportedly had 2 nannies even though he was 16 y.o. . I saw a clip of him on the news and he definitely had the look of a special needs child. My educated guess as to cause of death is the seizure he was reported to have suffered. He did hit his head during the seizure which brings up the possibility of a subdural hematoma, esp if he was on Depakote for seizure management. Depakote tends to thin the blood. It must be very hard to lose a child. No parent is exempt from this possibility, even the wealthy and famous.

Tomorrow I have my PET scan, hoping for good news.

Have a Safe and Sober New Year

As 2009 looms only hours away I hope everyone has a safe and sober holiday. I have never understood the lure of drunkeness. As for drinking and driving, that is for losers. I hope none of you are losers.

Tomorrow my older grandson head for my daughter's in Wisconsin. I've been without heat in my car so yesterday I forked oner $370 to get a new heater. Ouch!!

I'll write about my resolutions when I get back on Sunday. Next week is appointment week: PET/CT scan, pulmonologist visit, and oncologist visit. Each week in January I have medical appointments.

Happy New Year everyone.

Basting the Turkey

Thanksgiving is one holiday where I love to cook. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, doesn't get much better than that. My daughter taught me a great, quick recipe for basting the turkey with. Melt butter, add white wine. Baste the turkey every 20 minutes or so. The white whine gives a good tang to the gravy. Like most recipes like this we don't measure. I kind of use one quarter of butter to a cup of wine.

I'm cooking this year for my younger son, his wife, and their almost18 month old son.

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving is later this week. My son Nate moved to Florida3 weeks ago. I wondered how soon he'd call for my chocolate pecan pie recipe. It was today. I started making this recipe when we lived in Alabama. The recipe is from a Southern cook book.I don't like the pie as it is way too sweet for my palate, which prefers sour.

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup light corn syrup (Karo)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecan halves or pieces
1 unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt chocolate and butter together. Mix sugar and syrup together, bring to a boil, boil together for 2 minutes and pour slowly over beaten eggs, stirring constantly. Add vanilla, melted butter/chocolate, and nuts. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 375 degrees until it puffs up all over the top. Cool.

October Afternoon

I promised Lucinda and Robin I'd blog when I got home from October Afternoon's packing party but I'm tired and my feet throb so it will have to wait til tomorrow.It was fun, their products are great, and it was a surprise to find old friends there.

Arthie, today was very dreary, no sun. A little rain, not enough to count. The temp was in the high 50's so warm.It was very windy, not good for the allergies. I did the filing for Melissa. Tomorrow is happy hour, then Melissa's jewelry party. How are things in India?

Another Gorgeous Day

Today was another gorgeous day, no rain as predicted, close to 70 degrees. The great weather was a boon to people getting out to vote. Minnesota typically has an 80% turnout, they expected 90% today. I am not watching the election coverage, way too boring. But I turn to MSNBC when the ads are on HGTV. Minnesota has gone to Obama, no surprise there. I think Ike might have been the last Republican to win Minnesota. I hope our senate winner is the Independent candidate. The Democratic candidate is a vulgar, rude comedian. The Republican, who used to be a very liberal Democrat, goes whatever way the wind blows.

I started decluttering and organizing my garage today. I use it strictly for storage, not the car. Uffda, it’s a major mission organization endeavor.

Tomorrow I’m working at October Afternoon,a scrapbooking business whose warehouse is in Apple Valley. I will be packing boxes. My pay for 4 hours is $50 worth of their product. I’ll post tomorrow about the experience.

This photo is along the railroad tracks in front of my apartment.

The Empty Nest

I expected my empty nest years ago. My youngest child Alex moved out when he bought his own home at age 21. My daughter had been on her own after college. My oldest child Nate actually moved out when he was about 24 but then........he moved back home. 2 1/2 years ago he moved in for 2 to 3 months, that’s all, “I promise Mom, I’ll be out soon.” Yeah, right.

For the past 14 years he has talked of moving to Florida. I always said I’d believe it when it happened. Well, it happened :-) I can hardly believe it. Nate never liked winter, even when he was a kid. He claims it is because he is Colombian and therefore genetically programmed for warm weather. He left a few days ago for Tampa, arrived Saturday. He went with a friend he met at work. Nate does medical billing for a large national medical supply company. When he gave them his notice they didn’t want to lose him so after an interview he was accepted at the Tampa office of the same company. This was a major relief for me as he had planned to go there without a job, not wise in this economy.

His 11 y.o. son lives with his mother in Lakeville. Poor Sondros is very sad his Dad moved. He knows he has talked about it for years but he’s at an age where he really likes to be with his Dad. I will be taking him to Tampa for spring break.

The cats and I miss Nate too. It’s so quiet around the place. I think I’ll get used to it. I do wish he hadn’t moved so far away. The photos are of the cats watching Nate pack up his car.

Today was in the mid 70’s. Hard to believe for November 3rd. I love fall weather but uffda, the high mold count really affects my allergies and asthma. The next few days are to be reasonably warm but rain and thunderstorms. Then snow and a high of 38 degrees predicted for Friday. Minnie-sota, 4 seasons in a week, gotta love it here. I went to Minnehaha Falls for a walk today and was disappointed that there wasn’t a drop of water in the creek or over the falls.

Today was my last day riding the bus. I am glad because once again I have a respiratory crud.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow. Minnesota always has the highest voter turnout in the country. The last presidential election saw 80% of us voting. I expect tomorrow will be higher.

The Wheels on The Bus...

go round and round, all through Saint Paul. I have been riding a school bus every morning and afternoon with a 5 y.o. Hmong boy who has a tracheostomy and fragile respiratory system. I agreed to do it only short term until someone permanent could be found. I didn’t think short term would mean until November. I retired because of my health and I’ve learned I definitely cannot work with kids. I’m on respiratory infection number 4 since the job started. I have been on prednisone, after needing it only once my first full year of retirement. Tomorrow is my last day riding with Ben as they found a nurse who will both ride on the bus and stay in the classroom all day. I won’t miss the bus ride but I will miss Ben. He is so darn cute and adorable. He has limited vision also but makes the most of what he does have. He knows a lot of signs. He wears glasses that make him look like Erkle. He is small, wears size 2 clothes! He is very smart, I think eventually he might be able to move to a class with higher functioning kids. He’ll always be in special ed but compared to his peers he’s higher functioning. Right now I am campaigning for him to be homecoming prince. I wish I could post his photo but I have a policy of no posting of identifying kids’ photos, even if I have parent permission.

Speaking of busing, Saint Paul buses 87% of its students, more than any urban district in the United States.

I know I have been lax about blogging. I have to improve because Arthie is home in India for 2 months, she needs to keep current with local happenings. Also, my older son Nate moved to Florida!!!!!! More on that tomorrow.