Cancer update

Hubby had a stomach tube placed last week and the feedings were going great but on Monday he complained in the afternoon of stomach pain and his leg being swollen so I took him to the ER.  They admitted him and did lots of tests.  He had a blood clot in his leg and one near his kidney.  His stomach tube was OK although he was dehydrated because of the diarrhea (from the tube feedings).  He had two units of blood transfusion on Wednesday and they kept him because of his low white count until today.  He is now getting his chemo and after it is done he gets to go home YAY.   I'm rather tired.  Don't know why :)

I went home yesterday early and called my friend and she and her husband delivered some more wood to get us through some of the chilly nights.  I don't want DH to get too cold.  Bless our friends.  They have really come through for us...

Last night I heard something strange outside.  The cats make noise but this sounded different.  I went out with my flashlight.  I bring the chicken feeder up on the porch at night and here was a furry butt sticking up out of the middle.  I told Mr. furry butt to get out of the feeder and here it was a raccoon. I guess he thought the jig was up cause he got down and jumped off the porch.  I put the feeder in the house.  No more free food for him...I don't need a raccoon around.  I thought we had a possum.  We had some tracks in the chicken yard and the feeder was dragged under the chicken coop so that's why I started putting the feeder on the porch.  That worked for a while but Mr. furry butt is just a bit too smart for me LOL.  And the cats didn't even do anything when he was there...nice...I have the worst guard cats in the world ;)

Well that's all for now,

Denise

Busy week

It has been a very busy week.  DH has been going to radiation every day and then chemo on Tuesday.  He had a bit of a freak out with the mask they do the radiation therapy with and so he now is taking Alprazolam for anxiety.  Well he does have claustrophobia, can't say I blame him for freaking out a little bit with the mask and being strapped down to the table so he can't move.  He couldn't eat anything (Boost) on Sunday but was drinking juice and water but on Monday he had a hard time drinking.  The mouth tumor had swollen up so when we went in on Monday we asked about a stomach tube and he had it placed on Wednesday and is now on tube feedings.  He stayed in the hospital on Wednesday night and I picked him up on Thursday.  He is feeling much better and looks a whole lot better.  He kept saying I thought I was dead.  Seems they left him in the hallway alone at one time.  He was having a lot of pain after the procedure too.

To place the tube, the doc runs a little light on the end of a tube down the nostril to the stomach and pushes it up against the stomach towards the outside.  He can see that light and then makes the incision from that.  There is a little balloon that holds the tube in place so it won't pop out and then there is a disc on the outside.  He has cans of food that I put down the tube every five hours.  Right now he is only taking one but he should be up to 2 cans every feeding by Monday.  Don't want to overfill his little tummy :)  And you definitely don't want him to cough either when you are feeding him cause it comes back up the tube, yuck.

Hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!

too funny!

 

Learning new things

Yep I'm learning new things.  I changed the oil in our gas generator yesterday.  What a pain!  Why they put it behind a bar almost on the underside of the generator I don't know but it makes it difficult to change the oil.  I had to tip it one way to get the oil out and then tip it the other way to put new oil in. And that thing is heavy.  I did spill oil...oh well it's done anyway.

I wanted to show you the owls I made my mom.  I got the kit from Mary Maxim.

Sorry that some of them are a little blurry.  I took the pics with my phone.  Something else I learned.  Aren't they cute though?  I sent them as a surprise before Thanksgiving.  They are made out of felt with little touches of embroidery.  I even got myself a kit to make them too  :)  Mary Maxim even has Halloween owls and Christmas owls too. I just loved the mummy one.  Think I'll have to get the kits for those too and some for my mom as well.  She loved them.  Cost me to ship them to her but they didn't weigh anything it was the size of the box I had to put them in so they didn't get crushed.  I never worked with felt before so this is also something I learned.  I'll try to get some more pics on here.  I know everyone loves pics.

Next, learning how to service the riding lawnmower which I haven't done before and then cutting the grass (which I have done before when DH would let me - it's his toy not mine LOL) 

Hope everyone enjoys the spring weather - summer's just around the corner!

Cancer update

Well, DH's knee is doing better now.  The chemo has not helped his mouth tumor though which surprised the doc and now DH will be going for radiation treatment on it along with chemo treatments every week.  Hopefully this will take the swelling down so he can swallow better.  He dropped another 18 lbs since my last post.  He is very dizzy and is afraid of falling when he stands up.  I think the tumor is pressing on his inner ear putting his balance out of whack but I'm not a doc so what do I know?  He is still drinking the Boost/Ensure and now has a taste for ginger ale.  I found some at Kroger after looking everywhere for it.  I didn't want a big bottle just a small one.  He thinks something will taste good and then it doesn't so I end up throwing it away but he loved the ginger ale so it's all good.  The radiation doc made a mask of DH's face so they can bolt him down for treatment.  Sounds scary but he said he would just close his eyes.  He's very claustrophobic so I wonder how he will deal with this. He will have almost a sunburn in his mouth but it can't be any worse than it is now, right?

The bills are starting to come in, don't know how we will pay them with only my paycheck and we're still paying on the house in Alabama.  I'm working on getting it cleaned up and ready for sale but it's hard to do all by yourself.  I did get some help from one of DH's friends, Robert, who came and helped me load the trailer with some of the heavier things and then helped me unload them at the cabin.  I think he was really shocked to see the change in DH.  It was not one of his better days when Robert saw him though.  Because DH is so dizzy, he can't focus too much on what is going on around him sometimes and this was one day that was the way he was.  It takes a lot out of him to travel to the house which is 1 1/2 hours away from the cabin.  I told him next time I'll go by myself and not be gone so long.  He's afraid I might not come back but I told him that I wouldn't leave him for the world.  I love him too much.  I'm not going to let this cancer beat us down but I see him slipping away from me and it hurts.  I go out to the car and have a nice cry and try to keep a good attitude for him.

We appreciate your good thoughts and prayers, keep them coming.

Denise

Thanks

Just wanted to thank everyone for all your prayers and thoughts.  We really appreciate it!

We did make it to Nashville and had no problem getting there.  The surgeon said that it would be better for DH to get chemo and radiation before any surgery might be needed.  Surgery right now would involve removing his jaw to remove the tumor there so we are going to chemo and radiation therapy right now.  He has had radiation therapy on his knee and is finishing that up tomorrow YIPPEEEEE!  His knee is feeling better although it is stiff when it's cold out and he does have trouble with his balance and being dizzy.  He uses a cane and we are going to get him a walker soon.  We talked to the radiation doctor and after this chemo treatment he might be having radiation treatment to his facial tumors.  Right now he can't eat anything.  He is drinking Boost and Ensure and I got him some chicken broth yesterday which he said tasted really good.  His taste buds are off and nothing really tastes very good.  I think he's getting bored with the Ensure and Boost too.  His hair has started to fall out a little bit but he still has some and he lost about 30 lbs in two weeks before it leveled off.  I had to fight with him a little to get him to drink the Ensure but now he understands he needs the calories to keep his strength up.  I think the reason he was so irritable was because they had him on morphine for the pain but he has stopped that and is feeling more like himself now.

Keep up the prayers.

Denise

Ok I'm back

To let you know what's going on.  My hubby was having a lot of tooth pain back in January and so we went to the dentist.  She pulled some teeth but the swelling just wouldn't go down and he was still having a lot of mouth pain so we went back.  This time she and the other dentist in the office looked at his mouth.  The other dentist wouldn't do anything with his mouth and so she sent us to a dental surgeon in Florence, AL.

We went to the dental surgeon and he told my hubby that he had mouth cancer and wanted to make him an appointment down in Birmingham, AL.  It was quite a shock to us both.  We both knew Birmingham was quite a ways away from us so hubby wanted to talk to the dentist (Dr. Jamie Blood who is a wonderful dentist if your in the Lawrenceburg TN area and need a dentist)  so we stopped at her office.  He went in and talked to her and she gave him another dental surgeon's office number to call.  Which we did when we went home.  His name is Dr. Stephen Parey (if you need a dental surgeon, he is located in Columbia but has a satellite office in Lawrenceburg.  He sent hubby to get a CT of his head at Maury Regional Hospital and did a biopsy of the growth in his mouth.

We went to get the CT and afterwards hubby became very dizzy walking down the hall.  Luckily a doctor was passing by and asked if he needed a wheelchair.  When we said yes, he stopped a passing nurse and she pushed hubby to the front door where we got in the shuttle they have there.  They took us directly to our car.  I suppose that he was kind of allergic to the CT dye but I really don't know.

Meanwhile Dr. Parey's office made us appointments with a radiologist/oncologist, chemo doctor and a dental surgeon.  The first two are located in Columbia TN and the surgeon is in Nashville.

Oh and hubby was having a lot of knee pain so I made him an appointment with an orthopedic doctor who sent him for a MRI of his knee.  Turns out he has cancer in his knee as well.

If that wasn't a lot to grasp, it turns out after a PET scan that he has kidney cancer as well.  And all the other cancer stems from this.  He will start chemo on Monday along with radiation therapy on his knee.  We go tomorrow to the surgeon in Nashville to see if he can do anything for his mouth and face.  I've never driven to Nashville so wish me luck.  And if you pray, please pray for my hubby.  We need all the help we can get.  Thanks!

Denise

I'm still here

My hubby was just diagnosed with mouth cancer and we are busy with doctor appointments but I will be back.

Merry, Merry

I just wanted to wish everyone a very, very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

I'm still here!

We moved and now I'm on solar power so since I work at home there's not a lot of power left over for blogging.  We will be getting another solar panel and some more batteries so hopefully I will be able to blog more consistently in the future.

Denise

It's been a while...

Hope everyone had a very nice summer.  Here's some pics of the cabin.  No we're not moved in yet.

Here are part of the address numbers on our cabin - no I didn't show them all.  Those nails were soooooo tiny.  I dropped one and luckily it didn't fall through the porch boards to the ground.  I never would have found it then ;)

Here are our steps.  There is a little lizard that lives near them.  I saw him yesterday. See how much of a gap there is between the boards.  Now you know what I meant when I said that I was lucky that the nail didn't fall down through them.   

Here is a look at our floor.  These were just 12" blocks.  Very nice to lay down and a lot lighter in weight than some other flooring options that we looked at. 

Here are some other photos of the floor.

The wheelbarrow needs to go somewhere else unless Hubby decides to sleep in it LOL.  

Little bit of dehydrating and jelly making

I dehydrated some cranberries I had in the freezer.  This is before they went into the dehydrator.  They are realllly realllly good on yogurt :)

And these are the wild violets I gathered from my front lawn for some violet jelly.  I would have shown you what the jelly looked like but it did not turn a pretty color.  I think I had too much lemon and not enough flowers.  It was kind of a honey color, not ugly just not a pretty purply-pink color.  It does however taste great.  Hubby loved it.  Now I need to hide it from him cause we have to use up the old stuff before we use this and I want to give some away for gifts too.  I'll have to try it again some time.  If you want to try it next year, just Google violet jelly.  There are a lot of recipes out there on the web.

Chickens we have 'em...

Not as many as we used to but here are pics of the four we have left...

Here's One Black Feather (otherwise known as Esther), Martha, Mac (mean a__ chicken) and Katie Do.

Here's Martha again.  That's baler twine we use to put over the run so the hawks overhead don't get any crazy ideas.

And here they are again having their afternoon snack.  Actually they line up in a row whenever I come out of the house.  The laundry basket is not filled with food LOL.  

Garden pics #2

Peas two months ago.

Potatoes and cabbage two months ago

Lavender (needing weeding - I so hate weeding)

Ok so I thought this was the lilac Mom gave me a  few years ago, but no, it's actually a smoke tree I got on clearance.  See what happens when hubby chops down things that are planted...It's full on top and 

full on bottom but look what's that yes It has a empty middle.  Pics taken two months ago and 

one month ago.  I'll have to get some more pics cause right now it's really purdy.  And it actually is filling in with branches in the middle.  It will look really good when we sell...drat.  

These are some of the little flowers that are "weeds".  I think they look like miniature periwinkles.  Any one know for sure what they are?

And these were growing across from the cabin.  The almost looked like sweet peas but no scent.  Any ideas?

And these were growing along the road.  They are a little different from the other blue flowers.  These almost look like they might be related to Edelweiss.  

These flags were growing along the road by the cabin too.

And now for some dogwoods that grow in our woods.  

These are paperwhites, they 

were all over along the sides of the road.

Garden pics #1

Chinese cabbage plant left over from last year.  This was about two months ago.  

Celerac

Blueberries two months ago

and one month ago.  Sorry for the blurry pic.

 Grapes two months ago.
 

Grapes one month ago.  Can you see the tiny things ?

Tomatoes one month ago.

Boysenberries two months ago

See how the berries formed after only one month.

Little buttercup...

My Weigela (sorry don't know how to spell it)

Chives

Basil and parsley

And my sour cherry bushes are just filled with cherries this year.  They are so heavy they will have to be tied up.  Chicken in the background...

Some finished things

Well a pair of socks anyway ;)  Finished these up and hubby couldn't wait to have them to wear...guess I'll have to do some more for him.

Downton Abbey humor

Half garden planted

I already had potatoes, peas, several different kinds of cabbage, celeriac planted.  Today I planted seeds for kale, sunflowers, several different kinds of beets (a lot), carrots and hubby planted his tomato plants.  I'm going to wait until it gets warmer to plant some cucumbers, melons and such.  I'm trying some companion planting this year.  We'll see how it turns out.  It is such a pretty day out.  Rain is on the way tonight and all day tomorrow.  Nearby farm has fresh strawberries.  I need to get me some...yum.  Other than that, not much going on here.  I hope it's warming up where you are.

Another site for graph paper

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

This one has triangles and hexagons too for paper piecing that hexagon quilt you always wanted to do.  Now you can make multiple hexagons on one sheet of paper.  Really a great idea.

Yarn for life!

Here is a link to enter a contest through Fons and Porter's Love of Knitting magazine.  You can enter for free no obligation although they do ask for your email and address.  You (or me, please be me ;) could win yarn for life.  First prize is yarn for 20 years and second prize is yarn for a year.  Remember, yarn is a good insulation for your walls LOL.

http://ck.upickem.net/r/2JgyxwCnh3h?r=898791

I found some...

I was looking for graph paper and found these free ones here:

http://donnayoung.org/math/graph-paper.htm  

She has multiple sizes.  I printed out the 1/4 inch size.

I'm mapping out where to put everything in the cabin before we move in just to save some time and swearing LOL.  Cause there's nothing worse than moving somewhere and trying to fit your stuff in and finding that something doesn't fit.  We have to get the water well first though so this will give me something to do in the meantime and we can see how much stuff we need to get rid of too.