Category Archives: peritoneal mesothelomia

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cancer, Gratitude, husband, Pantry, peritoneal mesothelomia, swimming, Walking by

Happy First day of Spring!!

I’m very thankful that B’s CT scan has been moved up to Monday. Really I wish it were yesterday but I’ll take it. I am preparing for the worst that there’s cancer in the liver and that’s causing his ALP to be rising. It’s hard to figure out why his ultrasound showed ‘unremarkable’ and here we are 3 weeks later. I don’t get it but I am getting ready for ‘bad news’.

I’m grateful for a lovely misty morning to walk and it was very pleasant.

I’m thankful for a nice swim yesterday and the fact that the pool wasn’t too busy. I had my own lane for half my swim so that was nice.

Today is a home day and I don’t have a lot on my list. I want to steam-mop the floors and tidy the wine box pantry. If you haven’t followed my blog, I use Far Niente wine boxes under my stainless steel island to keep my canned goods. These days the four I have are maybe half full. I just don’t keep that much since the end of the pandemic. I bought these off of eBay a long time ago when things like that were reasonable. The 3 under the counter have the tops which is a big plus. One I have doesn’t have a lid and I keep that under a different cabinet.

I’m thankful for some pretty Eucalyptus branches from Trader Joe’s. They are probably my favorite. I love the soft green color.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, husband, peritoneal mesothelomia, travel, Uncategorized by

A nice walk this morning with the moon shining through the clouds.

Today, I plan to go to the Auburn gym and do some weights. I went to the pool yesterday and was very lucky to get half a lane before the pool was overrun with college swim teams. I got my swim in and left but man, it was nutso.

I need to do up my menu plan using pantry items. So far for this week, I have baked ravioli( using leftover Costco ravioli and Rao’s sauce.) for tonight. I also have salad stuff to use. The rest I’ll write up later after I check the freezer/fridge.

Today, I need to dust again. With our woodstove going almost all the time, dust is a big issue. Plus, I need to water my plants.

I think I’ll end the blog here as there’s not much else new. Oh, we did add more days at the hotel when my son and I will go down. The one person from the Facebook group said her husband was in for 11 days and that’s considered very short. So that’s going to add up quickly but I feel like I want to be on the safe side with a room. If after we’re there it’s going to be longer then I could add more days. Right now we have Sunday through Friday. That Monday would be B’s 8th day so I really don’t think he’d be released. So one more thing to be stressed about.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, budgets, California, frugalism, peritoneal mesothelomia by

I shopped at Winco on Monday after the pool. I spent $100 on groceries. Winco always is the least expensive place to shop besides Costco but there the quantities are always bigger.

I got gas at Costco that morning too.

Other than just whatever bills were coming out no money was spent. I got a refund from eBay for a book I ordered and the wrong one was sent. I also got a weird refund from Amazon from a purchase they said I never received over Christmas?? Not sure what it was but I have a credit and will use that for a few things I need.

Right now it’s snowing outside and it looks pretty. Snow is rare here but does happen although this isn’t sticking or anything. I wasn’t planning on going out so it’s all good.

The doctor wants B to get the CT scan ASAP so he’s trying to get that set up now. ( well, he just tried and there are no appts till the end of March) He’ll have to check if Sacto has an opening. If it is a tumor in the liver then I’m sure the surgery is a no-go. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what it is. It’s all very stressful that’s for sure.

I started on the statin this week and now I have a rash so I will stop that and see what my PC says. Geez, it’s always something. I sent him a message but knowing my body obviously the Lipitor ( generic) is not going over really well in my body. That was only 3 days too so clearly it’s not going to work for me but there are other statins like Rosavastatin so we’ll see. sigh:(

Oh, the good news is my Kappa light chains came back in the normal range so that’s very good news.

The pantry challenge is going well. last night I made a split pea soup to use up all the split peas. It was a good soup with carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. We don’t eat a lot of split peas and I wanted to use them up.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, Gratitude, peritoneal mesothelomia, simple foods, swimming, travel by

It’s been a week since the surgery and B is doing fantastic. He’s doing mostly his normal chores just being more careful. So I’m so thankful he has a great response.

I’m thankful the drive to Palo Alto and back were uneventful (except for a few assholes) but mostly it went smoothly.

I’m very grateful for the Sheraton giving us a discount that was probably half of what the room rate was. When we’re down there next, if it’s a week that’ll add up but we don’t really have an alternative. An Airbnb would probably cost more.

I’m thankful my dentist appt went well too and is over.:) I do have a cleaning coming up so there’s that. 😦

As always I’m grateful to be able to swim and go for walks. I’d like to ramp it up some but honestly, it feels like this is the best I can do at this time. So I’ll take what I can do and not worry about adding to it.

I made the garlic confit yesterday but cooked the garlic too long and some burned so I just drained the olive oil into a jar to use and threw out the garlic cloves. It tasted good. ( the olive oil).

This is the homemade butter I made using heavy cream I had frozen. I made it in the Kitchen aid.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, cancer, Flylady, husband, peritoneal mesothelomia, travel by

A very cold morning. The park was all frosty. We did our usual loop which is about a 1.5. That’s what I aim for and then at the gym, I add on another .5 to 1 mile.

I’m heading into the gym this morning and then straight home. I don’t need to get anything. I have salad stuff B got at the store yesterday and leftover quiche too.

We leave early Tuesday morning and hopefully will between rush hours in the morning. Last time going down was fairly easy so I’m guessing Tuesday morning will be about the same.

I’ve finished the kitchen zone except for the floor. I asked my daughter to do that for me. Next, I’ll do the bathroom and bedroom zones. Just a quick dust and tidy.

I finished the taxes and submitted them. BTW, I checked out the IRS free e-file and it was not very user-friendly so I went back to Turbo Tax which is extremely user-friendly and just prompts you through.

Well, I’m glad this finally happening even if we don’t know the next step at least we know this one.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, California, cooking, Gratitude, library, peritoneal mesothelomia, Political things by

First, what a tragedy about the AA plane and the Black Hawk helicopter. Very sad indeed. I listened to part of what trump said, and at first, he was somewhat consoling and then spiraled into his usual blaming of Obama and Biden. Geez, give it up, just be with the victims here and not political.

I’m very thankful to get the Stanford call, and at least we can get this part done. Today, he has a video call with the anesthesiologist, and tomorrow, a video visit with Dr. Neal, who is the mesothelioma oncologist at Stanford.

I’m thankful we’ve had a nice period of no rain. Tomorrow starts a long period of lots of rain. I’ll have to see how the walking will go.

I’m thankful to feel like myself again after that awful night. It’s the simple things, right?

I’m thankful I got to the gym before my Velcade. It was nice because then I came straight home.

I’m thankful for the library and the huge bag of books I checked out. Three cookbooks which were new, so that’ll be fun. Reading cookbooks is like a hobby. I don’t often make the recipes, but I like looking at them.

Mid Week Miscellany and Happy Chinese New Year/ the Year of the Snake!!!!

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, home stuff, Myeloma, peritoneal mesothelomia, swimming by

Well, whatever got me left pretty quickly. I think it may have been a build-up of acid reflux, which is why I take omeprazole daily. But I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know. This happened once before but then I had taken Dex and Dr. L thought the two were related. This time, no dex, but I did eat the turkey chili which probably was acidic. Who knows? Ill keep take in my journal. Anyway, I felt better by yesterday afternoon. And I slept well last night.

I didn’t walk this morning, though, so I’ll go down to the pool and swim. Tomorrow I’ll walk and get back on schedule.

Great news. Stanford called, and we have an appt for Feb 12. She didn’t have the exact time yet, so we need to hear what that is. So, at this point, we’ll go down on the 11th, he does need labs from their lab, so we’ll do that first. The lab is in the Medical Center, so we know where that is. I’m glad we have a focus finally!!

The 12th is also my appt with Dr.Laptalo, so I’ll have to cancel that and reschedule. As long as my numbers are stable( with some fluctuations), I’m fine with that.

I’m seriously trying not to be totally flipped out about what Trump is doing. Hesgreth confirmed?? RFK is a lunatic, the press conference person with a cross around her neck big enough to ward off vampires?? WTF is happening in this country??? I feel so hopeless right now. I just can’t imagine 4 more years of this if we even make it before we are an autocracy. So hard to imagine where we are in this country right now.

Well, I need to go get my suit on and control at least some fraction of my life. Swimming does help, as does walking. Keep on keeping on, I guess.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, cancer, peritoneal mesothelomia, velcade by

I’m waiting for the oven to get to 475 so I can put the bread in. It takes a while with this oven. I’d like to get a new oven in the next year or so. Plus those knobs on the side are problematic. Anyway.

I went to the Auburn gym and there were ‘new’ people there. It was just getting busy when I left. I didn’t have to do anything in Auburn so I came straight home. It’s so nice not to have extra chores.

We had two more pieces of the Wild Alaskan fish I’d bought. This was the Coho salmon and sockeye. They were both very good. I made some couscous to go on the side. tonight, My son is coming over so I need to think about what I’m going to make. I might just do the Costco ravioli.

The week ahead looks a little busy with a dentist’s appt and then my Velcade. Plus, if I decide to do another gym or swim day. I haven’t decided yet.

My daughter has been planting the onion sets and garlic. She also started a bunch of tomatoes under grow lights. I’m sure glad she is the gardener. I like picking stuff but not planting stuff.

I hope we get a call from Stanford this week regarding his appt. I’d like to know when we’re going so we can book a hotel. As I’ve said, it has to be 2 nights minimum, and the first day down there, he has to go get labs as they want to use their labs and not UCD. So that will add to the day. Parking is an issue, so I may just drive around till he’s done at the lab. We still don’t even know where the hospital is. Where we went was the medical center, so we needed to get a map of that.

Well, that’s all I have today. I hope everyone is having a nice Sunday.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, California, camping, cancer, Gratitude, peritoneal mesothelomia, social security by

This has really been an awful year. B getting diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma was such a shock. Also, it doesn’t have a very good prognosis. Then because of this, we had to cancel all our RV trips and it’s been hard to not head out somewhere. All in all, it’s just been a hard year. As we close 2024, I’m still thankful for many things.

  • that he’s had the last chemo and will get a PET scan soon. So going into 2025, we should know where he is with it all.
  • I’m thankful that, even with me getting Velcade, I can do most things that need to be done.
  • I’m thankful my kids are there to pick up the slack and help us so much.
  • I’m grateful that even though money is always tight on SS we can pay our bills. There’s not a lot left over but we have a roof over our heads, food, and hot water, wood heat and lots more. It would have been nice to not have a mortgage at all but that wasn’t in the cards for us. At least we can pay for it.
  • I’m thankful for the library and the world of books. Books, even as a child, took me to places I’d never been. Today, at 72, I can say books still carry me to unknown places and show me a different perspective.

I’m hopeful for 2025, but I think it’s still going to be tough going especially when we head to Stanford for the surgery.

One step at a time, one step at a time.

My appt went ok yesterday. It was quite busy in there but I still got in on time. Dr. L asked if I had any sleep apnea. Not that I know of. I guess my hematocrit is slightly elevated and he said to consider getting a sleep apnea test. Even if I did have it, I wouldn’t use a mask at night unless it was severe. Does anyone out there have any experience with sleep apnea. My guess is the hematocrit goes up and down because of not drinking enough water. Dehydration is one cause. I never drink enough water. Plus it’s been 1 point out of range for a year. 15.5 is high normal, I’ve been 16.4. I’m not sure why he brought this up now, but I said, I’ll think about it but I really have too much going on to add one more thing. I’ll do some more research and see what I find out.

Simple sunday

Posted in books, bread, budgeting, California, cancer, peritoneal mesothelomia, Uncategorized by

I slept pretty awful last night. I guess the dex caught up with me, so I didn’t walk, and I don’t plan on going to the gym. Life happens.

I did have a very nice afternoon yesterday alone in the house as my daughter took B to infusion. Since it was only going to be one bag she stayed and went over to the new Trader Joe’s to get a few things. They still didn’t get home till 5:15 though. He’ll still need to go in Monday for another bag. I guess they couldn’t do the 2 because of the time factor. Hopefully this is the end of this with transfusions. the next step is the PET scan and then consult with Stanford.

So I read and finished another Baldacci. He’s such a good writer, it’s hard to put his books down. I have 2 more to read from the library.

A blogger over at The Humble Bungalow, who lives in BC, in a beautiful bungalow house, took a tumble and got some cuts and a concussion. Apparentley, her hip just went out on her and she fell. After all was said and done, she decided to get some walking poles. so that got me thinking when my knee buckled under me and I fell flat on my back. Fortunately, nothing got hurt but I decided to buy some walking poles from Amazon. They came yesterday so I plan on walking around our driveway and see how it is to use them. In the past, I’ve used one pole for stability but now 2, I might need to get the hang of them.

I made another Tartine baguette this morning. It’s still not as burnished brown on top as I’d like, so I think I’ll try his suggestion which is to put a wet kitchen towel in a pan and let that create steam. I’ll try that next time. I need to work on a menu plan for the week. I have my master one month plan but that is generally more like taco Tuesday, pasta Wednesday, so I need to firm up specifics. I would like to work thru a few more things in the freezer.

I just finished the bathroom swish and swipe and the linen bed sheets are in the wash. I’m also airing out the comforter outside on the line.

Well off to get a few more things ticked off my list.