A big H-E-L-L-O to all of you,
First of all, I will apologize to all of you for not keeping the blog up-to-date. Following Karen's last oncologist's visit in September, Karen's family and friends gathered together on September 16th for a birthday party. Karen's Mom celebrated her 90th birthday with family and friends. Everybody at the party had a great time and shared many stories with Karen's Mom. Although she won't admit, Mom had a great time with everybody, including the friends from the old neighborhood in Los Angeles. She certainly enjoyed the food, especially the three birthday cakes as she did sample each one of them. As stated, the food and desserts were delicious and plentiful. Karen and her Mom had plenty of leftovers to last a week.
At the end of September, Karen had her Xgeva shot, her port cleaned and the monthly blood tests. Karen's blood results were well within the appropriate ranges. Karen and her Mom had a surprised visit from one of Karen's cousin (Mom's niece) from the east coast, who spent three days with them. There was a lot of laughter shared, good eats, and some great pictures taken of them, that unfortunately has not made it on YouTube. Ha, ha, ha.
The month of October has been relatively quiet for Karen and her Mom. Karen had her monthly Xgeva shot, port cleaning and blood tests on the 26th. Karen was advised by the nurse that her blood results looked great and well within the appropriate ranges. Additionally, Karen was told that her cancer marker was at 127, which was the September reading. As you can imagine, Karen was delighted with the news. Karen still has neuropathy in her hands and fingers. Her hair on her head is s-l-o-w-l-y growing back white and straight.
If you have been following this blog, you know that there is always a humorous story during Karen's visit to the infusion center. One of the nurses at the infusion center enjoys wearing fashionable socks. Prior to her visit to the center, Karen and her youngest sister, Margaret, had purchased two pairs of socks. Now these socks, one had a sheep pattern in blue and pink colors and the other with monkeys with red and brown colors, are vacuum sealed in plastic to look like a little sock. When you remove the plastic and place these socks in water, they expand. They are made of cotton and one size fits all. Anyhow, when Karen arrived at the infusion center on the 26th, luckily for her she got the nurse, K, who wears the fashionable socks. Karen told K that she had a gift for her. After sitting down, Karen took out the little socks and gave them to K. K was absolutely delighted with the socks. After K cleaned the port and took Karen's blood, K showed the other nurses the little gift she had received. As Karen sat in the chair, the other nurses paraded by and lifted their pant legs to show off their fashionable socks. Who would a thought that the infusion center nurses all wore fashionable socks and that Karen would be judging them on who had the cutest ones on. Some had kittens, Winnie the Pooh, Halloween theme socks, etc. Yes, the head nurse came out to see what all the ruckus was. Karen, however, kept her laughter to a minimum. To say the least, Karen, her mom and all the nurses, except the head nurse, all had a good laugh over the socks. Sometimes, we never know what brings a little laughter into our lives.
Tip of this blog: Take a few minutes out of each of your days to really enjoy your life and all its wonderful blessings.
