Friends and family outreach helps so much

Tags

postaday2016, support, well wishes

   
  

 
My family and friends have been amazing in their outpouring of love, support and affection. It brings tears to my eyes whenever I get a card, an e-mail, a picture, a message or a text. I have been tearing up a lot lately, that makes me tear up even more, knowing that I have people who are in my corner cheering for me. I am so lucky.

  
  

Movie therapy : American Ultra

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movies, postaday2016

  
When in doubt, watch movies. My husband and I rented a bunch of movies from RedBox and American Ultra is one of them, not bad of a movie, but we are happy we didn’t spend 12.00 each at the movie theater, because it isn’t that good, though Kristen Stewart is showing a lot more emotion in this movie than I have ever seen from her before. The roster of actors is a good one, there is Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Jesse Eisenberg, John Luigezama and of course Kristen Stewart, plus a bunch of wonderful character actors.

I think that the story is a little short on believability, good for laughs however, we are suspending our belief for the next few hours and enjoying our little trip into fantasy land. 

Ted 2 is up next. LOL 

The gang is quite adorable

Tags

pets, postaday2016, sweaters

   
   
It is bitterly cold outside, that’s why Lulu and Jack are wearing their sweaters, I tried to put Stanley’s sweater on him and it got stuck halfway though, it seems he outgrew his sweater weeks ago.

  
It has only been a few weeks since this picture and that sweater was fairly loose back then, now I can’t even put his second front leg into the sleeve. 

I’m not quite sure when to start buying sweaters for Stanley, he is growing exponentially for a dog. Lol

How can anyone feel blue when you have pets around.

My ode to nurses everywhere

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nurses, postaday2016

I appreciate my doctors, but as my wonderful medical oncologist said to me, he writes the orders and talks to the patients, but it is the nurses who do all of the heavy lifting and today it was all about the nurses taking care of me, holding my hand and checking in on me to make sure that I was okay on all fronts.

My nurses made sure that I understood every single step of my chemo, made sure that I was hydrated, comfortable and reassured. When it was time for me to head down to radiation, the nurses greeted me to explain what I could look forward to with my radiation treatment, they also told me about certain creams that will be helpful to ease my radiated skin, I had three nurses with me the entire time I was going through the toughest day, I had to go through my trial run and my actual treatment together because with the verdict handed down from the surgeon, no surgery, the need for rapid treatment and cocombinant treatments made it vital that my first chemo and my first radiation treatment go hand in hand. 

I spent an hour and a half in my tight mask on a steel table and it was so, so hard. I didn’t know it was so long which was good because if I had known it was going to be that long, I may not have made it. When it was done, I told the nurses how hard it had been for me and they told me I had been a trooper and they promised me that tomorrow it will be so much shorter. When I went into the waiting room I walked passed my husband and ran to the ladies room and cried by myself. My husband knew I was upset and he took care of me by getting me signed out and taking me to the car so I could cry on his shoulder. I felt better after that. I think I cried because at one point I didn’t think that I could get through the radiation treatments because I didn’t quite realize how much time the trial run and the calculations had actually taken, once I understood how short the treatments are in comparison, it made all of the difference. I know I’ll be fine, tomorrow will be a walk in the park compared to today and that helps me feel so much better.

I am so lucky to have such great nurses taking care of me.

Tomorrow is day one

Tags

movie, postaday2016, The Martian, treatments

 

Pictures like this one are giving me the intestinal fortitude to deal with tomorrow. Today, even if on the outside I’m smiling and laughing, on the inside my stomach is clenched in nervous uncertainty because though my time table for tomorrow is certain, I haven’t the slightest idea how my body is going to feel afterwards.

It starts tomorrow morning at 8:45 a.m at the cancer center at Cooley Dickinson, about 3 hours later I go downstairs to the basement to radiation and a half hour later I emerge from radiation, where we could perhaps get a bite to eat and at 3:00 p.m, we go to the psychologist to talk, which is nice, I’m sure I will have things to say and then we go home.

I’ll be going home with a box from chemo which will continue infusing me with chemo medication for 46 hours and on Wednesday I get to be disengaged from the box after my radiation session. From what I have gathered, the chemo won’t be that bad since I will be getting my treatment every two weeks, a week off will give me some time to recover, but radiation five times a week for six solid weeks, that will be the real challenge.

 We are watching the movie “The Martian” with Matt Damon and I thought I had problems lol. But seriously, the movie is wonderfully done and very well acted by Matt Damon, I’m glad we are watching it together. Our daughter is not with us, she is working but she will be with me tomorrow which is what counts.

  

Ride Along 2: a movie review

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movies, postaday2016, Ride Along 2

   
   
I picked the movie today, my husband traditionally prefers watching these types of movies at home, after they are out on HBO, but since next week will be the start of my chemo/radiation treatments, I wanted a laugh out loud comedy and my husband was right on board, he loves hearing my laugh out loud, deep from the belly laughter and he wasn’t disappointed.

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart are the next best comedy duo since Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, I laughed a lot at all of their movies too.

Ride Along 2 had everything I needed, it was funny, exciting, had a good storyline and made sense.

Keven Hart is at the top of his comedy game and his verbalization of the name James is amazing, his various intonations gave “James” so many different meanings, playful, indignant, disappointed, panicked and so on.

Ice Cube is as good of a straight man as they come, which is what makes their pairing so brilliant.

If you need a laugh, go see it, you won’t regret it.

Night shots with a cellphone, always something different

Tags

New York City, postaday2016

   
    
  

I was on the upper roadway of the 59th Street bridge when I took the funky shots, I was pretty much at a stop or so I thought, I wonder if by inching forward a little bit, did my cellphone compensate and give me that pretty sky? I love the sky’s color, it is a mixture of dark blue, red and maybe some pinks, I’m not sure but I love the effect.

I was thrown back in time while driving over the bridge, I used to take the bridge when I was in my early twenties to go hang out with my buddy Phil downtown at Astor Place, smoking a cigarette with the windows open, listening to Simon and Garfunkel or Simply Red or Tracy Chapman, good times.

The constant between tonight and over twenty years ago is the gorgeous New York City skyline, I find that comforting.

Winter sky in New York City

Tags

New York City, pictures, postaday2016

   
   
My mother and I walked around Union Square for a bit and then we meandered up to Bed Bath and Beyond located on 6th avenue and 21st Street. The sky was glorious and since I won’t be back to New York for at least a good six weeks, I wanted to take a few pictures to look at and cheer myself up with, New York with blue skies is always a lovely sight.

   
 
If you look at the stark difference in the sky between my pictures, the ones looking uptown towards an icy blue sky and then the ones looking downtown towards a practically white sky, I’m not sure  if that was the effect from the reflection of the sun against my cellphone or if it was something else. Whatever it was, it did make for a wild look for the Freedom Tower in the backdrop from Fifth avenue.

My last hurrah in the Big Apple, you can feel the brisk cold from yesterday emanating from the way the New Yorkers are carrying themselves. I love seeing energy in my pictures, it brings them to life.

I haven’t forgotten Jack and Lulu

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dogs, Jack, Lulu, postaday2016

  
Aren’t Jack and Lulu sweet together sharing Lulu’s bed? Jack loves his own bed, but he isn’t shy about commandeering the other beds, not at all. When we bought the beds, Jack went and tried them all out before he went to his own bed. He is the little boss man after all and Lulu and Stanley know it. LOL

I tried getting rid of the weird space alien eyes, but the tools only work for red-eye, not wacky space alien eyes. 

I love how much Jack and Lulu love each other, they love Stanley too, but I think they are a little exhausted from the work of raising him. He can be a handful. LOL

Stanley stop eating your bed!

Tags

beds, postaday2016, Stanley

   
   
This is the second time he attacked his bed, he is not managing his boredom very well I guess. My husband had sewn the bed back to rights, the damage was barely apparent,  he did an exemplary job with his repair. I should mention my husband was an Eagle Scout, so he can do pretty much anything; sew, cook, make a fire in the pouring rain, throw a tent up in seconds and not get lost in a forest, qualities that always serve.

But look at that face, how can anyone get mad at Stanley?