A Great Aunt !

I like to think I'm a pretty great aunt. (I know that sounds a little prideful) My niece Candalyn Marble Winder called yesterday to tell us that she is expecting her first child in September so I'm going to be a great aunt. I'm so excited for her!

Thursday I had my first treatment for my last cycle. If all goes well by this time next week I will have completed my chemo. I received the results for the CA-125 blood test. It is a test to track some types of cancers. The preferred range is 0-35 my result is 13. Once again the treatment has affected my feet but they don't seem to be as bad as before.

This afternoon I had a visit for a lady who has been coming to church. I met her the Sunday I went and taught the Gospel Essentials class. We really seemed to connect. Sabrina brought me flowers and dinner. We asked her if she knew much about computers. I'm having problems with my wireless printer. She spent a couple of hours trying to get it to work we had no success :( .

I so appreciate her help!

Visitors

Saturday evening mom received a call. When it came up on caller id it was a Washington phone number. She debated on whether or not to answer it. She went ahead and answered and it was Sheila Murdock. She and her husband were in town an wanted to know if they could come for a visit on Sunday. Mom told her of course they could come. They came by on Sunday afternoon. It was so good to see Sheila and Rich again and to reminisce.

When I was in my teens mom had a small catering business. She used to cater wedding receptions. She did the decorating, flowers, food, cake, favors and such. She hired various teenagers to help. Rich Murdock was one of them. He took a lot of that knowledge that he learned working with mom and has catered weeding receptions where he lives. He said every time he does one he thinks of the times he worked with mom.

As we were visiting he brought up something that he and I did together. When I was a teenager the church used to have dance festivals every other year. The year I was a freshman and he was a senior  was a dance festival year. We went to the same high school. Some how he arranged for me to get out of study hall and we had our own dance festival practice. We went to the cafeteria and practice the Charleston that was performed to Sweet Georgia Brown. We were in a corner of the cafeteria facing the corner. At the end of the dance the guy is to lift the girl up and the girl is to kick her leg up. Well when we finished the run thorough we heard all this applause. Rich turned around and we had an audience. It was a bit embarrassing but is now a fun memory. I wasn't sure if Rich remembered as we were visiting he brought it up so I guess he hasn't forgotten.  It was wonderful to see them again.

Eight AM Wake Up Call Times Two

Tuesday I went and had blood drawn to be tested so I could have my chemo treatment on Thursday.  Wednesday morning I'm sleeping and the phone rings at 8:00 am. It was Dr Song (who I hadn't met yet). She told me my anemia was worse and the Kaiser would be calling to set up the time for a blood transfusion. Ok number four blood transfusion. So Kaiser called to set up the appointment at 12:15 or 1:15. At 1:50 I was to see Dr Song so the blood transfusion was scheduled for 2:15. My wonderful visiting teachers came by for a visit. Mom had called Lisa Zamora to see if she could take me to my appointment and blood transfusion.  I met with Dr Song she is very nice but I still like Dr Jaske better. Dr Song really liked the PET/CT results. She pulled them up and should me the comparison. They were like night and day. She said the second one could not have been better.  So after I saw her I went to have the blood transfusion which takes about six hours. Lisa hung out with me. Through out the transfusion they check your blood pressure. During the transfusion mine went low it got to 71/?. I had three nurses scuring around. They tried both arms and even called the Dr to come see me. All the while I'm talking and alert. It finally came back up and everyone was happy.  So wake up call number two. This morning I'm in bed and Dr Song called again. There was some concern about the platelet count being low. She decided to put off the chemo treatment till next week which is disappointing but that will be the last cycle. So I do see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sorry It Has Been A While

This past week was an off week from chemo treatments, but it was a rough one. I spent all day Saturday in bed, most of Sunday and all of Monday in bed and took lots of naps. The plan this week was to go out to dinner with Sascha Corcoran, Lisa Zamora and Dixie Zinn on Thursday. Lisa called and said she had a meeting on Thursday evening which ended up ok because I really didn't have the energy to go out to dinner. Sascha and Lisa showed up Thursday afternoon. Lisa with a strawberry milkshake and Sascha with her traveling foot soak. It felt so good! My feet are doing better. Heather Judd stopped by yesterday with soup and brownies. It was a nice surprise!! This will be a busy week but the end is in sight.

Valentine's Day Is Coming Early

You know how is seems that the stores are always pushing Halloween and Christmas decorations months before? Well we just had Valentines Day arrive at the Ellington home. While mom and I were watching TV this evening there was a knock at the door. I opened and there on our front porch was the Laurel class from our ward and their leaders. They serenaded us with the song L-O-V-E. Sadie Williams accompanied them with a ukulele and then they each gave us a personalized valentine.  It was such a nice surprise and started Valentine's day right. 

Thanks Laurels!!!!