Tag Archives: oncology appt

Midweek

Posted in Blood test, California, cancer, cooking, decluttering, garden shed, swimming by

Good news. Barclay’s platelets went up to 90!!! that’s from 22. So a big improvement and the nose bleeds have stopped. His hemoglobin stayed at 8.5 so not much improvement but they don’t do transfusions till you’re below 8. So all around he’s feeling better. He does need to have another set of labs tomorrow as they want it to be twice a week.

This morning he will have a video visit with the oncologist and we should have a plan for the next chemo. I’m heading to the pool and Winco so I won’t be able to listen in but I told him make sure, under no circumstances, are you doing the same amount next time. We’ll just have to see what she comes up with. I think she conferred with the Stanford doctors so that will be interesting. He’s scheduled for next Wednesday.

The mornings are darker now and I’m walking with my headlamp. I guess in a few weeks it’ll be fall back time so 6am will be 5am and so the light should be better then. Plus sunset is like 6:15 so it’s definitely different.

I’ve ordered a water bottle for B since he lost his large one some time ago. I use the Takada brand and like it better than most other ones. This one keeps ice water cold for hours. He’ll need something next week since the chemo will probably be 4+ hours.

I did a large Goodwill drop-off on Sunday. Most of it was from cleaning out the garden shed. I’d got most of it sorted and cleaned out. I do have another load of plastic bins to get rid of and I’m not sure if I’m going to leave them out for free ( this would be on our main road as our driveway is a dead end to our house) or take them to Goodwill. I also have another box of canning jars to give away as I don’t plan on canning that much next year. I do love canning and it’s been a great hobby and food saver but I’m older and it might just be easier to buy jam rather than making 12 jars of strawberry jam.:) I guess the reality of what I can do and what can’t/don’t want to do is becoming clearer.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, California, camping, cancer, cash envelopes, frugalism, Lake tahoe by

First off, I want to thank a reader, NW, for a very generous donation that took me by complete surprise. I do have my Paypal linked to my blog but haven’t thought about it in years. It was such a kind thing to do and will help most certainly with the trip to Stanford, gas, lodging, and food. So thank you again for such kindness. Honestly, I was blown away by your thoughtfulness.

My dentist appt was a cleaning and then x-rays. It was pricey and I had to put that on a CC as my cash envelope had been emptied when B went to the dentist. I hope by the next appt, I’ll have my envelope fully funded. Oh, I have a tiny cavity she(The dentist) wants to fill so I’ll do that in October. We need to get through these appts of B’s and see how that goes.

I went to Costco after I had my doctor appt in Sacramento. Yikes, the traffic going into Sacramento was awful and took over an hour. Usually it’s 45-50 minutes. So coming back out it went smoothly swung into Costco. I spent $188 total. $15 was nonfood, $20 was wine, and the rest was food. I used my cash envelope.

We filled up the VW this week and that was $45.

We went to the nursery and bought 2 bags of potting soil and 3 pots and that ended up $60.

After that was a stop at Panera, and that was $28. I had cash in my coffee date envelope but forgot to use it so I’ll need to move that to back to the bank. Although I haven’t put any money into dining out for this month so I could wait and deduct that. I usually only do $50 as we don’t really eat out that often.

Overall, a frugal week. I didn’t need gas in the Santa Fe so that was nice.

Today I do plan on swimming as I haven’t been all week and I can feel it. I don’t need to get gas or get anything from Winco( across the street from the pool).

Next week is open with no appts so we’re thinking of driving up to Tahoe which we had planned on doing for our anniversary. After Labor Day is the start of the off-season although September is still busy up there. We still have our Nevada Beach reservations for the end of September but the Stanford trip is right in the middle of that week, so I’m guessing we’re going to have to cancel. We could trailer up and stay 2nights, but then we’d have to come back down for Stanford 2 days, and I just don’t see us able to go back up for 2nights. We just don’t have that kind of energy. I don’t want to cancel yet in hopes we’ll get a cancellation at Stanford. I love it up there at the end of September. The air is so crisp and the lake so blue. Plus, we get the annual parks pass discount so where can you go on vacation in Tahoe for $150 for 6 nights. But if we don’t get into Stanford sooner then I’m not sure it’ll work.

Being in limbo with all this is pretty tough and I have to say my anxiety is fairly high. I guess since we can’t really control these things, I need to let it go some. Easier said than done.

Enough of that, I made a frittata last night to use up that spinach I had. Tonight is pizza night. I think I have one last dough ball in the freezer I can use.

Five on Friday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, decluttering, Myeloma, Uncategorized by

So, I had my oncology appt yesterday, and that all went well except for the horrendous rain going down to Sacramento. I don’t like driving in the rain because of my macular pucker which makes seeing out of my right eye difficult and rain makes seeing worse. But I made it down and back just fine. Dr. L said same old same old, we’ll just keep track of things and go from there which is really all we can do. It’s really when my kappa light chains start doubling that I’ll say let’s do something. We agreed, when the time comes, to go back on Velcade and see if it’s still effective. I’m still hoping for June-ish.

Then this morning I had my follow-up audiology appt and that went as expected. No change and still have less hearing in my left ear. I just mumbled umm ok… that’s what I thought.

Then Safeway had some great deal this week so I went over there which is just down the road from the Sutter Medical Bldg. The deals were $1.97 for 24 Arrowhead water, $1.97 for 1 lb butter, $1.77 for boneless chicken breasts, .87 for Honey crisp apples, and more savings on some other things. The cashier said I saved more than my bill was so that was cool. I think I might pressure can the chicken in a recipe like chicken soup or something. I’ll check my pressure canning book and see what looks good.

It’s pizza night and I will take out one of my frozen dough balls to defrost. My son’s not home tonight so it’s just us and my daughter. I’ll keep it simple.

I have everything out that I plan to have for Christmas and it’s quite pretty and simple. I did declutter all the Hallmark boxes except a few so that left lots of room in the one Christmas bin. I still have the Ikea white storage boxes in the closet but those are not in the way and are on the top shelf.

I plan to either swim tomorrow or do the gym. Usually I swim Saturday, but I feel I need to keep up on doing the weights. So I guess I’ll decide tomorrow.