UPDATE and an on the road shot, thanks to Leland's Honda

UPDATE: I slept for a longer period of time last night! When I woke up at 4 a.m. in the recliner, I decided to try the bed and wedge pillow for my upper body and the memory foam pillow for my head. I really cannot tell you if I went back to sleep for real because every time I became aware of being in the bed, my brain was thinking the second I became aware of being there. For two hours this happened, although I believe I dozed some because what awoke me at 6 a.m. was the sound of my phone reminder to shut my windows. I have that reminder on perpetual repeat because, back when I was up and around, out and about, I needed it, just in case the temperature and air quality meant that I'd opened some windows. Don't want to leave them open and unlocked whenever I leave the apartment.

Anyway, I've been awake two hours and am about to take the morning meds, now reduced to just three and none of them are anti-nausea because I have NO nausea. Hooray! I have a headache, tiny amount of peripheral neuropathy in lower legs, none in hands right now. Hooray! We'll see how my energy level makes it through today, but, to tell you the truth, I feel like I could use a nap any minute. Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and concern. I feel every single one of them!



The day after I learned that I needed that second surgery, the robot one on June 25 that removed the metastatic tumor from where it free-floated in my abdominal cavity, Leland and Rachel took me to Sauvie Island to pick blueberries. On the way back into the city, not a long drive at all, I took this photo through Leland's windshield. It's impossible to ride by the St. Johns Bridge and not want to photograph it, y'all.There's another one of these gorgeous supports on the eastern side of the Willamette River. Thanks for the chance to get this photo, Leland and Rachel! I had a great time picking blueberries and being with you two!

UPDATE with video & photo - Look at these four fine young people enjoying one of my Portland Trail Blazers' season ticket holder perks!!

Update: Well, I got my hair clipped down to a Velcro-like stubble yesterday, professionally and in no time flat, by Rosa, my sweet friend and hairdresser.



Here's the big reveal! It's video, so when you click on it, you'll go to my Flickr account and have to click one more time to see and hear it. Thanks! Now, over 24 hours later, I'm completely at ease with how I look and ready for whatever is next. Chemo Round Two is Wednesday.



A photo that I took today, wearing a scarf which soon became loose. I'm not so sure about scarves. Maybe I'll come around because I believe I'm gonna have plenty of time to find out!



Back on August 5, I had hoped to go see the Portland Thorns play soccer at Providence Park. However, it turned out that my chemo port placement procedure got scheduled for first thing that morning, be at the hospital at 6:15 a.m. to check in. I knew I'd be very tired, still recovering from the July 29 Chemo Round One, plus the early rising to make that appointment. So, Lamont, Leland, Rachel and Brody enjoyed the soccer outing instead. They had a blast! The Thorns won 5-2! The kids also got a meal voucher for a hot dog, chips and soda. Oh, and the each got a cool pair of shades!

Chemo Round One, Day 3. Things it would be fun to do on a sunny day in Portland, except that it is supposed to be 100 degrees today. It was 103 degrees yesterday! Three cheers for the window unit!

Chemo Round One, Day 3. So far, so good. No nausea. No other side effects, really, except for feeling a bit achy, sort of like I have a teensy bit of the flu. I am hoping this continues throughout the day. Rachel, Leland's girlfriend, brought over a delicious beef barley stew that she cooked at home, some fresh blueberries, and then made some zucchini bites in my kitchen, from a recipe in the What to Eat During Cancer Treatment book that Julie from work loaned to me. They were delish, too!



Eating watermelon with Mama over where my sons live in Southeast Portland, like this we enjoyed one Labor Day weekend.



Eating a plate like this, over at the guys, one Memorial Day weekend. Those sons of mine can cook! Mama made the deviled eggs, but before she died those little beauties became my contribution since her stamina waned over the years.



Eating a plate like this, over at the guys, one 4th of July! See what I mean about those sons of mine and cooking! We moved here in June, 2006, and didn't cook a holiday meal until Thanksgiving, 2010. Those sweet sons of mine treated us every single time!

Anyway, Rachel's taken such good care of me that in a little while I think I'll take a short nap in the recliner. Oh, I ate all of that good food she made without even thinking of taking a photo of it--I was that hungry. Every bite tasted tasted just right!

Sunshine, shade, a breeze, blueberries and two special people equal a great outing on Sauvie Island

I brought up the rear as we walked from the store at Bella Organic on Sauvie Island, north of Portland, towards the blueberry U-Pick site. Rachel carried the two buckets we picked up at the store. Leland carried my folding lawn chair and the tote bag with our empty, lidded containers inside it. All of us wore straw hats and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine. We walked all the way to the dark green trees as instructed and then turned right to cross the public road. It was not a short walk to where we were told we could pick blueberries, but it was not such a long one that I asked myself just what am I getting into here. Plus, I knew that chair would give me a rest, much like the benches where I walk in my neighborhood and at work. I am blessed.



We crossed the public road as instructed and headed for the bushes to the right of the private road--the young man had said we should pick from rows between orange cones and then pointed out that the farther you walked, the less picked over the bushes would likely be. Leland felt as if his hat would blow right off his head when we were out of the cover cover those tall trees had provided. So, Rachel's helping out with her one empty hand as Leland attempts to tighten the strap beneath his chin with his one empty hand. Team work! When I had put my hat on after we got out of the car, I tightened the strap up to my chin, and I also pulled the hat down onto my head so that it fit tightly across my forehead. Still, as we crossed that public road, I felt the front brim fly straight up, but the hat didn't budge. Whew!



Once Leland's hat felt secure, we walked down the road, then into the grass to take a look at the blueberry bushes and available shade for me and my chair. We made it not all the way down to the end of the orange cones but to a fine place for me and my chair. I rested, took a few photos, then decided to pick some blueberries. Soon, I realized as loaded as the bushes were, I could take my chair with me and pick while seated in the sunshine. It was quite comfortable, y'all. I had a blast!



Leland took a few photos, then started picking into one of the buckets. I enjoyed hearing the plop of each berry as it hit the bottom of that plastic bucket.



Leland gave me a thumbs up when he looked up from picking. Love it! And that T-shirt he's wearing. It's from where he works, Ascentec Engineering. They had a get-together on May 4, May the 4th Be With You, in honor of something they're working on about liquid hydrogen and space travel. Don't ask me for details 'cause it's beyond my frame of reference, much less remembering. Oh, and you can see that he's already loosened the strap of his hat--light breeze among the rows of bushes, nothing that would blow your hat off your head.



Some of the berries I photographed while sitting in my chair, down the row, then I picked them and put them in that same red bucket Leland had been using. He got a Nancy's Yogurt container out of the tote bag that I had bought last October in Pitlochry, Scotland, and used it so that I would have the bucket with a handle.



Here comes Rachel. It's time for us to pool our berries and head for the store to purchase them. One more errand to accomplish on the way back to my apartment, then the two of them would head to some friends to grill. It was a splendid outing! I'm very happy they asked me to go along, especially since there is the very real possibility that by next Saturday I could be back at square one with my being able to walk very far at the time, if I have that surgery on Thursday. Plus, the weather is predicted to be very hot this week and beyond. One more reason to hope that I don't have cancer and that I therefore don't need that surgery--I'll be in the A/C at work this week when it's 80 to 90 degrees, and the week after when it starts out at 98 degrees on Monday and Tuesday. No matter what, I shall endure, even the predicted 97 next Saturday and the 103 a week from today. I have plenty of fans, lots of windows, and easily hung ways to keep the sunshine out.

More from Mother's Day, 2014

Sweetheart of a subject to photograph, Rachel, my son Leland's girlfriend



Sweetheart of a photographer, my son Leland

I took these photos at Forest Park on the Lower Macleay Park Trail.

Seen on my Mother's Day Hike, No. 1

Forest Park, Lower Macleay Park Trail. As I took this photo, several thoughts ran through my mind. Yea, there's the bathroom. Will I be able to keep up with these three fit young people? How close are the woods? How long will it take for the work on the NW Thurman Street Bridge to be completed? I found one answer online--the bridge will reopen in fall, 2014. (It was closed on April 1, 2014.)



A view up through the bridge-to-be in the early stages of being rebuilt.



The woods! The creek! A person on the path in the distance! We shared the trail with lots of people walking, lots of dogs, and quite a few people running.




There's a house up there, in the trees. When we saw someone walking with a paper grocery bag, I mentioned picnic to Leland. He suggested the person just might be walking home from the grocery store! Wow!

Mother's Day, 2014--a blessing.

I took this sweet photo earlier today while on a Mother's Day walk with my sons, Leland and Lamont, and Leland's girlfriend Rachel. At my suggestion, they took me to Forest Park, a public municipal park--all 5100 acres of it--in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland. On part of the Lower Macleay Park Trail alongside Balch Creek, we walked off the sidewalk and into the woods within moments. It was a treat, a real treat, to be out there with them on such a beautiful morning. As you can tell, lots of people were out and about because, when the sun comes out in Portland, that's what you do.



After walking for .85 miles (according to info I found on the Internet) one way, we turned around at the Stone House and walked back to the start. The three of them went to get the car while I waited and watched people and dogs, then we went to one of my favorite restaurants for brunch--the Bijou Cafe in downtown Portland. A very special day, all around. 



A vandalized map of Forest Park. The map is a decal applied to the plate, not enameled onto it. If it were, then the vandal or vandals would not have been able to scratch those letters on it on the upper right or to scratch off that portion of the map at the lower center. Jerk.

Two photos from a swell Christmas Day!

Leland, Lamont, Lee, and Brody smiled as I took their photo because I made them chuckle when I hollered, "Festivities!" They repeated it, smiling all the while! Brody is Leland and Lamont's housemate; Lee works with them. Both guys are their good friends.
 

Rachel, Leland's sweetheart, graciously posed with me around my spur-of-the-moment Christmas decoration. One Sunday afternoon I had picked up the wooden tray from someone's parking strip on a nearby street--folks set items in front of their houses in the strip of grass between the curb and the sidewalk and intend for you to take it, if you like it. I liked this wooden tray with a divider and a handle. It dawned on me that I could put Christmas lights along the center divider and make a holiday spot in my apartment. I set various shiny, sparkly, Christmas decorations in there, too. Everyone agreed with me that it made a great stand in for a fireplace.

We were all so hungry that none of us even gave a second's thought to taking photos of the food I had cooked--pot roast with potatoes and carrots, fresh green beans, steamed broccoli, and homemade yeast rolls. Dessert--I baked a box of Duncan Hines Fudge Brownies and had bought a small pecan pie at Fred Meyer Monday evening when I shopped for this meal. No one wanted pie, and I sent the last four brownies home with the guys.