June 27, 2009

• Still No Pictures & Wal*Mart

  I have pictures, but Xanga won't let me upload them.  I keep getting a message that says I've "timed out" and I should try again.  I think I've been "trying" for 3 days!!!! 

  So far, the chemo treatment has been without painful side effects.  I'm having some blacking out when I stand (typical) and my taste buds are starting to die, as usual.  The shot the "NEW GIRL" gave me yesterday hurt like a big dog!  I know the needle is very little (usually can barely feel the stick) and the $6500.00 shot (that's NOT a typo!!!) is thick and supposed to be injected very, very slowly.  I guess we were talking and she didn't do it slowly enough.  The pain crept up on me as I walked out the door and by the time JoAnn brought the Suburban around to the front door I felt like a wasp had stung my belly.  I paused before climbing up into the vehicle (trying to remember how I have pulled myself up into it, in days gone by).  My head was swimming with thoughts of "Oh, man!!!  This shot really hurts!!!  Owwww-eeee!" 

  Yesterday, I got so much done around here before leaving for the shot.  I cleaned the microwave oven.  Something someone fixed had exploded in there and they didn't clean up their mess!     I also cleaned the burners and gas deflectors on the range top.  SOS'ed them and everything!  It's all spic and span shiny!  Then, I emptied the dishwasher so JoAnn wouldn't have to.  I loaded it with the smaller dishes I could fit in there and hand washed the bigger pieces.  THEN . . . (do you sense I was on a roll???!!!   ) . . . I went through my closet pulling out all of the clothes from fall and winter.  They still have to go out to the garage Rubbermaid bins, but they are off of their hangers and folded - the biggest part of that job.

  After my shot, we went to Wal-Mart.  My first trip there since I began chemo.  I needed to pick up an RX for Rissy and more of my L-Glutamine and also the recommended L-Lysine for mouth care (according to my chemo doctor).  They didn't have Rissy's RX ready, so we stopped and got Annamarie some sundresses and a skirt.  Then it was off to the produce department for onions and tomatoes.  They had a lot of their fruit marked down (probably because it was peaking at its ripest stage) and I bought blueberries, apricots, peaches, and strawberries at a greatly reduced rate.  Since I was so close to the bakery department, I went there for donuts, saw a cinnamon brunch coffee cake I HAD to have   , and picked up some garlic bread. 

  THEN, back to the pharmacy.  There at the pharmacy line, my worst Wal-Mart fear came to pass.     A woman in front of me at the drug pick-up line turned around and coughed (without covering her mouth) right on me.  We're talking that huge hack-it-up kind of cough that left her "cough air" under my nose!  OH!  NO!!!       She was pretty much a "rough cut" looking woman and I told JoAnn later (after the "eeeew look" was off of my face) that maybe it was "just" smoker's cough and she didn't have bronchitis or anything else contagious.  I was mortified, as you can imagine.

  Two clerks in Wal-Mart stopped me at the beginning and then at the end of my shopping extravaganza. 

  One said she and some other employees had been praying for me.  Her church had received some donated homeschool stuff and she had been thinking of me.  She said she couldn't believe she had run into me in the store!  I *did* know her and thought it was sweet of her to stop me.  She mentioned she had NEVER seen my hair down, and I quickly explained it wasn't my hair, but a wig.   

  The second clerk stopped me when I was on the way back to the "impending deadly cough" pharmacy experience.  She prattled on about me, the girls (I looked at her carefully and can tell you, without a doubt, I've never seen this gal before in my whole life!!!!), how a bunch of the Wal-Mart employees were praying for me and our family, and how she almost didn't recognize me with my hair down.  Again, I explained it was a wig, as I stalled for time, hoping something about her would register within my brain.  She said she knew my sister-in-law (HOW did she know JoAnn was my sil???!!!) was doing our grocery shopping with the girls; and, she even said she saw my  husband (she knew him, TOO???!!!)  with JoAnn and the girls shopping.  I looked down at her name tag . . . "Flo"  . . .   Nothing familiar rang a bell.     She had a distinctive gap between her top, two front teeth . . . Surely THAT would resonate somewhere within me in my brain's recognition department.  But, it didn't.  So friendly "Flo" remains a kind soul, whom I remember not!

  We paid for our stuff ($100.28 for fruit, donuts, and my powdered potions!) and I got to the car just in time.  I have a handicapped parking sign that I keep in my purse, but rarely use, and was glad I had chosen to use it this time.  The heat index was over 105 degrees (no Lori W - no storms here, but maybe tonight into tomorrow morning) and I SURE didn't need to be walking in the heat.  HOWEVER, I unloaded JoAnn's purchases and my own in the back of the Suburban, while she seat-belted Abreeana.

  Last night, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, due to that medicine that takes away side effects, but makes my already hyper brain spin.  I took 2 Benadryl at 10:00pm and never made it to the 10:15 weather report.     I found myself desperately trying to stay awake and it suddenly dawned on me, "You don't need to watch this.  It's going to be HOT, again, and that's all you need to know!"  I slept hard, despite having to get up several times to use the restroom.  Each time I got back to bed I fell, immediately, back to sleep.  One time I stubbed my little toes on my foot on the loveseat at the end of our bed, when I was making the trek to the restroom.  I remember thinking, "Praise God!  If I can feel my toes that means I have no neuropathy setting into my feet!" 

  Yes!  Always the Pollyanna.  Even in my sleep!  

  Stephanie is headed back here with the girls.  She is bringing a movie she insists I'll enjoy watching with her.  "The Making of an American Quilt" with Wynona Rider (at least I *think* that's who is in it).

  Well, they just walked in the door.  I'm off to greet the masses!

  Be Blessed  ~

  • 2:50 pm
  • 10 Comments