I should really be asleep

Yeah, I really should be asleep considering that I have to be up in 4 hours and 50 minutes to go eat breakfast at the Cracker Barrel followed by a trip to Hamrick's. If you live in my part of the South you know what Hamrick's is, if you don't know you are missing out on the Mecca for maw-maw clothes. It's going to be a LONG Thanksgiving day.

However I guess I shall just be thankful that I am able to go and spend time with my family, at least the part that didn't up and move away leaving me here to miss them all desperately. Hopefully a little guilt goes a long way.

So, things I am thankful for this year:

I'm thankful that that big azz tumah they took out of me in May was low-malignancy with only a tiny chance of reoccurence. And that they took out all my girlie parts while they were in there. While I don't recommend the tumor i do highly recommend having all your girlie parts removed. And your appendix.

I'm thankful that I have an amazing family even if some of them could be classified legally insane(not going to point any fingers).

I'm thankful I finally have a decent car that has a working heater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm thankful for some of the best friends a person could ever have. Some of you have been around for over 30 years and I still love you just as much now if not more. And those I have made recently have kept me from going insane.

I'm thankful I am surrounded by people with musical talent because watching and hearing them play and perform keep me on an even keel even when I feel like I'm taking on water.

I'm thankful for Basset Hound puppies that remind me how much I loved my childhood, at least until my brother came along, it went downhill from there :)

I'm thankful that I've learned to somewhat control my M.S. and haven't had many bad days this year and I'm thankful for 4 years of remission from thyroid cancer. I know too many who didn't make it through this year. I always wonder why I am still here when others who were so much better people than me aren't. But that's a blog for another day, when I have a box of kleenex handy.

And I'm thankful no one turned on the bull! Yee haw y'all!

It's been one of those lifes......

Yeah, yeah I know...... its been a while. So let's hit the high points. I'm still having problems with the anemia but not to the point I need another transfusion. I'm hoping that never happens again, it was not an enjoyable thing to go through.  My M.S. isn't bothering me too much right now, mainly because I am trying to keep things nice and calm in my life. Drama=stress=gigantic tumahs!

What else is happening in the land of Small Town Friendly? My mom has spent the past 6 months or so living with my brother in TN keeping an eye on the two best nieces anyone could ever hope to have. Speaking of which If anyone can help out my niece Paige with her 2nd grade project I would greatly appreciate it. This is what is needed from you: And a pic of Paige so you'll feel guilty if you don't help  

The 2nd grade classes are studying the United States of America. We need information about different states. If you'd like to participate all you need to do is send us a postcard telling us about where you live (city/state/etc.) We would like to see how many postcards we can receive from different states (postcards from other country's would be nice as well). Also if you visit different area's during the school year that may be of interest to our students you can send one from there as well. Please mail the postcard directly to the school and have it addressed to the child you are sending it to in care of their teacher.  Please print instead of using cursive so the student can read the post card to the classroom. Please ask as many people as you'd like to participate in this exciting learning activity.  Thank You Mount Carmel Elementary Second Grade Teachers

Here is how to address your post card so that it gets to the right student and teacher:

Paige Condrey

c/o Mrs. Arnold

127 Cherry Street

Mt. Carmel, TN 37645

TIA!

Closer to home, my daughter has moved to Massachusetts so her husband could spend some time with his family. I miss her terribly and want her back so bad it hurts. But she's a big girl and so am I so I'll get over it.

I don't think people realize how good of an actress I can be when it comes to my health.  I've had doctors tell me they don't know how I get through the day sometimes when they can see in my eyes and the way I move how bad I feel and how much I must be hurting. I've lived with pain for so long that it seems normal to me and it makes those good days, really really good!

For me the financial aspects of all my health issues are what weighs the most on my mind. Even with insurance, that I have to pay for, I've still got several thousand dollars worth of bills from the surgery, transfusions and multiple doctor visits. My car is on its last legs, or at least thats what I think of when I hear the screeching/screaming noise and see the smoke coming from under the hood. If I had anything worth selling, it would be gone !

I need an artistic person to draw me a picture. I want a cat with wings of fire sitting in a patch of Kudzu vines. Why would I want a picture of that? My mother told me that she wanted us to get a tattoo as one of her bucket list items. I'm down with that but wanted something that means something to me. With all my health issues it just hit me: cats have 9 lives(I think I've used 3 of mine) , the wings of fire come from the Phoenix which always rises from the ashes and so far I keep coming back for more(plus my Grandsons name is Phoenix) and the Kudzu as any Southerner can tell you is almost impossible to kill. I'll need a snowflake and a musical note in there somewhere too to represent my Granddaughters Wynter and Aria. But this will probably won't be happening any time soon, monetary priorites ya know.

This is gonna be a long month. Enough whining, hopefully my next blog will be a little more entertaining.

    

 

Yeah yeah, I know.....

So, after convincing my surgeon that I really needed my birthday weekend before they cut me open like a watermelon, my surgery was scheduled for May 9th. As you can see I'm still alive, either that or Cynthia Wilson has hijacked this blog. It's easy to tell us apart though, she smells like Clorox and I don't.

We hit the hospital at 5:00 only to be told that my 7:30 surgery had been pushed back to 9:30..... WHY IN HADES DID NO ONE CALL ME I COULD HAVE GOTTEN 2 MORE HOURS OF SLEEP!!!! Eventually they sent me and my mom upstairs to get me ready. They actually got my first i.v. in pretty easy, which with me is AMAZING, usually they have to try numerous times. So we headed to the o.r. and at some point between them starting my first i.v. and putting in the second i.v. I asked my surgeon to take a picture of my tumor!  Now anyone who knows me can tell you I do not like gross stuff, at all, but apparently my subconscious thought it would be a great photo op. So yes, I have a picture of my tumah.

The surgery went amazingly well, they did a total hysterectomy, removed my appendix and of course removed the tumor. Did I mention that that sucker weighed 12 pounds and 8 ounces! They had to cut from above my bellybutton all the way down into the nether regions in order to get it out in one piece. Staples, staples and more staples.

Final verdict was a low-malignancy muscinous tumor. While there were some bad cells I won't need chemo or radiation and there is only a miniscule chance of recurrence so YAY!

After a 3 day hospital stay I finally got to come home to my own bed where I could get some sleep.  Well, except when my mom woke me up EVERY SINGLE MORNING wanting to know what I wanted for breakfast when she knows I never eat before noon. Except for the chocolate pudding I eat when I take my morning meds.The first week was not fun, I couldn't eat for the nausea and it took a while to find something that was going to work. At my two week check-up I was down 27 pounds. I did finally get my appetite back and started feeling a bit stronger.

After my 2 week check-up I finally got to be able to drive again, thank the freaking lord cause I was going stir crazy sitting here all day with no one to talk to, not even my cat who went to stay with her grandparents because I didn't need her making biscuits on my stapled belly. Still not allowed to pick up anything over ten pounds at least until June 25th which is my next appointment with the surgeons.

I'm 3 and 1/2 weeks out from surgery and and really doing well for the most part. My incision is healing really well and while I'm still sore, okay, very sore at times, it gets better every day. I never knew sneezing could hurt, it can.

Here comes the more

I tend to neglect my blog because usually what I want to say just doesn't come out the way I want to say it. That I really have a very boring life.

Fortunately for you, I now have something new to talk about. Unfortunately for me it's that once again I am facing that yucky C word. And not the four letter C word. The 6 letter C word, yep that one.

About a month and a half ago I went in for my regular bloodwork at my endocrinologists office. A couple of days later I get a call from her telling me to take myself to the ER because according to my bloodwork I needed a transfusion. So I headed for the hospital with a blood count of 5.2 which is about a third of what it should be. They admitted me and went to work. Four pints of blood, a colonoscopy , an endoscopy and a couple of days later they finally sent me home with an appointment with the oncologist as they couldn't find a reason for the anemia.

A trip to the oncologist finally got someone to look at my stomach which over the past 4-6 months has slowly grown. And nope, dang sure wasn't a baby. So off to the hospital for a Ct scan and pelvic x-ray. That so amazed the doctor that they followed it up with different ultrasounds.  Not being one to do anything half assed, I am the proud owner of a volleyball size cyst in my abdomen. Besides making me look 18 months pregnant, at least to my eyes, it is pushing all my organs back and down and round and round.

With the second ultrasound my oncologist told me he felt I have Cystic Ovarian Cancer, which from here on out I will call COCk. So today, or yesterday since it's after midnight, I headed up to Asheville to meet with a GYN Oncologist who specializes in this sort of stuff. After 2 more ultrasounds today he found that my cyst has several nodules inside of it and he does think it may be attached to at least the right ovary. Of course he also said that there is also the chance that it may not be cancerous, but I get feelings about things and my feelings are pointing at the fact that this volleyball is not benign.

So... on Friday i will head back up the mountain to get my pre-op stuff done and then on the 9th I report to the hospital at 5:30 a.m., which is a time of day no decent human should be awake, and will go into surgery at 7:30. At this point he plans on removing the mass, uterus and right ovary. They will send a sample out to pathology and if need be will take out whatever needs to come out. TAKE IT ALL!!!!!!!

So here we go again, I'll try and really keep this updated even on those days where all I do is sit on the couch and watch t.v. I've still got 126 episodes of Dark Shadows to watch before I will let myself go see the Johnny Depp version.

***note to self*** make next entry about all the reasons I can't die anytime soon.

I love cats but.......

Everyone knows I love me some cats. My cats keep me sane and drive me crazy all at the same time.

I have 2 indoor cats and they keep me laughing and stress free most of the time.

However I also have a habit of feeding all the neighborhood strays. This wasn't a problem until the past few days. A beautiful yellow tom has shown up and while he is actually the only stray who will let me pet him, he has decided that the entire outside of my house must be sprayed by him so that everyone knows that this is now his territory. So my house right now smells liike a big ole ball of stank. He's gonna have to go, nothing else is gonna help.


The landlord put out a cage today and caught one of the stray females, so 1 down 6 to go. Maybe if we can get rid of some of them  Tom will hit the trail back to where he came from. 


They are calling for rain on Thursday so maybe that will wash some of the stank away, I can dream. Otherwise I'm gonna have to febreeze the entire outside of the house.

 

Here we go one last time

If you have been reading any of my previous posts you know that I am in the process of having some major dental work done. It's not a cosmetic thing, it's a necessity. It's take care of this now or take a chance that my infection could move to my heart and pretty much stop me in  my tracks.

Thanks to some wonderful people I have been able to start the process and have had some work done on the left side, I go back the 8th of February for the right side then they will do what they can to save some of my front teeth.    Once everything heals I will then be fitted with partials and hopefully everything will  be hunky dory.

My problem is that I may still be about $2000 short even with the previous donations through the Wish Upon a Hero Foundation, If you have never heard about WUAH then I urge you to check it out. There are people there who like me need medical help, help saving their homes or just wanting a card to brighten their day.

The link to my personal wish is http://www.wishuponahero.com/wishes/?id=1127353 If anyone is willing to help, even if it's 5 dollars, that will be 5 dollars that will help me be able to get everything done that needs to be done.  I will gladly scan and email you a copy of the estimate from the dentist and receipts showing what I have had to pay thus far. If you don't wish to go through the WUAH site I will also accept help through PayPal at voodidit@gmail.com.

I hate having to ask for help and my friends and family will testify to the fact that I would rather go without something then ask for help but it's become more than I can handle. If you can't donate that is understandable but I would greatly appreciate you passing this on to other people who may be able to help in some way.

Thank  you and now back to our regular scheduled programming :)  And if you haven't checked out my friend at http://www.tamaratattles.com/ and are a fan of The Real Housewives of Atlanta take a minute and check out her blog. She's a funny and amazing lady and really knows her tea!

Peace and love y'all!