week of 11-21 July

Week of 11-21 July
First, the week of 11-18 July I determined to do something about my weight. It has been 5 years since the cancer and I was feeling strong enough that I could finally face the challenge and discipline of weight loss. I talked about my several options for approaching this with my dear friend and chiropractor, Dawn, and she really encourage me to be under medical supervision for the diet, with my past history. That made sense to me too; I went to see a Dr that she recommended. The diet made sense too, while it was a drastic reduction in calories, the food was all good and followed good nutrition practices. I mainly had to give up empty calories, diet soda, breads, most diary, etc. The diet actually was using the same food groups I need to eat for my blood type. So starting 11 July, I went cold turkey with diet sodas and chocolate from diet. I suffered caffeine and general food withdrawal, but everyday got better. Even though the food withdrawals were strong, I also had to admit that I was never hungry.
Friday, July 18, I was beginning to feel really good. I reached a stopping point on the project I have been working on for months a little after 3. Good thing, too, because mentally I was done. I was relaxing trying to figure out what I was going to do for the next 50 minutes. I was also thinking about how good I was feeling. I even said to myself, I haven’t felt this good in a long time. Just as I had spoken, I felt like I had been hit by a flash of lightning. It felt like a flash of fire went through my breast that had been affected by the cancer from my surgery scar to the other side of the breast; basically the entire area that had been radiated.
If that wasn’t scary enough, at the same time, I heard a male voice say powerfully, No You won’t feel good. As one side of my body tried to relax, the other side tightened up. That was so real, so unnerving. It made me feel very unsettled.
Immediately, after the flash of fire, I began to be chill. I suffered the worst chills I have had in a long time. I decided I had to do something and maybe I just needed to walk it off. I headed off to our store, which is on the other side of the building to get some power water. I could tell immediately that something was wrong, my gait was about a 1/3 of what it had been just 10 minutes. Several people stopped me on the way there and back to ask if I was alright, that I didn’t look well. At the time all I could do was chalk it up to the changes in my diet. When I got back to my office, I was so cold that I dug out a pair of socks. I called my brother to let him know that I was not feeling good. When it was finally time to go home, all I wanted to do was get there safely.
In a rare moment of reaching out, when I got home I called my parents and my Dad came and stayed until I had settled down a little, about 10 that night. Friday –Sunday I had chills, fever and my body ached all over. My breast that felt like it had been hit by lighting was still on fire and very sore to touch. I stayed wrapped up all weekend. All of the symptoms seemed like the flu, but it just didn’t feel like the flu.
Monday morning some of the pain, and chills had subsided, but I still felt bad. I was determined to find out what was wrong. That was before I changed out of my night gown. When I took of my gown, I almost passed out. My right breast and most of my right side down to my waist, was almost maroon. While I never had any pain or range of motion reduction from the removal of lymph nodes under my right arm, suddenly I couldn’t raise that arm and I had pain in that area. The entire surface area that was involved in the treatment of the cancer was on fire. I knew something was wrong.
I started with the Doctor that was monitoring my diet, since that was the newest thing I had added to my life. Her office said come on in and we will work you in.

what a bizzare couple of weeks

July 31, 2008
Today, I felt strong enough to sit at the computer for a while. I really appreciate those of you who have been praying for me, and I apologize to those of you that didn’t get the word, but things have been a little crazy. On Friday, July 18, around 3:12, I was struck with a cellulitis infection in the breast that had been affected by cancer. It has been one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Because so much has happened I am going to break it up into several blogs.
The most important aspect of my story is for you to learn about cellulitis. It is a condition that is not rare, but it is not common. It is serious. You are more prone to this condition if your immune system has been impaired, in my case I do not have lymph nodes on my right chest , you have diabetes or an open wound that moves into staph or strep.
Please take a moment to look at these symptoms I have copied from a University of Virginia website. If you ever experience these symptoms, get to a doctor immediately. I didn’t take action sooner, because I just couldn’t relate my symptoms to anything. I know better know.
Here is the website that I found general information about cellulitis.
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_derm/cell.cfm
If you would like to read about cellulitis and the breast, I found this web site from the New England journal of medicine. PLEASE BE AWARE THERE IS A VERY GRAPHIC PHOTO OF WHAT THIS CONDITION LOOKS LIKE, DON’T GO THERE IF YOU MIGHT BE OFFENDED.
One of the things that made this very scary is that there is a form of breast cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer usually grows in nests or sheets, rather than as a confined, solid tumor and therefore can be diffuse throughout the breast with no palpable mass. The cancer cells clog the lymphatic system just below the skin. Lymph node involvement is assumed. Increased breast density compared to prior mammograms should be considered suspicious
So we did a mammogram and an ultrasound which showed only the cellulitis. In addition I have responded to the antibiotic, which is a good sign for it not to be cancer. I will have several follow-up visits in the next 6 months for to be sure.
And now…
I spent Tuesday-Friday of last week in the hospital. I have given enough blood, I should have earned a t-short of some sort. I am undergoing 3 weeks of IV antibiotic treatment. Last Friday, they installed a picct line and sent me home with a week’s worth of antibiotic that I administer twice a day. In fact I am taking a treatment as I write this. It is really pretty simple, the drugs screw on the line.
Every day I feel a little better, the pain on my side has almost subsided. My coloring has really improved, most of the discoloration is gone from my abodomen and my breast color has drastically improved. But I tire easily. I hope to go back to work sometime next week, although managed disability has approved me to be off until 17 August, yeah!
I am going to post this to my blog, Keep checking my blog, I’ll write the details there. After all there were some pretty funny moments.
Please become familiar with the symptoms and how prone you might be to this condition. I guess the biggest lesson I learned is that if I suddenly feel really bad, there is a real reason for it and I need to check it out.

Why I am fascinated with puffy white clouds

I figured out this week why I am so fascinated with puffy white clouds. It has seemed like this summer has been just a long blue sky with beautiful puffy white clouds.

Here is what came to mind this week, it is pretty simple -- whip cream

My newest photo contest entries

I entered a photo in the latest Kimbell Art museum photo contest. It is a photo from our last family reunion, with some artest stuff done to it. I cheated and didn't get permission from my family. I hope they won't mind! There is a Renior painting we were suppose to use as the inspiration. If you want to go out and check the site and vote for my photo!. I am really excite, even though I am not in the top 3, the two folks who took the time to write a comment wrote really neat ones.

Here is the link: http://impressionists.kimbellart.org/contest/contest-2/page/2/

Here are 2 others I thought of entering, the one of the left is some of my Pathway classmates,

the one on the right is at my friend's retirement lunch. I really like it the most, but felt the family reunion was the best representive of the inspiration painting. If you click on the photo you can see a larger view,

Last week in Orlando

Last week I spent 5 days in Orlando on a business trip. I didn't feel like it was very ethical to blog about the trip until I had completed my trip report. I finished and mailed it today. I am glad my retirement is growing closer, because the glowing recommendations I made about the mainframe and other things are not going to score any points. The conference was good, but it did not make me want to extend my working career. This photo was taken at a break, I really thought those clouds looked like something, I just can't remember what it was.

My rent-a-car had both an easy pass and a sun pass to get through the Florida tolls. How cool is that! If you take the Magic Express Bus to the Disney properties you miss all the tolls. But if you drive anywhere at all, there is a toll about every mile and 1/2, some of them are exact change only. Traveling, I seldom have a lot of change, so a toll sign could send terror through me. Working for the government, I hardly ever get to stay at the conference hotel. This trip my hotel was about 15 minutes (in no traffic) away and 2 toll booths. It was so much fun to scoot around the traffic breeze through the easy pass booth. The charge on your bill is $1.50 a day. If I had payed the regular tolls it would have been at least $3 bucks a day, not to mention the times I went the wrong directions. I took the money I saved and got an ice cream on Wednesday afternoon.

Sunday-Wednesday, I concentrated on the conference and good thing, because it rained everyday. I was so glad I didn't have little children who had dreamed of having a great time at Disney world. I did play the license plate game. Do you every play it? It is a little hard to do by yourself on the road, but it is doable. A couple of weeks ago on a Friday afternoon at a traffic light in the middle of Duncanville I was surrounded by about 8 different states license plates. I couldn't believe it, after all I was in Duncanville.

The first challenge of the license plate game is being able to list all 50 states. Thank goodness for USA Today, where you can cheat and find that 1 missing state. The best place to play is walking through parking lots. If I ever get picked up for suspicious behavior, will you all step up and say she was just playing the license plate game? By Wednesday evening I had about 20 states.

Thursday morning, I transcribed my hand written notes to my lap top, so I wouldn't have to carry that paper with me. I had an afternoon flight and 3/4 of a tank of gas that I had paid for.

With the overcast weather, I decided to drive to Tampa to see the West Coast. (Several years ago, I went to the east coast from Orlando). I couldn't believe it when I passed a car with Alaska plates! Not long after I passed a truck with Maine plates! Since there is a lady a work who has recently returned from working in Hawaii and still has Hawaii plates, I have decide to extend the game through the summer.

(click on the photo and look at the electric lines in the distance on the right. This is one of the ways you know you are close to the 'magic worlds'.)

I wasn't exactly sure what I would see when I got to Tampa or how much time I would have. I knew how long it took me to get to Tampa and when I would have to start back. At the end of I4, there is a 7 mike bridge across a body of water. (About a mile before the bridge there was a sign that warned you to check your gas, long bridge ahead.) I decided it was Tampa Bay, I was crossing, on one side the bay, the other side the gulf. I had just enough time on the other side to find a restroom and a snack and head back.

I managed to find my way back to Orlando and the airport in plenty of time. I have flown in and out of Orlando several times, I have to say Thursday afternoon is a great time to leave Orlando from a security perspective. I was able to walk straight to the bins and start removing my shoes. Most of the times there are long lines that snake back and forth. But it rains often in the afternoon, which it did Thursday creating a delay on our departure. It is okay if you have a straight flight, but everyone that had connecting flights had some real problems.

I had a great book to read. My sister-in-law recommended it to me, EAT, PRAY and LOVE. I probably wouldn't have ever picked it up on my own. While we were in the air, I read the section on praying which told the story of the lady's stay in India at the temple of her Guru. At a critical point one of her friends takes her to the highest point in the temple and gives her a list of questions to answer through the night to bring her closer to God. I took a break from the printed page to look out the plane's window. Looking out at the fluffy white clouds, it took my breath away to realize I was at 30,000 feet- just about the highest a normal human can reach. There was no reason I couldn't answer those questions for myself. As my heroine reached for her God on the top on the temple, I was able to reach for mine amidst the clouds in the sky. It was pretty magical...

I was listening to my MP3 player, and the last song I heard before we had to turn off electronic material was one of my favorites, "I'm ready to fly."

At DFW on the bus ride to the remote parking lot, I was fascinated to realize I had used 4 of the major modes of transportation during that day, car, train (at the Orlando airport between terminals) and now bus. I tried to figure out if there was anyway I could get into a boat before the day was over, but I wasn't that clever. However, if you were staying at the Disney property, you could get up and take the boat between hotels or one of the attractions and achieve the feat of using 5 of the major modes of transportation in one day.

Fortunately, I arrived home to a house and pets intact. All in all not bad trip...