Bye Bye, September!

And, just like that...September is leaving us. It seems like I have barely blinked since I was welcoming September. Lately it seems that I can just sit and watch the days whirl by! Today has been a stay-at-home day...much appreciated not to have to be anywhere at any certain time...a day to catch our breaths...so to speak. I have spent most of the day upstairs creating one thing of another. I am working hard on getting items finished that I want to send to Cheryl and Racbel. I did get one part for each of their gifts finished today and am presently working on the 2nd part of Rachel's. It is Rachel's birthday next week so it would be nice to get finished and get them sent off! Tonight's photo shows what I snuck onto the machine to make for us. Since I had the machine set up for machine embroidery I decided to stitch this before I set up the machine for regular stitching. i plan to make a pillow out of this stitched piece. I want to get out my collection of fall pumpkins and other fall decorations that I have,but have told myself that I want get the things for Arizona mailed before I tackle decorating here. So I'd best get going! I was hoping to report that Woody was feeling lots better,,,but that doesnt seem to be the case. He still has no energy and has spent most of the afternoon coughing. The cough seems to have subsided after a dose of cough medicine and an Allegra. It will soon be time to get tonight's dialysis set up and then in a couple of hoursget him connected for another night of dialysis. I am sure for what makes a long night for Woody. The fact that there have been no alarms lately let Woody sleep a bit more without being disturbed, but I still don't think that he sleeps all that well. It is a blessing for him not to have to keep punching buttons on the cycler machine to stop alarms! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Just a Touch of Color

We are starting to see must a touch/hint of colors to come in our trees. Tonight's photos are two spots of color that I spotted in our trees in the front yard. Woody had an appointment at Fresenius Kidney Center today. It wasn't a long appointent...but it may have worn Woody out and triggered his nausea, which had been better, to reappear. He has pretty stayed in one spot on his recliner and rested. He is back to his reading this evening. Not long after we got home I got a test from Jo suggesting that we have lunch together on our front porch after she finished with her Bible Study at church. That sounded like a good idea to me. She stopped and got sandwiches and I provided lemonade and water and the front porch! We had a great visit catching up on things with each other. We had aother act of kindness this morning, a gentleman we do business with stopped by and brought us some sour dough bread that his wife baked and brought Woody some pineapple juice since he knew that Woody wasn't supposed to have the bread. He said that he wanted us to both have some goodies to enjoy. Nice to live in a small town! One of my accomplishments of the day was to get the bird feeders filled once again. They were eating from the feeders almost as soon as I hung them back up. After Jo left, I continued to sit on the front porch and got a few bird pictures...my favorite was a cute little chickadee.

Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Beautiful Early Fall Day!

It has been a beautiful day. Tonight's photos are the first that I have taken with my "new camera" aka iPhone. I got my hair cut this afternoon and took this picture of the back patio of where I get my hair done and then the second one is the lake behind her house, Lake Tullahoma. I will say that the camera on the phone captured the blue of the sky very well. I still prefer a "real" camera, but know that this one will come in handy when I am out and about and don't have a "real camera with me. I am pleased with the quality of the photos. I will be interested in what shape the photos post...I'm not fond of the long skinmy size that phone photos seem to be. When I downloaded these they didn't seem to be long and skinny...will see how they look on the blog after I post. Woody has stayed hoe all day...I know he is glad to have had a stay-at-home day. He is feeling stronger...no longer having so much trouble standing. He has an appointment with the Fresenius nurse in the morning. Tomorrow is a "kinetics visit. I have to collect the solution that drains after each of the cycles. I have the special collection bags all set out on the cycler machine so I won't forget to connect the drain line to them. Another good thing of late...no alarms...at least for the last six nights. He has never had so many days in a row without alarms. The last settings that the Fresenius nurses had us change must have done the trick along with the different way they have him drain now...at the end of the last cycle they are leaving solution in his peritoneum to dwell during the day to help him dialyze better. He does seem to be feeling better as far as nausea, also. So...maybe things are starting to look up!?! We got to see Graham for a little while this afternoon. He had run an errand for me...I had found out that a game store here in town is also a comic book store and that they carry comic board. I want the comic board to use to finish some of my stitched Christmas ornaments. Graham frequents this store and I decided that I would use him as my personal shopper! He was able to get them for me...and at a bargain price...it seems that they usually don't sell these comic board packages...but the person who corresponded with me on FaceBook Messenger had said that they did so they sold me a package that they had...and it was waaaaaay more reasonable than what I had seen online! I like the way my personal shopper shopped such a good bargain for me...he got a good tip for being such a willing and good personal shopper! Thanks, Graham. He came in a visited a while and told us some about his Mechatronics classes at Motlow which are being taught at The University of Tennessee Space Institute. I'm glad that he is enjoying these classes and also glad that he is having most of his classes in person this year rather than online. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Transfused

Most of Woody's day was taken up with his transfusion. About it being more efficint now that Vanderbilt had taken over...well...We got there and were told that the first time that someone gets a transfusion with Vanderbilt they type them twice...so he had to wait to have all that again. We were to be there by 8:45 and according to the nurse they finally got underway with the transfusion around 11:30. It takes 3 hours to give one unit of blood. When I called to check on the progress, she told me that she was giving it to him slower than usual because he is on dialysis. Anyway, I had him back in his chair as the "clock struck 3." Back in time for him to watch Family Feud! He said that it was a long day! To me it went by fairly quickly...I didn't get much of what I planned to do done. The first thing that I did was go to WalMart and purchase a case for my iPhone...I didn't want to take any chances of breaking that little thin phone! It is all encased now...and, hopefully safe. Melany didn't end up coming as she seems to have gotten a case of food poisoning and with her Crohn's Disease that can be a big problem. She is hoping to have avoided any major problems, but she was pretty weak today. She missed school today and wasn't sure that she could go back tomorrow. She hadn't decided when I talked to her earlier. So Wade ended up coming to bring me my new phone. I guess I am getting the hang of it...I have loaded all mu contacts and their phone numbers into my contacts. The contacts on my iPad didn't include many phone numbers as I mainly used those contacts for email. So now that the two Contact apps are synced both iPad and iPhone now have emails and phone numbers and some addresses...sometime I will add the addresses to the rest, but at the moment I have spent enough time doing that task! The funny thing is how easily you can call someone...often when you don't know you are calling. I ended up calling one of my childhood friends! It was fun to talk with her. We hadn't talked in ages. The funny thing was that she was setting up her new iphone, too. This was not her first smart phone but it was still taking up a good part of her weekend getting things switched over so her husband could have her old one. I told her that if I kept calling folk I would never get my contacts into my phone...when I talked with her I was only on the Cs! I will say I have gotten all my names and numbers into the phone. I also was able to sync the phone with the car and figured out how to add a voice message to my message box...lots to learn. I keep having to Google "how to" on my iPad while I go through the process of following the how tos. I can transfer photos from my camera to my iPhone just like I can transfer them to my iPad. Lots to learn...like doing a sliding motion to answer the phone! One of these days it will be easy????? I am typing this at the dining room table watching for Woody to come home from Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting. He did say before he left that he was feeling a little better/stronger. Hope so! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Do I Really Have To?!?

What you see pictured tonight is an old friend and as of 5pm I guess you could say she died as service was shut off to her. Melany will be bringing me an iPhone tomorrow. We are a part of their family plan and today they migraged from Sprint to T-Mobile...and thus the demise of my phone. I am not technology ignorant...have an iPad, laptop, computerized sewing machines (my sewing machine just finished stitching a design as I was typing here), but I have resisted a smart phone because I am not all that fond of phones...don't want to feel tied to one. I have enjoyed first my flip phone and then this slide phone...it has been a definite aid when we are away from the house and I enjoy texting my family and friends with the slide phone...though, I will admit I won't miss the chopped up messages and the way they come in in multiple posts. Melany and Wade got us the phone and added us to their plan when Woody was starting out his melanoma treatments and we were going to be in the hospital for days on end...that was back in 2009...at that time it was a flip phone...later they upgraded me to my current slide phone. I mostly leave it on the end table next to our bed plugged into the charger...at first the only time that I took it with us was when we were going out of town. I do try to tuck it in my purse when I head out on errands around town now and do most times. And, really only take it in case I need to call someone if the car doesn't start or I have some other problem. I figure that I spend too much time on my iPad as it is and now I will have another device to distract me and get my attention away from probably more important things! I knew that this was coming as of January my phone was no longer going to be supported so I had been gearing my mind up to the fact that the "inevitable" was going to happen. I was just surprised when Melany called today and said that it was happening today. She, at first, said that I needed to go to the T-Mobile store here in town and get a phone...ummmmmmm...not sure how that would have gone over...me not really knowing what I was doing! But in the end they decided that they would go on and get the phone while they were taking care of theirs and I will reimburse them when Melany brings the phone to me tomorrow...would rather they get it since they definitely know more what they are doing than I! Now on to Woody! He is doing a little better today. He is still weak, but is eating better today so that should help some to give him at least a little more energy. I will be glad once he get his transfusion on Monday...that should really help. And, if the change in his dialysis makes his dialysis work better then that should help him feel better also. I'm not sure if I mentioned, but they have upped the amount of solution that is put in at each cycle and also are leaving a given amount in his peritenium throughout the day. That adds another step to his dialysis time...now there is a drain at the start of each of his dialysis treatments. Adds a little more time to the entire process, but if it helps dylate him better and he feels better then that should be worth the extra time. He wouldn't mind the extra time if he slept during it, but often he doesn't. I wasn't surprised when he said that he didn't sleep well last night as he had slept a lot during the day. He has shown more interest in checking on "his" baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals. They are doing very well at the moment...they have won 15 games in a row, a franchise record. So he is happily reviewing all about the games using my iPad. He has enjoyed spending time on the iPad. Since he hasn't been coming upstairs lately that "cut him off" from the laptop where he used to do all his checking on his team. The last week or so he has shown interest in the iPad, which I am glad he has shown that interest. Of course, him having the iPad makes me a bit later blogging sometimes...like tonight. While he finished up with the iPad this evening, I got the dialysis cycler and supplies that I will need all set up and ready for connection time. My part of the dialysis treatment can be divided into three parts: 1) set up (getting out supplies and getting the machine turned on and the solution bags connected to the machine so the solution can begin warming (warms up to around body temperature); 2) connecting him and getting the dialysis started for the night; 3) disconnecting him the next morning and redressing the catheter site where it enters his abdoman and getting the machine shut down and completing records...the records that I started back during step 1). And, that tells a little about the process that we go through each and every day. During those three steps I change gloves 5 times...so 10 gloves per treatment/100 in 10 days! I feel wasteful when I have just washed my hands with antibacterial soap and do one thing and then have to take that pair off and use handsanitizer and put on another pair of gloves! So far tonight I have used one pair, in the next step I will use two pair, and in the morning I will use two pair. Sometimes I have a problem convincing that people I order supplies from that I need that many! But I have finally gotten it written in our order that I can have plenty of boxes to get through a month and some beyond. Now if Woody were doing his own connecting and disconneting, then he wouldn't have to wear gloves...just wash his hands with antibacterial soap and use handsanitizer everytime that he is making a connection...that is because he is his in his own germ field. Enough about gloves! Now I am off to do step 2 for tonight...getting him connected and the dialysis started for tonight. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

This Week…So Far…Seems Long!

We had such pretty clouds on our return trip from Vanderbilt earlier in the week. i decided to post one that only shows the clouds. And, speaking of beautiful, our weather today has been fantastic...definitely feel Fall coming on. Our low got down into the middle 40s over night and our high was in the lower 70s. I had to get out of the house early this morning as I needed to pick up our grocery order. I made the pick-up time early this time because Woody had an appointment at 10:15 and I wanted to get at least the cold and frozen food put away. Plus Woody needed to be disconnected from his dialysis cycler machine. He was still dozing when I came downstairs so decided to wait till I got back from Kroger. I did make sure he was awake enough to know that I was leaving and would disconnect him when I got back...didn't want him to worry where I was two days in a row! I got all done that I needed to do with groceries and disconnecting him from dialysis...in plenty of time for us to be on our way for his appointment at TN Oncology for labs and to see a nurse. But it took a bit longer than usual as Woody still isnt moving too quickly, ut we got there..again...only a few minutes late. It was determined that he does need a blood transfusion...they are calling it an infusion...at least that is how it reads on his paper work. he was given the written orders to take to the hospital and to go there right after his oncology appointment...an easy transition...one of the ways out of their parking lot feeds into the road directly to the hospital parking lot. All he was to do today was register and have labs to type his blood. He has an appointment for the transfusio Monday morning. We were both so glad to be back at home once those two appointments were over! Woody has rested most of the afternoon...he didnt have the best night last night. We are hoping for a better night tonight! I spent the afternoon making a correction in our grocery order. They did a few substitutions which I accepted, but when I looked closely at ingredients I decided they wouoldn't do. So returned those and then had to go to WalMart to find the right kind...these are the protein shakes that are the basis of his protein shakes. Usually we use ones that are sent out by Fresenius, but our order hasn't arrived yet so I am having to supplement with another brand. Got those two errands done and came home and pretty much collapsed. Supper is behind us and now it is time for me to get Woody's cycler machine set up. Evening routine doesn't vary much these days! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

It's Mutual: He Scared Me…I Scared Him

This morning started out with a scare...I think for both of us! Woody woke me up out of a sound sleep around 5am saying that he needed help. That starts the heart racing first thing in the morning. I got downstairs as quickly as I could (move a lot slower these days). I found him in the doorway of the bathroom on the floor. On the way out of the bathroom his legs just gave out from under him...he hadn't realized how weak he was still from being so sick yesterday. He had hold of his walker so he said that he went down gently. He did land on his "bad side," his left side with his arm that has plates and screws in the upper arm and where the melanoma tumor is just above the elbow. We found out later that the tumor must have taken a blow as it did bleed...thank goodness the nurse gave us several of those oclusive bandages. He managed with a bit of my help to scoot out the door and down the side of the couch and around to the front of the couch and made it onto the couch to sit there to catch his breath and regain some strength. I did call Nathan to come get him into the transport chair and back to his recliner. Phew...we were all so glad when he was seated once again! I could tell that other than what the fall took out of him that he was better today than yesterday. And, as the morning progressed he did regain some of his strength back and started feeling better...his fever was almost gone. He drank a protein shake for breakfast and I'm sure that helped him some with his strength. It did take a bit longer than usual to get him out to the car in the transport chair and into the car. I am glad that I planned to start much earlier than usual as even with some built in time, we were still a bit late for his appointment. We finally got in and got him seated in the room. He had dietitian, social worker, nurse, and Dr. O all talk to him...all were there in person except for Dr. O...that visit was through a computer screen. Woody was given an iron infusion and also his shot for anemia. Dr. O doesnt expect Woody to have to go for a transfusion tomorrow. He said that the numbers from Vanderbilt weren't to the point of him actually needing a transfusion...just heading that way...so trying to reverse it by way of eating, the iron and the anemia shot. He did change his prescription for Zofran to the kind that are disovable in the mouth...not needing water...might help him to take them when he is feeling nauseated. I hope doesn't have too many days like yesterday! I know part of yesterday was his response to the T-Vec injection...pretty sure that the fever was caused by that...and can't help but wonder if his nausea was partly caused by that since it increased so much from other days. His weakness was probably due to 1)fever, 2) nausea which meant that nutrition wouldn't stay down even if he could attempt to eat, 3)anema, and probably the list could go on and on. He is ever so much better this evening...a little while ago went into the bathroom and had no problems...definitely he seems to have his legs under him once again. Okay...so the way he awakened me this morning was the way he scared me...now for the rest of the story. We both were so tired after our trying morning. Once we got home around noon from the kidney center, all Woody wanted to do was lean back in his recliner and try to sleep. And, after lunch, I made my way up to my recliner and found myself dozing off fairly soon after I sat down. When I woke up I decided to go check the mail and then check on Woody. The mail contained a box of sewing goodies that I had ordered a few days ago. So I checked on Woody and found him sound asleep so I decided that it was a good time to open up my box. It had several things that I needed to make some gifts for both Fall and Christmas and some finishing items that I may use to make ornaments, a few zippers that I picked up at a bargain price, and a piece of rib knit to use on one of the sweat shirts/pants that I plan to make for myself. I checked again on Woody...still out like a light. I decided that I would go on and embroider one of the designs using the special fabric that I had been waiting on...it is a very quick stitching design...especially when the machine sews at 600 stitches per minute. It worked great, but the problem was that I was almost out of another item that I need for these designs so I decided that I would make a quick trip to my sewing machine dealer. I checked on Woody again and he was still asleep...I hated to leave the house without him knowing, but I also knew that once asleep he doesn't want to be awakened. I knew that I wouldn't be gone much more than 30 minutes. I got to the store and found what I needed and checked out...of course their cash register was acting up and it took a while to ring up my 3 items! On the way home I did stop at the pharmacy to pick up his new prescription for zofran. I walked into the house exactly 30 minutes after I left. You should have heard the relief in Woody's voice...he had really been in a deep sleep and when he woke up he thought that it was in the middle of the night and not in the afternoon...so he was disoriented. He realized that I hadn't hooked him up for his dialysis...thought that I had forgotten...so started trying to get my attention through Alexa (use her as an intercom between his room and mine) and he couldn't get me to answer...then he started to imagine too much...had I had a heart attack...or a stroke and couldn't answer him, etc. He was trying to figure out how to get in touch with Nathan...he saw my cell phone on a table in the family room...of course he doesn't know how to use it. Then considerd trying to get up the stairs...well, I walked in before he did anything rash! He was very relieved! So I guess scaring each other today was tit for tat! He has been fine today with the dialysis solution left in him...it is now time to go down and get his dialysis going as we have now added the time of a fifth drain to the whole "ordeal." The fluid left in him will have to be drained off before tonight's dialysis can begin...this is not an unusal part of dialysis as it is in the program...just a part that we were able to bypass up till tonight. So off I go...hopefully tomorrow won't be as eventful. He does have an appointment with Oncology for them to recheck his labs...and we will see what that leads to...they indicated a transfusion...Dr. O thought not yet. Once again...time will tell! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Unplanned Day Off

Tonight's photo shows the warning sign as we leave I-24 and approach I-440. And, it is a curve just as depicted..."just about" everyone lowers their speed...probably not as low as suggested but most do go into the curve with caution. The way the sign depicts a truck about to fall over, I think is the way Wooody has felt today. He has run a fever most of the day and has been more nauseated than usual. There are multiple reasons that he may be feeling like he is...pd dialysis, new T-VEC melanoma treatment, very anemic and needing a blood transfusion, and, the list could probably go on! Because he had a teperature and could hardly move, his oncology lab was put off...which meant that his transusion was put off too. It has been rescheduled for Friday...praying that he will be feeling very much better by then. Next question is whether he will be able to go to his appointment with Dr. O and the rest of the Fresenius crew in the morning. He needs to go, but his temp has to be under 100.4 When I took his temp a little while ago it had come down from earlier in the day. We are pretty sure that his temp is due to yesterday's injection into his melanoma tumor. We were told today that his dialysis isn't doing what it needs to do so I stopped at the center for them to change the settings on the thumb drive that plugs into his dialysis cycler machine...so we will be doing diaysis a bit differently...and the dialysis not doing its full job can cause his nausea and partially his lack of energy...lack of energy is also caused by anemia also...so with dialysis change and a transfusion...he might start feeling a little better...as I am always saying...time will tell! But, as for today, he has been pretty miserable. We did get our dialysis supply delivery this morning. So once again our living room looks like a warehouse! Oh, well...it is good to have plenty of supplies once again...we were running uncomfortably low. If the flooding in TN that has occured over the weekend had put a delay on our delivery, we would have run out of dialysis solution after tomorrow...we now have plenty for the upcoming month with plenty of extra in case it is needed. We had more rain this morning, but finally it has cleared out with a promise of dry days at least through the weekend along with lower temps. I found the time to do a little cooking this afternoon...made a Chicken Alfredo Pizza...for me...Woody not very interested in food today...not that he has had much interest in food of late. I enjoyed my homemade pizza supper! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! Oh, almost forgot...Happy Fall, Y'all!!!

Home Again, Home Again, Ready to Blog

Well, we are home again after a total of 3-1/2 hours of travel to and from and 5 hours at Vanderbilt...most of those hours in the waiting room...at least for me. Everything was pretty much on time appointment wise. The longest period of time was waiting for the immunotherapy drug to thaw and get to Woody's nurse practitioner. This immunotherapy is called T-VEC...part of the immunotherapy drug is a type of a herpes virus...so he might be a bit contagious for a few days...main instruction that he shouldn't be around anyone who is pregnant. They injected this concoction into the melanoma tumor on his arm in two places...the tumor is to remain covered for a week. He goes back in three weeks for his second injection and then after that every two weeks. We still haven't studied that much about this treatment. Here's what popped up when I Googled T-VEC immunotherapy: Immunotherapy is cancer treatment that directly kills cancer cells and stimulates the body's immune system to fight cancer, such as melanoma. Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec, or T-VEC) is a local immunotherapy treatment that kills melanoma cells in the skin and lymph nodes. Woody's nurse practioner has been doing this treatment for about two years...hopeing that it works on the tumor on his arm...but it may work on any other melanomas in/on his body. The PET scan hasn't been officially read yet, but the doctor and a resident had looked at it. Dr. Wyman saw no new places...just the place on his arm and the tumor on his left side that is under his arm near the arm pit area...a place we were aware of. I just found out that it really rained hard here this afternoon...we managed to make the trip to and from only being rained on for a minute or two...it started raining twice on the way and we drove out of it almost as soon as it started. I am so thankful that we had dry roads. Woody was told to take Tylenol when he got home as he could get a few aches and a fever. Time will tell. So far he seems to be fine. Tomorrow he goes for more labs...we're hoping that they will take today's labs. But it looks like he will probably have to have a blood transfusion tomorrow as his hemoglobin was lower today than last week...and below the point that the oncologist here in Tullahoma said that he would need one. That will be an even longer day tomorrow! We also have delivery of dialysis supplies in the morning. Busy times! One good thing is that the long trip to Nashville is behind us for three weeks...other appointments on the calendar are all in Tullahoma this month. Time to get Woody's dialysis going for the night. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Rain and Rain and then MORE RAIN!

It rained almost continuously all weekend...some more this morning and probably more tomorrow. I'm sort of ready for it to stop...which it has for the time being. Woody was able to get to and from the car this evening going to and from Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting without getting even a drop of rain on either of us! I am just hoping that our Nashville trip tomorrow can happen when we are having a lull in the rain! Time will tell about that. I'm guessing that it would be best that we not go home the back way over the one-way bridge...it is probably covered with water. All the streams and rivers are up at the moment with flooding occuring in many places in the area. We are fine...things are just soggy underfoot. I managed to take the garbage out when the rain had stopped and decided to also empty the compost bucket in the compost pile...very squishy under foot! The area around the compost pile has two ponds in it that normally aren't there! With all the rain, I have mainly found things to do inside the last few days. I finished cross stitching what I was doing for my sister...now to get it made into what I have planned for it. This afternoon I put away all the scraps that I had "thrown" around on the cutting table and just have the ones for my sister and niece's gifts and for the sewing project that I have planned for me. I was trying to find a space to be able to cut some strips of fabric for these three projects. I have also started stitching on the Christmas for Alex and Brooke. As I mentioned at the start, Woody did go to prayer meeting this evening. The way we accomplish this now is I wheel him out to the car in the wheel chair. He drives to church and uses his walker to get in and out of the Ministry Center and then I meet him at the car with the wheel chair to wheel him back inside when he gets home. This helps him save energy and also puts less stress on his leg...he doesn't need that weak leg to break! That's about the last thing that he needs! Tomorrow we will venture out mid morning to get to Vanderbilt a litte before noon for his first appointment of four...a PET scan. I guess that Vanderbilt really wants us to not forget his appointments. I wish that I had made a hash tag everytime they have called to remind us of the appointments! And, only one of those allowed me to punch a number to confirm the appointment. We have been reminded about all but the labs...three to four times for each of them starting last week. There for a while we weren't getting any reminders and now we are getting a ridiculous amount of reminders. Tomorrow he has the PET scan first, then he goes for lab work, then he sees Dr. Wyman, his melanoma doctor, then he sees Debbie Wallace, a nurse practitioner who will inject his melanoma tumor on his arm with the immunotherapy drug. So the appointments go on into a good part of the afternoon. I just hope that we can get away before Nashville rush hour and that when we do get away that it isn't raining cats and dogs! I'll let you know how things go tomorrow night! Now it is time to go get Woody's dialysis going for tonight! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Sometimes It's The Little Things…

Sometimes it is the little things that matter/make a difference/bring happiness! This morning I needed to run a couple of errands...one was to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Woody and also get a few supplies that we needed for his dialysis care. Since starting back up on dialysis, we haven't had the "back-up" supplies that we usually have...some of the extras were used while he was off the home dialysis and when we ordered neither I nor the person I was ordering from took that into consideration and we are running very short on some things and on others we are totally out and I have had to scrounge around town and try to find what we need. One item I mentioned the night before...gloves...which I bought at WalMart the other day, but realized after getting home that I hadn't bought enough to get us through till the supply truck comes this next week. I wasn't crazy about the gloves I got at WalMart so decided to try the ones at the pharmacy...not too crazy about these I bought today either, but they will have to do for the next few days. I also needed bandaids because Woody was needing a small one and all of our bandaids didn't have any choices as to sizes any more. For bandaids I have to be careful and get latex free as Woody is allergic to latex...hopefully the ones I got will work. One of the bandaids in the new box was to be used to cover his wound from yesterday's procedure of removing the hemodialysis tubing from his jugular vein. I am a bit squeamish when it comes to such things, but between the two of us we managed to get that task done...not without my sinking to my toes a few times as I thought about prior to doing it...it was not bad, but I just don't like taking bandages off when I don't know what I am facing! As I have said many times before...I am not a nurse...just a person "forced" into doing certain nurse-like things...sometimes not all that willingly! Now back to my errands after my pharmacy stop, I headed off to the Credit Union and then a quick stop at JoAnns. I don't think that I have been into JoAnns since the start of the Pandamic...maybe one time before today...I'm not for sure. Today I had an item in mind...didn't find exactly what I was looking for but did find a good substitute...at least I am pretty sure it will work for what I want to use it for. I also needed a piece of faux suede to try out a machine-embroidery design that I purchased recently...a design for Fall. About the time I had those two items cut and scanned for a price, the ceiling fell out of the clouds and the rain came pouring down...heard very well due to a metal roof! JoAnns isn't a bad place to be stuck waiting for the rain to let up! I got to look around a bit more. I was so happy to find the "little things" pictured above. I had been wanting some sewing charms to add to several items that I have in the works and will be glad to have some of these sewing charms on hand when other projects come up. The little heart buttons I was in need of...one red tiny heart button for a cross stitch ornament that I am planning for our grandson and his new bride...so was very happy to come upon this package of very tiny heart buttons...I believe that they are the perfect size. I finally decided that the rain was letting up so I made my way to the check-out counter and by the time I was heading out the door it was only raining lightly. It was lunch time by the time I got home so fixed our lunches and then I headed upstairs to unpack my JoAnn purchases. I had planned to do some stitching on what I am making for my sister, Cheryl...but my eyes closed...guess the shopping wore me out! I had a nice nap on a rainy afternoon. Later in the afternoon, I headed downstairs to make another mess in the kitchen. This time I decided that it was "just about" soup weather...temperatures are supposed to be going downward over the next few days. Plus yesterday when I mentioned making this soup, Woody showed a bit more interest than he usually does these days. He did have a small bowl for supper tonight instead of his usual protein shake...not sure that the soup was high enough in protein to substitute for the shake...but at least he ate something different for a change! Woody did his usual crossword puzzles. He also had me bring him my iPad and he "surfed" around on the internet...checking emails, baseball sites, etc. while I was running errands. He rarely spends any time on the computer these days as he has stopped coming upstairs. Before I come down each morning, I run off his two crossword puzzles (USA Today and LA Times) and take then down to him. He usually starts them right away...while I am disconnecting him from his dialysis treatment and continues to work on them while he eats his breakfast. Today he has also spent time watching several football games on TV and now is watching a baseball game. Before I came upstairs tonight, I finished cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, started the dishwasher, and got everything set up for tonight's dialysis. The set up gets the dialysis solution warming...so I need to wait at least a half-hour before getting the night's dialysis up and running. We have been trying to start around 8:30 each evening...give or take a few minutes...trying to establish a routine...best to do it at approximately the same time each evening. That said...it is about time for me to head down and get the dialysis going for tonight. I plan to continue on my cross stitch project when I come back upstairs...hopefully I can stay awake to get more done since I had such a good nap this afternoon! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Down Memory Lane!

This afternoon I got a package from my favorite (only) sister, Cheryl. She had found some pictures of me and decided that she didn't need them at her house so sent them my way. It has been fun to look at them...most of the ones that have some color in them were "colorized." On the back of the pictures it tells what color my hair, eyes, dress, etc. were...so they could add color to them. What a different world we live in now. The biggest one in the back Mother had written on it that I was 9-1/2...but I don't think that is right...I'm pretty sure that I remember having that dress in 6th grade. Mother made it for me and it was the new shift style. Mother was always really good at labeling the backs of photos, but I think that I am right on this one...but it will be hard to prove one way of the other! I know the one that says 5 on it is right as I have on the locket that Mother and Daddy gave me when I was 5. And, the one that says that it was a Christmas picture, I know was right because again I remember that was my Christmas dress. I think that may have been the year that I was the star at the top of the tree in a Christmas play at our church. Funny the memories that come flooding back when looking at old photos! Woody said that today's procedure was more of a procedure than he expected. He said that the surgeon had to pinch his neck really hard when taking the line out...due to the fact that it was in his jugular vein. He is glad to have it out...one less tube hanging out of him! I am a bit late blogging tonight, as Nathan stopped by to do a few "sonny-do jobs." The light bulbs in the light on the stairway had all burned out...we wait till they are all out since it is quite a feat to get them changed. We have a special reticulating ladder that helps with the task...but that ladder has disappeared. Nathan has one that his father-in-law gave them so he brought theirs over to accomplish the task. Along with those light bulbs we had several others that needed changing so I got him to do those too. They are ones that I can do, but it is so much easier for him than for me to do them. It was just lucky that we had several other lights go out at the same time. I also wanted to change a couple so the same color light bulb would be in the same room...yellow and white light in the same bathroom bothered me. Now there is white light in all lights in that bathroom...just traded them out...and put the ones he took out into the lights in Woody's bathroom downstairs. And, I had him change out light bulbs in our bedroom for ones that could be dimmed as we had the wrong ones in the light and the light kept going on and off when I had the overhead light on...rather bothersome when I am trying to do a task on my sewing cutting table! So all is well with the lightbulb situation in our household...at least for the moment! We had a nice visit with Nathan. He just left a little while ago. I got Woody's nightly dialysis going and then came upstairs to blog. I still have to finish in the kitchen after I publish this. I took a long nap this afternoon...I guess Woody's procedure wore me out!?! I will say that this was the most pleasant waiting room experience of the doctors that we go to...they have Home and Garden TV on in the waiting room. I got to watch two programs while Woody was in waiting for hisi procedure to begin...that took a while as the surgeon saw all his other patients who were waiting before he did Woody's procedure. The appointment was for 11am and we didn't get home till almost 1pm. Woody said that he really likes his surgeon, Dr. Thomason, my former Montessori student, because he explained what he was going to do before he did it. Because I slept a good part of the afternoon, I didn't get done what I had planned to do this afternoon, so I did do one of those jobs this evening...cleaned out the filter in the bottom of the dishwasher...it wasn't very bad this time...sometimes I let too much time go by between cleanings because I didn't have to do this with my last dishwasher...or if I was supposed to, I didn't know it! Anyway, filters all clean for the time being. Woody wanted to take a nap this afternoon, I'm not sure that he ever did. That is the reason that I came upstairs so I wouldn't disturb him and then fell asleep myself! After I get the dishwasher going and wash a few dishes by hand, then I will come upstairs and hopefully get a little sitching done that I meant to do this afternoon! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Thursday

Toight's blog photo shows the warning sign for the one-lane bridge and shows the bridge just over the hill (lower left hand corner). That photo is the first that I have managed to snap the picture and get both the sign and the bridge in the same picture. Today was a stay-at-home day for both of us...no appointments. Tomorrow will not be without its appointment. I think that Woody is dreading getting the catheter line taken out! The scary thing to me about this line is that it goes into his heart! His surgeon said that it isnt just a matter of pulling it out as it is with some lines. There will have to be a little cutting around the area where the line goes into his upper chest, due to the fact that the skin will have closed around the line as it healed. I will take him but I don't plan to go in with him...I will "bravely" wait in the waiting room! I am still in the midst of cleaning up the kitchen. I have cooked two things today, but it looks like I have made a 10-course meal! Before I came upstairs to blog, I emptied the dishwasher and started putting the dirty dishes in...the kitchen was already looking better! I oven roasted a pan of red peppers...a few of ours and most of them from Ruth. Ruth stopped by and we visited on the front porch. She brought us eggs red peppers. Hers combined with ours gave me enough to roast some. I have plans for some of the roasted red peppers, but the rest I will freeze. I have already frozen chooped and sliced red, green, yellow, and orange sweet peppers. So I will have plenty of peppers to add to dishes that I make over the winter till it is time to plant more and harvest more next year. We still have a few on our pepper plants that are still small. I think that there is still time for them to ripen before it gets too cold. Nathan gave us a small eggplant that his missionary friend had given him. Tonight I cooked that for my supper...pretty good! I hadn't had eggplant in a while. I still need to put together Woody's breakfast sausage recipe before I come back upstairs for the night. I won't cook it till in the morning, but it will be good to have it mixed up and ready to cook in the morning. I will cook all the rest of the sausage patties, too, in the morning and then freeze them. Woody seemed to feel a little better today...not quite as tired as he has been of late...hoping that he can avoid a blood transfusion next week! He has quite the week next week...he has a long Vanderbilt list of appointments on Tuesday. We are starting to get confirmation calls for those appointments. He hasn't received instructions for his PET scan yet, though. Well, it is time for me to head down and get Woody's nightly dialysis going. The alarms do seem to have lessened with the setting change that the dialysis had me make. He had 2 alarms last night and three the night before...so maybe heading in the right direction. Woody did say that he slept better last night. Be safe! Be well! Be cautous!

Wednesday Doings

It was mainly Woody who had somewhere to go today...I just got him to his car and then back into thr house two hours later. He had his every three-week appointment at TN Oncology here in Tullahoma. At these appointments he has labs, sees Dr. Eze, and has his Keytruda infusion. I stayed home today and worked on cleaning the family room/Woody's room. It is hard to clean in there when he is in the room...so vacuumed, dusted and straightened up in there. He got home about the time that I finished. i had planned to do a little cooking this afternoon... but decided that task could wait till tomorrow. So I did some relaxing and reading and more thinking about my sewing project. Now we are watching the finale of Master Chef and I am about to get Woody's dialysis underway for tonight. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

A Hint of Fall

Yesterday, when I was walking around to the back of the house to water my herbs, I spotted this leaf on the ground...it is from the Poplar Tulip tree (TN state tree) that is on that side of our house. Now when you look up into that tree you don't see any others like this, but seeing this one and its beautiful colors made me realize that it won't be long till all the leaves on this tree will be a beautiful yellow. I also noticed yesterday when I was walking through the yard that the leaves have started to fall...not pretty yet, but some are definitely falling. Just a miniscule start to the massive amounts that we will have on the ground between now and next Spring! Our phone seems to have rung almost non stop today...most of the numbers are not recognizable by me and thus don't get answered. But we have had several calls of interest and import. One of our nurses from Fresenius Kidney Care called to suggest a change in the settings on the dialysis cycler machine to help make the alarms lessen in number. I made the change that he walked me through...now hoping that it will help. It is so strange Woody goes from one night having no alarms to the next having 8, 9, or 10. We will see tonight if this setting change helps. A little later Woody's other PD nurse called telling us that he had set up with the surgeon a date and time to have the hemodialysis catheter removed...that will happen Friday. Woody will be glad to have that removed as it is a bit bothersome to him. Our other communication with Fresenius, I initiated...called and asked them to call me back...so another call. THis call was to change the number of boxes of solution that will be delivered next week to us. I realized that somehow in the moving back to peratoneal dialysis the person I placed my orders with were not allowing to have any bags of solution in reserve...in case one is defective...or I drop one (have to throw the bag away if it touches the floor!) or if there is some reason (like the recent floods) that would keep a delivery from happening. They espceially like to have extra on hand in the winter. I just realized that we had never had so few boxe of solution on hand since we began home dialysis. When they bring the order next week, I think that I have figured that we will only have two boxes (two days) left. Another reason that we need extra is that presently we use two bags of two different strengths, but there could be a reason that we would need to use two bags of same strength...and what we have on hand doesn't give us wiggle room to change the strength of solution. So the phone call from the place I order from hopefully accomplished having several more boxes in reserve. We also got a call in regards to labs run on Woody's thyroid. His thyroid function remains normal and Keytruda isn't causing autoimmune disease of the thyroid. That information was good timing as Woody is to get his next Keytruda infusion tomorrow. Along with these important calls, the phone must have rung close to ten other times...just had another unidentified number call just a few minutes ago. Must not be important as when answering machine picks up, they hang up and don't leave a message. But they are annoying! I have done a little sewing. I did my monthly run to WalMart to get over-the-counter meds and a couple of other things, among them probably the most important were medical gloves that I have to wear setting up and connecting Woody to his dialysis...this is the first time that we ran out...again it is due to being off home dialysis for three months...but still using the gloves when I changed the dressing on his dialysis catheter. After getting home I realized that I didn't get enough to get me through till the next delivery...just wasn't thinking when I picked up the box. I go through 10 gloves per treatment...so 100 glovs in 10 days. I have to pick up a prescription for Woody so guess I will get another box when I go to the pharmacy. I told myself to get a small box since the delivery was next week...but in my mind, at that moment, didn't multiply the number of days between now and then...8 days...80 gloves and the small box only had 50...rolling my eyes at myself!!! I knew that but was just trying to find things and get in and out as quickly as possible...and that fact didn't register at the time...but did the moment I got home! Oh, well...it's not like I can't go get more...it is just that I am trying to limit my trips to stores. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

You Never Know What You Can Do Until…

I have had a cross stitched saying hanging in my sewing room: "You never know what you can do until you try to undo what you did!" That saying can be so very true both with needlework and with sewing. Today I have been in the midst of several projects, both needlework and machine sewing. One of the projects involved taking apart a sweatshirt that I had made some time ago. It has a problem with the neck band which needsto be replaced. Well, said neck band I had sewn on by the sewing machine and then did a finishing "professional" touch of using the coverstitch on my serger...this stitch puts two parallel stitching lines on the front, but then covers the inside neck seam with several threads that sort of intertwine. Coverstitch is not an easy stitch to remove...but remove it I managed...lots of threads and time later. Now it is ready to be given a new neckband...even perhaps a new look, if what I have in mind works. But I sat in my recliner for quite a while using a seam ripper and my magnifying light trying to unravel the many entwined threads. I prepared some pieces of quilter's cotton for doing a little piecing for the front of a sewing project. And, I am cross stitching a Fall pattern for a possible gift. The other part of our day was spent at Fresenius Kidney Center for Woody's appointment with his nurse. This appointment falls two weeks prior to seeing Dr. O, Woody's nephrologist/kidney doctor. Usually this appointment is pretty short, but today the nurse needed to flush and redress the hemodialysis catheter site. The one good thing about Woody still having this catheter was that he didn't have to get stuck for his bloodwork nor for his anemia shot or his iron infusion...all those could be done through the hemo catheter. Woody's nutritionist also came in and talked with us. We were only there for a little over an hour so that wasn't bad. Tonight Woody went to church for the Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting. He is now home. I have his nightly dialysis treatment all set up. I will get that started in a little while. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Perspective on a 20-Year-Old Memory

I think that probably every one of us who are old enough remembered at some time today what they were doing or where they were 20 years ago this morning, when the first plane flew into the first of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I was in "my room," the reading room, at our Montessori school. The phone rang and it was the husband of one of my co-workers...he was calling to let us know what had happened. We had no other communication with the outside world except the phone or someone coming to the school to tell us something had happened...pre cell phones! Pre cell phones puts a little perspective on 20 years ago! I remember the rest of the morning just sort of a blur...hearing different things from parents, etc. as they picked up their children. I never saw or heard anything on TV or radio until I was going home from school. The "picture" that remains engrained in my memory is of the cloud of dust and debris rolling down the street...just like a scene from a dramatic/horror movie about a diaster happening in a make-believe city. Of course, all the horrors of that day and days to follow are there in my memory, too...memories that were all too real...that I should only have been seeing in a movie and not real life! "20 years ago" is what I have had the hardest time to wrap my mind around. 20 years, these days, can either seem like eons ago or just yesterday! I can't picture myself 20 years ago in my mind. What really brought me up short to realize how long ago it was, was seeing a photo of then President George Bush on that day...oh, my, but he looked young! Seeing him on the actual day put things more in perspective for me of 20-year-old memories. The next thing that put things even more personally into perspective was thinking about our grandchildren...presently we have nine...then we had two and another on the way. Our now 28-year-old granddaughter was only 8 and our now 24-year-old grandson was only 4 and Graham would be born five months after 9/11. The perspective...none of them, even the seven to be born over the years following 9/11, have an actual memory of that day...only what has been told/shown over the years since that fateful day 20 years ago...yet that day molds their daily lives in ways that they may never understand. When I think back and reflect on the actual day and days to follow, I remember how we came together as a nation putting aside all differences...political, religious, race, etc. We came together to help each other get through the unthinkable, whether we had been at ground zero or thousands of miles away. I wouldn't want anything like that to happen again, but do wish that we as a country could out aside differences and pull together as a united nation once again. In your remembrances: Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

What Day Is This?

It has been another one of those days that I keep thinking that it is a different day. In this case I keep thinking it is Saturday...when I realize it isn't then I am thankful for one more day in my week! I think that the reason that it feels like Saturday is because I got groceries today and when I was going to the store to get my groceries in person, I often went on Saturday. The pick-up of our groceries went smoothly once again. From the time I left the house and got the last item put away, it had only taken an hour. Now I will say that getting the order ready did take a bit of time last night...but at least it was done from the comfort of my recliner...not walking the aisles stooping, bending and reaching for items. I only had to pick up grocery bags once and handle individual items once. I like it very well. Once again, the total was less when I picked up than it was on my order...several hidden bonuses due to using their pick-service along with coupons, etc. So far I think the totals for my two pick-up orders have been better than they would have been if I was doing the actual shopping. But at this point I rather like shopping this way. I will say that I prefer to pick out my own meat and produce. I took care of picking out some meat yesterday when I made the quick stop at Publix. And, the produce they have picked out for me so far has been excellent. So no complaints from me about this new way to shop. Woody has had another quiet day. Last night we weren't sure if his treatment would ever get finished as his first drain took much longer than usual...have not a clue why. Once it switched back over to fill, I went back upstairs. I told Woody to holler for me if the next drain caused problems. I didnt hear from him till this morning at about the usual time that his treatments finish. I asked Woody about the three other drain perods during the night...his comment: "I guess a watched pot doesn't boil." In other words once he went to sleep there were no more problems. Thank goodness! Hoping for the first cycle in his dialysis to go better tonight! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Thursday

Today has been a day to do a little of everything. I worked on getting caught up on the wash...last load just went into the dryer. I've been planning sewing and needlework projects. Getting ready for what's next after I finish what I am working on...should have probably been working towards finishing what I have started...but awfully fun to plan what will be next! I got s follow-up call about the leaking dialysis solution bag. She was very nice...calling from Maine where the leaves are already beautiful. Made me look forward to our leaves turning...hooing that we will nave a beautiful Fall since we have had such a wet year. This afternoon I ran a couple of errands. I stopped at Publix to see if they had a couple of items that Kroger has been out of here of late...found one of the items...our laundry detergent...and it was buy one get one free...good deal! I did find a whole chicken that was low sodium so got that. Then I came home to work on my online order with Kroger. That order is still a work in progress but getting closer to being complete. I will finalize it before I go to bed and get it arranged to pick up in the morning. I also went to Hobby Lobby to get a few things that I needed for some of my future sewing and needlework plans. Woody's day has been pretty routine...routine of when we don't have anywhere to go. It has been so nice this week to have no appointments! Now it is time to go down and get his dialysis started for the night...major part of his routine these days...takes up between 9-10 hours of every day for him...at least most of it is during the night when hopefully he can sleep...sometimes he does sleep and sometimes he doesn't. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

A Pretty Quiet, But Confusing Day!

Not a lot happened around here today. The main thing that I had to do today was phone in Woody's dialysis supplies order. Now...that took a chunk out of the day...usually it is a very simple process but today's order took longer. First, I guess that it must have been a very busy day for orders for them as the first message I got was that it might be better to call another day! But I decided to hang on and persist, since today was the day I was assigned to make the order on. Someone finally answered a little over 30 minutes later. I had several things that I hadnt dealt with before that I had been told to deal with: 1) I needed them to send me a printout of our order/delivery calendar and 2) I had to make arrangements for some of the boxes of manual supplies to be picked up at the next delivery as their dates to expire were October and November of this year. After that things went along pretty much as usual...me telling how much of each supply we had left. We got to the bags of solution and I mentioned that one of the bags had been damaged and had poured the solution out when I opened the outside cover...well, that opened another can of worms andnwe had to fill out information about that happening. And finally after I had been on the phone both on hold and with the representative for over an hour, the order was confirmed and we hung up. She was going to immediately call one of our nurses to get approval of sending a different size gauze pads as the size we usually get were on back order. I was filling out on my ipad the number of each item we had ordered and realized in all the craziness ofnthe order that I had neglected to order gloves. i immediately called our nurse hoping that she hadn't already called him, but no such luck...she was efficient and had already called. Which meant that I had to call and get put back on hold again...but this time I opted out for them calling me back when it was my turn. About a half hour later, a gentleman called back and took care of adding gloves to our order. I also asked a question about the manual solution bags as I realized that she wasn't sending me the same amount of boxes of the two amounts...got that straightened out...and finally I think we are all set for our next delivery in two weeks! That order "only" took 2 hours and 15 minutes! I only hope that it is really correct! Usually it is very simple. We just had too many things that I had never done before to deal with at one time! Woody has had a quiet day too. I do believe that he has had several naps during the day. And, now it is time for me to get his next treatment set up! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

I Give Up!

I have been tracking a package that was supposed to have gotten here this afternoon...but so far it hasnt been delivered yet...and, I did see the mail truck come intonour neighborhood over an hour ago. I had tonight's photo and title all figured out...but am tired of waiting for it and need to go on and blog so I can begin Woody's dialysis in an hour or so. Today I took advantage of being home and did some things that I had been putting off for a while...well, not really not putting off...just hard to fit some things in when one has appointments. Yesterday I began writing some long overdue thank you notes and finished two sets today...some for the library and some for us. I made sure to get them written and out in the mailbox with the flag up this morning so I wouldn't miss the mail carrier (rolling eyes on that statement!). I definitely got them out there in plenty of time! I did a couple of jobs outside...one was wash off the top rail that goes around the front porch...for some reason the birds have decided to sit and eat their seeds there (another eye roll!). This is a new place for them to sit. I think that all the rain we have had lately made them seek a new place to set up their restaurant! I even found bird seed shells on one of the little tables on the porch! They are really making themselves at home! This afternoon I found a pair of clippers and clipped back a couple of bushes...the butterfly bush was growing out over the ramp again and then I trimmed back some greenery so I could see the pretty flowers that I had Nathan help me reposition to a stump at the end of the driveway. Woody has had a quiet day. He finished one book and started another. He's done his daily crossword puzzles and watched some TV...sort of a normal day for him when we don't have to be out and about for appointments. I'm almost afraid to say it...but this week he has no appointments! The only thing on the calendar is for me to make the Fresenius dialysis supply order tomorrow...done at home over the phone...so doesn't interfere much with the day! I have started stitching the church on the bottom row of my sampler. Starting to plan in my head what I will choose to stitch next when I finish this one. I also finished a book today and am about half-way through another. So thi has been part of the lazy days of late summer. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Labor Day 2021

My main labor of the day was to complete the top area of the sampler that I am working on so I was able to roll the sampler so I can stitch the bottom row of houses on the town square. Woody did go to Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting, but he was the only one so he came home after waiting till a little after 6:30. They never cancel due to holidays, but Woody really didnt expect anyone tonight as he knew that some were out of town...but you never know if someone other than the usual group might show up so he went just in case. Nathan, Isaac, and Joseph stopped by for a few minutes this afternoon. They brought us some garden veggies and shared some about their weekend travels. They went to a camp ground in South Carolina that is run by a former missionary. Nathan had reconnected with this missionary earlier this year and they made plans for them to go juggle at their campground. We first met this missionary when Nathan was in 6th grade and there was a mission conference in the area Baptist churches. The missionary stayed at our house during the week that he was in town. I think that they enjoyed reconnecting after all these years...both Nathan and the missionary had changed a bit over the years! It's time for me to go down and get Woody's nightly dialysis started. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Simple Saturday

Oops...just realized that I haven't blogged yet tonight. I guess I was concentrating on getting Woody's dialysis started a bit earlier tonight so we would have plenty of time in the morning to get him off the dialysis cycler machine so he has plenty of time to eat breakfast and get ready for church. We have had another nice quiet day. I had planned to go to the library to get Woody some books, but forgot until it was almost time for the library to close...so just added that little trip to my "do-another-day list. Woody has attempted to watch some football this afternoon and evening...just like last week one of the games came in in Spanish...for a while...but then, without him doing anything, it switched back to English and the rest of the games have been in English. He says that the problem with them not bring in English is that he has to watch the game to find out what is going on! He can follow a game and read if he can hear the game...but can't multitask when he can't understand the announcers! I had let my sour dough starter that sits on my counter "go," as I just hadn't been doing much baking lately. I keep jars of starter in the refrigerator which are dormant. Yesterday I decided to get one of those going again. It was very happy to be out at room temperature and to be fed some flour and water. It was nice and bubbly today. The first thing that I made was sour dough waffles. I hadn't had any for a while and they tasted good this morning for breakfast. Now I can store them in the freezer to pop in the toaster oven when I am in the mood for one. This afternoon a friend called on the phone. She is making decisions about a new camera. We did some searching on the internet while we talked. I think she has made up her mind, but is now having trouble finding a store that has it in stock. I'm not sure if I have mentioned much about my camera after it was returned after being repaired...it is working like it should have from the beginning. They did a good job of fixing it. Once again it is a pleasure to grab it up to get a quick shot of something and have it focus immediately. I'm still a little gun shy with it as I still expect to have to coax it to focus...but no longer...thank goodness! I took pictures with it on both trips to doctor apoointments this week. I was pleased with I got considering that most were taken through the windshield, that wasn't thr cleanest and often had a reflection on it and we were speeding along in the car. Tonight's photo was one of the few that I took with a window down...this is a shot with us stopped on the one-lane bridge over the Duck River. The water was up due to Ida's rains. Wednesday when we went over it, you could tell that the water had been up and over the bridge at some point during all the rain...but by the time we crossed it, there were only puddles. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Down Day

It's nice to have a down/do-nothing day after having the two days previous filled with out-of-town appointments. I have worked a little on planning a sewing project and worked on my cross stitch sampler with a few daily chores thrown in. Woody has done his share of resting and doing his normal daily routine...crossword puzzles, some TV, some reading (trying out the reading glasses that we stopped to buy yesterday). After we got back to Tullahoma yesterday, we made a stop at WalMart. I ran in and got Woody a couple of pairs of reading glasses as he had broken his last decent pair the day before. He has lots of pairs laying around...but most have seen much better days! At the moment he is watching the Friday night news programs that he likes to watch. I have his next PD treatent set up so it will be ready when he is ready to get his treatment underway for the night. Yesterday, while we were gone, one of Woody's PD nurses called to change something about his next appointment with them. I got back in touch with him this morning and made the changes on our calendar. The calendar is starting to fill back up with appointments. When I mentioned this to Woody this morning, he said that all the appointments gave us something different to do with our days...a change in our surroundings...something to do! Guess I look at it differently...as I really like our days when there is no place to go! Different strokes for different folks! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

One Appointment Leads to More

Today's appointment pretty much was what I expected...lots of paperwork to fill out, talk a little to the PA, be sent for labs, and have more appointments set up. The appointments aren't until October and November...a little breather! She is wanting to check out the spot/nodule or whatever showed up on his thyroid in his PET scan and ultrasound of his thyroid. She wants Vanderbilt to send her the results of his PET scan that is scheduled in three weeks. And, she wants him to have a biopsy of his thyroid. They set an appointment with an ENT doctor to set up the biopsy. One thing leads to many others! We came away with three more appointments...one in October and two in November. Two days in a row now our mornings have been taken up with doctor appointments that aren't in town. We were both happy to land in our recliners once home. Once again the transport wheelchair came in so handy. Today we didn't have valet parking so I lifted the chair in and out both here and there...not really heavy...just a little awkward...perhaps I will learn a trick or two about getting it in and out. The handles fold down making it fit in the trunk easily. It is very easy to push and maneuver. I know that I was tired when we got home and I rested and did a little napping. I think that Woody did too. Tonight was Joseph's first Fall Ball game...his first year to play. He's our 2nd grade grandson...our youngest. Woody didn't feel up to going, but I got a report on the game a little while ago. Joseph made two hits and scored two runs! Way to go, Joseph! I have Woody's dialysis treatment set up so will go down in a little while and get tonight's treatment going. Last night's treatment was a "red-letter" one...no alarms...that rarely happens. And, he was able to sleep a little more than most nights. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

September Changes in the Air

Here we are sitting in the waiting room at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. Now to explain Woody's eyewear...he has learned that some of the corona virus germs enter through the eyes and that people with glasses (lucky me) have more protection than folk who don't wear glasses. So Woody had me hunt down his safety glasses so he could wear those. He also broke into the M-95 masks that we were gifted some time back. So hopefully he was protected. One thing for sure, we didn't have to wait in public waiting aread for any length of time. We walked into the registration area and were taken immediately to a window to check in. Today, since he had no labs scheduled, we headed directly over to the clinic waiting area. We barely got seated before they called his name. The doctor came in pretty quickly. He talked to us then went out to get the nurse who does the injections to get her opinion as to whether he was a candidate for the injections directly into the melanoma tumor. The nurse was with another patient so it took a few minutes, but really not long before he came back in with her. He went to introduce her and I realized that we knew her. We used to see her in between seeing Dr. Sosman or when Dr. Sosman was out of town. She looked at the tumor on Woody's arm and thought that this injection treatment could be done for Woody. After that she left and Dr. Wyman talked a little more about the treatment. I'm not going to go into great detail tonight as I still don't have my head wrapped around just exactly what they are using, etc. The one thing that we were surprised about was the frequency of these treatments. The next time that we go to Vanderbilt, Woody will hav a PET scan, labwork, see Dr. Wyman and then Debbie Wallace will inject the tumor for the first time. Sounds like those appointments will take quite a while. The injection is done right there in their offices, but it takes a while to get the drug to them in the clinc from the pharmacy (been there done those long waits before!). There is a three-week wait before Woody goes back to get the next injection and then after that it is every two weeks. We hadn't realized the frequency of the injections. Dr. Wyman wanted the first injection to take place next week, but when I went to make appointments there wasn't an appointment open for a PET scan before three weeks. I let Dr. Wyman know about the delay and we will see if he and his schedulers will be able to work their magic and get Woody in sooner. But it looks like we are back in the Vanderbilt loop...with frequent trips there and back! I will say that our new wheelchair worked very well. I was able to get it into the trunk without too much trouble and the valet parking folk took it out and put it back in at Vanderbilt and I got it out when we got home. It is very helpful that the handles fold down making it easier to fit into the trunk. We were both tired when we got home. Woody especially because he didn't sleep well last night. I just because the trip just "gets to" me, I guess! I have his treatment all set up and will head down as soon as I publish this as we need to get it going again tonight a bit earlier than usual as we have to be up and out a bit earlier than today in the morning. He has an endocronologist appointment about his thyroid in the morning in Murfreesboro...at a place we haven't ever been so need to start earlier than we really need to in order to make sure we have time to find it (aka make a few wrong turns!). Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!