HAPPY!! HAPPY!! JOY! JOY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOY!

My dear daughter, Joy is having a birthday! She was 5 years old when this picture was taken! She is just as sweet and beautiful now at 32 as she was at 5!

My "new" car!

Here is my "new" car. I will miss my little red Saturn! But now I have a blue Saturn. It is a 2003 L200 and only had 56,000 miles on it and had only one owner.

Damages to car

Here is what my car looked like when they loaded it on to the flat bed. Notice the windows are all broken out. Check out the last picture of the front tire!

My car lost in freak accident

Yesterday, September 30th started out pretty good. I drove into town to take my dog to the groomer, had coffee with my sister, applied for a job as a substitute teacher, then, because I still had time to kill before I could pick up my dog, went to Marshalls to do a little Christmas Shopping. I was in the store about 20 minutes. By this time it was about 12:30 and I decided to go get some lunch. I walked out of the store and saw an ambulance, several police cars, two fire engines and a local tv news truck. HMMMMM! What could have happened here? All these vehicles were blocking the view of my parking spot. When I could finally see my car I could not believe my eyes!

Here are photos of the scene.




The red car is mine. The Ford F150 demolished the side of my car and pushed it into the Land Rover, which took care of the other side. Notice the wheel of the truck is on the hood of the Toyota SUV.

The Land Rover and SUV were able to drive away. My car had to be placed on a flat bed because the suspension system was destroyed. I just heard from the body shop. My car will be totaled, sigh......

Now begins the insurance mess! I am sitting around waiting on phone calls from my insurance company who is contacting the Ford F150 owner to demand they pay for an auto rental for me until they can get me another car.

I loved my car! It only had 60,000 miles, no dings and got over 30 miles per gallon!

WHY ME?

Hawaii At Last!

I just returned from my visit to see my son in Hawaii. He lives on Oahu up in the mountains, a region called Tantalus. Absolutely gorgeous! The photo above was taken at Paradise Cove where we attended a Luau. It was fun and the food was great!


This is a photo of the North Shore beach...my favorite beach. Hardly anyone was there. But apparently in the winter months the waves get very big and this is a favorite beach for surfers. We saw about 10 sea turtles swimming in the surf and just as we were going to leave, one of the turtles decided to come out of the water. Here is the photo of the turtle.

My son, Geoff, lives high above Honolulu in the rain forest. Below are some photos of the view of Honolulu from the road he travels daily to get to work.


There was so much to see. I took over 250 photos. Here are some of them. The plant life and the trees were incredible.
This was taken on a trail not far from Geoff's house. The roots of these trees are incredible!

Check out the root system of this Chinese Banyan tree!!!!

This is one of the flowers growing in Geoff's little garden in front of his house.Besides the turtle, I really didn't get many photos of animal life. But here are a few.

This is Geoff's little "jungle kitty"
Can't leave out the sunsets and the Hula Girls

I had such a wonderful time. Geoff took me out to eat a lot and was such a great host! I had lots of fish, Chinese food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, Hawaiian food (I tried poi...once) and one of my favorite things was the Ahi burger and garlic fries we had a little place near the North shore.

I look forward to another visit soon.....if the airline prices ever go down!

Chemo Is Over

I had my last (hopefully, forever!) round of chemo on April 16th! WhooooHoooo! My PET scan showed I am clear! So no more prednisone, thank goodness! I hate that stuff! I am still not over it's effects!

I have to thank everyone at the UNM Cancer Center in Las Cruces! They are a wonderful bunch of people....always ready and willing to answer any question at any time.

I will still have to go in every six months for 2 years for a Retuxan treatment. It is a targeting drug. It is supposed to ensure that the cancer does not come back.

I have gained weight and am eating like a normal person again. When I started the chemo treatments I weighed 110 lbs. Now, I weigh about 130 lbs. Some of this might come off after all the drugs clear my system. The prednisone causes a lot of bloating and swelling (mostly around my middle!). I never thought I would be happy to put on weight! Now I need to get on an exercise regime.

I am going to visit my son, Geoff, in Honolulu on June 18th. I will be gone for three weeks! I plan to take some leisurely hikes and lie on the beach a lot! I think the sea water will be really good for me. We have had absolutely no rain since December here in the desert! Our humidity ranges on the average at about 5%. It will be nice to get my skin hydrated again! I am really looking forward to this trip!

I will probably post again while I am in Hawaii and will include some photos! So, until then, Aloha!

The Wonders of Chemotherapy

It has been a while since I have posted to my blog. I have been busy undergoing chemotherapy for MALT gastric lymphoma. Surprisingly, it has been a very positive experience. For those of you who know me, I have been losing weight over a 2 year period and could not find a doctor who would actually look at everything and do a diagnosis. So, I went to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The doctors there actually listened to me and did the appropriate tests and came up with the diagnosis of MALT gastric lymphoma.

I have just finished my third round of chemo at the UNM Cancer Center in Las Cruces. The doctors and staff there are incredible! They are available for questions 24-7. They answer emails. They actually answer their phones personally! Because the Prednisone tablets I have to take were so unpalatable, the UNM Cancer Center pharmacist, Traci, actually crushed them up and put them in gel capsules for me and now I am able to swallow them without experiencing the foul taste! The idea for the gel caps came from my dear friend, Carolyn, who is always watching out for me.

Here is the wonderful part of all this. The chemo has not made me sick. I have had no nausea and no vomiting. The Prednisone, which I take for 5 days at the beginning of my chemo treatment, is apparently having a good effect on my appetite. I have gained 15 lbs since the start of chemo! I am eating well for the first time in 2 years. For the past two years I could eat only small amounts of food and then would experience nausea attacks. My doctor in Arizona said I was actually starving. Now I feel better than I have in 2 years! That is not to say that the chemo doesn't make me tired and lethargic, but that part only lasts from 5 to 10 days.

I have, however, lost my hair! No big deal, it will grow back! And I am having fun wearing all kinds of hats and big earrings! My other dear friend (since 3rd grade), Martha, came for a visit and was with me for my last chemo. She brought me a variety of hats and scarves to play with.

I want to thank all my local friends for being so supportive during this process! Diane, you are my rock! You are always ready to help. And Cathy and Mary Helen, thanks for all the phone calls to check up on me.

And finally, to my two wonderful offspring, Geoff and Joy, although you are so far away you call almost daily to check in and make sure I am alright. I am so blessed to have such wonderful children!

Prospects for 2008

2008 is here and I have some health issues to take care of. I have been going back and forth to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona since October. I have had a lot of tests done and they finally came up with a diagnosis in December. I have what is known as MALToma or MALT lymphoma, a non-hodgkins lymphoma in the stomach. That was quite a shock to hear! No one in my family has ever had cancer and I wasn't prepared. So, I begin chemotherapy on January 14th. I will hopefully be through with chemo by the beginning of May. After that, I hope I can begin to put on weight again and feel like eating again.