OK …tomorrow is a big day.  Please pray for good blood work results so that I can have the last chemo tomorrow.  Sure ready to have real hair again.  Although not looking forward to taking the steroids once more…my butt is already the size of Dallas…but soon I’ll be back in the pool and off the “fat formers”.  Not used to looking in the mirror and seeing a bald headed hippo!

Please send a special prayer out to my pal Lindsay.  While I’m having chemo tomorrow she will be having a little procedure of her own.  With the prayer network working for you …it will be a breeze! 

FYI…The Foundation For Women’s Cancer is offering a free Ovarian Cancer Survivors Course on Friday, March 23, 2012. At Hilton Austin.  500 East 4TH Street, Austin, TX.  It is for survivors, friends, family members and anyone interested in the “what’s new” in the gynecological world of cancer research.  I have been to one here in Houston and it was so informative.  Please pass the word to those you think might be interested.

Believe,

Leilani

Have no idea what happened to me.  Dr. Bevers said I must have caught a “bug” probably on the plane or some other tight quarters.  Could not go to the Reba concert last night.  And now glad I didn’t with all the rain,wind, and chilly temp.  Instead, home in bed with 101 fever…coughing my head and chest off.  Lani and Dusty (my daughter and son) went to Reba for Bill and me.  I couldn’t imagine giving up chute tickets.  Still coughing this morning and chest and throat are hurting….but I have to get well for chemo on Monday. 

I need to pick up where I left off on the trip.  So I will start with leaving Oakland.  At the airport we were getting ready to board our flight when the entire St. Mary’s college basketball team shows up to get on the same plane headed for Vegas.  They were playing in the Western Conf. finals.  Anyway, there are not enough seats.  So Southwest is asking people to give up there seats and take a later flight.  We volunteer an in doing so receive a voucher for $200. a piece in Southwest Airlines tickets.  Then when that second flight was due to take off they were asking for 2 seats because they had to get a crew somewhere else so we gave up our seats again.  This time we received $400. each in Southwest Airline tickets.  So now we are up to $1200.   Lani said we should stay in Oakland…we were making more money than we would ever make in Vegas.  She did have a point.  Finally arrived in Vegas about 7:30PM on Friday.  We saw 2 great shows  Human Nature which is a show about Smokey Robinson hits in the old Motown days.  It was awesome.  In fact they are getting ready to go on tour around the country…look them up on line.  The other show was a tribute to the Bee Gees.  Also a fantastic show.  We also visited our old friends, Cheryl and girls, at the keno booth and our friend Don in the sports-book.  Also visited with our favorite waitress at the Cafe every morning for breakfast…thanks Vera!  Only ran into one asshole the whole Vegas trip which I took with a grain of salt.  The kind of person if you were stuck on an elevator you wouldn’t choose her to be on it with you.  You know…I had a better time trying to put on my underwear pregnant!!!

Anyway trying to get well and I’ll be back with other little things that happened on our trip.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…I don’t think so.

Hugs,

Leilani

We’re back!  And the stories are endless.  So I will start out with the flight to Oakland to catch the train and then go through each escapade from there.  Giving everyone a break in between.

The flight to Oakland was smooth and enjoyed meeting people who sat around us on the plane.  We arrived in Oakland and took a cab to Emeryville where we checked in to the Hyatt House.  Our room overlooked the train station…so we had choo-choo’s going through all night.    Which I loved.  The clickety clack of the wheels was very soothing.  We went down to the bar for drinks and dinner and met up with another train car mate.  Dr. Clemis Jackson.  (He is in the same offices with Dr. Mark Bing who owns the train car).  The next morning we boarded the snow train.  It had about 15 cars (guessing…it was long).  We were the first car behind the engines.  And on the way to Reno we were serenaded by ELVIS!  Yes, Elvis was in the building or in this case “on board”.  Blue sequined suit and all.  It was a hoot!!!!!  On our way to Reno and climbing up to 5,000 feet …we experienced a unbelievable snow storm.  This Texas girl was so excited.  I have never seen that much snow.  When we arrived in Reno we got off the train and hit the casinos.  There were so many wonderful traveling companions in our car.  Coni and Donna, Shelly and Jerome, Ann and Ken, Clemis, Alan, and our crew..Jan, Bob, and my friend Mark Bing.  Thanks for making our trip so enjoyable….we had a blast!

First night on the train.  Now how do I describe hauling my fat ass up that tiny ladder to my upper berth sleep station?  Well, it’s better than Bill’s butt falling out of the top bunk in the middle of the night.  So he got the lower berth.  You have to know this part.  The entire cabin was about 10′ long and about 6′ wide.  With suitcases and small table…that doesn’t leave much room.  Each room had a toilet and sink.  This area was 3′ by 3′.  Talk about claustrphobic!  Pooping in there was worse than being in the pet scan tube!  My next pet scan I’ll be laughing my rear off thinking about the train bathroom adventures.  The second night on the train I told Bill to move over.  My body was not climbing that ladder again.  The night before I had my wig perched on the ceiling of the toilet along with my glass of wine.  Hell, I wasn’t going to come down for anything and have to go back up.  Well, I gave in when I had to pee.  But I cussed myself all the way down and back up.  So the second night, Bill slept with his head at  one end and mine at the other.  Don’t ask…a pictures worth a 1000 words…and believe me there is no Facebook floating pictures of that!!!  The ride back was just as beautiful.  Lots of snow until we came to the bottom of the mountains.

So ends the first part of our trip.  Hope everyone has been well and had a good week.  We see Reba tomorrow at the rodeo.  Can’t wait for that.  Have a great rest of the week and I’ll be back tomorrow will more on the trip.  Missed you all.

Ride,Baby,Ride!

Leilani

Well, the big rodeo is back in town and I have heard that the cook off last night was a blast.  Wish I could have been there but Lani is out of town for a few days and will be back Sunday evening.  Visiting her boyfriend in South Carolina.  I am so happy when she gets to get away from it all.  She is such a trooper and I can’t imagine what I would have done without her.  Anyway, hope everyone that goes to the cook off this weekend has a couple of beers for me.  And don’t forget the food!!!!!   Ride,Baby,Ride!!!!

Bill and I leave for Oakland on Monday.  Going on my train ride through the Sierra’s and then back to Oakland.  I can’t wait.  I haven’t slept on a train since I was a kid.  I still remember how much I loved it.  Riding through the mountains of California and Nevada ought to be awesome.  Thanks to our doctor and friend Mark Bing who owns his own train car the “Silver Iris” and was nice enough to share.  If you go on line and search for Silver Iris you can see what the train car looks like.  My big feat coming up is to let Magoo (dad) know we are leaving.  I can only imagine what illness he will come up with.  Poor Lani, she will be in charge.  I have recruited several others to help.  Libby (my sis-in-law)  is house sitting for our friends Linda and David so she is out of commission.  It, no doubt, will take about 4 others to take her place.  I will send a Monday Update before I leave and let everyone in on how Magoo takes the news!  I hope there is a lot of wine on that train!  I’m sure there will be ….Mark knows me well!

Hugs,

Leilani

How fun are mammograms????  I say this every time but there has to be a better way.  With all the new technology out there you know there has to be some male behind this getting revenge in some way for women naggers.  Here is a woman, (now a man doing this it might give me a little dignity) but this woman who you’ve never met, manipulates your bazooma’s for or 30 minutes or so.  Fully squashing, squeezing, squishing, clasping, flattening, deflating, compressing, clutching, and pinching the knockers so that they feel like a Minute Maid orange does while being made into juice.  So here I am stripped from waist down, wig hanging on for dear life, and a hospital gown opened at the front.  Now, why a gown?  At one point I had both “barrels” up there at the same time.  And Yogi Bear nipple band aids?  Really?  (What do you do for a living?….I manufacture nipple band aids)!  If I am going to wear a nipple band aid I want George Strait’s picture on it.  Anyway,  I wanted to tell my breast cancer friends that I will have to do this twice a year from now on.  One mammogram and one breast MRI.  There is an option to remove the ta-ta’s to avoid breast cancer, which as you all know I am at high risk of with the BRCA 2 positive mutation.  But Dr. Bevers says to wait a while and lets fight this ovarian stuff first.  I have come to the conclusion…women could avoid a whole lot of headaches if they would just have all female parts removed after the child bearing business.  I mean wow, I think I could have certainly lived without the reproductive parts and the only person that would be upset about losing the “hooters” would have been Bill.  But I want to thank Jennifer the tech and Martha the nurse for being so sweet and trying to make it a good experience.  Martha’s niece just found out that she has stage 3 ovarian cancer.  Please send prayers out to her.  I am not sure of her name but the Lord knows who you mean!

Looking forward to getting a new week started.  Lots to do.  Talked with my website guru, Tony, yesterday and he has added Facebook and working on adding the sale of Ride,Baby,Ride t-shirts to the site.  Many of you have been asking me when they will be on the website for sale…so real soon.  There is even a book/t-shirt deal if you get both.  Thanks for all the support.  We are slowly raising money for MD Anderson ovarian cancer research.  I have a lunch date from Kristine with MD on Tuesday to get the money in MD’s hands.  I’ll get everyone the info as it becomes available. 

Hugs from Fulshear,

Leilani 

Hi all,

All went well at my white cell injection yesterday.  Poured rain all the way there and back.  Never fails when we have to hit the road for chemo or an appt. of some kind.  Lani was my chauffeur since Bill was busy tending to the horses and the barn.  We endured the rain and had lunch at Luby’s Cafeteria and ran several errands. 

Bill and I have heard from so many of you that we met on our trip.  Bill played 3 card poker with a very nice lady named Janet from Minnesota.  I sat behind them in the cheering section since I am not much of a gambler.  (I like video poker.  Simple and easy to get up from if you start losing)!  Anyway we heard from Janet and from Julia who was with a group of young ladies from Texas that we sat next to at Wolfgang Puck’s in the MGM Grand.  By the way best linguine and clams I have ever had. 

Today will be a slow relaxing day.  Bones ache from the injection and lots to catch up on.  Lani and I are going over ideas for our book and can’t wait to really get it started.  Bill has been sent on more errands.  Should take him a few hours today.  I think I’ll take the phone off the hook.  The boy needs to learn to fend for himself…right?  I had several comments about males in grocery stores too.  The funnies are endless.  Go figure.

On Thursday I have been notified that I have a mammogram scheduled.  This is part of the BRCA testing trials stuff.  Hopefully all will go well and I won’t have to worry about the ta-ta’s.  I mean, how many body parts can one dispose of????  Bill and I need to go back to Vegas and revisit Madame Tussuad’s wax museum.  In there it is all pretend and I could pretend I have a whole body again.  Man, the figures they created in wax were remarkable.  So real looking.  Even scary at times.  But I had my picture taken with one of my favorites.  Dean Martin and the Rat Pack.  Awesome….He didn’t care if I was missing parts!

I’ll report more after Thursday’s mammogram.  Stick with me…I need those prayers to keep coming.  You are my backbone and friends are God’s way of telling us we are loved.

Ride,Baby,Ride!

Leilani

Just an update on how chemo went.  No rashes this time and no nausea thanks to the steroid drugs they give you.  So I guess add a few more pounds to this “ole heifer”.  One more to go…and maybe some of the puffy look will disappear.  If not Dr. Bevers and I are going to have a longgggg discussion on the subject.   Sent Bill to the Italian place on the corner by chemo to pick up lunch and had a huge spinach salad and some baked spaghetti.  Had plenty left over for dinner.  Knew I wouldn’t feel like cooking.   Had the typical first night of chemo though.  No sleep…housework time.  Finally took an hour snooze about 7AM.  Then back at it again.  Sent Bill to the store to keep him out of my hair..well out of my bald head.  Anyway…OUT!  Three hours of peace.  Well, almost.  He called three times because he couldn’t find stuff in the grocery store.  On the third time I said doesn’t anyone work at the grocery store anymore…someone who knows where things are?  Reminds me of the time when I was still working he called me to ask me where the mayo was in the fridge.  I told him exactly.  He called back could not find it.  When I got home I opened the door and there it was right next to the milk where I said it was.  Do you know he actually accused me of planting it there!  He got out of the hospital 3 days later.

So back to cleaning and cooking for the next few days.  I know the tired part and foggy feeling is on it’s way.  Talk to you all Monday on the update.  Ran across a quote that I really liked from an unknown author.  It goes like this:

Do what makes you happy. Be with who makes you smile.  Laugh as much as you breathe.  And love as long as you live.

Ride,Baby,Ride!

Leilani