As always the library. I picked up my holds( more Tony Hillerman) and a new book. The new book is by a friend/author of my daughters. They met on Whatpad which is the platform my daughter writes on and sells her books on. The book is ‘A Bean to Die For” by Tara Lush. This is book 4in the series.
That PT is helping my torn ACL and I feel like my knee is improving. Whether it will ever be what it was, I don’t know but for now, I’m grateful to do small walks.
Although I wish my kappa light chains stayed in the normal range, they at least didn’t do a huge jump. But still, I’m now out of range which means the once a month Velcade is not going to cut it. Disappointing for sure. So I have my next Velcade at the end of the month. I’ll get labs soon after and if it goes up again, I’ll message my doctor and suggest we try twice a month. I think he will want to wait till after this next infusion.
We’ve had some breaks in the rain and it lets things dry out. More rain is due later and tomorrow. We didn’t go to Napa because of the weather so maybe in March.
I met up with two friends from the old FOA library for coffee yesterday. One of the women just lost her husband to Myeloma so she’s adjusting her life. He was just recently diagnosed but wasn’t in good health and I think his body just couldn’t take it. Another friend just had her husband diagnosed with Myeloma too. How weird is that? He’ll be starting Revlimid, dex, and Darzalex fastpro. I think he should do fine but he’s also in his late 70’s so there’s that.
I finished the pressure canned beans and so now I have 3 garbanzos and 3 black beans ready to go. Beans are really easy it’s just the time involved while the pressure canner is going.
I’m not going to the gym today but I might go tomorrow. It just depends on how I feel. Today I’ll do the PT exercises and then just potter around. It feels like I have lots of areas in the house that need some attention. The kitchen pantry shelves need to be sorted and a place for the chip bags. It’s interesting how these little things just are minor irritations and I tend to just look past them until they really bug me and then I do something.
Today is National Pizza Day so either we’ll get a pizza or I’ll make one. It’s a cloudy day with some sunshine coming through. Next week we’re tentatively going to Napa. Hopefully, it’ll be at least sunny. I have 2 weeks till my next Velcade so we could go the following week if that looks better.
Frugal-wise, we haven’t done any lunch dates or coffee for that matter. ( except my coffee with friends). If we do pizza tonight that’ll be takeout. B did go to Costco and got coffee, eggs, etc. I think we’ve been able to keep our grocery bill down because of TJ’s, Costco, and Winco. I haven’t shopped at Safeway in like forever. I have shopped at Holiday simply because it is 2 minutes away and if I need something then the cost of gas has to be figured in too.
I paid for Turbo Tax too. I probably could have found a free platform I like how turbo tax asks the right questions and then it’s all done. It’s worth the $89 for federal taxes.
Gratitude is essential to feeling content and satisfied with what you have. I see it as a way to reinforce that I have everything I need. Maybe not everything I want( that second bathroom, haha) but at least I have one bathroom that is efficient and well organized albeit small.
things I’m grateful for this week:
PT went well and I’m doing the exercises at home. I’m hopeful to try and get to the pool next week. That is if California hasn’t been swept into the ocean with all the rain we’re having.
My appt with Dr. L went well and so did infusion. DR. L said everything looks good and I don’t need to see him till March. So that’s good news. He was happy to see my new LV as he was aware of the smash and go with my old LV and right after that his wife’s car also had a smash and go and a very expensive purse was taken too.
Today is a dex day and although it’s tough to be on I’m grateful for the drugs that have helped me to combat cancer. It’s not fun but it’s also not the worst. I’m so grateful my Kapp light chains are in the normal range and VEcade and Dex were the reason for that.
Today is February 1st( feels good to start a new month) and tomorrow February 2nd is Imbolc or cross quarter on the Celtic cross. I can always feel the change in the earth even though the Spring equinox isn’t till March 21st. Also, we’re having huge rains so not yet the springy feeling.
I’m grateful that my daughter’s tests were all good since she does have autoimmune issues and Hasimoto’s. The allergist she saw was super helpful she said and he told her she didn’t need to do any of the allergy tests as her face swelling and hives were an autoimmune reaction. All in all good news and she just needs not to get overly stressed. She said she feels better off gluten/wheat so I think she’ll keep doing that for a while.
I’m thankful I thought to call the ortho’s office since I hadn’t heard from them. It seemed like I wouldn’t get a call at least for a while:( So I have an appt to meet the doctor’s PA next week. I’d rather meet with the doctor but I guess it’s better than nothing.
I’m thankful I could go to the gym and even though I have the brace on I can do some upper body weights.
As always, grateful for the library where I got a bunch of old Tony Hillerman.
I’m grateful for LLS helping with insurance. I guess funding has been closed since I got my award and that’s over 6 months.
We’ve had a break from the rain and that’s always nice.
Frugal Friday Stuff:
We went to Trader Joe’s after the gym and I spent only $95 which included some wine. So that should get us through till the next budget starts.
We had another few meals from the freezer: mac and cheese, some breaded shrimp with veggies, grilled chicken/ tofu with rice. This coming week I’ll try and use at least 3 more freezer/pantry meals. I took out a frozen pizza dough to make pizza tonight. I have some extra red lentils that need using so I’ll probably do a curry with that.
Gas usage was low again as I’m not driving to the pool 2-3 times a week. I might start a cash envelope with gas money I think I’m saving for when I will be able to get back in the water.
Today is a home day and I plan on doing more pantry consolidation. I have 3 bags ready to go to the food bank of stuff I probably won’t use so I’ll pass it on. I emptied one bin under the bed and the second one needs to be gone through. That one has foil, wrap, dried beans, and some oatmeal. I think some of the oatmeal ( Bob’s) is dated so I may need to use that in something or toss. I also have way too many boxes of pasta so I’ll throw a few of them in too.
Simplifying meals and food prep is a goal for this year. We basically eat the same thing week after week with just a few new recipes added in. But overall, that works best for us. I do love cooking so there’s that.
I’ve put away all the Hanukkha stuff and cleared the table. I still need to clean the menorah of some beeswax that dripped. I actually had enough candles for all 8 nights.
I didn’t walk this morning because I woke up at 2 am and never went back to sleep and that’s after taking an Ativan at 9pm. So I feel pretty wiped out.
Yesterday’s appt went well and we decided after this cycle I’ll go to once-a-month maintenance. Because I’m having such an immediate response he feels once a month should keep my numbers in the normal range. I felt he was looking more at taking a break from it but I feel I’m past that now and don’t want to have to start and stop again if I can help it. I don’t know how long Velcade will work but I think once a month is the best option right now.
After that, B and I went to the new Paris Bakery in Roseville and had yummy croissants and coffee. It’s very noisy in there and next time I think we’d take our stuff to go. It’s the acoustics I guess.
Frugal-wise, the only shopping was Costco for those vitamins for my daughter. She needs to supplement her vitamin D intake. She’s also had an auto-immune flare-up with a pretty bad rash so the doctor has her on prednisone and is testing if she is gluten intolerant. So far, 2 weeks now, she hasn’t had gluten but I haven’t seen that much change in her rash But the doctor said it did look like a gluten rash on one arm. So, better to know than not. Fortunately, this is her month’s break from the library so she has time to adjust.
Saturday, after swimming, I do plan to go to Winco for the lasagna stuff. I looked up a lasagna recipe using zucchini strips so I’ll do that too. Pretty easy overall to swap stuff out to replace wheat.
Today, I plan on prepping mushroom spinach crepes, and a spinach mushroom frittata. The crepes I plan on freezing and I’ll serve the frittata tonight. No pizza night tonight.
I was grateful to get to the gym on Monday and the library. I truly appreciate both facilities and that they are right next to each other. I picked up 3 cookbooks none of which had any recipes I was interested in.
I’m always thankful to be able to walk even if it is half of what I was doing since my knee mishap. 😦 We’ve mostly had the park to ourselves and yesterday and today the 2 nice ladies that used to walk were there again.
I’m grateful my Velcad shot went easy and I’m on shot 1 cycle 3. Today I see Dr. L so it’ll be interesting to get his take on when we will go to maintenance. Barclay is driving as I never drive on Dex. Some people have wondered why. It’s because on Dex your sense of judgment( like car distances) etc is off. Plus you’re very hyped up on Dex for the first few days and jittery too.
I had to go into Costco to return an online order and get some vitamins for my daughter. I was in and out very quickly. I used the self-checkout for the first time, which was easy and quick.
Tomorrow is a home day and I’ll probably just do some tidying and read.
Overall, it was a low-spend week. Yesterday, I went into Target( the first time in quite a while) as I was looking for extra lights. They had zip. All sold out. I did pick up a few ugly ornaments to add to the ugly ornament tree. I picked up a few kitchen items to give as a Christmas gift for my son’s friend. They like to cook so I thought a few kitchen items would be nice.
Then, before I met my friends for coffee, I went into Safeway as I needed a couple more russets for the latkes. Also, I wanted to get our garbage guy a bottle of wine to add to his gift bag. We don’t do many gifts but I feel he works all year in rain, snow, etc, and deserves a little appreciation. Other than that, Christmas is done.
Today, I’m making a big batch of pizza dough to freeze and then use one for dinner tonight. The recipe I have makes 4 balls of dough and it’s been working out well this way.
I’ll be continuing the low spend into next week too and just do the one Winco shop for the Christmas lasagna ingredients. I’ve stayed off Amazon and that’s saying something!!!
I certainly am feeling better each day but next week starts Cycle 3. The great news is though, my numbers just hit normal. 19.0 . High normal is 19.4. My ratio between kappa and lambda is still a little high but that will eventually drop. In spite of some aspects being harder than I thought it would be( or maybe I just forgot from last time), it’s worth it if Velcade/Dex is doing the work.
Today, we’re going to go out for a while and maybe get lunch out. We’ll see:)
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah and we shall light the menorah. I am making laktes and we will have homemade applesauce and sour cream too. I’m not sure what main dish I’ll serve. I grilled some chicken yesterday so I may do something with that. This year I’m not doing the small gift /money exchanges. I think I just need to move on from that at least this year.
In remembrance of Pearl Harbor too and the men and women who died in the attack and of course, entering World War II. It doesn’t seem we’re that much farther ahead at least globally with war, killing, bombings, etc. sigh:(
On the Thankful note,
It was a busy but nice week. Busy for me is more than one appt. I had my dental appt and since we’re paying OOP, I rescheduled films till next time. I’m grateful that my dental hygienist is competent and funny too! She’s been through a lot as her daughter died around 2 years ago at age 25 from some undiagnosed illness. What a thing to go through.
I’m thankful our house is warm and cozy. B does all the firewood and keeps it going. Next year, we will need to buy wood for now we have all we need.
The poang chair is the ‘cat chair’, hence the fuzzy orange blanket. Plus their cat beds in front of the wood stove. 🙂
I’m grateful my daughter decorated a second tree( live potted) with the ugly ornaments and it looks cute. I wasn’t going to bother so she did it. The
I am so grateful for this week off from chemo. I am feeling better every day and that probably means the chemo is kicking my ass more than I thought. I’m sleeping better overall.
I’m grateful that I chose a minimalist Christmas and it keeps it simple and doesn’t stress me out. I still need to go over to Winco and get the stuff for our traditional Christmas lasagna and plan a salad, garlic bread and maybe a small ham. I usually have one extra thing besides the lasagna. We’ll see. We’re not big dessert people so I’ll have to think about that or not.
I’m grateful our 23 yo VW bug is still going strong and just keeps on keeping on. That’s our around town car and it suits us. As long as nothing mechanical goes wrong, we’ll keep buggie!!! This was the car we bought our daughter at 18.
A nice walk this morning with fairly warm temperatures. My knee has flared up again so I took it slow. Somehow I think the flare ups are corresponding to after I take dex for some reason as this happened a while back too. It seems I’m just about done with it and then there’s a back step and it bothers me again. I’ve never had a knee injury so maybe it will come and go for a while yet. The cortisone shot did really help and I suppose if in 2 more months I need another one I’ll go back to the doctor.
Yesterday B peeled apples and I sliced them and canned them for apple pie filling. A fairly easy process. This morning I pulled a package of puff pastry out of the freezer to make apple turnovers. For dinner, I made turkey wild rice soup. There’s enough for lunch today. For dinner tonight…??? not sure but probably a freezer meal of some sort.
I did weights this morning. Tomorrow I have my labs and plan to go down to Roseville afterwards. We’ll see. I know I want to swim on Tuesday because I have the dentist on Wednesday.
On Thursday, some of the women from the old FOL are getting together for coffee so I’ll join them. They are always fun to get together with. One of the women’s husband was diagnosed this summer with myeloma. He’s in his 80’s and it’s been rough. Because of other issues, he’s in an assisted living home so that makes it even harder to keep track of how he’s doing.
I am glad to be alive after driving in the weirdest traffic I have ever driven in. First, the drive to infusion went fine. (almost, and this is #1) I could see an older truck merging from the on-ramp behind me right at the exit to Infusion. He pulled up very close to me as I approached the 4 way stop there. He sped through the stop sign and just shook my head in disbelief.. But the best is still to come. I was in and out of infusion in 30 minutes. And the nurse had said she always takes the back road back to Auburn, and since I wasn’t in any hurry I decided to do it. Big mistake. The #2 incident was right after I took the exit which is called Twelve oaks, another older truck with some Maga looking guy comes up and is tailing me, mind you I’m doing 60. He crosses the double yellow line and speeds ahead. I get to the stop sign and there he is behind 2 people. huh?? Really?? #3 I’m on a very windy road now up to Newcastle and 2 white cars are tailing me, mind you, I’m doing 45 and it’s a windy road. There are 2 construction stops and the white Civic behind almost runs into me as she is looking at her phone. Then after the 2 stops the white Lexus behind the Honda zooms out crosses the yellow lines and goes screeching down the one straight part of the road at least going 65. Then the Civic is still tailing me and #4 is she screeches out and passes on a double yellow line and speeds away thru a school zone doing 60 at least. #5,Finally, I get up to Newcastle and decide to get back on 80. So I’m coming up to the next on-ramp and I see this older red sedan about to merge but they don’t see the truck right there and just about runs into it( mind you this is all in front of me happening), and he tries to overcorrect and almost flips over. Then #6 the work truck that almost took him out merges into the middle lane and is swerving back and forth. Believe by this time, the atheist in me is going ‘prayers’ ???? No, I just kept on with some very fine JFC’s the rest of the way home. I think there was one other but by this point I was frazzled. So weird, I don’t think I’ve ever had such weird driving incidents like that.
I’m thankful this was my last shot in cycle 2. It does seem to catch up to me by this 4th shot. My neuropathy is a little worse, my taste buds are shot, I have styes, and I’m sure there’s more. I have next week off and I’m very glad of that.
I’m grateful November has been a good month and am looking forward to December. We really had beautiful weather in November. Now it seems we’re in for cooler days and cloudy too.
I’m done with most Christmas things. I still have a few GC’s to get, my brother, and Heidi’s husband Richard. I’m not planning anything for Hannukha except lighting the last of the beeswax candles I have.
Today is my home Dex day so I’m just doing a few things and then just reading or something.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 