Hi, Everybody,

Sorry I didn’t get an update out sooner, but here’s one finally. Thanks to everybody for reading and caring to hear from me.

Well, last week turned out to be a little bit of a roller coaster ride for me. Actually the past couple weeks. First, my mouth got so sore I couldn’t eat anything that wasn’t pureed. Then I got diarrhea so bad that I finally had to call the DR. They brought me in for blood tests, samples, and to give me a bag of fluids for dehydration. Blood tests showed that my white cell count was down to 1.0, which it is supposed to be at least 10, and they give you blood before your chemotherapy if it falls much below 4, I believe it is.

I woke up the next morning with fever, chills, and achiness. So, it was right back out to the hospital for more tests, more blood draws, etc. The nurse said, with most patients, the combination of all this means an automatic trip upstairs to stay for a few days in the hospital to be more closely monitored. But, she felt that we are very carefully monitoring, and have been quick to call with any changes or unusualness, that she feels she can trust us to go home, take my antibiotics and come back if anything at all worsens or changes wrongly. We both assured her that we would be extremely watchful, as we have been already, and would not hesitate to come back.

I fortunately don’t have insurance concerns, so there isn’t a money issue to keep us from going, but I feel it’s wasteful and unnecessary, when all they are going to do is check my temp every hour, give me extra fluids, and watch me lay in a bed. Well, I can certainly do that at home! I’m drinking as much extra as I can, taking my antibiotics as instructed, and trying to get enough to eat, even tho my mouth and throat are still sore, just not nearly as bad.

I’ve added a glucerna shake a day, and am looking at some other high nutrition recipes that the nutritionist and naturopath gave me, to stave up my immune system and help me overall. I’m surprised at the number of things I can’t eat, because my mouth is so tender, and then how much I can’t swallow, because I apparently have a chemo mouth sore in my throat. Instead of taking my handful of pills in one shot now, I have to divide them into 3 or 4 batches. Got one or two stuck the other day (kept drinking to force them down and could feel the water bubbling up and around them!!!) So, now I only take a few at a time, just to be more cautious.

I’ve been reading more this past week. Spending time at the computer doing things has just gotten more than I can sit up and do. I did finally get the last touches on my website, which took me such a long time to do, since I could only work a little at a time on. It should have only been a couple hour job, but I think took me nearly two weeks. I hope you will enjoy it, I’d like to do a few other things, but it’s up for now.

I have all my updates from early April, some may not have made into emails, some of them were only on my book swapping website where I keep a lot of people informed on how I’m doing by posting updates, and some may not have made it onto the posts and were only in the emails. So, whichever way you get updates from me, you might want to glance thru the past posts and see if there’s anything you missed.

I’ve also got some other fun stuff on here, specifically, me trying on different wigs with friends, our oldest son, Todd, starring in a video of him shaving his head, and of course links to my children’s sites if they have them, and links to my granddaughter’s pics.

I did have a very good weekend. We started on Friday night going to a banquet that we are invited to because our 2nd son, Eric, takes pictures of all the members of the 4-H Beef club during the County fair when the kids show off their beef. Then at the banquet, we set up a slide show so that everybody can see all the pics he took during their competitions, and we always have a few orders that came in last minute and have to be delivered at the banquet, and a few people that didn’t order pics during the fair, so we have two computers set up for them to find their kids pics and order them to be mailed or picked up at the studio.

The best part about this, is that it the main meat served is my favorite food in the whole world. If you are local, you will recognize “Nelson’s Golden Glo Port-A-Pit” chicken. I just don’t think there is anything comparable to it. I totally love it! Of course, I love chicken fixed most any way, except dry but this is my fav. And we can eat all we want. Unfortunately for me this year, my mouth was still a little sore, so I couldn’t eat more than was healthy for me! Hahhaahaha

Then Saturday morning we took a trip to a little town about 20 min away to a gal that does a lot of coupon shopping and always has a house that looks like a drug store exploded in it! We went with our son Eric & his wife & mother-in-law. We got shampoos, and other bathroom items, she specially bought some sugar-free candy for me (she was buying the candies anyway, but made a point to get some of them sugar-free, since she knew I was coming). Baby lotions and other things. And some sugar-free drink mixes for me. All the stuff was much cheaper than store prices and we had a nice time looking thru the stuff.

We stopped at a couple yard sales on the way back, along with a couple fruit & veggie stands, and then later went to their house for supper. A very good day for everybody!

Today, I don’t think I’ve done a single thing of any importance, and Marcus has taken several naps since coming home from church. I had thought I would go this morning, but since my white count was so low still on Wednesday, I figured it would probably not be a good idea. Marcus brought home hugs and hellos from several people along with many prayers.

I sure hope they are right that after tomorrow’s treatment, the next batch will not be nearly as bad. I get tired of hardly getting to go any place. The only reason I felt I could go to the banquet, is that we are set off by ourselves, and nobody would be getting very close to me, since Marcus, Eric, & Ana took care of all the ordering and such.

I got three surprise packages in the mail this week! It was really nice since I was feeling bad half the time, and not having a very good week, they sure brightened it up for me! First a friend & his wife ordered me a bracelet. It is a copper band with some beautiful abalone and a center filigree design work with a butterfly. Just beautiful!

Then a friend from our book swapping site, sent me a box just full of goodies! A book from my WL, a hat her daughter knitted (which is actually nice already. I sit near the air-conditioned, which is fine for most of me, but my bald head gets a little chilly, and the cap is just great! I have scarves, but they are always enough! Hahahaha), she included some nice inspirational books, even one just for men for Marcus. Some book marks, and a great selection of Celtic music, which we had talked about in one of the topics. It is so beautiful! My Scottish daughter-in-law will be a little jealous, so I might have to share with her

And then I got another book pkg, which confused me when Marcus said who it was from, because I recognized the name, and knew I did not have a book coming from her. He opened it for me, and it was another book from my WL that was obviously brand new and bought just for me. I just felt all kinds of special this week! I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of people it sure makes me feel like such a special child of God’s to have him send me friends just when I need a little extra care. God is sooooo good!

Well, I guess that’s about all the news I can think of to tell you. Be sure to check out my website, and sign my guest book so I’ll know you stopped by! As always, I appreciate the prayers and emails from all of you. Please pray that the mouth sores don’t get so bad this week, and that my white count stays up at least enough to keep me from getting sick. Please pray that the tiredness will not be so bad. This last time was really good most days, but the first couple treatments made me so totally exhausted most days.

Until next time, I’ll be here, reading a book, surfing the Internet, and waiting until I can go a few places and do a few things. If you are local, and haven’t been around anyone sick (or aren’t sick yourself) I’m usually up for visitors, it’s not any more tiring to talk with people than to just sit and read a book or play/work on the Internet

Oh, and if anyone wants to send me an inexpensive get well/birthday gift (the 10th Walmart (and I’m sure other places) has these delicious sugar-free turtle candies, by Russell-Stover, I think, but maybe others make them too. Anyway, just a little thought I’d pass along It’s not too terribly impolite for me to make a suggestion is it? Ah, well, we can blame my lack of manners on the chemo if it is

Bless you all, and may you each have a wonderful week!

Sherry