It's a crazy world

 Well, the election is over and time to move on.  This pandemic has everyone going crazy. We have those that believe it is a real pandemic and those that don't. Our numbers in Wisconsin keep going up. I heard the other day the our area, Wausau/Weston, is rated at number 8 in the country for a HOT SPOT. Since last February the only place I have gone is for groceries and to pick up Mel's prescriptions. I have met up with friends in a park and had lunch. Sitting 6 feet apart. The weather has changed and doing that is no longer an option. Although, one friend said we could pick up our lunches and met in parking lot, eat in our cars with the window down and visit. LOL!

Our Thanksgiving will be a quiet one. I will make a turkey breast and a small ham along with all the fixins for just Mel and I. Our son, John is making the family stuffing and will Drop some off Wednesday night for me to make here. I will make dinner rolls and pies and give them some of those in return. 

I keep busy doing things around the house that need to be done and of course my quilting. I worked on a quilt called Cathedral Stars. What a fun quilt.

I have also been been doing quilting on my Bernina. What an awesome machine. I love the stitch regulator. Working with that and doing ruler work is a real pleasure.

Hours have been reduced at the shop and back to doing curbside pickup. If someone really needs to come in for picking out fabrics they make an appointment. It is sad that this has to be done but we all need to be careful. Kari got the virus in spite of being ever so careful. Thankfully she had a mild case. Another quilt friend lost her mother to Covid-19. She also caught it from her mother. She didn't need to go the hospital but said it was horrible. She had never been so sick.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay home, stay well. Next year we can celebrate with all our family and friends.

Hugs and keep on stitchin!

Catching up

 Mel has finished his radiation treatments for his prostrate cancer. When you think about going to the Cancer Center everyday for 8 weeks, it seems daunting. The time went amazingly fast. I would drop him off at the door and park. I took a book along and would read while watching for him to come out. Treatments took about 15 minutes and he would be out in 25-30 minutes. While reading I would watch for him but sometimes I would get so involved in my book I would miss him coming out. Since he can't walk a far distance we came up with a plan on the second day. He would take my extra key flop and click my door locks when he was on his way out. By the time he got to the door I was usually there waiting for him. On Tuesdays after his treatment he would see the cancer DR.. Tuesdays would be about an hour appointment. They would go over his vitals and ask him about any side effects. The main side effect is diarrhea. After 3 weeks he had that. Medication took care of that right away. Thankfully. Once he was finished with the treatments we waited 3 weeks to see the urologist and have a PSA test done. His PSA is now minus 0.1!!! He also got his second of 3 hormone injections. The hormone injections shrink the tumor. The side effect of those are hot flashes. I just smile at him when he states, "it sure is hot in here!". As women we know, you never get a hot flash when you are cold. He always says he is cold in and wants one then. He has been having some back pain and we asked if this is side effect. They haven't heard of that happening. Due to that his walking is a little more unstable. He also has balance issues which he has had for awhile now. He has fallen but thankfully he hasn't had a serious injury. He will see the cancer DR in January and have another PSA at that time. So far we are going in the right direction.

Here in Wisconsin our Covid-19 numbers are rising by leaps and bounds. Just this past week our county has risen by over 600 new cases!! We have over 1200 active cases. We mainly stay home. I go out for groceries and that's all. I am not working at the quilt shop during this. I miss the people I work with and the customers. We have decided with the way the numbers are going up here we will probably not be able to have family gatherings for Thanksgiving nor Christmas. Sad but being safe.

My back and leg problems have gotten worse and I have made changes. I tried to weed my flowerbeds but I just can't do it anymore. I weeded for about an hour and I could barely walk for a couple days I hurt so badly. I made the decision to downsize my flowerbeds. My biggest one by the second garage is done. I contacted people and they came and dug up the plants they wanted. My friend, Angel, who is an angel, came and moved the remaining plants to where I wanted them. She put down the weed stop fabric and planted the hostas and sedums along the side of the garage. It looks great. The holes from plants being dug up were filled and new black dirt was put down for the grass seed. In the spring the flowerbed that is along the back fence will be done. I am so thankful for Angel's help. My newsest problem is my guy that cleans up the leaves in the fall and spring has quit doing that. I have called numerous places and gotten estimates over 400.00!!!! He never charges me over 200.00! I am not sure what I am going to do. We have a new neighbor behinds us and he is also looking. His girlfriend has a Mennonite place do hers and he is going to get information. He also needs his done. Hopefully it works out for both of us.

Yesterday we awoke to snow! It wasn't much. Just enough to track an animal. It was melted by 10:30. I am not looking forward to snow and the cold at all. We both miss our trips to AZ for the winter.

I have been quilting and working on many new projects. Two years ago I won a set of Westlee quilting rulers. I played around with them. Then, I found a shop that was giving instructions on them. I started going and then Covid-19 hit. I was able to purchase the training instruction manual and proceed. The manual was quite expensive but well worth it. When I got my Bernina B570 it also came with Bernina stitch regulator. I love that for the free motion quilting. I bought the ruler foot for the machine also. It works fabulous with Westllee rulers. 

Enjoy your day. We have sunshine today and I am loving it.

Hugs

 

Wisconsin "Stay at Home"

We are entering month 2 of the "Stay at Home" in Wisconsin. We can still go out for essentials, go for walks and drives. The hardest part is not being with family. We can see them...from a distance. As we deliver items to each other, we stay a safe distance apart. I have taken masks I made to the kids and we do exchange things we cook or bake.
We did go out for a drive. We call it a "Field Trip". Through the country roads to pick up quilt items that we arranged a head of time. Then we drove more country roads into a town. Drove about the town. Stopped for some carry out food and headed back home down more country roads. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was good to get Mel out of the house. He doesn't leave the house much at all. Since his few mini strokes he has balance and walking problems. Walking any distance is difficult for him. He prefers to just stay home.
Mel's hormone injection has taken affect and he has HOT flashes. It is rather funny watching him experience these. We laugh together as he asks how I got though those. He is feeling fine but anxious about the radiation treatments. We will get through this together.
Stay well and healthy!

Cancer Center

Mel has his appointment had the Cancer Center. Dr Platta is his doctor. I couldn't go in with him but I waited in the car and they called me and I was able to hear what was going on and ask questions. It was a long appointment...2 hours!  Dr Vivano had told us most of the treatment plan. Dr Platta was very informative. Treatment will start 6 weeks after the hormone injection. He will go back the end of May. At that appointment he they will map out his prostrate, give him tattoos to mark the radiation sites and make a mold of his body. The body mold will make sure he is placed in the same position for the treatment. He will have 40 treatments. Treatments are Monday through Friday for 8 weeks. No weekends or holidays. They will take about 20 minutes each time. On Tuesdays he will have a treatment and also see the DR and have lab work done. The Dr is available anytime he needs to discuss and problems he is having. Few do have side effects. Most common is diarrhea after about 2-3 weeks but it does subside in about a week. Burning and difficulty urinating but they have drugs to help with that. He will need to take calcium and vitamin D3. We can set it up to go in each day at own schedule. Going in each day is the part he is having a hard time with. I'm sure once we get our schedule going he will adapt.

Hormone injection and The Gleason Scale

We saw the urologist and Mel got his hormone shot. The shot decreases his testosterone. The side effects are hot flashes. So far he has not had any. We discussed the upcoming appointment with the cancer center. I asked about this type of cancer and if it was graded in Stages. It is not. It goes on the Gleason scale. The Gleason scale goes from 1-10. Mel is at 8.

We will see Dr Platta at the cancer center this week. We are to expect radiation treatments to begin. He will go everyday M-F for 7-8 weeks.

With this virus going on it is scary thinking about going to a medical facility. I have been making masks like crazy. Sent masks to CA, MN, and MS. I have masks for the family and have friends calling asking for them. I have made over 300 masks so far.

Today is Easter and we wish everyone a very Happy Blessed Easter.  

Scans

Hubby had his bone scan and his pelvic scan done. On the day of the bone scan it went fast. He only had to walk a short distance from the waiting room. He can't walk any distance so that was good. The next day he had his CT Scan. The lady brought a wheel chair for him to take him back. He went back to a prep room and drank the "kool-aid" and got his IV put in. After an hour a young man took him back for the scan. After it was done the young man walked him back. It was a long way to walk and by the time he got back to the waiting room he was having a hard time walking and was out of breath. Mel said he needed the wheel chair but they didn't know where it went. We sat in waiting room for about 15 minutes before he felt strong enough to leave. As we got up to leave a man brought a lady to the area on a electric golf cart. He asked if he needed a ride and Mel said 'Please". He took him to the door and then we only had to walk about 20 feet to the car. When we got home he was wore out. When he went in for the CT Scan he asked about a scratch test and they said he would be alright. He never had one before and was concerned about the contrast. Well, guess who had a reaction to the contrast? He did. Big time. He had hives all over his torso neck scalp, arms and some on his butt. We went the walk in clinic.  He was put on Prednisone. He can't take Benadryl   because of his prostrate. It took awhile but it clear up. He was miserably. He couldn't sleep cause he itched so bad.
The following Monday he had an appointment with his DR, They called early in the morning to say his appointment would be canceled and the DR would be doing a phone appointment instead. Any patient over 70 are getting phone appt's. due to the virus. Dr called and his scans were clear! Yeah! That was great news. He will see the DR next week for hormone injection. Then 2 weeks later we will go the Cancer Center to see cancer radiologist. We are told it would be 7-8 weeks M-F of radiology treatment. 40 treatments!! As this virus gets worse around the country we will see how his treatments play out. Hopefully everything can go on schedule.

I hope everyone is staying safe and well. We are going through some scary times. Unless we have an appt we stay home. We have some good people that bring us what we need. I did have to go out to pick up Rx's for Mel and I did stop and get a few things at the grocery store. Our son works as an IT tech and travels all over the state. The company he works for will keep the techs on the road as they can. Our son got an email from the company CEO telling the techs that while they are out they should be selling products because "PROFIT" is important. Not the employees health, PROFIT!!!!  This week so far he hasn't had any work because most companies are canceling service due to the virus. I am glad to hear that. He can't come by us since he has been on the road and doesn't know if he is infected. We pray he is not.

Stay well and pray for America and the whole world!

The dreaded call

The Doctor called to let us know it is cancer and unfortunately it is the more aggressive one. Mel with have a bone scan and a pelvic ct scan next week. After that we will see the  DR and discuss radiation treatments and hormonal treatments.  It is an unsettling feeling we are going through, but we will get through this.
I will use this as a place to journal.

Pot Holes

After hubby guy had his mini stroke and then the surgery we went through many changes. Personality changes, depression, anxiety and panic attacks. It was not a fun time. Finally things smoothed out like a fresh paved road. Everything was going so well. Well, until his last blood test. His PSA was up to 28.6.  Normal is 0-4.75. Three days later we were seeing a urologist and scheduling a prostrate biopsy. He had his biopsy on Monday and now we wait for results. If it indicates cancer then they do further testing to see what cancer it is. It could be one of two types. One is a slow growing cancer that they do not do anything with it. Only because it is so slow growing the person will out live it. The second one is a fast growing cancer and will require medical attention. Although the DR did not state what the treatment was.

There were other concerns with his blood work this time but that is the one we are going to focus on for now. He is having panic attacks again and depression. Rough road with lots of pot holes right now.

On a good note. I had my one year recheck after my surgery last year and all is well. What a relief that was to hear. I will have rechecks now every 3 years unless something shows up again.
I was talking to my friend in CA. last night. I had shown her quilting and helped her get started when we were all RVing out in AZ.She told me everyday when see is sewing a quilt she thinks of me. How sweet. Actually, I realized that I think about the person who taught me most every time I sew also.

I post so little here that I thought since no one probably reads this anymore I could put some thoughts down to help me deal with "Pot Holes"