Week 11 - Exploring with Rene

I had my follow up with the oncologist to start the week so scheduled some fun right after. Inviting a friend for lunch got me in cleaning mode and I ended the week with birthday fun in Omaha. In between was a not much, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My oncologist appointment was at 10:15 way down south in Lincoln so I picked Rene up on the way there and after spending 2 minutes with the doctor (total waste of an appointment!), we headed out for an exploration day. Our goal was Auburn, which I used to go to all the time because Connie lived there but Rene had never been. We made our way via every small town we could hit, stopping in Tecumseh for a yummy lunch and then dinking our way through small towns to Auburn.

The wonderful thrift shop wasn't open on Mondays and the cute gift shop had closed so after getting gas, a carwash and a soft serve cone, we headed further east to Brownville. It's a small town on the Missouri River and nothing was open so we just drove through and headed home via Peru to see the state college there. Connie used to work there but Rene had never seen it. After hitting other small towns, we ended in Unadilla where there was a meat market we'd seen on Pure Nebraska - a show on a Lincoln station that visits towns all over the state. It was underwhelming but the gas station there also had a thrift shop, which was fun. I dropped Rene home and headed straight to knitting. It was a fun day.

I had invited Lori over for lunch on Thursday to watch a zoom on trees by Nebraska Statewide Arboretum so the cleaning began. I cleared surfaces - the bookcase that was piled with yarn, my desk, computer table, bar and the front room table. I actually dusted using something my sister had put in my stocking - Scrub Daddy Damp Duster. Game changer! It's designed for people who never dust so need some water to get the thick layer of dust. That done, I swept, vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom. 

I made corn chowder and corn muffins for lunch and some cookies I'd baked on Tuesday for dessert. The talk was interesting and Lorri left shortly afterwards. I had my monthly Ripples zoom at 2:00 but struggled to focus. I went outside afterwards with a cup of tea and read in the shade because it was 79 degrees outside. I struggled to focus on my book too. I don't know why but I was antsy.

I spent time organizing my knitting projects on Friday and cleared a few more surfaces. I had posted a picture on Facebook of a friend who had recently died. His daughter contacted me to ask if she could use it at his celebration of life, which I said she could. I then went through pictures from the other trips we'd been on (he was the husband of a knitter on a couple of Jean Moss trips) and sent her a few more pictures. I then spent some time going through lots of pictures from other trips, which was a pleasure. I also chatted with Anne, who had gotten back from her trip to Morocco. It was a nice afternoon.

It was the weekend between Lori and Andrea's birthday so we were doing lunch on Saturday in Omaha. Andrea and I went to the Thrifty Artists Garage Sale (found some fun vintage sewing trims and chatted with the people from the Creative Reuse Store in Omaha) before meeting Lori for lunch at First Round in the Blackstone District. We had a fun lunch and they liked their presents. We then got ice cream a Coneflower Creamery, which has vegan ice cream for Lori. I got a super delicious flavor - caramelized Irish brown bread. SO good. Then we all went to Warmth, the new-ish yarn shop in Omaha, for our spinning group. It was fun and we headed straight home from there because Andrea had a dinner that night in Lincoln to get ready for.

I spent Sunday relaxing and getting chores done. It was a good week with lots of fun but enough down time between the fun that I was feeling good. I hope there will be more weeks just like this coming up.

Week 10 - Now a Cold

It was another week of roller coaster weather and if my mom were alive, she'd blame that weather on the cold I caught. It wasn't too bad and I was able to do what I had to but also took every opportunity to relax.

Helen had invited me for lunch on Monday but when I arrived early, she was still in her jammies and said she hadn't gotten around to making anything for lunch because she'd spent all her time painting walls in her house. She usually prefers to cook so we can stay in but I had no problem going to Piedmont Bistro, which is my favorite restaurant in Lincoln and only a block from her house. Back at her house, we spent the afternoon chatting away while drinking tea. When I looked up it was after 5:00 and I had to scramble to get to Monday Night Knitting. I ate PB&J in the car on the way there. Good thing I'd had a nice lunch.

A cold front was due on Tuesday afternoon so I was outside that morning taking down the winter decorations in the pots by my doors and changing the front door wreath and flag. I then went to every store in town looking for St. Patrick's Day decorations to add to the pots but came up dry. I found some white flowers at Family Dollar so put those in the front pot and left the side door pot empty. I'd look for some pansies for that. The front slammed into the house at 12:15 so I was happy to have gotten my outside stuff done and was cozy inside along with my cats. The big news for the rest of the day was I slept without the post-surgery bra for the first time. Milestone!

It snowed on Wednesday so I spent the day chatting with friends and spent that afternoon reading. Tim and his sons came and shoveled me out at the end of the day. It wasn't much snow but I still had a lifting restriction so was happy they came.

I woke up with a sore throat on Thursday, which is how I feel at the start of a cold. I had planned to go to a talk on butterflies at the lake but didn't want to share my germs so stayed home. I ended up working for 2 hours with Cindy on JE training she's creating a video for. Other than quick calls/emails here and there, I haven't worked in awhile so put in the few hours to get paid. I went out in the afternoon to get some ClaritinD so I wouldn't be a mess on Friday.

I had my follow up with the surgeon on Friday. She was happy with my incisions and told me the 10 pound lifting restriction was over but to listen to my body. I went to Aldi on my way home and lifted too much and immediately felt it. Stupid! I picked up Chinese food on the way home and was in for the weekend. I made pizza for supper and cleaned up the kitchen but otherwise just spent the afternoon reading.

There wasn't any excitement for the rest of the week. I knitted, streamed, read and did some cooking. Sunday was glorious (the snow was long gone) and I opened the windows and hung laundry on the line. I was feeling better after resting for a couple of days. I had a long talk with my old friend (since junior high) Janice and caught up on a few things.

So I was signed off with the surgeon but ended the week with a cold. We had snow on Wednesday and it was 68 on Sunday and even warmer weather forecast for the next week. Lots of ups and downs but I'm still smiling. Progress.

Week 9 - My Surgery Week

After going through the ringer since early January, my surgery week was finally here. It was scheduled for first thing Tuesday but I had to go in on Monday for some procedures. I was as prepared as I could be and was looking forward to putting it behind me.

You know me so won't be surprised that I'd scheduled lunch with Dodie on Monday to get some happy in. My first stop was dropping Dottie's huge yarn box at the UPS location at the Wahoo hardware store and dropping my spare car key at my friend Lorri's house. As usual, I had planned to drive myself to surgery and then have Anne drive me home in my car and have Rene follow us to drive Anne home. But Lorri mentioned that she and her husband would be in Lincoln on Tuesday afternoon so I asked if Bob, her car guy husband, would be willing to drive my car back, saving Rene from taxi service. He was happy to do it, saying that he loves to drive different cars when I dropped the key. Great.

Lunch with Dodie was good, as always, and with an hour to kill, I stopped in the office. I had planned to check in with Layton but spent so long chatting with Lacey that I had to head straight to the doctor. I had to have a radio frequency thingie (I called it the nubbin) put in my breast next to the spot they'd be removing. Then it was off to nuclear medicine where they injected me with something to identify which lymph nodes were draining the cancer area. What I didn't expect was having to wait until the juice made its way to the nodes so they could take pictures with the gamma camera. It took so long that I only had time to slam together a sandwich to eat on the way to the library for knitting. I went to bed early and set the alarm for 5:30 am.

I slept OK and after a quick shower, I was out the door at 6:40 to head to Anne's. I parked in her driveway and she drove me to the surgery center. Everyone was super nice and it was the usual pre-surgery stuff then chatting with Anne until they were ready for me. I woke up back where I started but with a post surgery bra on and feeling dopey. I got dressed and we headed out but I couldn't even cope with holding a coffee when Anne did the Starbuck's drive thru. We picked up lunch for me and my pain meds and I was home. Anne got me settled in my chair and left. A cup of tea helped with my headache (should have gotten that coffee) and I spent all afternoon doing something or other (still dopey) before logging on for a lecture on children of Nazis that I'd signed up for. It was very interesting and I did more nothing before going to bed. I wasn't uncomfortable but took a pain med and went to bed. I'm happy to report that sleeping in the bra, which I'd have to wear 24/7 for the next week, wasn't uncomfortable and that was the only pain pill I ever took.

Needless to say, Wednesday was a quiet recuperation day. I spent most of the day talking, messaging and emailing family and friends. The only thing I accomplished was bleach testing the 2 bags of the yarn I'd bought on Friday that I suspected was sock yarn. Whenever I got up from my chair, I'd snip off small pieces of yarn and put them in the bleach. If they completely disintegrate, they don't have nylon so I won't use them in socks. I'm happy to report that about 2/3 of the yarn had nylon. Yay!

On Thursday, I could take a shower. It felt great but I was shaking as I dried myself off. Despite this, I ran some errands in Wahoo. When I was back home, you would think I'd run a marathon. It was warm enough to read on the bench outside but otherwise I did nothing for the rest of the day.

I had an all day zoom on Friday called Big Talks from Small Libraries. It was fine to sit in the sun, knitting and watching the presentations. The best thing was getting a call from the surgeon who told me that there was no cancer in the lymph nodes which means I'm now 100% cancer free. Such a relief!

Andrea and I had an outing scheduled Friday afternoon to go to a civic garage sale (that's what my dad called them and where he shopped for books) at a high school in the next county. She picked me up mid-afternoon and we found a few things but were done way too early for supper so we headed to David City. We hit a thrift shop then went to Buresh Meats, where I found a bunch of bargains. It was still early but we headed to Abie's Place, where Andrea's boyfriend met us for dinner. It was fish all around and their fabulous French fries. Afterwards, we headed to a hill to see if we could see the planetary alignment. We could only see a couple, which looked like bright stars. Underwhelmed and tired, I sat in the car after just a few minutes. I was happy to get home and into my nightie. That was a busy day for me.

I was back in quiet mode for the weekend, chatting with family and friends, slamming out a pair of shortie socks that needed to get mailed and streaming or reading. I still had no pain but was aware of my incisions. I took off my bra long enough to wash it on Sunday and was happy to put it back on with a fresh nightie after another shower. I was in the home stretch and was feeling good.

So surgery was done, no other cancer was found and by the weekend I was getting my energy back. The stress dreams had also let up and it was warmer so I was able to get outside some. A good week, right? I'll have a few more weeks before radiation and hormone blockers and I plan to enjoy them.

Week 8 - Cold and Cancellations

It was my last week before surgery and it was the coldest week of the winter with high temps just above zero with wind chills in the negative 20's. This lead to lots of time inside and cancellations galore.

It started snowing in the wee hours on Monday and it was still snowing all morning. I had my pre-op physical at 1:20 and with it too cold to be outside, I messaged my snow crew and asked if they'd do my driveway. It was supposed to stop snowing at noon and they said they'd do me first so I could make my appointment. I got a call from the clinic with an offer to reschedule for Friday, which I happily took but they guys were already on their way. They did their usual quick job but it didn't end up stopping so I bundled up and went outside at 6:00 to do the last inch that had fallen. Anne Marie's son was driving by and stopped to help so it was quickly finished. With no knitting due to Presidents Day, I happily went back inside for a night of knitting and streaming.

The high temp on Tuesday was 1 not including windchills so I stayed inside. My front room reading in the sun book was The Fourth Wing, which I was totally sucked into and finished that afternoon. I immediately reserved the 2nd book in the series, which meant I'd be braving the cold (high temp of 2) on Wednesday to pick it up. I hit The Warehouse before the library and went right back to reading as soon as I got home. I kept reading Thursday too. By that point, the Wednesday night Saunders Medical Center's program on beef at the lake had been cancelled as well as the student dinner at Southeast Community College on Thursday night, which was why I'd delayed my surgery. Oh well. I was happy to stay warm inside anyway.

It was 23 degrees on Friday, which felt absolutely balmy, and I finally had plans to leave the house. After my rescheduled pre-op physical that morning, I'd be driving to Lincoln for lunch with Darla and final errands and grocery shopping. Despite telling me my labs from January would be good enough, they told my doctor that they wanted labs so after a cursory physical, I had blood drawn and an EKG so just made it to Virginia's Cafe at noon. Darla and I had a nice lunch and catch up after her birthday cruise. I gave her a cowl I'd finished the day before using the yarn inspired by our favorite Mexican restaurant in Lincoln. I think she liked it.

Awhile ago, I had found a crocheted afghan on pinterest that I loved and I asked Dottie to make it for me. She called me to say that it worked best with the soft acrylic that she told me she didn't like so I've been giving it to Anne for years whenever I find it in a Goodwill grab bag. Here's the first test square that Dottie made and original from pinterest. Love it! So my mission for Friday afternoon was to hit every thrift shop in Lincoln to find more. Of course I only found one skein but did find tons of good quality yarn, including some sock yarn. Anne had also pulled some so I stopped at her house to pick those skeins up and we chatted for awhile, of course. After a stop at the grocery store for my last stock up, I headed home for the weekend.

My surgery would leave me with a lifting restriction (10 pounds) so this was my last chance for awhile to do heavy cleaning - vacuuming, washing floors, changing litter boxes, doing final laundry, etc. I had upped my Chewy autoship date so unloaded that huge box and immediately filled it with yarn to ship to Dottie, using my new shipping scale to weigh it and print my own UPS label at half the cost of walking into a UPS Store. Between chores, I chatted and visited with friends. Andrea stopped by and we went over the Jean Moss book that I'd be mailing out to all the Jean Moss alums from our old knitting trips (we were both choked) and my friend Lorri came over for tea and blueberry muffins.

By the end of Sunday, I was ready for surgery. My house was clean enough, my fridge was stocked and I had friends lined up for transportation and post-surgery help. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends. On to surgery!

Week 7 - A Nice Surprise

It was a quiet week that started with scheduling surgery, had plenty of snow, a Fremont run and a nice surprise to end the week. There was lots of talking on the phone and knitting between it all, of course.

I got a call first thing Mon day to schedule my surgery. It had to be a Tuesday or Thursday and the first available one was the 20th but I had tickets to a meal for that night so I scheduled it for the 25th, with pre-surgery procedures on the 24th. I also had to schedule a pre-op physical and EKG because my annual physical the first week of January had expired. Oh well, at least now I had a date so could plan accordingly. I spent that afternoon on the phone talking to Sharyn and Janice then went to knitting. After a day puttering inside, I was back at the library Tuesday night for a board meeting.

It snowed all day on Wednesday so I sat cozy inside knitting the day away while watching A Gentleman in Moscow, which we'd read for book club recently and I had loved it. The series was very good and didn't stray from the book. When the sun came out late afternoon, I went out and shoveled. The snow was light and fluffy so it was easy. Thursday was another stay cozy inside day, talking to my cousin, watching my favorite knitting YouTubers and reading in the sun in the front room. Being retired in the winter when it snows is a joy.

Having been holed up all week, I was happy to do a Fremont run with Andrea on Friday afternoon. I scored a bunch of cookbooks at the Restore, found a couple of fun vintage throw pillows at the Estate Dispersal Store and then hit Goodwill. It was Valentine's Day and Andrea's man was coming to Fremont for dinner, which I was invited to but declined so I dropped Andrea off at Crush and happily headed home.

We got more snow on Friday night into Saturday and with the roads a mess, our spinning field trip to the new(ish) yarn store in Omaha - Warmth - was cancelled. I spent the day knitting and went out that afternoon to shovel again. Then Rene called with a proposition.

A friend of hers had given her 2 tickets to the musical Kimberly Akimbo in Omaha and she asked if I wanted to go with her. Maybe it was all the shoveling but I was not immediately in. When she offered to pick me up and said we could park in the garage that was attached to the theatre so wouldn't have to set foot on snow, I somewhat reluctantly said I'd go to the 1:30 matinee.

I started neatizing and cleaning just in case Rene would come into the house and did a bit more Sunday morning before making bacon and eggs at 11:00 so I wouldn't be hungry during the play. We had loge seats so no one in front of us but we couldn't see one side of the stage. It was fun and my kind of musical with actual words between the songs, unlike Les Mis or Phantom, both of which I fell asleep in. Anyway, I suggested we get pancakes after the play, which was exactly what I wanted and Village Inn was right on the way home. We stopped at Aldi too, which I hadn't hit in Fremont, so I grabbed milk and a few things to tide me over. Nice.

So it was a nice, quiet week with a couple of fun things at the end and lovely snowy days in the middle. I only had one more week before surgery and it would have the coldest weather of the winter so there'd probably be more cozy time inside, which is pure bliss for me. Here are the 3 pairs of socks I finished during this cozy week with more knitting time to come. Life is good!

Week 6 - Back to Reality

Vacation was over and it was back to reality. First stop was an MRI to make sure there really was only the one spot of cancer. Of everything so far, I was most nervous about this.

My appointment was at 12:30 on Monday in Lincoln but I left early and ran all my errands beforehand. I ate a wrap in the parking lot for lunch and then did the MRI. I was told I would get a call with results and I went home to wait. I had had thoughts of baking to take to knitting but couldn't get motivated so didn't. Something on my mind maybe?

Luckily I checked the patient portal first thing on Tuesday, which showed the results and had an understandable summary that said that no additional cancer was found. Big relief to say the least. Unfortunately I never got a call from any of the 3 doctors I'd shared the results with but at least I knew. I spent the next couple of days knitting in the sun and trying to stop thinking about cancer. I even went to a mental health program at the medical center but that was more for the free dinner and goodies. : )

I had an appointment at 12:15 Thursday to meet the surgeon. I met with the nurse first and she went through a big notebook of information, which of course was pink. I then met with the surgeon who gave me all the details. They'd be taking out the tiny tumor and would inject me with radioactive stuff to identify which lymph nodes were draining the tumor area and so would be removed for testing. It would be outpatient and I'd have to wear a post-surgery bra 24/7 for a week after surgery. Biopsies on the lymph nodes would determine how many radiation sessions I'd need. They'd call me soon to schedule my surgery. I went home and spent the afternoon on the phone, teams and messenger giving friends and family an update then had another comfort meal of breakfast for supper (not my first this week).

On Saturday, Andrea and Lori took me to the Woodcliff Restaurant, which is on the fake lakes off the Platte south of Fremont. It's an interesting place where you can get anything from a burger to Faroes salmon on a bed of carrot puree with beet coulis - so from mom and pop cafe food to Gordon Ramsey style. We started with a huge plate of delicious onion rings and then I had the salmon. Since it was my birthday dinner, we got a free yummy dessert to share. I was showered with fun presents and we chatted for ages so it was a great night.

Otherwise, the rest of the week was getting things done, running errands and relaxing. I got a long overdue haircut, did laundry and hung it out on the line, went to a fun sale at the fairgrounds to benefit post-prom (that's where I found this embroidered pic, which is perfect for me), finished some socks and did some reading in the sun. 

It was another stressful week on my cancer journey but them not finding more cancer with the MRI took a big load off my mind. Everyone involved was lovely and I had great support from friends and more birthday fun. I'll get through this! Just keep swimming.

Week 5 - Palm Springs Time

It was the week for our annual (hopefully going forward) trip to somewhere warm during our cold Nebraska winters. Anne, Rene and I were heading to Palm Springs, which was my idea because I didn't want to give Florida any of my tourist dollars and I wanted to go to the Salton Sea again, which my good friends were OK with.

Despite checking in exactly 24 hours before our flights, we all had C boarding passes. Luckily the flights weren't full so Anne and I had an empty seat between us and Rene did too a few rows away. We flew via Denver and got to Palm Springs at 3:30. We picked up the car, which they upgraded to what felt like a tank to me - a Santa Fe - and I was the only driver to save money so Yikes! After picking up some groceries, we went to our VRBO, which was a 3 bedroom house with a hot tub. We turned it on and Anne suggested In 'n Out for supper since she'd never been. Double double animal style - yum! We soaked in the hot tub until we were pruney then I bought Plagues & Pleasures at the Salton Sea to watch in preparation for the next day. It was a great start to our trip and we'd only been there a few hours.

We ate breakfast and headed out to our first stop - Desert Shores. I knew that the water had receded but was shocked by how far out we had to walk from what used to be the water's edge. Next stop was Salton Sea Beach then Salton City. We took lots of pictures and Anne and Rene seemed to be having fun. We drove completely around the southern end, which is all ag land, stopping at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge where we didn't see much. By the time we we heading north up the east side of the sea, we were hungry and I was thrilled that the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach was open. We had great burgers and my favorite tots before exploring the art instillations on the sea side of the berm. The end of a fun Salton Sea day found us at North Shore, where the community center was closed but the director saw us looking in the windows and gave us a private tour, telling us all kinds of history along the way. What a fabulous day! Since lunch was so late, we ended with cheese and crackers for supper, a soak in the hot tub and working on the puzzle we'd brought.

The next day was Shield's Date Garden. Their movie was down but we walked the gardens and had a nice lunch in their restaurant before buying some treats in the gift shop. Next stop was the only yarn shop in the Palm Springs metro, which was small but we all still managed to find yarn to buy. We had been in search of a lemon tree to pick some from and found one on our street. The nice man who lived there let us pick some so we'd have those to take home. At home, we had more cheese and crackers and got so busy finishing our puzzle that we never went in the hot tub.

Thursday was our last full day and we were taking the aerial tramway up Mount Jacinto. There was snow on the ground up there and we did the long version of the nature walk. It started out on a clear, wide path but the higher we got, it became picking each step between ice, snow, tree roots and rocks. The ranger had told us to go from view point 5 to 1 so we'd be going uphill on the worst part but the signs weren't helpful so we ended up doing it in the other direction. Between points 4 and 5, Anne and I both fell. My knee bent more than it has since it was installed and there was some swelling but I lived to tell. We were up there a LONG time considering the hike was only 1.5 miles so got back down late afternoon. We went to Sherman's Deli for a very late lunch (I think it was 4:00). My knish was delish (ha!) and we all got a dessert to go. We had our last soak in the hot tub, snacked and watched the date garden movie before heading to bed.

Our flight wasn't leaving until mid-afternoon so we had the morning yet to go on Friday. I had wanted to do a mid-century modern architecture tour but at $125 each, I had explored for other options. I found a self-guided car tour that was only $17 so we checked out of the house early and started that. I wasn't very good with lots of stops like "between those gates you can see a sliver of a house through was (fill in old celebrity name)'s house" kind of things. We gave up after doing most of it and went downtown for the Birkenstock store (Anne and Rene bought shoes) and a slice of pizza for lunch. Rene googled an MCM neighborhood and we spent our last hours going up and down streets were regular people live in MCM houses, critiquing each one as we went by. We returned the car and were ready for our uneventful trip home. We got to Omaha late and were still driving at midnight so Anne and Rene sang happy birthday to me. I unpacked, showered and got to bed around 1:00 am. It was a great trip!

I had never really acclimated to Pacific time so was awake every morning at 4:30 despite staying up late each night so was a zombie on Saturday. I happily sat in my chair with my cats, chatting with friends and streaming/knitting the day away. I felt much better on Sunday and got some laundry done, scooped boxes and got back on track.

It was a wonderful winter break and I'd happily go back to Palm Springs. As always, even with such a short trip, it was good to be home. I also was able to forget about my diagnosis for awhile but would be right back on my cancer journey with an MRI Monday. At least I got the break to forget about it for awhile.

P.S. Photo credits to Anne and Rene since a few of these pics are theirs. : )