Finding a good Doctor

We had to make a trip to Danville a few weeks ago.  Danville is about a 2 hour drive from house.  It is huge.  The parking lot is so big that you park your car and can ride the shuttle to the door, and they have 5 different locations that one can be dropped off at.  It is where you can go to see a specialist.  Our trip was for my son Parker, age 7.

Parker was seeing a GI specialist.  He had been seeing a doctor for a few years, but I felt the doctor didn't listen to me.  I requested to see a different doctor.  The new doctor's name was Dr Sabri.  I was a little nervous when I saw his name, fearing that there would a language barrier with this guy.

When the doctor and medical student walked into the room, Preston gave a hug to the medical student.  They dr then asked where his hug was.  He welcomed Preston's hug.  He listened to me explain our situation.  He asked Parker his opinion.  When it came time for the exam, Parker was very nervous.  The dr was finished before Parker even realized it happened.  He then explained the how and why to me.  I felt comfortable with him, because instead of just telling me what to do he explained why.  He also used terms that I could understand.  I think we have found a good doctor.

As I am talking about drs, I want to expound upon a few other positive encounters  I have had.  I love our pediatrician.  He is goofy and gets on the kids levels when he is working with them.  When I have gone in and was very worn down by my sick children he showed compassion to me, and this made me feel wonderful.  When I was undergoing my cancer treatments and afterwards, he takes an interest in my health.

My medical doctor typically runs behind schedule.  The reason for this is that she listens to her patients and wants to know how they are really doing.  She is observant to them and their needs.  I have been one of those patients that needed vent my frustrations and concerns and she listened.  I don't get mad when she runs behind, I just realize that someone else needed her attention.  I also realize if I am in a hurry to get in and out, I will request another doctor in the clinic.

My surgeon who is so skilled with the knife, that after time my scars are almost invisible.  This is truly a gift.

My oncologist who is very thorough with me.  This gives me peace of mind that he is covering all of my basis's.  And he makes jokes.  That always eases the tension of a doctor's visit.

My OB who was in tune to do a complete exam and not gloss over a breast exam.  He too listens and answers all of my questions, even the ones that are embarrassing.  And he was great at coaching me during delivery of Preston.

And my radiation doctor, well actually I prefer the PA.  She is so personable and showed great compassion to me when I needed it.

I have been so blessed to have good doctors in my life.  I am so grateful for their skill and knowledge and their willingness to take care of others.

Foster Kittens

A few weeks ago I stopped by the Humane Society to look at the cats and dogs.  My cats seem to go MIA at times and they choose when they want to be with me.  The animals at the shelter are always excited to see visitors. 

One of the workers asked me if I was still fostering.  I mentioned that I didn't have anyone right now, but that I could.  She then walks me back to the infirmery room, with a note on door "Do Not enter."  She tells me that tomorrow is the day that they euthanize the animals.  A lady had dropped off her Mama kitty and 7 kittens.  If I didn't take them they would be put down.  Nothing a like a little pressure to pull the heart strings.

Jim has given me strict instructions that I need to ask his permission before bringing any more animals home.  I stepped outside to call him.  When I told him the story, he agreed that we could save this family of cats.  Later on he admitted that he thought I said "some kittens"  and not "7 kittens."



At the time that I agreed to do this, I was feeling very overwhelmed with my own life.  I could barely keep clean clothes on my kids and have room in my kitchen to make them food.  I did not need 10 cats in my house to take care of.  I have 2 cats, but they require very little work.  They are old and indoor/outdoor.  I put food in their dish every morning and maybe scoop the litter boxes once a month.  I have a hard time saying no.

We got off to a rocky start.  Mama kitty wanted nothing to do with her babies.  She would not nurse them.  In desperation we laid her down and tried to soothe her, laying 1 kitten at a time on her.  She would hiss and growl at them.  At the same time she would occasionally groom them. I was concerned that nursing was hurting her.  So I called the shelter and they told me to bring her back in.  When I asked if they could look at the mama, they sent me next door to the vet's office.  I went over and waited my turn.  When a technician came out, she took one look at the kittens and said that Mama kitty was weaning them.  Her nipples were sore and she was done with the whole nursing thing.  Ok this made sense to me.  She also told me that the kittens were  not appearing to be starving and to feed them wet food a few times a day.

We returned home and let Mama kitty do her thing, hiss and keep her distance from her babies.  It appeared that she was done with the nursing so we separated Mama and put her in the bathroom.  The kittens remained in the cage.  Mama was making herself quite at home, escaping every time the bathroom door opened, laying on my bed, the couch, exploring the basement and trying to get outside.  I took Mama back to the shelter this past week.

Now there are only 9 cats in my house.  The kittens are starting to get plump.  We have 1 that still manages to get out of his cage.  I think he is just lonely.  He often follows me around, sits on my lamp and keeps me company.


The kittens go back to the shelter this week for their first set of shots, then we have them 2 more weeks and then they are old enough to be adopted.

I have decided no more fostering for awhile.  I even plan on returning the cage, food and supplies.  I need to get in control of my own life.

My Port

WARNING  This post includes detailed information about needles and a has picture of me showing my surgery site.  If you are sensitive, you may want to skip the post.

My port was placed in March 2011 for the purpose of receiving chemo.  My cancer had spread to my lymph nodes and I am supposed to be extra careful with my right arm, meaning not using the right side for needles or blood pressure.  If I were to get an infection it could lead to permanent swelling of the arm and the need to wear a compression sleeve.  No thank you.

The port also saved my viens.  Having had 16 doses of chemo, the drugs are so powerful they can destroy your viens.  The port saved me from this.

The port was connected into a major vein very close to my heart.  There was quite a procedure involved in accessing it.  The area had to be cleaned with 2 or 3 different cleaners.  Then a special needle was inserted.  The line had to be flushed with a saline solution, which I could taste.  This was not very pleasant.  After accessing the port, they would again inject something to help the blood clot and I would taste it too.

The port worked wonderfully for chemo.

Because it was inside my body, it was necessary to have it flushed every 6 to 8 weeks.  This involved a trip back to the chemo room and tasting the saline.  It was not a pleasant experience for me.  In fact it brought back the feelings of naesea too.  I liked to take an anxiety pill when I had to do this, but often I was driving myself and it really isn't a good idea to take those pills and then drive.  My most recent port flushes have ended in tears.  It has just been a flood of emotions as the needle pierces my skin.

My oncologist likes to wait until you are a year past your last chemo treatment to even consider having it removed.  My last chemo was Aug 31, 2011.  As I went in to have my 6 month check up, he ordered a body scan and as along as everything came back I would be permitted to have my port removed.  I had the scan and everything was good.  There was some scar tissues in the breast and they could see the effects of radiation, all those things were expected, but nothing was growing.  I was permitted to get my port out.

I only had to call my surgeon, Dr Newlin and setup an appointment for a consultation and then get on his list for surgery.  I love my surgeon.  Several times when I was in having radiation the people working on me had a hard time seeing my scar.  This is quite a compliment to the surgeon.  One of the girls giving me a mammogram even complimented him and said that 5 years out you would hardly see my scar he was that good.  I even wrote him a hand written thank you note telling him all the compliments I get on my scars.

When I went into see Dr Newlin, he mentioned that I would feel some tugging as he was taking out the port.  I told him I was a little nervous watching him cut into me.  He told me there would be a drape over my chest going to the ceiling that I wouldn't be able to see a thing.  He then offered to sedate me, and after a moment of hesitation I said yes.  Modern medicine was invented for our good.

My Mom offered to take the day off of school and be my driver.  They only use twilight sedation.  The last time they did this, I crawled off the table but I have no memory of this.  I mentioned to my mom we should go get manicures afterwards.

The day of the surgery I had to be at the surgical center at 7:30 and was scheduled for a time slot of 9 am.  The surgery itself would take 20 minutes.  As soon as I awoke and took a few swallows of gingerale they were moving me out the door.



I had a wonderful day with my mom, something that as one of 5 kids I cherish the alone time with her.  We went and got our nails done, went to lunch and then did shopping.  It was a really nice day.



As I write this it is 3 weeks post surgery and everything is healing quite nicely.  They went in the same spot that they put in, so no new scar tissue. There really isn't much to see, I snapped a picture but didn't think it was worth posting.

Monday Meltdown

I'm baaaack.  I have been reading other's blogs and enjoying and want to have some of my stories written down.  Instead of playing catch up, I am going to start fresh with an event from today. 

First of all, blogger has really changed the way I create a post.  I might have to do some exploring with that.  And of course need to update the main page with more current pictures of our group.

This morning Parker had a doctor's appointment at 9 am in State College.  When I pick the boys up from school for appointments I usually allow an hour .  I have to park the car, walk into the office, wait for them to be called out of class, sign them out, walk back to the car, drive through Tyrone  to get to the Interstate.  This usually allows us to about 10 minutes early for our appointment. I decided against sending Parker on the bus. The school day would not have even started when I needed to pick him up.

The plan was to allow Parker to sleep a little longer and send Preston to school as normal. 

Preston is normally very excited to go to school and gets up rather easily.  This morning he kept fake snoring saying he was sleepy.  I couldn't even get him to eat his breakfast.  As we went to walk out the door, he kept repeating how he didn't want to go to school. 

Once we got to the bus stop, he started walking back to the house.  Jim was just getting ready to leave and saw the trouble I was having.  He walked down and held Preston.  We tried to tell him that needed to go to school.  When we asked what was wrong (he didn't have the long list of ailments that his brother has for getting out of things) he simply replied he didn't want to go to school.

When the bus finally came, he was in tears holding onto his dad for dear life.  I looked at the bus driver and said, "He's having a rough morning, he's not going." 

I couldn't put my son in tears on the bus.  Jim asked what I would tell the school.  I told him I am the master of school notes.

Last week when Parker had several things wrong, because he had punishment from the previous day's activities and was going to miss recess this is what his note read.

Dear Mrs Hasson,

Please excuse Parker from school this morning.  He had a bad cough, was tired and had belly ache.  He has now appeared to be recovered.

Emily Rayburn

Preston's note read 

Dear Mrs. Ingle,

Please excuse Preston from school this morning.  He was very upset that his brother was not riding the bus due to an appointment.  Parker had a doctor's appointment.

Emily Rayburn

I really don't think it was much of a problem.

Sorry no pictures of Preston crying.

This also reminded me of my own child hood.  I often went out the bus in tears and physically ill, not wanting to go to school.  I had trouble feeling like I fit in and missed my mother terribly.  I don't remember all of that, but my mom does.  She did put me on the bus.  And now as a parent, I realize how hard that had to be for her. 

I am not mad at my mother, she had to do that.  I had chronic problems and if I would have stayed home every time I did not feel well  I might still be in elementary school.  I learned to cope with my issues, ....I think.

Radiation

As I write this, I finished radiation about 3 months ago. While I had radiation it was every day Monday through Friday. Monday was doctor day, where I saw the doctor to go over any symptoms and get a report of my blood counts. Wednesday was blood day, they had to draw blood every Wednesday.

I had a little routine. I would take Preston and Lola (her Mom agreed to car pool with me) to preschool. Then I would hop onto Interstate 99 for the 30 minute drive to Mt Nittany Hospital in State College PA. Once at the hospital, (they had special parking for the radiation patients that was close to the door) I would go inside and change into a hospital gown and robe. I would then proceed to the waiting room.

The waiting room was a great place. They had these really yummy cookies along with a fridge with soda, ensure and pudding. They also had cold water, coffee and hot chocolate. And fresh fruit. There was a tv and plenty of magazines to read. Since I went at the same time everyday and most other folks did too I made friends in the waiting room. I would chat with them. We would compare treatments and how our skin was reacting to the radiation. We would comment on their promptness or tardiness. There were also these wonderful volunteers that would also talk to pass the time. I truly loved the volunteers. Gretchen was a previous flight attendant and had fabulous stories to share with us. And BJ made everyone an origami crane complete with a little message of how the crane represents hope. There was a patient named Marty. She kind of reminded me of a hippy. She always spoke her mind. They had cameras in the waiting room. She thought it would be fun to do Twister or line dance to see what kind of response we would get. We never got the chance to do that.

The staff was a little slow to warm up to, but once I did. I quite enjoyed chatting with them as well.

Upon walking into the room you walk down a little hallway and here are the pictures you see. They appeared to be transparent with some sort of lighting behind them.
What a nice walk huh. Now onto the room. It was a very large room with a narrow table and machine. There were counters and cupboards along one wall.


The white piece was my own piece of foam. They had made a mold of my arm. It was very important that I was in the same position every day. I had tiny tattoo marks put on me. There were lasers that they used to line me up.

See how narrow the table was. this was kind of scary when they made me lay on my side for the last few "boost" treatments that I had.

Here are some of the other patient's foam molds. At the time I was going there was about 45 people receiving radiation. They were open from 7 am till 8 pm. What a long day. They had enough people to split up the day so no one was working the entire day.
Here I am on the table. I would uncover my breast for the lining up process, but then they would cover me with a warm sheet for the radiation. I had to lay there for about 10 - 15 minutes. They had a radio playing and I often found it tempting to want to move to the music. Or I could look up at this. Isn't this beautiful. It was an oak tree.

I did get sun burnt pretty bad on my arm pit area. I had special cream and cool patches to put on the area. At 3 months out I am a nice golden tan on 1 side.

I had a check up 1 month post radiation and everything looked good. They told me to come back in 6 months.

1st Day of School

We always had a tradition of standing by the door and getting our picture taken on the 1st day of school. I have continued the tradition with my boys.

I was glad to see school come again. Parker does well with a schedule and I am a laid back parent and find it hard to put myself on a schedule. Plus he is a busy boy and school is good to challenge him and fulfill his social needs.

Parker started 1st grade year. His teacher is Miss Muir. She looks quite young, but does an excellent job with the kids. I really like some of the ways that she gets their attention and the ways she handles misbehaving.

We enrolled Preston in Preschool at the Presbyterian Church in Tyrone. He goes Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He has the same teacher that Parker had, Mrs White. It is a small group. There are only 4 of them there, but he seems to be enjoying himself and is learning to write.

I stooped down to his level and he thought he need to squat down too.
This is outside the classroom.

Since both boys are in school this had given Mom some free time. For the first little while I was going to radiation every morning. One of the other moms was great to help out with car pooling. I would drop the kids off and she would pick up.

Now that I have finished with radiation this is how I am spending my extra time. On Monday's I come back home and clean or do other chores around the house. Tuesday's I go to the Humane Society to volunteer. I have been cleaning out kitty cages and I love it! The cats love the attention and interact with you as you are cleaning and giving them fresh food and water. Wednesday's I go to Weight Watchers to weigh in and listen to the meeting. Then I have a very short time to run errands. I am liking my extra time.

I survived Chemo Party!

After finishing 16 rounds of chemo, it called for a celebration. I had wanted to get a cake from the grocery store, the ones with the whipped cream frosting are so yummy. At first I was just going to do it with our little family of 4. I had wanted to invite all those that had helped out or prayed for me, but was not up to the task of having that many people over to my house. The more I thought about it, I realized I wanted to celebrate with my extended family. So I talked to my mom.

We came up with a date. I wanted to be able to enjoy the food, so we waited the standard few days afterwards so that the metallic taste had left. I picked the menu and even invited a good friend from high school, Stacey. My mom had the party at her house. It was a great day! Here are some of our memories from that day.

I was having hot flashes, or maybe just overly warm from getting everything ready for the day. Do you notice my dewy sheen?

This is the type of picture you get, when your 6 year old takes the picture. He usually does well, but it looks like he was being goofy.
We had a pasta bar. Pasta is my favorite food. I can eat it and never get tired of it. And I do eat it at least once a week if not more.
We wanted to take a picture of the cake. It started out with my cute nieces and son and morphed into this.
Thanks again mom! It was a great celebration. The food was yummy and the company great!

Grange Fair

This has turned into an annual event for us. We go to the Grange Fair every year to watch the truck pulls.

For those of you outside of Central PA, here is the website for the fair. People come to the fair and camp out for a week. We go to watch the truck pull. Part of our plan is to get their early so that we have a good parking place. Jim likes to watch from our truck bed;) This allows extra time to kill so we do a little walking around the fair grounds too.

Can you say spooning pigs?

And an oreo cow? There is a more technical name for this breed, but it has escaped me. Plus isn't it more fun to refer to things with the names of yummy foods?

A funky chicken.
I really didn't get any good shots of the actual truck pull. I guess I can try next year.

We usually split up and Parker goes with me to sit close to the action, Preston stays with Jim to watch from the bed of the truck. We take the protective ear gear for the boys to wear for the really loud trucks. We usually leave before everything is done.

Sweet Corn

Growing up we always grew silver queen sweet corn. Now as a consumer who loves corn on the cob and white corn I wanted to try to some silver queen to see if it was what I remembered it to be. Because I buy my sweet corn I am at the mercy of what the farmer has decided to grow. My little garden is very big. I think I planted 12 plants. My corn didn't do so well. I had 1 stalk that was very persistant. It actually produced an ear of corn!

It was around Labor Day when I finally harvested this. It was only 3 inches long and it was a little ripe for my liking. I determined that as long as the corn is tender I don't care what variety it is. So I will probably pass on planting corn next year.
On a side note, I can green beans and have bought them from the Amish the past 2 years. My Mom's crop didn't do too well. I have been displeased with the variety. There again I am at someone else's mercy of what they chose to plant. I am seriously considering planting my whole garden in green beans so that I can produce enough to can. I have to have enough plants that are ripe at the same time to get a cooker full.

Aunt Rebecca

Aunt Rebecca no longer comes home for the entire summer. She is a busy college student taking advantage of all the opportunities that college offers. This is bittersweet. We love her visits, hanging out, talking and her playing with the nieces and nephews. She is still a kid at heart and will run through the sprinklers with them or play tag.

But at the same time I know how she needs to take advantage of a summer job on campus or taking some summer classes. These enrich her life, teach her and allow her to have fun with others her own age. She came home for 2 weeks and we made the most of it. I would have stayed longer, but I had my weekly chemo appointment to keep.

We have discovered this fun restaurant in Bedford. It is actually called the Bedford diner. The food is fresh and all their desserts are baked there. We took a few pictures to remember our trip there.


As I look at this picture, I am quite puffy. Thanks steroids.
We also took some pictures as we were saying our good byes.

A weekend with Grammy Rayburn

As I sit here in my sweat shirt with the heater going and snow on the ground outside, it is kind of fun to be 6 months behind on my blog and remembering those hot and carefree days of summer. Anyway I still want to catch up.

Jim's sister Laura had a baby this past September. We traveled to Morgantown for a day to go to her babyshower and spend some time with Grammy.

This is Preston at the shower. Since all of the women were participating in the shower that left the responsibility to Uncle John to watch his kids and he allowed my 2 boys to tag along too. The refreshments were too tempting to keep the kids away the whole time. Preston is enjoying a balloon and you can see the leftovers from something yummy on his face.
Is Grandpa's corn on steroids? No he planted field corn next to the sweet corn. It sure looks extra tall compared to sweet corn. It was a good year for corn and we got to sample some while we were there.
The Rayburn's had a beautiful garden. I especially liked the pretty flowers.
We piled in Grammy's Subaru to go do chores. I have always enjoyed tagging along with Sue visiting and seeing the animals. Parker loves to throw the ball for the dogs to chase and I helped with Molly, Sue's horse.

These next pictures are of Molly. Molly recently went to run with the ponies in the sky.

It was a fun afternoon. Glad we live to close to family to be able to spend time with them