Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Update and other sprack (originally posted 18 May 11)

Its 1:47 am


Two weeks.....its so hard to fathom for me to see my Lori is gone.

I decided to repost this blog I wrote on Facebook back in 2011.


I love you Kitty.




Its 5: 18 
16th of May.

    Today was the day that my wife's hair started falling out due to her chemotherapy for cancer. Where as everyone said it would be between 12-14 days,she lasted 17 days for the event. But we are ready...got our wig ready to go,got sun screen and a nice floppy hat for our outings to the farmer's market,art festivals and hopefully,a get away to Put-In-Bay,Ohio later this summer.
   She was a little shaken at the first sight of her hair falling out,she loves her hair (so do I,its incredibly soft to the touch) and is pretty nervous about what she'll look like with no hair. I tell her she'll look like Moondragon....(can I get a "oh hell,yeah" from my fellow fanboys!!!).
  The biggest concern will to make sure she has sun screen and perhaps a scarf to ward off the more sunny days.  Other wise,her spirits are good ....but the nights can be a little rugged. Often Lori (my wife's name) will awaken at 3:30ish am and have a hard time going back to sleep. She says while she doesn't think about the chances of her dying very much,she can't stop thinking she has cancer in 2 serious spots. It keeps her awake and so I have asked her to wake me up if she is still up after 20 minutes and we'll talk about it or any other subject.
  It was a pretty busy week here....had two interviews with Lowe's...which I doubt will come of anything because the store manager kept me waiting 20 minutes and then talked with me for 10 minutes before meeting his district manager. And that came on top of being pushed back a day because of a schedule mix-up. While I could have used the job,seeing the lack of respect that most companies have towards potential candiates is nothing new these days. Keeping a candiate waiting for 20 minutes is just as bad as being LATE to same interview if you were trying to land the job.
   Or maybe the fact I told him my schedule needs to include 2 days off whenever Lori has her chemotherapy,who knows....but I am not holding my breath here.
   We did our Yard Sale last week....set up the garage,had items from 3 different families on display.
Now when we first tried to do a yard sale 4 years ago,it was a total bust....I think we made  15 bucks all day and it wasn't a pleasant day. But this time,it was far better. We had lots of good items priced to move and quite honestly,the recession has really made yard sales very popular again.
  So come Thursday morning at 10 am....we were up and ready to sell,sell,sell! The weather was nice and warm without it being too hot and the cars started lining up at 10:05 am. Sales were brisk and the people were very nice to deal with. Hardly anyone tried to make a deal simply because our prices were so good (at least thats what the shoppers said)
  We blew through Lori's cookbooks and a few of my old DVDs pretty quickly. We had a kid's table that was hit pretty hard and by the  time 3 pm rolled around,we had sold 150.00 worth of stuff. We packed away our sale and went to see with the other sales were offering. Most were pretty quiet by 3 pm but a house behind us had some great stuff and we got a brand new shower curtain for 3 dollars two days after paying 21.00 for one that really didn't quite match up our bathroom. I found 3 novels for .75 and was quite happy about that!
  Friday's sale wasn't quite so peppy as most of the "professional" shoppers  had hit us on Thursday. But we stuck it out and still did about 60 bucks worth of sales.  Our landscaping fund got quite the boost and went from having 5 bucks to 147.35 after the yard sale. And this time,in keeping in the "Clean House"tradition,we donated what didn't sell to Goodwill and the public library.

  Its now the 17th of May.

The hair is really starting to fall out quickly now. The wig appointment can't get here fast enough for us. My wife is a little nervous about washing her hair as she is afraid that she'll lose large clumps. Its not coming out like that but I can understand her fear.
   We are still working on clearing up a small infection where her incision is,she is taking a oral antibotic while I am applying a antibotic cream and hot compresses as well. Her Oakwood doctor mentioned that if the infection can't be cleared up,her incision might have to be debrided....



Not always a pleasant experience to say the least. When I read about journalist Kimberly Dozier's ordeal when her burn wounds were debrided,I got tears in my eyes reading what she went through. But hopefully we can skip this with the proper medications.

  Last Saturday my fellow fanboy Farm and I attended the Michigan Motor City Comic Con for the first time in 5 years. While the event was larger then ever,it was also more BORING then ever as well. Lots of vendors,lots of great artists and the celebrity guest list was pretty impressive if not very expensive (I mean,40 bucks for a signed picture of Kate Mulgrew,the most unpopular Captain in the Star Trek universe??? Really??) While we expected George Takei to have the longest line,it turned out Michigan's own Marty Klebba and his co-star from the "Pirates" films,Lee Areberg easily had the most impressive fans. Both were very engaging and had great spirits in signing and taking pictures. I wanted Farm to walk up to Lee and say "'ello,Poppet" but for some reason,he passed.
  But while he hunted for books,I looked for the gaming area...which was pushed into a far corner away from any main action. And only Magic was really being played so I was unable to pick up any duels with my new Yugioh deck that my friend Chris had sent me for Christmas. And that was the problem,the first 3 years we attended,the gaming area was pretty popular and we had no problem getting duels or trading cards/ideas. 
   But the convention got rid of the area and brought in grade Z wrestling which was just beyond stupid. And that was the last year we attended. When I read the convention has brought back gaming,I thought hey,now we can attend again and for 25 bucks,we can both get what we want...comics and duels. But nope....just a small group of 20 Magic players and 1 Yugioh player stuck in the corner.
 Sheesh....

18 May

   Back home from getting the wig fitted. It was a lot more emotional then I thought it would be. We got to Susan's at 9:30 am. Molly the shop dog greeted us at the door as we walked in. We signed up and went into the little room. After chatting a bit the assistant went and got her clippers. When it hit my wife's head,her tears and mine started to roll. It was a gentle process and we on talking about different things,
After about 10 minutes,it was over,wife looked like Demi Moore in "GI Jane" only better looking. The assistant stepped out and I held Lori close as she cried in my arms. I daresay,the room has probably seen more tears then just about any other place. But I encouraged her,telling her its just another step towards beating this beast. The sign the chemo is working....
  The fitting went very well with only minor tweaking on the wig. Unless you KNOW its a wig,you would never know...Lori had to take off the wig and put it on a few times to get used to it,she was able to do this like a champ. An hour later,we said good bye to Molly and headed home.

Our 2nd chemo date is on Monday.

 

3 comments:

  1. Michael, I've gotta say you definitely have the perfect writing for a blog. Don't stop. Your very good at it. I'm so glad you decided, I'm assuming, to start from the beginning. My sis in law of 23yrs/Best friend of 25yrs went thru stage4 ovarian cancer last yr. She was losing her hair from the chemo too. It is a very hard thing to watch happen to someone u love. I had told her as vein as she is not to shave her head cuz that was her idea. She was glad I talked her into just cutting it short. She knew the rest would fall out soon enuf. She was diagnosed in March. I did anything & everything a Best Friend does. I understood what you & Lori had gone thru. She was scared, she cried many times & she slept very little. On Nov 13th she had her appt to see if she was Cancer Free, & She Was. Well, she is. She started having problems with her bioducts being closed. Thats what she's dealing with now. I'll do my best to keep up with ur blog once the cell phone issues are taken care of. Bless Your Heart♥ You are a True Gentleman, Lori:)

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  2. Thank you Lori...coming from you,that is high praise indeed. I hope your friend stays in remission and that her team can resolve her bioduct issues.

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  3. See, I was right (Yeah I know, Ha-ha, a woman saying she was right:) But you Definitely are Perfect for writing a Blog. Thank You So Much For The Sweet Comment To Me. She will Love what You Wrote For Her.That "Extra" Support for her is Always Welcomed♥ Keep up the Good Work with your Blog, It Honestly Is The Best Blog I've Ever Read=) Lori...p.s, I still cannot figure out how to sign with my name & Not Anonymous, lol. Any ideas?

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