Deb's Update: October 26, 2007 9:15 AM PT

Hi All,

I have finally found the time to sit down and write a blog update. I have been busy as hell these days and have decided to give myself some "down time"... I need it!

As you already know, my last MRI was a good one! Phew!!!!! I'm sure you can imagine the stress that my body had for 4 weeks between the last two MRIs. I was so happy that my dad decided to come out here to spend some time with me and of course come to the MRI and doc appointment with me for support. I think my dad was just as stressed as I was but the minute we found out it was a good MRI, it eased both of our stress! I almost cried hearing that it was a good MRI....instead, I made the neuro-onc doc stand up so I could give him a big hug! I think it shocked him but hey, it's what worked for me!!! I will get back on my previous MRI schedule so my next one is Nov 13th.

Monday , Oct 22nd I finished Cycle 9 of chemo... I look at it this way: 9 cycles down and only 15 to go! Not much different than the usual in terms of side effects... slight headache, sinus pressure feeling and of course, constipation! I know you guys like me to talk about bowel movements don't you!? :-)


November 12th will be my yearly anniversary of being a cancer survivor... I'm keeping the faith that you will hear the same thing next November! This anniversary I intend to send an anniversary type card to Dr. Yu (my Cedars-Sinai Neurosurgeon) and Anne (his nurse practitioner)! Why not, right???

Dad's visit was nice and calm... he did some work of course, but it felt good to have a family member out here for a week. No golf since it actually rained a bit when he was out here! Neither of us could believe it, but it gave us both some nap time and some time to watch some pre-world series baseball games... it was great for him since according to the time clock, he didn't have to stay up until 1:30 in the morning to watch the entire game :-)

He left one week ago and the Sunday after he left is when the CA winds started and that's when the So Cal fires began... I'm sure you all know that there are fires all over the place in Southern Cal right now.
Some are already contained yet some are not fully contained. From Sunday on, it's been an ashy/hazy sky and hot! Not a good combination. When the fires are blowing the ashes around, it basically means: stay in your house, windows shut and no AC on even though it's almost 90 degrees! Not fun for me or the dogs. My house didn't seem to get too hot, but it's not fun to do NOTHING outside. No walks for the dogs after Sunday night... Today I can actually take them for a nice walk since the air quality outside is better.

My neighborhood was out of power for most of the entire day that Sunday when the winds began. Even one of the electric wires sparked and ended up falling down on my driveway! So, of course the electric company had to come here to fix the three poles that weren't that happy (one just sparking, one actually on fire a little and the other that was sliced off by the wind and came down on my driveway)... My house was obviously affected and I have to basically put in a claim for the things that were surged and ruined (television, router, vacuum cleaner, water fountain, dining room ceiling light/fan, thermostat, sprinkler system and my AC). So, it'll be lots of estimates to get some of these things fixed... I'm thinking I will probably find more things that were ruined.

I actually had to call the electric company AGAIN this Wednesday since I was having light flickering in my house! Not a good thing. In a nutshell, the guys that supposedly fixed the power, didn't cover the neutral wire which had sparked and obviously was affecting my house. Hopefully this will all be solved after I get the claims sent in and hopefully approved. So, here's another nutshell... I've had to just listen to the Red Sox and NOT WATCH THEM the past two days.

Tuesday night this past week I went to Pantages Theater to see Wicked! I thought it was a great musical so I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes the Wizard of Oz... my favorite song was the "Popular" song! I actually find myself singing the few words I know from that song when I'm walking around my house... I can't do that in public as people would think I'm crazy! Those who have see Wicked will know the song and will probably giggle when they know I'm walking around singing it!!!!

I was supposed to go to San Francisco this weekend to see Joann for a night before she headed back to CT and then spend the weekend with Ant and Paul. But..... I decided I was too exhausted and needed 'down time' to slow myself down. Ant and Paul had called me and wanted me to reconsider going since there was a surprise: Donna was coming out to San Fran for the visit as well!!!. But, I had to decline since I need to do what my body tells me to do.... "stay home and slow down and get some sleep". This was a very tough decision since I would have loved to see everyone, but it's what I had to do.

That's it for now... next time I'll have to post pictures of what's been going on around here these days.

Love you guys!
Debbie