There comes a time in everyone’s life that you’d just like a week to end and a new one begin.  This last week was like a satellite crossing the sky among all the stars.  Mostly confused and not shining as bright as the heavens around it.  Definitely trying not to crash into anything.  Starting at one horizon, passing through and disappearing on the opposite side of the universe.  Giving a “high five ” to the moon as it hurries, temporarily hiding behind it and then to reemerge and finding itself again.   So was the trials of Leilani during the Friday 13TH week.   

The chemo fog lifted at it’s usual time.  But the nausea and light headiness lingered a little longer than I would have liked for it to.  Not sure if it’s due to the extra poisoning session or just my brain telling “me here we go again”.  But then as with every chemo session  “THE CHALLENGE” showed up.  Always a challenge to get your heart pumping, the body racing, and the mind thoroughly pissed off!  The saga of the dreaeded toilet seat!!!!  We change out the toilet seat often because of chemo.  It is always clean but in the chemo manuals they suggest trading out seats after your chemo sessions are over.  OK so be it.  Now in the middle of the night…nature calls.  I run into the bathroom, hurry to lower the PJ bottoms and proceed to slide from one side of the john to the other and off into the magazine rack located on the floor.  Let’s see how can I describe the crash.  The toilet seat had become very loose….it slid with me.  The crash sounded like an explosion of a fireworks factory.  Moochie and Starr started barking, the toilet paper holder was in my hand, completely dismantled from the wall, the wet wipe container was underneath me….smashed and the picture on the wall had fallen down into the bowl.  (The picture is of red roses….it looked like I was trying to water them).  Are you ready….I know you already know….Bill didn’t hear a thing!  So I just left everything the way it was and waited for “Mr.Fix It” to rise and shine.  I do not know which was louder the actual crash or him making the discovery.  That’s one good way of getting an all new toilet room!  FYI, new seat is so comfy. 

On Saturday for the first playoff games we had a few friends over to watch, eat, drink, and have fun.  Our good friends Linda and David, Mark and Patsy and niece Allie, Dusty, Michele, Casey, Christina, Aunt Libby, and of course my side-kick Lani.  Magoo came in and out.  Mostly out which was awesome!  Mark and Dusty had the BBQ duties and everything was so good.  Patsy had made homemade salsa (I’ll get the recipe for everyone and post it…fresh and healthy).  It was really a great time for me.  I had been so bored all week and really needed the family around me.  (Our friends are our family so I just include them as family).  A friend is someone who is there for you when they’d rather be somewhere else.  I treasure my time with them.

Lani and I have an appointment with Dr. Lu at MD Anderson tomorrow.  I’m glad we are getting this part of the detective work done.  Dr. Lu is a genetics expert with BRCA and will guide us on the next things we need to do to help Lani in the future to dodge ovarian cancer.  I met her at the ovarian cancer conference in December and really like her.  I’ll keep all up to date on the progress.

So my friends have a great week and keep flying across that sky.  And please feel free to contact me at anytime.  I love hearing from you and really enjoy the time I spend with you.

Ride,Baby,Ride!

Leilani

Has to be a full moon!!!!  Was pounced upon this  morning at 3AM by our black lab Starr, who was shaking like a leaf due to the thunder and lightning.  So, I had Bill snoring and Starr shaking and lightning striking so close I could see, in the back field, the brown eyes of the cattle shining.  Alarm went off at 6AM.  Time to get up shower and start out for chemo.  One small problem …Fulshear is under a tornado warning until 11AM.  We had hail, rain that was blowing sideways, and wind.  Turns out there was a tornado that touched down in Fulshear.  Finally left for chemo about 9:30.  Without eyelashes I might add.  Blew off the minute I went out the door. Not a good time to wear falsies!  And thank the Lord…we took the Jeep!  Sailed through high water, leaped curbs (when needed) in a single bound, and had people following me like I knew what the hell I was doing.  There would have been a massive explosion of the minds if they knew they were following an ole lady going to chemo! 

Got to chemo and had to give blood and wait for the results.  Finally got started on the miracle juice at 1PM.  First problem..had an allergic reaction to something and turned red all over my chest.  Back to square one.  Second start up was a charm and we were on our way.  Finished up about 7PM and got home about 8-ish.  My special nurses that take care of me are awesome.  Tracy, Betsy, and Susan.  Betsy got to leave early..lucky her.  And Tracy and Susan stayed the duration.  The janitors were there cleaning when we left.  I know Tracy was thinking about leaving and letting the janitor pull the plug on my port.  And she is going to kill me for saying that!!!!!  Love you Tracy!  White cell injection on Wednesday and then through for the week.  Thanks Libby for Magoo (dad) sitting today. 

How about those Texans?  If you didn’t go to the game you didn’t get to feel the excitement of the fans.  The guys did their part and we the fans, did ours.  The noise level was unbelievable.  They said they had to open the roof at the end of the game just to let the noise out!  I think Andy Dalton (Bengals QB) ears are still ringing!  AWESOME JOB!

Special thanks for all of you who e-mailed me today worried because you did not get a Monday Update early this morning.  I don’t know what I would do without such a loyal prayer group and friends like all of you.  Y’all make this cancer thing so much easier.  Thank you Dr. Bevers for your phone call and to my pal Lindsay Bevers for your e-mail.  I am so blessed.

Well, guess I’ll go get the vacuum cleaner out.  First night of chemo is always an active evening.  Yes, and even Dr. Bevers nailed this one, Bill won’t hear a thing.  He’ll just think the cleaning fairy came over night.  I’ll tell him that she cleaned the house naked, bald, and grooving out to the Temptations.  I bet he “stays up” next chemo!  Literally!!! 

An unknown wrote this little saying and I’d like to pass it on.  “It’s not about being who everyone else wants you to be.  It’s about being yourself and finding someone who loves every bit of it”.  Thank you to all of you… for loving every bit of it.  Ride,Baby,Ride!

Hugs from Fulshear,

Leilani

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!  Bill and I welcomed 2012 in with the whole house to ourselves.  Lani is visiting her boyfriend in South Carolina, taking a well deserved break from mom and granddad sitting.  But like every New Year’s Eve we have to dog sit our black lab, Starr, she hates the fireworks.  We just get all nestled up in bed and turn the TV on, volume full blast, so she can’t hear them explode. 

If you haven’t read the news from the pet-scan done on Wednesday…I was not a women real thrilled with the world.  I think I was too high up on the pillow for the scanner.  I will never use a pillow again!  My elbows were hitting the top of the tube.  My nose was like an inch from the ceiling.  My brain was thinking “get me the hell out of here” and I’m sure the things I had to say would have made a sailor blush but no one could hear me.  The machines speaker wasn’t working correctly.  I’m usually not upset about the scans…any of them…and believe me, I’ve had them all.  But I was ready to destroy a pet-scan machine!!!  Anyway, I guess I’ll get the results on Wednesday when I see Dr. Bevers.  No news is good news…right????

I started my 2012 cleaning on Saturday while I was cooking black-eyed peas and corned beef and cabbage.  The kitchen pantry was the first to receive my wrath of determined cleaning.  Cans, outdated sugar, unwanted foods, were tossed to make room for the new.  If you don’t remember, before Thanksgiving I encountered a mouse that I named “Minniemick” in my bathroom.  Well, now I know how it was getting it’s nourishment.  The master of all rodents had grazed in my pantry during the nights and slept all snug and warm in my closet by day.  The Ramon soup had been gnawed on,  my sacred Hershey’s Cocoa had been sabotaged, my favorite Lipton’s “extra noodle” soup in the packets had been destroyed and last but not least my green tea packs had been shredded.  And to top it all off I found it’s “droppings” all in a neat little pile where I guess it did it’s eating or passing out after gorging itself with the buffet.  Talk about Mighty Mouse!  (For those of you too young to remember Mighty Mouse was a popular cartoon on Saturday mornings in the 50’s).

I have made my New Year’s resolution.  Not one of those out of reach, never happen ones.  But one I believe in my heart I will achieve.  First of all Lani and I have started a new book. What fun we are having getting our thoughts together.  And you thought my mind was deranged….the two of us are a real trip!  So one goal is to get this book published.  And the other, very simple….LOVE,LAUGH,LIVE,LEARN!  And it starts with my love for all of you.  Hope you accomplish all your goals and love each day as it were your last.

Ride,Baby,Ride!  Hugs!

Leilani

Good morning and hope no one has a Christmas “hangover”.  I do not mean from drinking either.  I mean from not going berserk. Trying to stay sane… with shopping and crazy people out in masses. Not only in the stores but in the parking lots and on the roads.  Bill and I were driving down Chimney Rock (a major street in Houston)  and some “driving challenged” woman was headed straight for us.  I guess she decided that her side of the road was to busy.  She swerved back in about two car lengths in front of us almost side swiping a poor driver in his Mercedes.  Of course, Bill didn’t have ENOUGH to say about women drivers.  I wish his mouth worked like his ears! 

Even before my two rounds of chemo, my little toenails were almost nonexistent.  Lani and Bill get a big kick teasing me about my little toes nails.  Well, I received a pair of Christmas socks and was putting them on and to my surprise my left little toe got it’s nail caught in the sock.  Now, I have noticed that going through chemo my nails have grown faster than usual.  To me this is kinda crazy because chemo is supposed to kill bad cells as well as some good ones (like one’s hair).  When I clip my toenails I hardly ever had to clip the little one.  Are you ready for this…it ripped the sock!  I was so proud of myself!  Bill and Lani were besides themselves.  It’s amazing how just the smallest things keep them amused.  Lani wet her pants and Bill had to change his “kotex”. (Male Depend’s….  still having to wear them since his surgery, but should be off “the rag” soon)!  It so nice that I can spread holiday cheer by just putting on my socks!

How about Christmas gifts?  Anyone exchanging anything?  Or just keeping them to “re-gift” when the occasion is called for.  My mother was the master of “re-gifting”.  She would keep records with each unwanted gift and then redistribute for birthdays and future Christmas’.  Knowing who gave it to you and who you could give it to.. that the person that gave it to you wouldn’t be present at the time of the second unwrapping.  I’m telling you she had it down to a science.  I actually loved all my gifts this year.  I’m extremely proud of Bill for not giving anything in the “dumb looking”, not wearable in public, non-fitting, colors from hell categories, and re-gifting category.  I think enough hints were dropped and catalogs left on tables, opened to pages with circled items and sizes highlighted that he could actually figure it out.  Even a remote toting, beer can holding hand could pick up the paper trail and get it right!  OMG there is hope for men. 

We gave our friends Linda and David an outdoor camera.  The one’s at Bass Pro that take pictures at night of things in your yard.  Linda cracked me up.  As of the first day, two pictures had been taken.  Neither one a backyard critter.  Linda forgot it was up and it shot pictures of her “little ass” going back and forth.  They had been having trouble with something knocking down a bird feeder in their backyard.  They would put it up and the next morning it was down again.  Their property is backed up to a game reserve so it could be anything.  Glad we didn’t buy ourselves one.  I could get into so much trouble with something like that. 

Hope everyone has a great week.  Pet-scan on Wednesday…I’ll keep you posted.  Happy New Year to all and I hope that your 2012 is blessed with good health, friendship, love, and for our world… a cure for cancer.

Peace and hugs,

Ride,Baby,Ride!!!!

Leilani