Scattered Thoughts . . .

I recently started getting back into sketching and that has been going well.  I've never really stopped sketching throughout my entire life so I wouldn't expect to have any problems with refining my sketching abilities again.  Painting, however, is something I haven't done much of in many decades.  Watercolor painting is actually something I've never been comfortable with even when I was an active artist in school as well as college.  In college, every art-related class I took was sketching, engineering drawing and architectural renderings in graphite only and then blueprinted.  Back then, we didn't have all large format color printers using today's printer technology.  We only had large format blueprinting available.  Consequently, it made no sense to render any original drawings/sketches in color. Lukey and Kenzie were staying with us for the long holiday weekend last weekend and they also did some sketching but I noticed that they were very reluctant to use t

A few months ago, I wrote about Sheila and I discussing whether or not to continue Sheila's cancer treatment.  The treatment was making her daily life miserable.  Worse yet, this treatment was to continue for a total of ten years.  Ten years of absolute misery didn't seem like a very wise option to choose for someone who is supposed to be recovering from her second bout of breast cancer with lymph involvement.  After some serious complications, ER visits, and a significant deterioration in her quality of life, we both decided it was time to stop treatment.  As one would expect, Sheila's oncologist wasn't too thrilled with our choice.   The oncologist recommended some further testing to determine risk factors with and without her continued treatment and we felt this would be a good idea.  In the back of our minds, even though Sheila's quality of life absolutely sucked during treatment, we always knew we would second guess this decision to abort her treatment i

Our plan for today was to head up to Burlington to continue Sheila's cancer treatment plan. Unfortunately, late yesterday afternoon, Sheila received a call from her nurse at the Breast Care Center informing her that today's appointment with the Oncologist was canceled and rescheduled for late next week... another delay and more frustration. I have little doubt that Sheila is probably more frustrated than I am about the delay in treatment. I'm sure she doesn't like her whole treatment plan being put on hold, hanging over her head for longer than necessary, and weighing her down (and I am well aware that it is at this point in the waiting) .  We are also waiting for news about the latest test results which just happens to be the cause for this delay. Wondering about the results of this test is frustrating and causes some anxiety. Are the results going to show only a 'low risk'?  Or, are we dealing with cancer that rates as a higher risk? ...wait... wonder a

As many readers already know, not only do I struggle with a debilitating and incurable illness but Sheila has had breast cancer and continues to deal with all sorts of things related to that. I don't often write about Sheila's journey through cancer on this blog but, today, it is worth mentioning here since she has (we have) had a rough couple of months.  Sheila has been what is referred to as "cancer free" for almost a decade but the lingering symptoms, constant appointments, tests, exams, and anxiously awaiting lab results... on pins and needles... never ends. Our past two months have been like this... yet again. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Sheila has lingering problems related to her cancer and cancer treatment as do virtually all cancer patients but some patients have it worse than others. Since a cancer patient will always be a high risk cancer patient because history has proven that those with cancer once are far more likely to develop new

I had an appointment with my doctor again this morning. I had planned to go to this appointment alone (Sheila and I usually attend appointments together but this appointment seemed like it would be uneventful... ie, no life threatening decisions to be made or discussed... so I was going it alone today) but my car is frozen in the mud so Sheila had to leave work to drive me there. Other than giving up some blood, the appointment was rather painless. Sheila and I saw the same doctor last week for Sheila's lingering cold. While we were there for Sheila, my doctor said she wanted to see me for a full exam and to adjust my medications. That appointment was this morning. This appointment was not a moment too soon since my health has been rather miserable lately. I've been having significantly worsened breathing issues since June of 2015... which is a long time and something which should have sent me to the doctor long ago. That was a priority today because it seems to be worseni