Like Mother Like Daughter

Last Thursday night I had a bit of a mishap on my way home. It was about 8:45 at night and I had just gotten off the bus at the local park and ride. The Northgate Park and Ride has a walking path down the center that is lined with trees and has tree roots pushing up the sidewalk in quite a few places.

I was in a hurry to get to my car and get home and carrying my heavy purse and tote bag. Sure enough, my left foot tripped on the pavement where a tree root had pushed it up. I was afraid I was going to fall but then felt I could catch myself first by getting my right foot under me quickly.

Unfortunately the path for my right foot was blocked by another tree root. Down I went. I fell forward with my arms mostly outstretched. I landed on my knees and base of my hands, jamming my left shoulder and left wrist. My body hit the ground pretty hard.

When you fall suddenly like that it takes a couple minutes before you know if anything is broken or if you will be able to get up. I was eager to get up as quickly as I could to head for the safety of my car. It was dark out and I didn't know what nefarious types might be wandering about. But I had to take a couple minutes for the shock to wear off and pain to subside.

In that couple minutes before I knew the extent of my injuries my first thought was "if I'm broken or unable to get up, how will I get home?" followed quickly by "if I am seriously injured how will I take care of my mother??" Fortunately, these thoughts were short-lived because I was able to get up (albeit slowly) a couple minutes later.

I was pretty shaken up but not seriously injured. I had new empathy for what my mother probably went through in her last fall. It's scary. You feel suddenly helpless and vulnerable.

I got myself to my car and called Walter to let him know what had happened and that I would be home soon. Over the next couple days I came to realize the full extent of my injuries - soft tissue ones for the most part. My shoulder still bothers me if I raise it above my head. I slightly bruised my lower ribs on the left side and my tummy is quite black and blue. And then there's the sore muscles: arms, neck, sides, back and abdominals. I'm healing up really quickly and none of my injuries are obvious from the outside. In a few days I will be good as new. I'm feeling grateful to be in one piece.

I love sharing things with my mother but falling is not something I care to repeat. When I told my sister Diega about it she told me she fell a few days ago - also with minor injuries. When noticing my sore body this morning I asked Walter to remind me not to fall any more. He said "consider yourself reminded - for the rest of your life."

As for my mother's last fall she's still in a fair amount of pain when she walks. We head back to the doctor's office tomorrow provided snow doesn't stop me from getting to Olympia.

Broke a Tooth

At the beginning of the year I sat down with my dentist and did a little budget planning. We figured out which tooth it was most important for me to get a crown on this year and which one could wait until next year and which one might need a crown the year after that. One crown a year - all planned out.

I scheduled my first appointment for yesterday - February 6th. On Sunday (two days before the appointment) I broke a different tooth on a soft sandwich! I spent the two hours in the chair yesterday having the prep work done for a crown on the tooth that got broken. That means the tooth I had planned to get done will have to wait until the broken one is completed. Since each crown requires two appointments that will be 4 dental appointments in a short period of time.

I tried arguing that the newly broken tooth could wait, but the dentist pointed out that if the other side of the tooth breaks too that could mean I would need a root canal. Of course we can't have that, so I had to let them go ahead with this new plan. Although it was a bit of a "pain" to spend two hours in the chair, the bigger pain will come in my wallet later.

It may be time to give serious consideration to calcium supplements.

Post-Mastectomy Report for Genora

My mother-in-law Genora went back to the surgeon who did her mastectomy on Friday (one week after her surgery). She is healing well and was relieved to have the drain tubes removed.

After testing the tissues and the lymph nodes they removed in surgery it seems Genora's cancer was pretty extensive and involved most of the breast tissue removed. Before the mastectomy they first took out 3 lymph nodes to test them. I am told that if those lymph nodes had been cancer free they would not have bothered to remove any other lymph nodes. But two out of the three contained cancer. So they ended up taking a total of 14 lymph nodes - 9 of which were cancerous. This means that her cancer is closer to a stage 3 or 4 than the stage 2 they originally thought.

The next step for Genora will be to visit two oncologists - a medical oncologist for hormone therapy and a radiology oncologist for radiation treatments. She doesn't know yet if they will need to do chemo. They think they got all the cancer for now, but may recommend chemo to make sure it doesn't come back. Nothing is going to happen for 4 to 6 weeks because she needs to heal from her surgery first.

I'm happy to report she is in good spirits and keeping a positive outlook. I appreciate all the good wishes and prayers for her.

Wear Red Day

As you may have gathered from my lack of posts, this has been a whirlwind week for me. I had ideas for posts and then couldn't find the time to get them done.

One of the entries I meant to post was about Friday's Wear Red Day. Did you know that Friday, February 2nd was Wear Red Day for women? It's a national observance to give women a personal and urgent wakeup call about their risk for heart disease. Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer of women in America?

I'm sorry I didn't get this posted in time for you to wear red if you didn't already know about it. I will mark my calendar to do better next year. In the meantime you can go to this site to learn more about National Wear Red Day and here are some tools for lowering your heart disease risk.

Post-Surgery

Walter's mother's mastectomy surgery was today. She's doing well after the operation. They had to remove a couple lymph nodes in addition to the breast. The difficult part now is waiting for biopsy results to tell us whether the cancer has spread any further than thought. Apparently those test results won't be back for a week. Please keep Genora in your thoughts and prayers.

The "C" Word

A week ago yesterday was a sad day for us. We got two pieces of bad news on the same day. First, Walter's brother called to let us know that Walter's mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer and she must undergo a mastectomy this coming Friday.

As a woman I can't imagine what it would be like to be told one has cancer. What a scary thing. At first Walter's mom was so upset she had to ask Rusty to call Walter because she was afraid she would be too emotional. Walter has talked to her since of course, and I spoke with her just the other day. She seems to be handling it okay, but I know it's hard. As she put it to me, "you just never think you're going to have to say those words: 'I have cancer!'" Surely that sort of thing only happens to other people. None of us thinks it will be us.

Genora's breast cancer is Stage 2 which I'm told means she needs a mastectomy but should not have to undergo radiation or chemotherapy. The blessing as I'm told by my mother's doctor and also by Genora (who heard it from her doctor) is that when you are "more mature" shall we say, you have less hormones which feed the cancer and your chances of survival are greater because the cancer does not spread as quickly. That's why you hear about very young women dying of the disease.

Are you on schedule for any mammograms needed? Do you do your breast checks monthly? (Those questions are for the ladies, of course.) No one deserves to go through what Genora will be going through, but sometimes it happens. We have to take care of ourselves as best we can.

Now for the second piece of news received. Last year my good friend Betty passed away. I try to keep in touch with her dear mother Helen who is a very sweet lady and did a wonderful job of caring for Betty in her last year of life. We got a New Years' card from Helen. Her note inside explained that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early December.

I don't even know what to say about that news. I have been told that pancreatic cancer can be particularly painful. I am going to try to call Helen tomorrow. I wish there were something I could do to help her.

On the up side, both these ladies have families who love them and who will do a good job of taking care of them. Please keep Genora and Helen in your thoughts and prayers.

Give Blood

Did you know that every two minutes someone in Western Washington needs a blood transfusion?

Have you ever given blood? If so, how long has it been since you last donated? You can donate as frequently as every eight weeks. I try to give as often as I can, but sometimes it’s easier to let other things take priority. The nice folks from the Puget Sound Blood Center come to Washington Mutual Tower where I work every month. That makes it pretty easy.

When my mother had her scare with anemia last month she required two units of blood. That was a good reminder for me to get back on the program. PSBC was here last Friday. I made myself an appointment and did it. It’s really very easy. You have to answer a questionnaire, and they take your blood pressure and make sure you’re not anemic before you donate. Afterwards you get juice and cookies or crackers.

If you’ve ever thought about it but chickened out I encourage you to give it a go. This page has information on Western Washington donor centers and blood drives.

Give blood. Get cookies. Save lives.

Short Hospital Stay for Mom

I frequently spend Mondays with my Mom. That's when I take her to doctor appointments and help her run errands. This Monday Mom had a checkup with her doctor. She was feeling great, just a little tired from time to time. As part of the checkup the doctor ordered some blood tests. Before the day was out he was calling to say she needed to come back.

On Tuesday afternoon I took her back to the doctor where we found out that her blood count was only 7.6. A normal blood count is 30, and anything under 11 is considered dangerous. One concern is that she could pass out and that would not be good for an 82-year-old woman who lives by herself.

She had to spend the night in the hospital where they gave her a couple units of blood. In the morning after the transfusions her blood count was up to 32. She got to go home before noon.

Mom is glad to be home and doing well. The next step will be to find out what caused the blood loss. She has had bleeding ulcers in the past so it's possible this could be a repeat of that problem. She goes back to the doctor on Monday to find out what further tests she must undergo.

I'm really glad her doctor did that blood test when he did. Something to add to my "I'm thankful for" list for sure.