Sunday, October 18, 2020

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

 

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