My Electrical Problem

Last Wednesday I meant to post an entry here after my visit to the Radiation Oncologist, but then decided to wait until Thursday to do it. Thursday morning when I tried to turn on a light and the radio in the living room, nothing happened. Then I realized that the ceiling fans were not turning. However, in the kitchen, the clock on the range was on. I went to the breaker box and discovered that one breaker had flipped. I went around turning off light switches and unplugging things, then tried the breaker. It buzzed for a few seconds and flipped again. Everything is OK in my bedroom, bathroom and closet, as well as in the utility closet (washer, dryer, water heater, and the outlet where I plug the lamp under that floor to keep the water pipes brom freezing when the temperature drops into the low teens or below). Perhaps most important, the furnace works!

After fixing my coffee (boiling water on the stove and using my French press pot), I called Alyssa's father-in-law and asked him how he is with figuring out electrical problems. He said he's not very good, but he came over, bring his other son with him. Matthew had a class in electricity when he was studying computer technology, so he knows a bit more than average. They stopped in Fancy Farm and bought a new breaker, but discovered that the breaker was not the problem, so they returned the new one on the way back home. Bobby went around the house with a small lamp checking all the outlets, while I made a diagram of the house and marked them dead or live. They plugged the refrigerator into a different outlet and I later did the same with the microwave. We now have a couple of lamps in strange places, because that's where tha live outlets are. The worst thing is that I can't use the computer. Since my phone service is through the same cable as the Internet service, my house phone is dead. I guess it's good that I have a cellphone, even though I don't like the thing.

I need to call an electrician, but since I'm having radiation therapy every day for the next two weeks, it may have to wait until that is complete. In the meantime, I guess I'll visit the library more to use the Internet.

I had my fourth radiation treatment this morning. When I went last Wednesday, they put marks on both legs to help them position me correctly, and another one on my right leg to show where the radiation meeded to be aimed. They put small, clear, plastic dots over them to keep them from washing away. On Tuesday, they drew a larger box to show the whole area to be irradiated. It encompasses most of my femur, since the insertion of the rod may have pushed some of the myeloma cells further up the bone.

Things are looking up!

Recently I've been able to buy Arnold's bread at Kroger; today I also bought Thomas' English Muffins! Doesn't take much to make me happy, does it?

We have had only an inch or so of snow (on Monday) here, but it's COLD. I've been mostly staying in my bedroom with the door closed. It gets warmer than the rest of the house that way. I have several knitting projects to work on. Today I finally went out - to Paducah. I went to the midweek eucharist service at Grace Church and then to the knitting group at the coffee shop. I took two short capes and three shawls with me to church for the prayer shawl ministry.

At the coffee shop I had some lasagna for lunch along with two cups of coffee. I had not been there for a few weeks, so it was extra good to see the others. I didn't get much knitting done, but enjoyed the conversations.





 

Killing Time

Last night, the company Alyssa and Sara work for had their Christmas party - they were too busy before Christmas. So the girls asked me if Lexi and Rose could spend the night with me. Lexi had a birthday party to go to from 5 to 8 pm. The original plan was for Alyssa to drop her off and me to pick her up. However, there were changes in the plans, so the little ones were dropped off here early in the afternoon. We left here about 4:30 and dropped Lexi off about 5 o'clock. I wasn't about to drive the 17 miles back here and then back to Mayfield, so Rose and I had three hours to kill. First we went to the gas station to fill the tank. Then to McDonalds (I was not surprised when Rose announced on the way to the gas station that she was hungry.) We took our time there eating our supper. Rose was flirting with two men at the next table. She likes to flirt with old men - not old-old, more my contemporaries.

When we got back in the car, I discovered that we had killed one hour. Next we went to Dollar Tree; I needed a few boxes of Scotties. We walked the whole store and Rose looked at greeting cards. She found a Valentine she wanted to give her mom.

I decided I wanted to have waffles for breakfast this morning, so we went to WalMart. We got waffles, syrup and hot chocolate mix, then headed to the back of the store to the ladies' room. We stopped on the way at a bench to rest my leg. On the way back from the ladies' room, we stopped at the bench again, and had a conversation something like this:

Me: "Can you think of anything else we should get?"
Rose, tapping the side of her head with her index finger (she's such a ham!): "Marshmallows, to go with the hot chocolate."
Me: "Good idea, we are out of them. Anything else?"
Rose. again tapping her head: "Bananas."
Me: "Good idea. We'll get some bananas. Anything else?"
Rose:"Onions."
Me: "How did you know I'm out of onions? But I don't want to buy any today."
She also suggested apples and oranges, but I didn't want to get more fruit than the bananas.

So we found the marshmallows and the bananas, checked out, and got in the car. By then it was 7:35. so we headed for the house where Lexi was. We sat there for a few minutes until others started coming to pick kids up. Then I sent Rose up to the door, telling her to knock and, when someone came to the door, tell them we had come for Lexi. She did a great job!

When we got home, we had hot chocolate with marshmallows and got ready for bed. I think I was probably more tired than the girls were.

I had two doctor's appointments today.

Dr Heine said my mouth is healing well. There is still a small bit of bone showing, but it is filling in well with soft tissue. I am off the antibiotic, but still rinsing with warm salt water and Peridex. I go back to him on February 3.

Dr Winkler said my numbers are still good. The myeloma is not in my bone marrow, but only in that one bone. On January 19, I will see Dr Locken, the radiation oncologist. After that I will have two or three weeks of radiation on the leg. We hope that when I go back to Dr Winkler on February 9, my mouth will be healed and the radiation therapy will be finished. Then I will probably go back on Revlimid at a maintenance level, whatever that is.

After all that, I treated myself to a late lunch/early supper at Olive Garden. I love their Zuppa Rustica!