Saturday, February 26, 2011

Home Again

Sorry, it's hard to type with a three year old attached to my everywhere. Turns out, Samson missed me. A LOT. More details and pics of the Road Trip coming soon. Like as soon as school starts on Monday. Sheesh.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Getting the heck out of dodge

Leaving Lubbock, off to Albuquerque!

...after a quick stop at Denny's :)


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Group(on) of the Day

Max and I just returned from a wet but lovely night out in Palo Alto, brought to us at half price by Groupon. Two new hoodies for Samson at American Apparel and a delicious dinner at Three Seasons, all for pennies, PENNIES, I tell you. Thanks, grandparents, for feeding the kiddo and watching Cailou with him.

My single parenting week is over a day and a half early, thanks to Max surprising me by coming home from NYC this morning instead of tomorrow evening. What an awesome way to say I love you; he was really very missed on this trip. Samson and I both were just beside ourself with longing Monday night--it's no fun coming home to an empty house with no Aba to watch for from the living room window.

Had a terrific brunch yesterday morning with another glioma gal (we're EVERYWHERE), but this one's also a friend from high school! How wild is that? She's been fighting the good fight for 9 years now, and is crazy awesome. In fact, you would do well to donate to her Brain Tumor Society 5K page. Feeling double generous? Donate to my page, too.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Why is the sky spitting on us?

Something weird happened today. When we left for school, the ground was all wet and there was water dripping from the sky. WTF? It's February, not April.

The last 2 weeks have been downright tropical, and thankfully, we spent the last two days of sunshine outdoors in SF and Sacramento. SF Zoo was Saturday, celebrating a friend's birthday and watching as before our very eyes, some of tiniest, teeniest babies we know became proper toddlers and little kids in general. It still seems weird for some reason.

The we drove to Sacramento (which a productive and jelly bean filled stop at the Vacaville outlet mall) so we could indulge in some room service before everyone passed out. Sunday was the Train Museum for a corrective experience for all of us, since our last visit had gone so, so horribly wrong.

Surprisingly-ish, the best part was Funderland! Go Sacramento, you really know how to make trashy and run down into fun and only slightly deadly. We'll be seeing you next summer. Ka-CHOW.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Dig Deep

I hate fundraising so I'm only going to post this once.

Unite to fight brain tumors! Seriously, even $10 will help.

Thanks for your continued support, team! Cancer sucks!

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Check None

With only 3 hours of free time today, I took a 3 hour nap. Goddamn, it felt good. It most definitely not feel good to shirk my responsibilities, ignore piles of laundry (dirty, clean, or folded, take your pick), ignore piles of mail, ignore piles of filing. Thursday and Friday I am Samson free from 9 to 4, so if I get my ass in gear, I should be able to put a serious dent in the list.

We went out for a Groupon dinner at a new-to-us kabob place in San Carlos tonight. It was pretty good, but they get extra points for having Iskender Kabob on the menu (my favorite meal from Turkey.). And extra points on top of that for tolerating Samson's crappy mood. We had spent the afternoon with Safta Sheva at the Donkey Park in Palo Alto, and that place always tires him out. He's mostly dropped his afternoon nap, but couldn't resist a late afternoon/early evening snooze--and who am I to argue with a nap?

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Check One

I have a short-ish, 4 item list of things that I need to accomplish. Some of the items aren't one shot, do this types of things, but rather do a some fo this each day until goal is reached. So, do-over: I have a short-ish list of 4 goals that I need to accomplish, I can check one solid item off that list. Damn I love being able to say that.

Last week, I gathered my 719 page patient file from Stanford and with help from Super Mom, got all of my questionnaires, MRI disks and requested record sorted, organized, copied, and sent out to The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment. Maybe the good Dr. Block has discovered a special combo of banana, corn flakes and jelly beans that prevent tumor recurrence. Or maybe he can recommend a good local voodoo practitioner.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Clean MRI

Hoorah, another MRI at UCSF today came out clear and sparkly. Two more months to keep on keeping on before we spin the wheel of chance again.

The awful thing that happened this morning: when I met Burt, my MRI nurse at Mission Bay, his eye and much of his head and face were covered in gauze. He told me about his Friday night, which unfortunately involved a mentally unstable man at the bar throwing a wine class in his face, which shattered and got in his eye, face, and scalp. He was only at the lab today because there was no backup until tomorrow. He'll probably need surgery and may loose his eye! Shocking and horrible. I adore Burt, and wish him many fine pain pills and two eyes that work well.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Happy Sad

Happy!



I have an amazing, kick-ass, stellar group of Glioma Gals in my life. Enough said. Well, not really enough.

I've known Erin for a YEAR now (what?!) and we clicked big time from day one. We chat frequently, and have met up (she lives in Davis) and good number of times. She has adorable children, a love bug husband, is an excellent mother and a ridiculously right on person. We have the same kind of Glioma and are in the same trial at UCSF. I know I owe my survival thus far in part to her.

Toby I haven't known as long, although I enjoy getting to know her as we meet more often. She's local to me and lives near the best park in the area. Her youngest child is Samson's age, she's got a great dog, and she is a hoot.

I met Liz from Roseville yesterday for the first time. All I will say for now is A. I have a huge girl crush--short hair, glasses, tattoos, hmm who does that remind you of? and B. what an intelligent woman.

All of these gals are whip smart, have amazing factual recall, and are full of energy. I know that I'm a little more caffeinated and hyper than normal when I meet up with other survivors, but damn, these chicks are like speed to me. A just jibber jabbered the afternoon away with no filter whatsoever. It felt great.

Sad!

The headaches are crap. It's like I've always got a headache, either a dull one that lasts for days or strong one that only lasts a few hours. I'm irritable lately, tense, and down on myself for not doing more or doing better. I've gained weight since my appetite came back around Thanksgiving, and I'm not exercising or eating healthfully like I (DUH) should be. I can't get enough sugar, with the internets say is like inviting the little webby bits of my tumor that are left in my brain over for protein shakes and some Wii Fit. Left Over Tumor + Sugar = BAD. Left Over Tumor + Pregnancy = BAD. And all I want is to get knocked up and bathe in a tub full of wild berry flavored gummy Life Savers.

With some luck, I'll be able to keep blogging more regularly. Even if the entries are mostly suck ass and whiney and full of expletives. It makes me feel better, it got zero calories, and I've got a lot to say these days.