More Movies For a Rainy Day

Friday January 8, 1993

Awake at 7:00 we make love. I feel pretty good today. Not as good as yesterday. My energy level is down and I feel the pressure in my throat. We have a sausage and egg breakfast and go out to In N Out for hamburger lunch. At 1:00 we go to a movie. Frank goes to the bathroom 3 times during the 1-1/2 hour film. His bladder is really acting up today. Later we have a yogurt and watch a rented movie. We've had lots of rain this week. A good time for watching movies.

I'm not hungry for dinner. I eat some tangerine. At 11:30 I'm hungry so crawl out of bed and go down to eat some soup.

Poor Frank. For many years he had to hurry to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so due to an enlarged prostate. He finally had surgery a few years ago: problem solved!

Mom doesn't say what movies they watched. I guess it wasn't worth mentioning. I find it hard to watch more than one movie. It's difficult to sit still that long. I would much rather read where I can take a break every half hour or so.

Hand & Foot

Friday November 20, 1992

Frank is up early to make another cheesecake so he can take two to the potluck dinner at Pat and Jack's house tonight. I'm slow in the morning as usual but feel pretty good in the p.m. I read and dust the living room.

I call Roz in Palmdale. We talk over an hour. She has many complaints about their Mexican cruise to Mexico on Princess last week. Poor food and cabin service etc. Too bad, probably their first and last. Her bladder still falls out. She's new doing Kegel exercises.

Forty of our friends from square dancing show up for the card party/potluck. It's great! My partner Fred and I do very well as we play Hand and Foot. We have a great time and I'm tired when we leave at 10 p.m.

Roz was one of Mom's co-workers before she retired. Poor woman, I have never heard of a bladder falling out! I have never been on a cruise before, but always imagined if I did it would be wonderful. I don't know if Roz was a complainer or if the cruise really was horrid. I would never go to Mexico for my first cruise, but would like to try going to Alaska on a cruise ship some day. We have been to Alaska 3 times more than 10 years ago, but never on a cruise. I would love to take a cruise that goes into Glacier Bay someday.

I had never heard of the game Hand & Foot, so googled it and found they actually have a website called hand8foot. Here are the rules of the game from their website:

The aim is to get rid of cards from your hand (11 cards), and then from your foot (11 cards), by melding them. A Meld is a set of three to seven cards of equal rank placed face up on the table. A Meld cannot have fewer than three cards.

After a Meld of three or more cards has been started, you can add further cards to it until there are seven. Then it becomes a Book. You can meld cards of any rank from A, K, Q, … down to 3.

Deuces (twos) and Jokers are wild cards and can be used in melds, as long as there is at least one more real card than wild cards. You can not meld wild cards alone.

There are two types of melds:

A Clean(Natural) Meld has no wild cards and may become a Red Book.
A Dirty(Wild) Meld has wild cards and may become a Black Book.
A Meld of seven cards is complete and is called a Book.

Sounds like fun. Have you ever played?

99.6 Temp

Thursday October 15, 1992

I don't feel well. I don't feel like getting out of bed. I have a temp of 99.6 and lower abdomen pain like diarrhea. I have alot of pressure on my bladder and must empty it every 20 minutes. I pass rectal water like puss often. I finally decide to try Imodium AD for diarrhea.

I decide to go to the doctor at 3 p.m. Maybe I have a bladder infection. The tests are negative. I realize now the pressure is only when I'm lying down. I come home and go back to bed. I sleep off and on til Frank comes to bed at 10:30. I sleep pretty well through the night.

Of course she has pressure on her bladder and her intestines when lying down. Has she forgotten that she saw the images of the CT scan last month showing her abdomenal wall covered with tumors? They most certainly have gotten bigger without any treatment and will cause her more pain and pressure as time goes by.

A Cure For What Ails You?

Tuesday May 7, 1991

Sleeping til 8 a.m. lately, making up for lost sleep fropm 2-4 a.m. each night, I guess. Feeling more energetic and less arthritic than usual. Not allowed to take Motrin for my arthritic knees, thumbs, shoulders, neck and back, but that all seems to bother me less than a few months ago, another reason I'm feeling so well. Haven't noticed any hair loss. My bladder hasn't performed so well in months. A trip to the bathroom every 2-3 hours seems quite normal. Bowels are working perfect also. Even my allergies and cough have subsided.

Tonight we have Robbie and Dolores and Shirley and Jim over to meet. They are going to Alaska in their RVs and share information. Maybe they will see each other there. They seem to like each other. We pig out on angel food cake, strawberries and whip cream. All diet, of course.

OK, I have never heard of chemotherapy being a cure for arthritis, allergies and a cough! Mom had frequent pain in her shoulders and had cortisone injections several times. She had orthoscopic surgery on her knees a few years earlier, and every morning she woke up with a cough. Not sure what she was allergic to. She hadn't smoked a cigarette in 25 years.