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Showing posts from February 4, 2018

Physical Therapy for Sheila

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I think I mentioned in a previous blog entry that Sheila will be starting physical therapy but I could be wrong. Neither one of us is thinking all that clearly because our heads are spinning again due to being immersed in hospital visits and thoughts of new problems with Sheila's health  (relatively small problems, however) . In case I haven't written about it before, I suppose I'll write about it now. When we saw Sheila's Oncology Radiologist in early January, the doctor noticed that Sheila still has some significant swelling in the area of her affected breast and her side where they removed the cancer. She then asked Sheila about any pain. Sheila sort of shrugged her shoulders and said something like, "well... nothing that is unexpected after surgery and radiation."  The doctor gave her a questioning look and asked, "what are you referring to as nothing that is unexpected?" She also added that the swelling she is seeing in Sheila is not norma

Gifts For Sheila

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Back in August, when Sheila was first diagnosed with this latest cancer, she received a lot of love and attention from all her friends, family and co-workers. Visitors and telephone calls were very common during this period and it was all very much appreciated not only by Sheila but by me as well. Besides, we needed some social interaction and, actually, still do very much. The social interaction is a nice break from the seriousness of cancer and we don't get much social interaction since the cancer has returned. Although Sheila had changed jobs a year ago, her old co-workers all got together to provide a card and some much needed cash to help with any of our expenses. That was definitely appreciated by both of us. Thank you, everyone, for that! Around the same time, Sheila's old boss from her old job called to ask what she could do for us. Wilhelmina has always been very thoughtful and a supervisor anyone would want to have on their side so her question came as no surprise

A Game Day in Early January

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As I wait on a phone call from my doctor's office, I figured I would write about something more lighthearted than all this depressing health nonsense.  In early January, I shot some photos of the grandkids while we were playing "Life Junior". We bought this game for the kids for Christmas and we erroneously expected it to be exactly the same as the original game of "Life" but perhaps simplified and shorter (which sounded good to us!) . It actually is quite a different game than the Life game we played all those decades ago when we were kids.  The game board in the Junior version is physically smaller. Money is always in the single digits and transactions are rather rare (we'll save those constant transactions for Monopoly) . That being said, it still hurts when you need to pay for something and you only have a dollar sitting on your side of the board. Instead of money being the focus of the game, there are stars to collect by accomplishing productive tas

A New Phase of Treatment

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Heading back to Radiation Oncology... she looks as though she is walking with some purpose, doesn't she? I'm very far behind in blog entries as well as being very far behind in accomplishing things that need to be done around the house so it is time to try to put together a few blog entries in an attempt to doing some catching up.  My health over the past couple of months has been rather poor, generally speaking. As a result, I feel as though nothing has been accomplished since before Sheila's cancer diagnosis... so, nothing really has been accomplished since around the time of our time at the lake house last summer... and that's a loonnnngggg time! We had a short break in Sheila's treatment from Thanksgiving until the first week of January. This was a much needed break for both of us but not nearly long enough. Now we are back into hospital visits and medical appointments a couple of times each week. Unfortunately, I'm still exhausted! Sheila feels th

Prescription Fun

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It was time for me to get online and order a few more refills this past weekend. Typically, this is rather painless. I have a lot of prescriptions but I now request everything online and that has made managing these prescriptions a lot easier than in the past. I still make mistakes every now and then but it is far easier to manage.  So, I access the pharmacy website...  throw the main prescription I need into my cart...  go to my cart to pay...  and what do I see? I see this screenshot pictured here! I chuckle to myself and say, "Yeah, right..." I instantly assumed that my insurance company changed their coverage again for this new year and this is the first time I'm requesting this particular refill this new year.  Every couple of years, my doctors need to send in waivers to get coverage for certain medications. I assumed this was the case again.  I called my mail-order pharmacy this morning to see if I need to call my doctor or call my insurance company next. I