At last, the road is starting to smooth out!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey y'all!!!  It has been a very rough road the past few months, but things are starting to get better now.  I took my last radiation treatment on April 8th, but I did not realize it takes months for the radiation to leave your system.............so you continue to bake.  I had a lot of trouble with nausea and vomiting.  There for a while, every time I brushed my teeth, I vomited and none of the meds that they prescribed helped.  There was one drug that they could have prescribed that may have helped ........but it cost $70 a pill and my insurance would not cover it.  In the end, Ginger Ale was my best medicine!  One of the biggest problems was that the radiation has temporarily killed my taste buds, but they are now starting to come back.  In one week I lost 12 pounds!!!  My husband's heart doctor introduced me to a shake called "Myoplex", which has 42 grams of protein and probably saved my life....thank you Dr. Hancock!!!  On June 3rd, I had an MRI that my eye doctor had ordered and when I went to him on June 24th for my follow-up appointment, the radiologist that had read the MRI said that I needed another MRI done as there were some indications that needed further study.  He said something about maybe the beginnings of a brain tumor and that scared my husband and I to death!!!  I made an appointment with my radiologist/oncologist so set up the MRI and also for him to check some swelling on the left side of my face that we were afraid was the other salivary gland...I was SO scared.  Well, my sweet Dr. Perkins pretty much put my fears to rest as he said the swelling was due to fluids....that is normal after my kind of radiation to the head and neck and that it was very unlikely that my type of cancer had spread to the brain.  He scheduled a follow-up MRI for August 9, they are doing my PET scan on the 13th and I will see him on the 14th to go over all of the results.  He says that I am doing VERY good and to enjoy my life!  I was told by the tech that does the PET scans that my type of radiation to the head and neck is right up there with chemo and I believe her!!!  I will keep y'all posted and once again, thank you for all of your prayers and support...it means SO much to me!!!

To prove that I am doing much better, I actually did a little crafting yesterday.  SVG Cuts has a little promotion going right now where they give you a free file to create and if you upload it according to their directions, they will send you a $6.99 gift card.  Here is a link if you are interested.  I pretty much cased their sample...but I used what I consider to be fall colors, since it is fast approaching!  The button I used on mine is one that I painted a long time ago and the color pretty well matches the brads that I used on the purse strap.  Here are a couple of photos.

Y'all it was so much fun to get back here in my craft room and make something and I plan on getting "back into the program".  I still have some boxes to unpack now that I have some strength back.  We have had a good bit of company and expect more in September, so in between company and doctor appointments, I will be in my new craft room creating.  By the way, I will be posting some more photos of my craft room soon!  Once again, thank you so much for your prayers and support...please keep them coming!!! See ya soon!!!!!

Supplies

Papers:  Bazzill and Recollections (Patterned Paper)

Tools:  Silhouette "Cameo" and Cuttlebug

Accessories:  Cuttlebug "Tiny Mosiac" Embossing Folder, Basic Grey "Magnetic Discs"

Well, finally.......................

I'm getting around to posting some more information concerning my illness, as well as a couple of cards I've completed!!!  First of all, I want you to know that I only have nine radiation treatments left to go.....turns out that I have to take 40 instead of 35.  This past Saturday night I had to go to the ER for dehydration and problems with my bowel (due to not eating properly), but I'm fine now.  This week the nurse at radiation is going to give me some fluids and nutrients via IV to help me out.  They will be doing the same thing the following week.  The problem with eating is that the radiation has temporarily killed my taste buds, making it almost impossible to eat..........even water tastes bad!  I just keep telling myself "and this too shall pass" and keep on trucking!!!  Also, my "new song" is:  "All I want for Christmas is my taste buds back"...lol!

Now onto the good stuff.  This first card is one that I made for one of the people in the radiation department.  She is a 24 year old young lady. named "Danny" and while taking care of me, her Mother become seriously ill and I thought she could use a "lift".  Inside the card reads:  "Danny, thank you for being one of my very "special angels" here on Earth!".

This second card is the birthday card that I made for my sister who is fighting breast cancer.  I will be mailing it to her and the 27th.  She is getting ready to take her fourth chemo treatment.  For this card, I cased a card that my good friend made.......I used different colors, a different sentiment and some butterflies.  You can see her card here.

I'm sorry to make this post so short, but I'm getting a bit tired and I think I'm going to go take a short nap....but I hope to be back soon.  Thank you for all of the prayers (keep them coming)  and for stopping by!!!

Hey y'all, I'm afraid I have some bad news.....

which will explain why I've been so long getting back here to my blog.  Back on the 7th of January I went to the doctor because for a number of months I have had a knot at the back of my jaw, in front of and below my left ear.  I thought maybe I might have TMJ because it was painful (of course, I really don't know much about TMJ), but the doctor's PA told me "no, it's not TMJ...it is a parotid mass and I need for you to have a CAT scan tomorrow".  They scheduled it for 1pm...I went and my hubby and I stopped and picked up Taco Bell for lunch and just as I finished mine, the phone rang and they wanted me to be back at the doctors office at 9am the next morning.  When I got there she said that it was definitely a parotid mass and there was a possibility that it could be cancer and she wanted me to see an Ear, Nose, Throat specialist that afternoon at 4pm.  He looked at the scan and said that it was cancer but he needed to know what type cancer cells were there, so he scheduled me for a biopsy at 12pm the next day.  To make a rather unhappy long story short, I have stage 2 cancer of the parotid gland, which is the largest of the salivary glands and after several other doctor's visits it was decided that I would take seven weeks (35)  of radiation treatments.  This past Friday was my 10th treatment...............10 down, 25 more to go.  My chances of beating this are 70%, and that is pretty good odds!  Please include me in your prayers!!!!

Needless to say, since we had just moved into our new home prior to Thanksgiving, I'm still not completely unpacked, so I have stored the unpacked boxes in our guest room until I am feeling better.  Prior to finding out that I had cancer I had pretty much got my craft room together and taken a few photos.which I will share with you all today!  And in a few days I will have a card to post that I am making for my sister's birthday which is March 30th.   By the way, she is battling breast cancer that was found when she had a heart attack back in November...........so we are good support for each other!  Here are the photos of my Craft Room/Den in our new home............later when I get everything finished, I will post more current photos.

Since taking these photos, I have made a few minor changes that you will see in the photos that I take when I am completely finished.  I am actually using the Master Bedroom since it is so large.....much larger than we need just to sleep in.  I have been collecting the Jet Max cubes for quite some time and some of those is what I used to make my craft desk and I had a piece of glass custom cut to fit the top.

Well I can only say how fortunate that I am to have such a lovely new home and craft room to be sick in!!!  Thanks for stopping by and please come back by in a few days to see the card that I'm making for my sister, it's been so long that I am almost out of practice....LOL!!!

Oh my, this has been a long road!!!

Hey y'all......I'm almost there!  "There", being back to normal, whatever that may be.  We gave up on the "short sale" home that we were trying to purchase.  Bank of America was taking way too long to approve the sale, so on October 19th we bought a brand new home and we are closing on it today at noon!!!!

My husband's children and spouses as well as his niece and her crew will be moving us out of this tiny apartment and into our new home on Saturday.........I don't know what we would do without them!!!  The builder has given us some really nice incentives for buying this home.  We got a Samsung 60" flatscreen TV professionally mounted on the wall, a stainless steel side-by-side refrigerator with water and ice in the door (SS stove, built in microwave and dishwasher were already included), they are fencing in the backyard, a screen enclosure with bronze kick plate and door for the lanai with a paver patio, 2" faux wood blinds throughout and they are paying all of our closing costs!  And would you believe that the azalea bushes (white) at the front of the house are full of blooms that are starting to open...go figure!  At any rate, I'm really stoked.....can't ya tell!

My land line and DSL won't be installed until Tuesday (OMG...hope I don't go into withdrawal), so it will be about a week before I get back here to continue the story of this adventure.....so I will see you then!!!

I finally have me a little craft area and I made a card!!!

Hey y'all!!!  I'm so sorry it took SO long..................but better late than never, right?  I've finally got me a little craft area set up in this tiny one bedroom apartment, but one of the boxes of craft supplies that I had intended to bring here to the apartment got put into storage and there's no way I'm going to try and find it as the storage is packed to the brim.  I don't have my stamp pads, embossing powders or folders, embossing/die cut machine, heat guns or a lot of bling, but I do have a lot of my paper, rubber stamps, some bling and my wonderful Cameo, so I can make some basic projects!  I just can't wait until we get back into a home with room to spread out!  I've already designed the craft area that I'm going to make using my JetMax Cubes that I have been collecting for several years and it will be so functional!!!  Here is a photo of my little space here in the "temporary" apartment!!!

Hey, it's certainly better than nothing...LOL

So, for my first project in months, I've made a very simple "thank you" card for my realtor and friend.  I took a Lori Whitlock card and changed a few things....like for the border at the top, I used a Martha Stewart border punch and the "Thank You" sentiment was made by me writing "Thank You" using a black thick Sharpie, scanning the image and then making a cutting file out of it!  I also used some "Peel-Offs" and "Liquid Pearls".  Here are some photos............and boy it felt good to do this!!!

Card Front  (you can also see the liner I made for the inside of the envelope):

Close-up of Motif:

Inside View:

Designer Signature Label (for back of card):

Thank you so much for your patience and for stopping by for a visit...........I hope to have more for you to see soon!!!

Supplies

Papers:  Bazzill Smooth White (for card base), Colorbok Textured White Cardstock, Colorbok Patterned Papers

Tools:  Silhouette "Cameo"

Accessories:  Martha Steward "Arch Lattice" Border Punch, Ranger "White Opal Liquid Pearls", Color Box "Dark Brown Fluid Chalk", Peel-Offs "Silver Stickers"

Hey y'all......please don't give up on me!!!!

Just 6 days (July 21st) after my last post, we found out that we had a buyer for our house and it would be a "cash sale".....which is really good and REALLY fast!  We accepted their offer and closed on August 6th!!!!!  In our contract they agreed that we could stay in the house "rent free" until August 30th, but because my husband's children, granddaughter and fiance and one of our niece's and her family were helping us move, we had to do it last weekend while they were all off from work.  We have moved into a little one bedroom apartment while we are dealing on a "short sale", so we put most of our belongings into storage.....including most of my craft stuff!  I feel like I am going to go into "withdrawal".  The only bright spot is that when we get moved into our new home, I will be creating a whole new craft room/area......that's what keeps me going!!!

After I get this apartment organized, I will be back with more details......so please don't quit stopping by!!!

Hugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Pam

Summertime is so busy!!!!

Hey everyone!  Trust me, I am still alive and well!  We have had company and we went on a camping trip, plus we've been trying to get our house sold, so I've had no time for crafting and I have to admit that I'm starting to feel withdrawal pains...LOL!

The only thing I've a had a little time to do is observe some of the beautiful wildlife of South Africa via Ustream and Africam.com.  The animals are really stunning!!!

 I've got to share some images of a waterbuck bull that I saw at the Djuma Waterhole via Ustream this morning.  He was so handsome that I named him "George Clooney"!!!  Here are three shots of him that I captured.

Isn't he absolutely gorgeous!!!!


Hopefully we have a buyer for our house and can get moved really soon so that I can get my craft room set up to start creating once more.  If the deal does not go through, then I'm going to go ahead and pack up my craft room after I weed out the items I'm no longer using and redo my room and only unpack a portion of it so that when we do get the house sold I won't have so much packing to do.  We want to move closer to family now that we are getting older.  Plus with my husband's health issues it will be better to be closer to doctors and hospitals.  It's just the moving that is a problem....God only knows that I dread it!!!


Till next time my friends!!!