So here's the short of it,
I'm starting the countdown.  Today was 12; only 11 more Herceptin treatments left.

And here's the long.

Well, I just can't help myself.  I've started the countdown.  I had treatment number12 from the end today, and have only 11 more Herceptin treatments!  It's such a good feeling.  On the other hand, I'll have to say that I've become so familiar with all the folks in the office that it will be a sad feeling not to be going in every week. 

Today Lori and I talked about the muscle cramps I'm having.  She says it's very difficult to tease out whether or not it's the Herceptin or the Arimidex, but she thinks it sounds more like side effects of the Herceptin.  Arimidex causes muscle and joint soreness and pain, but not usually cramps.  Of course we'll have to wait to see, but it's such a good thing to anticipate that when the Herceptin is over I won't have the muscle cramps.  In the meantime, she suggested that I cut the Flexeril in half and try that.  The whole 5 mg made me so groggy that I really wasn't comfortable taking it when I had to go to work the next day.  So I'll be giving that a try - tonight. 

Spring Break is coming up.  Tomorrow is my last day of work before some time off.  I've got a doctor appointment in the morning and then working the rest of the day. I'm so looking forward to some time off. 

So here's the short of it,

I'm not feeling great, but it's been a pretty good day altogether.

And here's the long

I really haven't been feeling very well the last couple of days - it's intestinal upset - not enough to keep me from working or any activities, but just enough to keep me pretty off kilter.  Today I'm a bit better but yucky enough to be grouchy.  I made oatmeal for dinner tonight -it's a favorite for the two of us when we don't really want much dinner; I make that really hearty old-fashioned stuff .  I had read about using different ways to flavor up oats in a healthy eating article, so tonight for the first time ever I tried putting peanut butter in it.  It wasn't good, I didn't like it, and I threw most of it away. 

I'm still having lots of trouble with muscle cramping.  Monday I spent all day long in an elementary school in parent meetings, and I was in one of those hard plastic chairs - they were red.  By noon time, I was having so much trouble. Every time I would get settled into the chair my legs would begin to cramp.  I ended up standing for some of the time.  Last night I was up several times with the awful leg and foot cramps.  Today off and on it's been my feet and hands and a bit in my calf.  It's hard to know how to get comfortable.  This cramping is not unbearable, but I'm weary with it and it may be contributing to my grumpiness.

The weather is warming up nicely.  When I got home this afternoon and took Sophie out for her afternoon constitutional, it was lovely.  Two of her friends were out and she got a nice romp.  The other two dogs are an English Lab and a Labradoodle.  So they have that chasing and catching a ball thing going on.  Sophie likes to catch a tennis ball in the air after it bounces, but she's really not that into chasing it.  She did run about three times, then she struck that "I'm watching you girls pose" that she gets and watched them chase that ball for another 10 or 15 minutes.  She did get enough running around that she's sacked out right now.

I put in a pretty long work day - I'm not doing that so much anymore.  But today it felt pretty good to get engaged in something, stick with it, and get a bunch done.  I've got really good work partners.  That helps make it work.

Happy Passover

So here's the short of it,

חג פסח שמח

Happy Passover

And here's the long

 Tonight we went to the Passover Seder at Temple.

Valdis and Kailee, Alan's Mom, Anne, and my Mom, Emily all enjoyed one another's company as we had a delicious meal.  But we sure did miss the family times we've had together in those years before Pennie moved to Tampa.

 

It was great to have Valdis and Kailee join us.  They seemed to enjoy it.  Valdis was especially good with Mommy Anne!

We missed having Liga with us, since she is still here in town, and we thought about Shelley, Lou, and Max, and Daniel.

We also thought lots about other family who aren't with us. 

  


It was good to be together.

Matza cookies

So here's the short of it,
We finished the cookies tonight. 


And here's the long

Liga made dinner for us tonight - we had, of course Pasta and Bread enough to fill us up for awhile - Mom joined us.  Then after dinner, we finished the "Jewish Cookies".

 We used the sweetened Matza base and made several kinds.

Almond Toffee Cookies.  They are chewy and yummy!

We made a variety and they are all just yummy.  There are ones made with apricot preserves and others with red plum jam.Then there are the almond toffee ones, and finally those dipped in chocolate.  

Liga surprised me and decorated a few of them with a ribbon for cancer cure!

"Jewish cookies"

So here's the short of it,
Liga and I got a good start on making Passover cookies tonight.

And here's the long

Starting last night Liga and I have been making what she calls "Jewish Cookies".  We are making some cookies from Matzah to take to the Seder at Temple on Monday night as well as to share with some folks.

Last night we got started and wet down all the matzah and bagged it up to let it set.  This evening we got it all sweetened and ready for baking.

We're doing quite a bit so we worked on it from about 7 until 11:00.  Liga said it seemed like we worked on it all day! About half way through Liga suggested that we make them all square since that would take less time.  Things started moving more quickly when quit cutting them to make circles.

We have two more boxes to finish baking tomorrow, then we'll start putting them all together.  We are going to make some jelly sandwich cookies. Then some others we are going to ice.  I think we might do some with just cinnamon sugar.

This and lots of other recipes we love come from Matza 101.  There are lots of Jewish cookie recipes in it.

So here's the short of it,
Love my work and that Sophie dog!

And here's the long

Early this morning Sophie got restless - at about 4:00 AM!  She wasn't barking, but she was chewing loudly.  One of her toys of choice these days is a plastic water jug.  She gets a new one whenever we empty one.  She was really loud  - when I took that away from her so I could go back to sleep, she found one of her chewies and brought it right over next to me and started chewing!  So I got up and took that away.  Then she got something else!  It is a good thing I've bonded with her.  This morning it was pretty funny, but at four this morning, I was not laughing.

Today was one of those days - in one of the schools there was a parent who had requested a meeting this morning.  It was the only day/time she could come, even though I have set aside a couple of days to be at that school all day long to make all of the meetings needed in those buildings.  AND I was there at 8:00 AM and the parent was a no show, and no call to say sorry I can't come, and oh well, that's just part of my job.  It's frustrating though.

My back is bothering me.  I'm thinking about taking one of those muscle relaxers tonight since I don't have to get up early tomorrow. We'll see.  Here's a nose report.  I've made a little jar of "unpetroleum jelly" to carry around in my purse, and I've been faithfully putting it in my nostrils every time I think about it.  It does a great job of keeping all the places in my nose from scabbing over.  So now they are just sores - that's not nearly as uncomfortable and believe it or not, it bleeds less. It does seem to drip more though.  Anyway, I'm almost out of my "unpetroleum jelly" so I'll have to stir up another batch pretty soon.

Muscle Relaxer

So here's the short of it,
I tried a muscle relaxer last night - think I'll wait til the weekend to try it again!

And here's the long

OK, so last night I took a new medicine.  It's a muscle relaxer called cyclobenzaprine.  It was supposed to keep the muscle spasms away, but I had one in my foot in the middle of the night.  AND this morning when it was time to get up, I could barely make it.  Well, I did make it but I got up late and was rushing around to get out of the house on time.  I'll try it again over the weekend or spring break. Mom told me this morning that the cramps she's had for a long time have not been nearly as bad since she's monitoring herself to make sure she drinks lots of water.  So I'm going to give that a try and see if it helps.

Today was a good work day.  I could always work until the sun comes up and still have a long list of things that need to be done, but I got lots done today and left feeling good about what I had gotten done. 

I've got a pretty early morning tomorrow, so I'm headed to bed but without anything that could make me confused or sleepy tomorrow.