Praise Report

My parents go to a senior Bible Study on Wednesdays at their church down in Cypress, TX. They always have a praise report….a list of things to be prayerfully happy about. Today I have several. First off, I went out to lunch with a good friend I hadn’t seen or been able to talk to in person in quite awhile. We went to Shirley’s Diner….evidently a staple in Omaha, but I had never heard of it. Now I have reconnected physically with my friend, Erika, (thanks so much for lunch!) and I have a new place to venture to. I also saw an dear friend there from my days at Fort Crook Elementary. It was so awesome to see Viv and give her a hug! See? All good things! We are in the process of having our driveway replaced and it is looking great so far. The new windows are going in at the store this week as well, and they look great. Rich hired a new person and it looks like he will be a good fit…so that will allow Rich and his managers to not have to work so many weekends. Every person helps to lighten the load for everyone. I have been walking Tallinn to the store 2-3 times a week to work for a few hours at a time. I don’t usually work with customers, as our city mask mandate has expired, but I try and get out as much inventory from the storeroom onto the floor as I can…the kind of jobs others don’t always have time to do because we have been so busy. It keeps me active, helpful (I hope) to others, and involved in the store physically. The weather has been warm and sunny lately so I have been spending some time on my back porch with Tallinn listening to podcasts, writing, reading, or listening to audiobooks. I went to a new optometrist and he got me squared away with new glasses and contacts that actually allow me to see clearly. It really is the small things that are such blessings sometimes! I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of that….having 20//20 vision. I haven’t been able to see well for the last year and after going back to a different place 2 times, I gave up and just dealt with it. I am pleasantly surprised at how nicely I can see now. I thought it may have been the chemo affecting my vision. It was just not the correct prescription for my eyes. The biggest praise report thus far has to do with my progress on this new drug I am taking. I had my 3 month scans of my chest, abdomen and pelvis on Monday morning. I have called Bergan Mercy to have my scans sent to the Mayo Clinic as my sarcoma specialist likes his radiologist to read the reports independently as he knows more of what to look for. I would think it would be about the same as the results I got dropped into my local patient chart this afternoon. The local radiologist said all my tumors are either stable or show some shrinkage. Pretty good for only 10 weeks on this medication. This tiny white pill I take every night which makes my joints ache so badly and gives me more fatigue than the last chemo regimen I was on, seems to be working. I will take it…and gladly. There is no cap on taking this med, so I could potentially be on it for years, as long as it is working and I can withstand the side effects. For now, this leaves me 3 more months of peace of mind. I will meet via zoom with my sarcoma specialist on Thursday. Then I meet my local oncologist and get my lupron shot on Friday and I am guessing I will be continuing on the same treatment plan for 3 more months. I have a lot of traveling to do in the next two months. I think I am home for less than 10 days in July. I have a lot of photos of random life with the Messina family to catch up on and I hope to post those soon. When I lived in Norway….and then over the last year when I was not allowed to be in the sun because of my chemo I was on, I learned to drop everything and go outside when it is nice. I am spending a lot of time on my back porch with the dog. I have plenty to do inside but I can’t force myself to sit in the A/C doing computer work when I can be outside with the warmth of the sun on my face. It just feels too good. So I hope to catch up soon!