I Hate Thunderstorms

Damn storms really screwed with my whole radiation schedule. Not only was the machine down Thursday, but it wasn't up on Friday either. That power outage musta really zapped the hell out of something - and what really sucks was that I was mid drive when I found out and I had my mother-in-law and daughter in the car with me. We planned on going to Joann's to buy fabric so she could sew me a few different head scarves. So even though radiation was cancelled I still had to drive into town. Unfortunately I couldn't really postpone the trip either as this is her last week here, and both today & tomorrow I am booked with appointments.

Today I had a follow up with my surgeon Dr. S. She wanted to see how my scar was healing. Things are healing nicely, so I don't need to go back for 3 months. However the last day and a half my dog hasn't been acting well. She's not been eating, she threw up grass, and has just been sad and mopey. Last night I forced some Pepto upon her. I had no problems getting her to drink it, just cleaning up her pink mustache, LOL. Then this morning she still was out of it, and I was told that she was still not eating and wasn't going potty. Must have a stomach blockage, so this morning I forced some Milk of Magnesia and Tylenol upon her. She took it quite well, and by afternoon she was feeling better and finally ate. So tomorrow I take her to the vet for a check up and possibly some shots - then I have radiation - then I meet with Dr. J my plastic surgeon. Yeah fun. Lately I feel like I shouldn't even bother dressing, that I should get my own hospital gown and wear it every where, cause it's not like the appointments will end anytime soon, as I have a list of things to schedule. Oh and I am so tired of all these damn thunderstorms - it stormed like every other hour today! UGH! Hopefully this rain will end soon, or at least not rain during my drive-time!

Hopefully this week won't be as draining on me, and I will be able to blog more =)

As The 9th Draws Near.......

Yesterday I met with my Plastic Surgeon. I have a lot of fears about my upcoming surgery and I wanted his honest opinion. I found out that since I first met with the Surgical Oncologist, my Plastic Surgeon has called his office and requested that he NOT remove my tissue expander unless it was absolutely necessary. Originally when in I was in the Surgical Oncologists office and I told my husband that I didn't want to remove the expander, he though it was vain and told me to stop being so stubborn and do what is right. But both my gut and my Plastic Surgeon feel that there is no reason for the expander to be removed - that if the radiation WERE to cause hard spots, they could do a MRI after my radiation and rule out cancer. Besides, my Plastic Surgeon would be going in as soon as it is okay so he can replace my expander with an implant once I am stretched out to the correct size - so he'll see and remove any hard spots. I feel comfortable with that, and especially privileged that he is looking out for my best interests. I'm really hoping to keep the expander, but I was told don't be surprised if I wake up to find that I no longer have it just because it had to be removed. No one knows for sure until they open me up, what to expect. My Plastic Surgeon also set my mind at ease about my fears of going into surgery with a *new* doctor. He has worked in the past with my Surgical Oncologist, so he is confident that I have found myself a good surgeon. Now we just hope for the best - and though I've prepared for the worst, I'm still not quite ready for 7 weeks of daily radiation!

Spell Check

I'm just curious if anyone else using Blogger is experiencing problems using their spell check?

For quite some time now (probably this whole month.) I have been unable to use spell check and it's really begun to tick me off. As I'm sure you've read there are many times I make spelling errors, cause some nights I type in the dark with just a small night stand type light on. It's hard to see these little keys on the laptop when dark. I think that they should light up like the DVD function keys do.

Anyway, if you are having problems, let me know. I'd like to know if it has happened to others, or if this is just a "me" only problem. LOL.

Also, it seems I will be spending some more time in my scrap studio finishing the organization of it all. I still have mountains of stickers, stamps, and emblies that I have to find a way to organize. I also need to check the sewing machines to make sure they both survived the move and work. I have tons of "in progress" pix I took, that I will post once the room is really in working order. That way I can just post them all at once. But I noticed yesterday that I have an abundance of space, which don't get me wrong, is wonderful - it's just the whole where do I put stuff cause I have so many places and so much room for it all. And if that's not enough, just wait until I actually go through ALL my stamps, paper, and sticker. I have SO many duplicates that I will have to unload some either by ebay or RAK's (random acts of kindness - for those of you that don't scrap.)
Yeah I know, the thought of me and random acts of kindness doesn't sound quite right, but hey, hate to break it to ya, but I can't quite possibly be a bitch 365 days a year - gotta be nice some of the time!
But I'm super excited that finally after months of procrastination, I was able to get most of the work done with the help of my wonderful hubby.....and now he knows far more than he's ever wished about scrapbooking. But now he's helped all he could, the rest is up to me, cause otherwise he might just throw the shit out - but then again he also got a real good feel for approximately how much money has went into that room supply wise, in the form of paper, stickers, punches and stamps. And in an off moment, while taking a break, I caught him using some of my punches to see the shapes they make on paper. It was so funny. He quickly tore up the paper once I caught on to what he was doing. He wanted to get rid of any evidence of him playing with "girlie stuff."
But it's going to take me a lot of motivation to get my ass in there and finish the job, and with Ruben being at work and Natalie being off at school, it will both be an easy and hard task to accomplish. But then again, I'm not scheduled to get any injections this week either. I'm still trying to decide if I should call my surgeon's office and ask to do it this week (or find out if this week was off because he's out of the office.) I also have an appointment on Friday with my pain management doctor. Nothing big, just my monthly visit. I want to go over all my meds with him so I don't have to fear a lethal combination ala Heath Ledger. The visit is also part of the reason I want injections this week - so he can see me in pain, cause these meds while they handle my regular pain, they do ablsolutely nothing to even remotely touch the pain I get the first week after an injection. And that pain is only going to get worse from here on out, as the bigger my new boobs get, the more it will hurt. I don't know how many more injections I will have, but I'd say I'm about a small B not and I'm going to a full D/small DD. I mean hell, if you're going to do it, do it right and go big!. But that's just me - I'd look kind of funny with a DD chest but only weigh 100 lbs. Even when I was in high school I never was skinny, I was average - not skinny, but not fat. Playing softball for 2 years probably had a lot to do with that athletic build.
Of course considering that I've been up since 4am, maybe I should have gotten on the treadmill instead of doing this post. But also, if it's in my head and I don't get it out while it's there, I soon lose it and forget what it was I was ever planning on saying. That's got to be the worst side effect of chemo - inless it's ealry onset of Alzheimer's, which I hope to god it isn't!

It's Times like This....

Not much time to blog today - I have an appointment with my surgeon for what will HOPEFULLY be my first (of many) saline injections - YAY! So keep your fingers crossed that the injections get done today and it's not just another post-op check-up!

In other news, I'm really kicking myself right about now! I have this wonderfully awesome opportunity to get paid to MAKE a scrapbook for someone my hubby works with. The reason I want to kick myself is because back in 2005 when I made this gorgeous custom 8x8 Classic Pooh Album for my friend Joanna, I half-assed it and took photos of the pages while in the book, in the sheet protectors. I recall that at the time I was running late to meet with a friend, so I just quickly took some pictures so I could post then online. I meant to go back and scan each page one by one, but never got the chance as I had just barely finished the album in time to give it to her for Christmas. Now I really wish I had original scans of the pages, as pictures of pages in protectors cannot compare at all - although it will have to do as it is all I have and cannot ask Joanna to scan the pages for me as she has already started placing her photos and jotting down the journaling. It's kind of funny cause in the pictures I took, you can see where I took little sticky tabs and wrote picture with arrows, so Joanna would know where to place the picture and how it should be orientated.
I have so many thoughts swirling in my head. I can't even get my own crap scrapped (of course I need to finish that room once and for all - catch that pesky lizard - and print tons of pictures as I have spent nearly the last 2 years digital!) My biggest problems are what to charge for such a job, and what kind of album? Jo was easy cause her nursery had been in Classic Pooh and I found the album set on clearance - which did not come with enough paper to even cover the sheets in the book, so I had to get creative on how I used the pattern paper and since I could not find any other paper that matched (or came close!) I used some fabric I bought from Joann's. I put a lot of time planning out that album - and I'm so excited to think that someone else wants my services, even when I can't get published or become a design team member (although you would have to actually complete and submit work for stuff like that!)
once I get the info and see what I can find, I will keep you posted. What a great opportunity for me. Oh, I'll also post later how the doctor's visit is!

Whatsa going on around here

It's funny cause I was sitting here thinking what do I put for a title for this entry???? I don't know if any of you have seen Rock of Love with Bret Michaels , but he tends to say the phrase "Whatsa going on" a lot - yes I'm a watcher. Anyway, that's where that came from. So, now on to other things.....
I was sitting here when I realized I hadn't posted since my appointment on Wednesday. I've been a little pre-occupied, which I will get into in a sec.
This is what I learned at my appointment - that the reason he hasn't sewn the wound shut is because he's waiting for it to heal from the inside out. He thinks it should take about a month, which is when I go back to see him. After it has healed, he anticipates cutting me open in a new area, and placing a tissue expander - so, no, he claims he will not make me wait a year to start recon again. Once that expander is in, and I am healing right, THEN he plans on starting my saline injections. So basically I have to wait a month and hope and pray this thing heals right in the meantime, so I can go through surgery again, then I have to hope and pray that it heals with no problems, so that I can start getting injections and grow boobs. Ya follow me? So that's the plan, and I'm all in. My biggest fear is not healing correctly, or having to wait a year - but he assured me that he has no intentions of doing that to me. He won't start the injections now because he doesn't want me to be lop-sided like I have been for the past 2 years. So keep those fingers crossed that I heal up soon!
Now on to the reason I have been pre-occupied. I know I said I would wait to buy it on Ebay or something, but after my appointment, I made Ruben take me to a bookstore so I could buy Blonde Ambition. I know, I am so terrible. I am in the process of reading it now. I'm almost half-way through with it. So far I haven't read anything shocking, but we'll see what happens. I'm also no legal expert, but it seems she covers her ass well. Almost everything she writes is third party info. Kinda like I heard from a friend who heard.....blah, blah, blah. I still hope she gets nailed big time for writing this. I'm all Team Larry and doubt that there is anything she can say or do to change my mind about that - but I haven't gotten to the whole gay sex tape part. So like I said, well see what happens and how this all ends.
I also stopped into an AT&T store about my phone. I haven't bought a new phone yet cause mine suddenly quit acting up - but I did get it all straightened out that if I were to get a new phone, I could just go ahead and sign a new 2 yr. contract and get it for the advertised new 2 yr. contract price. So at least I have options. But I'm going to see how it goes. I may wait it out (as long as it is working fine) and changes services when my current contract is up. I was looking into Helio and it is a damn good deal and an awesome looking phone. So we'll wait and see about that as well.
Other than that all things are good. I have another album I finished "gluing", and need to take photos of it and post them. Natalie is feeling better, but has now gotten Uncle Danny sick. I am still stuck in bed healing and I'm bored (guess that's why I'm reading this book!) - plus I want to stay away from all this cold crap. I don't need to get sick, nor do I want to. Nothing to hinder my healing. I gotta play it safe. It sucks, but once healed and all is said and done and I have those nice big perky boobs I will be happy that I took things easy. So anyway, back to my book. Hopefully I will be done in time to see the VMA's to catch Britney's comeback performance, LOL!