A crazy Monday

So its been a crazy but fun Monday.

We get down to Mercy cancer center at 8:15 ready for the first velcade shot.

Theres been no authorization yet from the insurance, so an hour and a half later, I get my first shot. Didn’t feel a thing so thats good. I’ll get some aloe vera cream to put on it tomorrow.

WE then were starving having left the house at 7:11 am, so hit Starbucks and then shopped Trader joes. Got some great dinner stuff.

I’m home now and first had to deal with some paper work regarding my old student loans( Nelnet is a PITA). But now i’m relaxing and going to clean a little and start decorating a christmas tree.

So, I’ll update how I feel with this shot as the days go by….

 

Friday stuff

Well, the update is Pomalyst is not working for me. Its too bad really as I did so great on Revlimid till it too stopped being effective. But Pom since I started it back in march has done nothing. Basically numbers went up slightly but there was no reduction. Slight being .8 to .9 and then Kappa light chains would go from 930 to 1000 and then back to 930 or so.  So next week I’ll start weekly velcade. Ive never had velcade or another proteasome inhibitor(not sure how thats spelt), so Im very optimistic and my doctor felt I should get a good response. So we shall see. It will be challenging driving once a week to Sacramento but you do what you got to do. Also, I don’t have a newer car, my husband has the newer SantaFe for work, and I have a 1999 dodge caravan. So, we are going to have to look at getting me something more reliable. I really don’t want to beak down in morning rush hour on my way for my chemo;(

Im glad we going to do this though since I felt for most of this year Pomalyst been kinda a waste. We really hoped there would be a drop with each cycle but now it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.

Thanksgiving was lovely. lots of good food and leftovers today. Yeah,no cooking for me.

We stopped doing Black Friday a number of years ago, so I’m staying home tidying and B has to run to Home depot for something for a project. Thats it.

 

pumpkin cheese cake

So, Im cooking a pumpkin cheese cake for dessert on Thursday. Yesterday, I made the vegetarian nut loaf. I’ve made this everyday for  over 25 years. It comes from Tassajara recipe book. It uses brown rice nuts ( I just use what I have) cheese, eggs and spices. I never follow it exactly and then bake in a loaf pan. I cut slices and serve with tamari  gravy. The tamari gravy is basically a vegetarian brown gravy. Flour, butter make a roux add water an then tamari to taste. Sometimes thats a few tablespoons. We all actually like this better than turkey  but i still make a turkey. B is still vegetarian and I was for over 22 years. Then one day I woke up and decided to eat meat. Really. I really only ate some chicken but now I eat whatever. Still overall we eat very little meat. So then there will be mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green beans (I think).

I was just commenting on another blog,(sixty payments), I always say we’ll go out or buy the premade meal, but then I never do. I guess I like cooking too much:)

So blood labs show my neutrophils pretty good 1240. So I didn’t tank too much this month. Actually thats really good. (normal low is 1500).

Still waiting on spep  test and kappa light chains. That could even be tomorrow since it takes about 3 days to get. I really don’t want to go to Sacramento tomorrow but I have to. I’ll be sure to take tylenol and I try and drink a quart of gatorade before and during the zometa infusion.

We’re not stopping anywhere else so I hope we can be home by noon.

 

Friday, budget stuff and others things

It’s  been a long week and kinda a weird one. Nothing unusual just was difficult for me. I’m doing my usual stuff, walking every morning, flylady stuff, but I just feel like I’m plodding along . So, budget  seems ok. I still need to go in and pay property taxes, but I’m waiting till December 1. I think. I may go sooner and just get it done. Somehow I have this on Decembers budget so maybe that’s why. Everything else is done including getting propane. I need to budget that better next year. So, December will just be basics. Christmas money is all allotted ,so that’s done too. I’d like December to be as much as a no spend month as possible. B should get a bonus of some sort , so that will go in to the EF. Even if it’s a small one.

I’ve set some goals for 2016 for the budget so I’m going   really work at no spend days and cutting back groceries, which is one of our bigger expenses.  I’m working on a list of projects for 2016, to see what we can get done. Some are small like changing a ceiling fan to a smaller one without a light, to bigger like flooring. We’ll see. We really did great last year with upgrades.

Today, is my lab work, so I should know monday how my blood counts are. I won’t know the SPEP test or kappa LC till Wednesday. And speaking of the day before thanksgiving, we’ve got to go to Sacramento, I’m scheduled for my zometa, and doctor appt. it’s going to bed be challenging , first traffic, second, sometimes I get a reaction to zometa, so hopefully Thanksgiving is not a bust. I’m planning on getting most of my cooking done Tuesday, so I should be alright. We don’t over cook stuff anyway. Just nut loaf, some sides and a turkey breast.   Still  it takes time to pull it together.

also, next week another snow storm is due in on my daughters work days in Truckee so I worry about her driving in snow.

I’ve been busy with rearranging the pantry , since I had B order me 25 lbs of black beans , 25 lbs of pintos and 25 lbs of Lundberg   Long grain rice. All organic. So I’m moving the bulk stuff to another book case and rearranging the kitchen shelves. They’re stainless steel restaurant shelves, but I keep a curtain over it as I’m not keen on  them visuals of pantry stuff. This is my big project for January is to get some sort of closed cabinets there. This kitchen has no storage at all so it’s make due. If we ever sell, we will need something in place  so storage would be essential.

I dropped off a pretty big load at goodwill, and have another ready to go. I went in to look around , but I think my thrift store days are over. Back in the day , 80’s and 90’s, I was in Salvation Army 3 x s a week . Bought all my kids clothes and mine there. Great stuff. Then somehow people caught on and now, you’ve got people in there lookingfor resale stuff, hoarders, etc. there’s hardly ever and name brand stuff, or  they charge more for it. Once in a while I find something, but not too often. Now it’s easier for me to go to old navy and but a t shirt for 6 bucks , than rummage thru goodwill for a used $6 t shirt. I found a nice wool coat the other day there, they wanted $30 for it. What?? I’m not paying $30 for a used coat unless it’s amazing.

Well, off for that blood test and the rest of the day.

Rainy. Sunday

We’re getting a nice soaking of rain today , and tahoe is getting snow!!! Yeah! I’m sure all the ski resorts are very happy.

we walked ING rain and it was nice. Not a pounding rain just a nice gentle rain.

Today, I’m sorting thru Christmas lists. Mostly done. We’re giving money to our son, as he buys everything himself. My daughter is getting an electric guitar. Our budget for her $250, so she’ll,have to ante up the balance. We’ll add in some from my $ and dads $ as there’s nothing we need or really want. Plus we just spent $600 on gravel for our driveway, so merry Christmas !!

We don’t have much family. A brother I give $ to and my sister a few little gifts. That’s it. No parents etc.

we don’t really gift and friends . When I was at the library I gave some little things as gifts like homemade jams etc, but that’s it. So our holidays are pretty stress free. We also love to celebrate Hanukkha ( no we’re not Jewish, but atheists) but I love lighting the candles and the meaning of the lights.

Weird but that’s us.

Thanks to all the men and women who have made our country safe!

Veterans Day is a day to remember the brave people who have defended our country in some way or another. My brother is a veteran. And my other brother died in Vietnam . I protested that war in the early 70’s and still feel it was a terrible waste of human life. But that doesn’t take away from that all who have served deserve respect and honor. They have earned it.

its quite cold here, but at least sunny. I walked this morning it was probably 30! I’m kinda thinking of breaking the JKWP and only go when I feel like it. I never seem to get ahead with feeling like I can do anymore than a mile and lately I just don’t have it in me it seems. Since I havent broken it by a day yet, I suppose that’ll be monumental. Plus now with this new development of the rib pain ,who knows what’s going on. I see my doctor in 2 weeks and get zometa. Maybe I should have had the zometa sooner?? It’s a bit of a guessing game I suppose.

Yesterday I did some town chores and made pulled pork on the crockpot. I added blackberry sauce at the end which is really good. Our local bbq place did that and we loved it. Today is just a home day,vacuuming, tidying and I’m going to pull out the christmas wrap . We got another load of gravel for the driveway too. So after this its a NO SPEND everything. Except food and basics.

Tomorrow I’m going to whole foods for a turkey breast and world Market to look for some little gifts for my sister.(she loved the mushroom measuring spoons,I got there!)

Well, I’m trying not to be depressed but sometimes it’s just hard to keep it together…. My typical MO is to just hide. Read or just sit and think, or not think as it may be. Oh, well…

Rain and snow…

well, it’s happening here in Northern California . We’ve had rain all day and snow in the sierrsa. My daughter has to drive to Truckee tomorrow ,so I’m worried about snow on  I 80! Hopefully her CRV Honda will get her thru just fine. Today was a flylady clean the kitchen and other chores like vacumm. My husband did a lot of laundry and I think there’s more for tomorrow.

Tomorrow,

I have to go to the dentist for my next set of Invisalign trays and then drop off the good will  stuff.

Everyones off to work or school but me, so I’ll just keep the house warm and chores done.

Tonight we had a mushroom stroganoff with grilled green beans. Very yummy and used stuff I had. My freezer and pantry are very full so I’m going to do all menus from there.

I need to order propane this week , another expense, but necessary. The budget is definetly thin with propane, gravel ordered and paying some of the dentist bill. Ugh… It’s always something.

I’m half way thru my pomalyst cycle and just the other day I started to have pretty bad rib pain. I hope it’s not an active lesion. Rib fractures are the first to go for me so , I’ll have to tell my doctor and maybe order x rays. I guess it’s always something with myeloma, or is it just life…

Thursday’s updates

38c79d4c9fd73259ae24c007303cfb01I’m at a Starbucks writing my blog. I want to add some pictures so I’ll try and practice. I can’t seem to get my pictures to upload  from Tahoe. I guess I’ll try later. Figured out one.

Today is the little coffee klatch at the civic center ,so I’ll go to that and then home.

Tonight is pizza night. I  have homemade or we may buy large at our favorite new york pizza place. We’ll see.

IMG_0155this is Tahoe. Usually the lake is up to where I’m standing and the pier has water all the way to the end. (To the right).