Cyan Goes Wild!

What can you say . . . snow brings out the best in her . . . and Barak

Keeping up with Crafting Something

For my birthday last year, my friends Ana and Ravi gave me a cupcake decorating book.  During this last burst of treatments, while in house arrest and going out of my mind because my motor and cognitive functions have been out of whack . . . I needed some inspiration.  The directions promised to be for novice decorators.  You be the judge.

From the “TV Dinner Collection” Chicken Drumstick, Chocolate Pudding, Peas and Carrots, and Mashed Potatoes. 

These went to the staff at the Radiation office as well as my Onc practice who are the regular recipients of my cupcakes.

Round 2 was a bit harder, but at least I had the rhythm right.  I knew what I was getting myself into.  Instead of trying to my 50 . . . I only made about 20 cupcakes and I don’t think they need any explanations. 

 

Life, Craft, Snow, in Reverse – Forward, Who knows??

 

We had a massive snow storm over the weekend of December 19th-20th and our dog Cyan loved it.  Barak loved taking her out on the long leash and letting her romp around in the snow.  Then she just wanted to sit in the snow all day long.  Here are some photos.

Israel August 09

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As you will see, our trip was full of seeing Barak’s family, mostly spending time with his sister Inbal and baby Uri.  We went for a walk in a new park in Herzliya (just a bit north of Tel Aviv) with Inbal, Uri, Avner (Uri’s Dad), Barak’s Mom, and our niece Nof who came in from Jerusalem.  Later that night, Nof, Barak, and I went out to eat shawarma and falafel at one of the local places in Netanya (B’s hometown).  There’s also some pics of us eating a rather large lunch on Shabbat at a place called Eunice.  Typical Mediterranean fair with lots of salade and pita and shish kebab and me drinking signature Lemon Nana (lemonade with mint).

New Blog Editor - - - Trial and Error

I’m trying out a new editor . . . much easier for me to use and understand than the blogger one and I thought I’d give you something to look at . . . Honeymoon Photos!!!

To give a little background . . . We started in NYC, then pics on the ship, then Turks and Caicos, then the cruise company’s private island in the Bahamas and then Nassau.  We were onboard for 9 days.

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Trust and You Shall NOT See!

So . . . I was working all day long on my photos and the website that I loaded them on had a “glitch” and now they are lost in cyberspace.  If you recall, the last time I downloaded and edited a significant amount of photos, for our honeymoon in June, my computer’s motherboard crashed and I ended up waiting until my beautiful new desktop arrived to finish working on them.  After uploading 316 photos of Brussels, Uri, hummus, and some random things around Israel, I am again disappointed.  Maybe I should just take less than 50 pictures per occasion an just call it a day!

Home and back to the routine!!

We're home . . and things are shaping up to feel like a usual August summer on the eastern seaboard. It's hot and humid and humid and humid. After a 6 hour lay-over in Paris, our 8 hour flight to Philly left me with a major headache which put me to bed at 3pm and wake at 5am. I rested and tried to get some fluids in me by the time I went to chemo at 12nn.

There's about 10 days between now and when school starts here at Haverford. B is working hard on his writing and sending out his book which conveniently came during our trip. He was very excited to open the box with his 10 copies when we returned. He's officially on Amazon.com.

Chubby Time!

Today is our second day in Israel and I've had more food in 48 hours than I usually do in a week. We've spent most of our time sleeping (very nice) and eating, and Barak has been Chubby's personal sleeping bag of sorts. After being quite hesitant to hold him, Barak picked up Uri while he was crying on Wednesday night and Uri fell fast asleep on his uncle's huge chest. Now Barak is deemed the official baby nurse. Last night when Barak tried to put Uri back in his bassinet, Uri began a protest and back to Barak he went.

This afternoon it was about 90 degrees and we went for a walk in downtown Netanya -- Barak's hometown. The streets were full of French and Russian tourists and by 1pm, they were all heading back to their flats to take a nap and get ready for shabbat. Tonight, with his parents, we will head over to Barak's sister's for dinner with her & Avner, and his mother, Rena and sister Osnot.

More than Cancer . . . What a Concept ?!?!?!

Sometimes, I forget that my life is more than just dealing with cancer. I know, I know. Not really awesome thinking, but honest. My life moves in 3 week time-tables with the side-effects of each treatment carefully taken into account and the larger chunks of life are planned according to the 3 month spans between scans. That's just the way life goes now. I can't think of any other way to approach life anymore. I'd like to hope it's the antidepressants that make it difficult for me to conceptualize time that knew no boundaries of social convention like I did when planning my 20s . . . ha, there's a concept I've let go of . . . planning.

But, I've digressed . . . what a surprise. The purpose of this post was to say that I need to start posting about the things I've filled my days with. I started with my sewing in the fall, and then I moved to my art therapy group which is an amazing source of comfort and strength, and then my garden which is mostly organic vegetables. My plants . . . most of which I propagated completely by seed. I started them in February, in our sunroom on the radiator. I babied them for months and now they are outside and supposed to flourishing, but, because we are having really, really mild and rainy weather this summer, only in the last couple of days did my 39 cent cherry tomato seeds have their first flower turn fruit action.

I have a week before we leave to go to Israel, so don't expect much. But feel free to email and nag me if I don't produce . . . much like my plants.

Welcome Chubby!

On Wednesday, July 22, my sister-in-law Inbal had an unscheduled C-section and welcomed a baby boy (as of 7/25/09 still unnamed) . . . whom B and I have been calling Chubby, into the world! Congrats to Inbal and Avner!

NYC!

In between treatment #2 and #3 I had a fabulous weekend in New York with the ladies I met in Dallas. Carrie arrived from Colorado on Thursday afternoon so I took the train up to meet her and Steph at Steph's Upper East Side Apartment that day. On Friday, we cruised to Midtown for a Betsey Johnson sample sale, met Cristina downtown at her place near NYU for some cheap dumplings and walked around Chinatown and Canal street before heading back up to Steph's to reunite with Melinda and Jen. Friday night through Saturday at noon we ate and chatted nonstop. Insanity! From then on, we documented the weekend with some photos!



Walking around the Upper East Side

Jen and Pam in Central Park

Saturday Night Dinner (Jen, Me & Melinda, Carrie and Steph)



Sunday -- Walking to the Subway and Brunch in Brooklyn

50 chemo treatments

. . . Treatment #2 of the last cycle was my Golden Chemoversary. Barak was in DC at his Foreign Fighters Round Table, so Bethel, a history prof here at H-ford and the proud, proud owner of Cyan's besty Finnegan, came with me. I brought 50 mini cupcakes for 50 chemos. . . yes, oh, so eventful. On my 51st treatment Barak was back and Devlin was not down at the shore with his family so I bestowed on him our present to him . . . a matching shirt to mine stating "My Patient is My Homegirl." True to Devlin form, he was very touched and now addresses me as "Homegirl" when I enter the office . . . not sure if this was a good idea!

Keep Pluggin' and Chuggin'

I'm happy to report back to blogging duty from my new computer . . . after many hours of tending to my ailing laptop, I caved and ordered a desktop last Sunday. Thanks to the lagging economy, the stork arrived yesterday and all pieces seemed to fit together and are working . . . keep your fingers crossed. I hope to get all of my photos and music transferred over this week.

This week marks the end of 48 chemo treatments and 16 "rounds of chemo" . . . 4 week cycles with 3 treatments per cycle and one "off" week. The last conversation B and I had with Devlin confirmed that as my regimen continues to work, the results will be less impressive and it will take a whole lot more chemo to make the tumors shrink and the cancer to stay away from where it's already been. It was hard for me to accept that during the first 8 months of treatment, all but 13 mm of tumor were annihilated and now during the last 6 months only 6mm have been knocked off leaving me with the current 7mm tumor on my liver, but that's how it goes.
We will continue to move in a 3 month pattern . . . from CT scan to CT scan. The plan will be to stick to my chemo regimen . . . same drugs, same dosages until the next set of scans in October and then reevaluate.

On other news, B and I will be leaving sometime in late July/early August for Israel to see his family and friends. We are counting on modern medicine and the preciseness of the Mendelsohn family for his sister Inbal to deliver her first child whom we have nicknamed "Chubby" within a 48 hour window around her due date on August 5. This is the first Mendelsohn grandchild in over 15 years so all are anxiously awaiting his arrival!

Scan Results

I had a CT scan yesterday afternoon. Yeah! It was supposed to happen during last month's chemo schedule, but the lady in Devlin's office that does the insurance co. certifications for these things was out on vacation and it fell through the cracks. Surprisingly enough, he got the results this AM. The itty bitty tumor on my liver is down to 7mm. About 1/3 smaller as Barak describes it. Nothing else lights up on the screen.

I know, I know. Cruise pictures. Coming soon to a blog near you.