What a Day, What a Day, What a Day

And, I made it! I'm tired, but I made it.

I went to wound care first at 8:30am. The area with no skin is smaller by about 1/2 cm - it's now 4cm x 2.5cm, down from 4x3cm on Tuesday. That's good.

She also changed the dressing on the chest tumor. More of the skin has broken down. After I talked to the nurses at the Infusion Center and the wound care nurse, I think I'm gonna try to talk my local surgeon into removing the damn thing sooner rather than later.

Then, I ran over to the Social Security office in Albany to drop off paperwork. There was no line, so I was in and out of there faster than I thought I might be.

Then, off to Ambulatory Infusion to get Herceptin and Zometa. I will have an echogram next week to check my heart as it has been since Feb 2010 since I had one. (Sheesh, I thought I had one more recently than that.) My heart rate is about 90-100 beats a minute, which I think is related to the steroids. The heart rate was also elevated when I was anemic in April. So, they just want to check and make sure everything is okay. I haven't heard yet about the Tykerb. I will call on Monday to see what the status of getting that drug is.

While I was there, I worked on edits to a chapter I wrote last summer for about an hour.

After three hours there, I picked up Eddie - he had an appointment. Then, I actually came home and worked on edits again for another hour.

Then, one of my colleagues dropped off Chinese food for our dinner tonight, which we then promptly took to Eddie's school so he could go to the carnival. I was really hungry when I first got there and was cranky, but once I got food in my belly, I visited with several people, including one teacher whose husband recently died because of cancer. So many of the other parents and teachers told me that they were praying for me and offered support. Thank you!

Right before I left, Eddie went into the dunk tank and got dunked a couple of times. He was having a ball.

I got home about 7:45. A long day. But I made it through. I'm tired, of curse, and happy to be horizontal. My lymphedema arm is a little achey, but less so than the tendonitis in my right forearm.

Life is good. I'm glad I was able to hang with Eddie at his carnival. I feel very happy to have life as normal as I can make it for him.

Happy weekend!

Appointments and Errands and Work Emails

I had three appointments today and then lunch with a friend and colleague.

The wound care nurse said that, under the circumstances, the wound and the growth are doing okay. The growth actually shrunk to about 17 x 13cm. She also said that, in her experience (and she hasn't had many patients with cancer), growths/wounds like this have very compromised tissue and it tends to bleed easily. It was bleeding awhile ago, but the powder seemed to keep it from bleeding. Lately, I've been using turmeric and she thinks that it is keeping it from getting infected and from bleeding. In other words, the wound/growth could be worse.

I also saw my acupuncturist and she treated me for the fatigue and anemia and pain in my armpit/shoulder mostly, but since I am also working to remove my ego from many sources of frustration and stress, she put in a couple of needles at "constitutional" (basic DNA level, which is pretty deep) points. What was interesting is that after she left so I can just sit there, one point, my third knuckle on my left hand, just started throbbing. That's the San Gao 4 point, which has to do with my essential self. The funny thing is that there was no needle there. She thought the fact that point was reacting was a good sign that energy was moving to that area to help my body remember my basic DNA (I think), which cancer has hi-jacked. The idea, I think, is for my body to remember my essential constitution (i.e., pre-cancer) and recreate that. So, I had a reaction that she considered a positive step toward my healing.

Lunch with my colleague and friend, K., was fun. I think we're going to put in a pre-proposal with another colleague to continue some work in Alaska. There's some good positive energy there, which was really cool. My issue is that the pre-proposal is a quick turn-around. We have to submit a 4-pager by April 6 and my surgery is April 1. So, I need to work on as much as I can before my surgery. And, that's on top of edits to an article, my syllabus, figuring out Dropbox, etc. K. and I also had to do a little debriefing from our Hawaii workshop.

Then, it was off to my teeth cleaning. I hate getting my teeth cleaned. But Monday evening, one of my crowns started aching a little. But she didn't see anything of concern. It just might be bruised from chewing a lot of gum or something. And, amazingly, the teeth cleaning was fairly easy and gentle. Usually, I feel like she's poking my gums something awful.

Eddie and I also ran a couple of errands. He started rereading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, so we got the last two in the series. He's going through one of those books a day.

Now, I'm just trying to get caught up with work emails. Man, they keep piling up.

Tonight, I'm just gonna watch reruns on TV. And, work a little on my syllabus.

I am enjoying watching things bloom and bud. But it feels like an awfully cool spring to date.

Countdown: 8.5 days and 17 dressings changes to go.

A Productive Day

I managed to finish my list of to-do's today, which was nice considering how I felt yesterday with the withdrawal symptoms. Today, I have only taken half a pill, a quarter of one this morning and a quarter this evening. I was just getting the chills before I remembered to take it. It took an hour or so, but I finally got rid of the chills.

The radiation oncology dept. called me today to set up a consult with one of their doctors, but the only appointment was tomorrow afternoon, so I scheduled it for next week. Then, they called back with a morning appointment but it was the same time as another one that I have and I really want to go to that one. It's funny. I started complaining about the modules during the first or second week of July, but it took the docs about 5-6 weeks to biopsy them and now that they did, they want me to start NOW! But I am heading to the Coast tomorrow and I will not delay. They made me wait over a month, now they can wait a week. Most of the pain is gone - just a twinge and Tylenol takes care of that.

I had a productive day, ran several errands this am, met with a student, made phone calls, reserved a car for our trip to the Coast, picked up more herbs from my acupuncturist, hinge out with Eddie in the backyard, finished doing an assessment of an online course, recorded myself reading a chapter I wrote for a college class at Alaska Anchorage, sealed the tile on our fence project, and started to pack for the Coast.

Yep, we head to south Lincoln City (near Mo's) tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be an unprecedented 80 degrees in Lincoln City tomorrow. We'll take off around 11:30am and get there about 1pm. We can't get into the house until 4pm, so we will eat and play on the beach until then.

I cannot wait! I so love the Coast. The ocean relaxes me like nothing else. I promise to post pics. We will have four kiddos (Eddie, his cousins, and my niece's friend), my folks, my brother Scott, my sister, Rena, and me.

Walks on the beach, maybe a visit to the arcade/casino, maybe a visit to the Outlet stores and antique and books stores. Walks on the beach. And, oh yeah, walks on the beach!

Busy But Good Days

Since my last post, I've been busy. At work, I've been putting together a couple of proposals that are due March 29th and April 1st. I spent most of Thurs and Fri in email discussions about both of them. One is an internal OSU opportunity - it's a long shot for me because I think they usually target more advanced scholars (people who have published more), but I figure, what the heck? It's to help advance an idea of my friend in Hawaii . . .

The other is a proposal to help organize and manage all the King Island data that was collected over a few years. We had a lot of people recording data and now have had three or four maybe five trips going back to double-check data. So, it's all over the place and it's hard to put our fingers on something when we need it. It's involved a lot of discussion between interested parties - lots of emails and phone calls to make sure everyone's on the same page. This project has been hard in terms of trying to manage it; so many people have been doing a variety of work on it that I've lost track of where things are. I don't know that many of them appreciate how difficult it has been because other work activities crop up that need immediate attention. I think that next time (if there is a next time, LOL), I might hire a part-time (20 hour/week) person to keep track of just that project. That will be their sole responsibility. My problem has been that not only am I trying to manage the project - keeping track of about 7 or 8 people and the data they collected - I'm also trying to keep track of my own set of data on this project AND three or four other projects, each of them ranging in size from small (only I can do them) to large (collaborating with two other groups). For the latter project, I've also had four and will soon add another student working on it. They've all worked on pieces of it. I'm hoping my current Ph.D. student can get a handle on that data this term.

So, now that I've exhausted both you and me, I will report that to clear my head on Friday, I finished gluing the tiles onto my new mosaic. That took all evening - from about 3:30 to 8:30pm with only about an hour break for dinner. Now, it just needs to be grouted and also maybe put an edge on it. That may happen after Eddie and I go for a hike today with Cat and Kai and kiddos and furries (dogs, that is).

Yesterday, after lunch at a local pub with the fam, I took Eddie to the Family Fun Center in Wilsonville. He tried the "Sky Trail", which is an obstacle ropes course at least ten feet above the ground. He had one nerve-wracking part - he was wearing a harness so he wouldn't have fallen to the ground - but he made it through on his own. I called over an attendant to watch him the last half of the trail.









By the time we got home (we waited in line 30-45 minutes three times - twice for the Bumper Boats and once for the Sky Trail), I was tired. At least we got to go out into the sunshine and fresh air! Dinner was waiting for us when we got home - spaghetti! A lazy evening watching television rounded out the day.

Eddie is in the back on the right of this picture - twice, he chased girls around his age and squirted them in the boat.




So, today, a hike. Maybe grouting. Tomorrow, Eddie leaves to go to the coast with his dad for the night. I'll spend Mon and Tues finishing up these proposals. Maybe I'll work on one or both of them this evening if I'm feeling up to it. We'll see! We might get drizzle today, but the fresh air will still be good for us. I need to get this kind of work done this week because I expect that I'll be wiped out next week, after my next Herceptin treatment (just so you know - it sucks to have to plan your life and work around periods of good energy and known periods of fatigue - just so you know).

Happy Sunday!

A lazy Sunday morning

So, I'm catching up on blogs and facebook this morning while watching my son race people from other parts of the world on Mario Kart for the wii. Earlier today and yesterday, he was racing someone from Japan and maybe someone from the Middle East and also people from the UK and France. He enjoys racing real people, not just the computer.

I am about to type up what I wrote at Wacky Bounce yesterday - yes, I actually wrote about two more pages for my summary of interviews! Yay! Writer's block is gone! I've decided that what I need to do is to take Eddie to Wacky Bounce more often because then I don't have access to the internet and from the TV, which tends to distract me from work I need to do.

The pharmacy in Portland didn't send the Tykerb that I take - I even called them on Wed or Thurs and made sure that they knew that they should be sent out and the woman on the phone assured me that she would see that the medication was sent out that day. Puzzling. They're not open on Sunday - at least I don't think so - so I need to wait until tomorrow. I hope I get them by Tuesday.

I think I may have pulled a muscle under the reconstructed right boob in volleyball last week. I reached up for some ball and I felt a tweak. I only really feel something when I lift my arm in certain directions. However, it seems that I have had a little more achiness from lymphedema around my right side (under my armpit and around the side toward the back) and around my right shoulder blade. Achiness isn't the right word. I just feel that it's more swollen. Also, there's a spot on my right shoulder blade that feels like another pulled muscle. Or something. So, I've been trying to stretch it throughout the day to try to get the lymph flowing more freely and I have been doing my qigong routine, too.

In the meantime, I'm reading a new book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul by Deepak Chopra. It's about mind-body-spirit healing, like many of his books are, I guess, although this is the first time I've read any of his books. The one thing he said that I really liked, though, is that we need to stop thinking of our bodies as finite, material objects, but more like the interface between the visible or material world and the invisible, spiritual/energetic world.

My visualizations about the lung tumors are something along the lines of talking to the tumor/cancer cells and saying things like, "well, if you mutated from normal to look like this angry mass of cells, then you're able to mutate back to normal tissue". In other words, I imagine the healthy lung tissue around it coaxing and absorbing the diseased tissue - not so much in an effort to kill it but more to tell that tissue that it can still live in a healthier and longer way if it mutates back to normal behavior. I sometimes imagine the tumor cells as a young, terrible-twos toddler; Eddie never threw many tantrums, only a few, but when he did, I just sat down and held him in my lap and hugged him even as he kept flailing around. It calmed him down. That's what I visualize for the tumors. Encouraging normal behavior through a loving but firm hand.

What's on tap for today? Well, typing some stuff up, then going to K-Mart - mom gets these coupons for family and friends day where we can get some good discounts - then later, dad is going to help me put plastic on the windows in an effort to save on heating costs. And, another trip to Wacky Bounce.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Anchorage, Ready or Not, Here I Come!

Whew. What a busy couple of days! Yesterday, Eddie and I and my folks went to Bauman Farms in Gervais - and he had a ball. Then, we had dinner at Heather and Kevin's house - good dinner and good company. (Thanks, guys!)

Today, I had to: get cash, put gas in the car, get Japanese food treats for Eddie's country report, get my chai, drop off a suitcase for mom, pick up a form at Parks & Rec for volleyball, get Cheez-its at the store for Eddie, come back home to get cooked spaghetti for Eddie's science project, and then go to work and gather materials I need for my trip, then I watched Eddie's oral report on Japan, then lunch with a colleague, then back to the office to copy off some forms for my trip and then bring stuff home, then to pick up a friend of Eddie's for a playdate, then I brought him home, took Eddie to K-Mart so my folks could babysit him so I could do qigong. Now, I'm home again and still need to pack and do dishes and take out the garbage.

Whew. Again. Just finished eating dinner (leftovers from my folks) and am watching Field of Dreams while I blog. But I need to pack still. So, signing off!

Tomorrow, I pick up A., R. (two students), and my mom after I drop Eddie off at school. Then, we head to Portland; mom will visit with her cousin and the two students will go to Powell's while I go to the Tribal Museums Conference at the Red Lion Inn Columbia River in Portland. Then, about 3:30 or so, we head to the airport to catch our plane to Anchorage. We land about 8:45pm . . . we are attending the Alaska Federation of Natives convention - I need to do some interviews and also demonstrate the King Island interactive map. I come back home on Sunday.

It'll be a good trip. I'm gonna miss Edward Spagedward, though, as he's staying home so he can do his Jogathon.

Have a good week everyone!

PS I'm feeling better.

My Mission Today ...

is to clean out my work email! I have over 3,000 messages in my inbox and the same in my sent mail. I also need to finish making arrangements for the July trip to Nome, Alaska. (Did I tell you? My mom, Eddie, and I are leaving July 18 and return July 28! Yay!) We're working on the interactive placenames map.

Speaking of maps, I also need to mark the new map for new placename spots so that our web designer (Greg Hyatt at Greg Hyatt Designs) can add them to our interactive map.

A busy day. But the kind of work that will be fun to do. Well, maybe not cleaning out the email, but that one is a necessary one! Gak.

Happy Monday! It's sunny here and you can't go wrong with a sunny day! Right?

Nothing New - Just a Busy Productive Week-end

Hello everyone,
Nothing new going on here. Just a normal, busy week-end putzing around at home. Scott worked on the fence and took stuff to the dump and to Goodwill, dad worked on the yard, and I did some spring cleaning at the house, put some stuff up on Craigslist, and ran errands.

We played cards last night and Eddie got to play on the Wii at my friend's house.

I forgot to go to softball today, though. Just too busy putzing around.

Now, I need to grade some papers. I might fall asleep, though. I'm bushed!!

A big thank you to dad and Scott for helping out!

Beautiful Sunday

So, I'm doing well. Had a great day yesterday - busy, but good. Grocery shopping, then to a garage sale given by the mom of one of Eddie's classmates. I ended up getting a set of metal panels, painted green, with grapes and vines as a design, that I plan to incorporate into my mandala patio/garden space. I also bought an El Salvadorean blanket, a camp cot, and some Mexican ceramic pieces. She didn't want me to give her any money, but I know she needs it, so we had this little discussion of how much I gave her. Norma delivered meals for me once a week last year, right after I was diagnosed with the metastases. She's been going through a tough time herself . . . so we support each other.

Then, it was home to see how Scott and Henk (my brother-in-law) were doing on the rebuilding of my fence. They got the posts in concrete yesterday - luckily, Henk had access to an auger that dug post holes in just a few minutes.

I then planted some plants I received from an auction Friday night at Eddie's school - one of the classes had a "gardening basket", so for $75, I got a yard cart, a ceramic pot, three dahlias, two pairs of gloves, Miracle Gro, two gardening tools, and potting soil. I think I got a great deal!

I also put some grass seed down in some bald spots in my lawn. I need to get some dirt or sand to put over that seed and hopefully, grass will sprout. I may also scatter around some flower seeds, too. Haven't decided yet what to do . . . maybe later today, I'll also try to find some white tile for my mandala mosaic.

I was tired last night. But a good tired, ya know?

Today, I plan to work some on an article while Scott puts the brackets on the fence. Then, maybe he and I can do something fun in the sun. I have softball practice at 3pm. Eddie will be home about 5pm.

Have a great day everyone!

Nighttime anxiety

I haven't felt too anxious the past week or so. More happy and excited. But I think the anxiety decided to come out last night. I was awake from 2:30 to 4 or 4:30am last night. I'll be tired today . . .

It's not so much the surgery but the stuff I should do prior to surgery. Too much! I just need to take the attitude that what I can done is fine and what doesn't get done . . . well, it can wait a few days.

It's more important to spend time with loved ones than trying to get a lot of mundane stuff, done, right? Time to get the priorities straight . . .

Plugging Away

No big news, other than I did indeed catch a cold and I'm hoping that its duration is cut in half by taking Zycam - we'll see if it works. I did feel better today than yesterday and I took it all day yesterday.

Gradually crossing things off of my "to-do" list at work. Feels good, but it seems there's a lot more to go . . . job security, I guess.

I had an acupuncture appointment on Wednesday and it seems to have lessened my anxiety about the surgery. On the other hand, I've been fairly busy at work and haven't really dwelled on it.

Just plugging away, I guess you might say. Happy Friday!

The Weather Messed Up My Weekend

I was supposed to go up to Portland yesterday and hang out for aday and night with Scott, but a winter storm was forecast so we decided that neither of us should really travel. Instead, we met in Salem for a couple of hours.

I just talked to Scott and he said that it's blustery, snowy weather up there with about an inch or two. We didn't get snow here until about 5am and it has since mostly melted. When I saw it had melted, I thought that I'd been too cautious, but when Scott described the conditions up there, it seems that we made the right decision.

I'm bummed. Eddie was with his dad this week-end and I've felt lonely. I'm just tired of living alone - it'd be nice to have the companionship through the holidays. It's just hard going to get-togethers with friends, family, and colleagues without a partner.

I had things to do, though, and that helps - volleyball and then a beer with teammates on Friday night, then a holiday get-together and white elephant exchange at my chair's house midday yesterday.

Got all my presents wrapped. Working on Christmas cards today. A baby shower later, although we'll have to see how the roads are - the shower is in Philomath, but up in the hills a bit. Don't want to get caught driving on ice.

Well, hope you all are doing well!

Good Stuff Maynard

I wasn't sure what to name this post, so I decided to use a saying my friends and I used in high school - "Good stuff Maynard". It seemed appropriate for the day.

I ran errands this morning, then got to work in time to go to lunch with my colleague, Loren. We chatted at length about my article on placename density and he had some good ideas about things to explore to perhaps make it more palatable to the hard science folks at Polar Geography. They finally got back to me last week and said that they are potentially interested in the article and that it is something that they'd publish. Loren seems to have a knack as to how to approach researching questions you might have of your data. I like talking to him about this stuff - it really helps to clarify my thinking.

I hung out in the department a bit, then went to the college holiday party, then picked up Eddie, proofed the Christmas card, dropped Eddie off at my folks, then went to a department meeting. Have been doing email and blogging this evening. Eddie is now singing a few Christmas carols as he gets ready for bed - one of the Christmas decorations has a series of songs that one can play.

Last night, I wrapped some presents and put them under the tree. Eddie's trying to guess what's in them, of course. He's asking me things like, "Do you think this is something I will like? Or is it something that I asked for?" That's part of the fun of Christmas, isn't it? The anticipation?

Tomorrow morning, I see the wound care nurse, then participate in a teleconference planning meeting for a conference next fall, then off to take Eddie and other classmates on a fieldtrip to the Christmas Storybookland. I have a haircut/pedicure appointment tomorrow evening.

So, a little of this, a little of that today. Another good day. Another busy day. Another generally happy day. What more can one ask for? I need to keep that in mind instead of wishing for what I don't have. So, thank you again to everyone for being a friend and for reading this blog and giving me support!

Work in Eugene

Yesterday, I spent the morning at the Archives at the University of Oregon. They have the papers from two senators from Oregon who worked on Alaska statehood. So, I went through some of their legislative papers. As far as I can tell, no one involved in Alaska statehood (and perhaps even Hawaiian statehood) really consulted with Alaska Natives to get their opinion. That's a thread that I see running through the interviews I've conducted so far.

Then, I met with a former OSU student who got her bachelor's in anthropology several years ago. She inquired about our Ph.D. program and we got a chance to get caught up.

Then, I went to David Lewis's dissertation defense. David is a Grand Ronde tribal member and he wrote his dissertation about the events that led up to termination for the Grand Ronde tribe. He did an exhaustive job researching the project. Almost all of the tribal council members from Grand Ronde as well as several other tribal members were in attendance. Another woman, Deana Dartt, finished her Ph.D. last week - she'd worked on the Horner Collection several years ago, so it was nice to see her finished as well.

All in all, a good day in Eugene. I'm heading back there this morning to finish looking at the papers, then back to campus for a meeting.

It's cool that I have energy for this sort of thing!!

Busy Holiday Week-end

I had a busy but mostly fun holiday week-end! We had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house - Eddie and I got there about noon and my sister's old friend, Debbie, was there with her boyfriend and daughter. My sis, Rena, and Debbie met when they were just 8 years old - over 30 years ago! Whew! It was fun seeing her after all these years. All totaled, we had 15 people - my folks, my two brothers, my sister and her husband and 2 kids, Debbie, Chuck and Tessa, Eddie, Scott and his daughter Ashlee and me. Dinner was delicious - and I was so happy to have an appetite.

Then, it was home to relax for a bit and then we went over to Cat and Gooey's about 7:30 or so and we all played Spoons with them. It was fun. I think I was the champion taunter - I was put out fairly early in the game and managed to get a couple of people to talk to me which sped up their exit from the game! Hee hee. Cat's dad said that he didn't know I talked so much - normally I'm quiet, but I really tried to keep talking during the game! I told him that I was competitive! : )

Then, I got up at 3am and my friends picked me up at 3:30am to go shopping on Black Friday. It was fun - there were certainly crowds but I didn't really see much rudeness or shoving or wild crowds. I would never go by myself, but because my friends go for the deals, it's a good excuse to hang with them and see this phenomenon. I think I got good deals on most of the items - some things were 50-70% off the retail price - and I think I got most of my Christmas shopping done and even some birthday presents (I have four birthdays and one anniversary coming up in January and February).

Friday afternoon was Z-Day - my appointment for the Zometa IV and Zoladex pellet in my belly. Scott went with me and met the nurse, J, who has given me 4 of my past 5 treatments. Scott got an idea of what it is I have to do.

Friday night, my son Eddie was in the Christmas parade - his dad works for the city and Eddie gets to ride in the holiday trolley. Bennett Hall, a reporter for the local paper, interviewed me and Ashlee about the parade. Here is a link to the article. My friends, John and Gina, rode in the hummer for a Pepsi float (John works at Pepsi). Some other friends were sitting down the street from me. Ashlee thought it was kinda cool that I knew people all around me. The joys of a small town!

On Saturday, I took Eddie to the local Train Show - but now he says that it's "boring" so we didn't stay long. I then took Ashlee to a few holiday craft fairs and we found a stocking that she can use at my house - complete with a leopard print. We found a few more stocking stuffers and I finally found a new book bag as the one that I'd been using for five years was falling apart finally. I wanted to get to bed early - I was really tired. I got clingy with Scott when he went home yesterday - I felt pretty lonely. I think that in addition to not sleeping well and then getting up early for Black Friday, the Z-day treatments had me dragging energy-wise.

Bless Scott's heart - he came back down this morning to spend the day with me - Ash stayed at home and Eddie was with his dad. I was really happy he did. We had breakfast, then ran some errands, he helped clean out my vacuum cleaner and rearrange my front room a bit (I sold the wood stove last week and now have more room). My folks came over and dad and Scotty (my brother) strung up my Christmas lights - yay! we even got lawn decorations up, too! -and Scotty helped install more software for the new iMac - mom helped me do some kitchen clean-up and then Scott (the boyfriend) went home.

All in all - a great week-end spent with friends and family - lots of shopping and we got some of my home chores accomplished!

I hope you all had a great week-end, too!

A good, busy week-end

This past week-end was pretty full. On Friday, after my appointment and after the lecture in my department, I took Eddie trick or treating downtown (will post a photo in the next couple of days), then his dad took him to the public library for the city's Halloween Party for kids. I went back to my office, visited with my office manager and then put in a couple of hours working on my article on placename density. Came home and didn't really work - just watched a movie entitled Feast of Love which I enjoyed. I did read some stuff in preparation for the article.

Saturday, after putzing around the house and then running errands around town, I went in to my office and put in another couple of hours on the article, then picked up Eddie at his dad's and took him to a birthday party of a boy of a friend of mine, then dropped Eddie back as his dad's and then came home and worked on the article for another hour and a half, met Scott and his daughter for dinner, and then he and I went out for another drink at Strega (one of the newest restaurants in town).

Got up Sunday, had breakfast, then went to Portland to pick up my colleague Tom at the airport. We had lunch and discussed the Alaska Native corporation project. We had a good visit. He's been in England for almost three months -his wife got a position at Oxford. I think I know what my next steps should be. Then, I picked my son up at my sister's house - his dad let him go over there to play for a bit.

Now, I'm home. I'm going to pay bills and just relax this evening. I'm tired!

It's a good tired, you know. I'm tired from all the activity - not all the treatment. Yay!

A Day of Phone Calls

Yesterday, on top of my annual eye appointment, a teleconference call, and a meeting with my undergrad research assistant, I received the following phone calls:

- from my acupuncturist's office reminding me of Thursday's appointment
- from my oncologist's office reminding me of today's appointment
- from my wound care office asking me to switch Wednesday's appointment from the morning to the afternoon
- from the dentist's office asking to reschedule my son's appointment in November
- from my dad reminding me that he needed to borrow my car on Wednesday
- from my former grad student, Brenda, who is doing some searches of archives related to Alaskan Statehood; we made an appointment for lunch to go over some questions she has
- from the mom of one of Eddie's classmates - she has started delivering me dinners on Thursdays since school started; we need to get caught up, so we're having lunch tomorrow
- from Scott, who was home with his daughter who just had two of her wisdom teeth pulled

Then, I made a couple of phone calls - one to my brother to get his work hours, which I then called to my office manager, and then to someone I worked for years ago to get a referral.

And, oh yeah, my friend, Rick (no, not George) is chopping down the pie cherry tree in my backyard, so he was over at my neighbor's house to take care of those limbs in the neighbor's yard. I helped with some of the clean-up afterwards.

Whew.

And, today, I have counseling, then another teleconference call, lunch with a colleague, and a check-up with my oncologist.

Why all the activity? Part of it is just the reality of being a metastatic breast cancer patient with several appointments each week. Then, add on top of that, "normal" appointments like the eye appointment or the dentist. And, I am back on contract at work - my sabbatical is officially over- which means more appointments there. Sigh. Actually, I should say, "darnit!"

At least, the weather's gorgeous. No complaints there! Hope everyone has a great day . . . hopefully without appointments!! LOL