Road Trip!

I’ll start with Saturday and go backwards! Tammy and I hit the road early Saturday morning and headed North to Warsaw, MO to the hook in at Saltbox Primitive Woolens.

Patty Wallace is the owner, and let me tell you, those girls know how to put on a hook in! This is Patty, ringing her little cow bell to get our attention. She said it gives her POWER!

I finally got to meet my kindred sister Katie. http://katie-primitivewoolens.blogspot.com We are both breast cancer survivors and I think she’s the first person that told me she would pray for me that I didn’t personally “know”. We quickly became internet friends, but got to meet in person this day. She’s holding a little wool owl I made for her.

The shop was absolutely wonderful. Yards and yards of wool. And tons of finished rugs hanging on the walls.

This lady (sorry I don’t remember your name) was carrying a little bag she bought from me three years ago at our Springfield Boathouse hook in! I need to make some more of those!

And my homies that also made the trip.

Tammy and Elizabeth

Rita

Vicki (left) and Jo Lynn (right)

This is the Darling project Jo Lynn is working on. I have never hooked right onto wool. I am liking the look!!

We ran into a terrible thunderstorm on the way home and had to pull off the road it was raining so hard. But we made it safely home at around 7:00 p.m. Thanks again for driving, Tammy.

Tomorrow I’ll go back to Friday and show you my day!

Peace,

Sheri

Making some progress on antique rug and

the mat for Jimmie Dean's little chair that sits at the front door so he can see out!

First, here's the antique adaptation.  It measures 19" by 42" and there's really not that much more to do.  Just sit down and Do It!!!

I think this shot depicts the colors the best.

Very muted from my usual color palette.   (That's why I think I totally lost interest in it right in the middle of the rug.  When we hooked at JoLynn's a couple of weekends ago, it was my intention to get all the red diamonds hooked around the border.  That made it seem like there's not so much more!  Just fill in some lines now~~~LOL.

And this little mat for J.D. has been what I've been doing while I lost interest in the big star rug!  He sits on this little chair every day and watches the children walking to and from school.  I think he likes his little mat!

Had some not so good health news over the weekend.  I spent all of Saturday night in the ER.  I had seen my MD two weeks earlier for what I thought was asthma.  He gave me an inhaler and it did nothing.  So my radiation oncologist said her husband is a pulmonary specialist and sent me to his office that very minute!  He gave another inhaler, which also didn't help.  That was last Wednesday.  Well, by Saturday afternoon I Could Not Breathe and told Mick to take me to the Urgent Care Clinic.  They did tests that showed a suspected pulmonary embolism (from the surgery)  He said go to the ER immediately!  Your husband can drive you~I don't think you need an ambulance!  Scared the shit out of me!!!  Got to the ER and thank God I was expedited and didn't have to sit in the waiting room with sick babies that don't have health insurance~~~totally another story,  don't get me started on that.  But that's just not right for a mother to have to go there to get treatment for her sick child...

The ER physician comes in and checks the EKG and chest x-rays from the place I had just come from and suggested "congestive heart failure" especially since my breathing was almost impossible when I tried to lay down.  He explained that the left side of my heart showed damage and inflammation~~~ probably from the chemotherapy!!!!

He called my oncologist who said it Was Not from chemo, it was from radiation.  The ER doc was ready to admit me and start running all the heart tests and hook me up with a cardiologist.  Looking back, I wish that's what had happened.

He did, in the hospital start an IV with Lasix and Prednisone to try to get rid of some of the fluid on my lungs.  Then prescribed Prednisone for eight days.  I dread that.  Last time I took it I gained 20 pounds overnight and it took over a year to get it off.  Guess that's the least of my troubles right now though.

Yesterday I saw both oncologists/ the regular one and the radiation one.  Boy are they protective of their special fields of medicine!!!  Again the radiation doctor said it wasn't possible to have any heart damage from only 10 treatments (which makes since to me) but the regular oncologist keeps saying the chemo I took doesn't cause heart problems.  WRONG..... Now I should have known better than this because before I could have the chemo I had to have a MUGA(sp) test to make sure my heart could handle these drugs.  (This is what Tammy does all day in her job in nuclear medicine).  Of course me being me, I came home and read every thing I could find out about the drugs I received.

1. Adriamycin: side effects:  COMMON:

Damage to the heart with the symptoms of:

swelling of the hands and ankles 

shortness of breath

difficulty breathing

2. Cytoxan: side effects: Rare

Damage to the heart muscle.  Symptoms include difficulty breathing, swelling of the legs and feet and tiring easily.

I was supposed to have a radiation treatment today, but just can't do it right now.  Although the RA Dr. PROMISED ME this wasn't the problem.  Yesterday she said, "do you want this cancer to come back?  Then march down that hall and get your treatment!"  Which I DID!!!  But I just couldn't do it today.  How are you gonna know what's the right thing to do?  I will always question myself now.  what if.....what if...

Good news~~~This Thursday at 4:00 p.m. I am scheduled for an ECHO cardiogram.  This will answer all the questions about my heart.  Even congestive heart failure can be treated with medicine and the breast cancer is gone! Please send out some positive vibes my way!  I truly believe in  Prayer and Positive Thinking.  And I promise to keep you guys informed.

Peace and love,

Sheri

 

Chemo is FINISHED!!!

It is such a relief and a huge milestone on my journey with cancer treatment and survival.  In one month I will meet with the surgeon to discuss the mastectomy.  I have so many questions for him.  Number one being, can he do the reconstruction surgery at the same time even if I need radiation treatment?  I’ve heard you might have to wait for six months to a year if you do the rad’s.  I’ve decided I want to have an implant in the one they will remove and also an implant on the “good” one~to make it match the new one and be perky too!!!  Hey, might as well make the most of a terrible situation, right?

When I was first diagnosed my sister wanted to buy some pink bracelets and give them to our friends to wear.  I told her No Way…None of that pink crap!!!  Do you have any idea how much of this stuff is out there?  And where does the money really go?  One website proudly proclaimed that they give 1% of their profits to breast cancer research.  WOW…1%.

Here are a few needless things I found while surfing this evening

pink ribbon headphones!

pink ribbon candles

     

pink ribbon bracelets 

pink ribbon sandals

pink ribbon candy dish!

pink ribbon onsies

for the baby!

And finally a pink ribbon watch!

Like I said, what do you think they do with all the money from these products?  And this is just a Small sample of the things for sale.  Somebody’s getting rich. 

I did go to the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks   today after chemo and bought 10 of these rubber bracelets to give away!!!  For some reason they didn’t seem so bad. (Or maybe they are  still really bad and I was just feeling victorious!) They read Beacon of Hope and bcfo.org.

And yesterday I sketched a little mat with Jimmie Dean sitting on his little green chair.  Hooked a little on it today at the hospital.  I’m hand cutting all the wool for it and it’s fun so far!  Will show you when I have a bit more finished.

It’s so nice to read all of your kind, friendly and loving comments.  thank you.

Peace,

Sheri