Calm & Quiet For A Change!

I haven't blogged in awhile due to not really having alot new to say but when I think back, there has been alot.
Of course, there was a great vacation on the Outer Banks, then the next day I received chemo. The new one with only a small side effect of profuse sweating....and the scoots for one evening (just one time). That was on Monday and then on Tuesday, I saw a pain specialist in Vincennes for a shoulder that has bothered me for about 3 months. I went back early Thursday and got a cortisone injection in the shoulder and he took me off the pain med I took at night for the shoulder pain to a 24 hour time release pain med (I wasn't real excited about the new pain pill since my pain is mostly at night when I lay on the shoulder). The shot wasn't the best feeling as he stuck the needle into the front of my shoulder and I had it in my pea sized brain, it would just go into the fatty part of my back.....but I lived and it has helped. He also gave me shoulder exercises to do (I saw a Dr. Chartier in Vincennes).
About two days after starting the new pain drug, I started getting a light rash.......so we couldn't decide if it was the chemo or the new pain drug. I  went off the pain drug completely. The rash is gone but I still break out in a sweat at the weirdest times. I go for chemo again a week from today (next Monday). So, I will get it every other Monday. I had the "scoots" one time and then took an anti diarrhea pill and that stopped everything dead in its tracks. This side effect could increase as they increase the drug. Whew! Yeah! Rah! Can't wait!
We saw Maura (Kelley) Voyles (Rod's daughter) as she is also getting chemo. She is older than I by a few years but I remember her and her husband worked for the state police with Pat in Effingham so he talked with her for awhile. Pat knew another family from southern Illinois or something that was also there. He was just a social butterfly (which is a little unusual for Pat).
We are crazy busy at work with several programs finishing/starting up so a day at work is crazy right now. I have a new full time worker (Sylvia Lancaster from our Lawrence County office....so she is mostly trained to how I like things done already) in the office but I have slacked off a day and a half each week to put me to part time but still enough hours to keep my insurance. They will be upping my chemo strength each time I go until it is as much as I can handle. So....as I get more of a dose, I will also have more symptoms. Could get interesting. You really want me to keep you posted???  ;-)

Everything is pretty calm right now and I am appreciative of this quiet time. My health is pretty sturdy right now. I am SO thankful God has given me calmness right now. I have been walking most mornings depending on when I wake up but I have been setting my phone alarm for 5:30 so I can have coffee from 5:30 to 6, then off to the pavement. IF I do not do it of a morning....it just doesn't get done! When I get home in the evening, it is all I can do to relax and watch the tv till 7:30 or 8 before going to bed.

I went to Evansville with my mom and sister Sarah and I got a larger pad of watercolor paper. I am sooo excited to start a picture! I also have a Christian book series I have been reading that I can hardly put down. There just isn't enough time in the evenings!!

Although my cards have tapered off to a mere drizzle nowadays (sniff sniff), I know you are thinking of me because my blog count "hits" keep raising all the time. So....I forgive you for slacking on the cards but thank you so very much for praying for me, thinking of me, and calling me. Prayer is free except for a bit of your time......and I always need prayer.

As I close today, I ask all of you to pray for the less fortunate. I ask you to pray for people in bad health (I find myself always praying for everyone else), then I say Amen and realize I forgot to ask God if he had any extra time, to remember me also.  I ask for more patience this week as I hear certain people whine over a back ache or hurt knee...(whatever) when I have so many more problems and see lots of sad looking people who are uncurable with cancer....it is hard for me to feel bad for them....I know I need to work on this...so I will try this week to be more understanding although I would trade spots any day with alot of them!
God Bless You all!!~
HUGS!
Patty