Scribble

Friday December 11, 1992

Up at 8:00. Feeling good. Have french toast for breakfast. Decide to take my other anti-nausea medicine. I take it all day and feel better. I eat but still not much at once. So I try to eat often. I work on the Christmas cards. I hate doing it because my handwriting has gone to pot. I don't know why. It's such a scribble. I can hardly read it myself.

I feel well enough to go to the Christmas potluck party for our club. But when I go up to get ready I have a sweat attack. I try everything but it won't go away. We arrive at the party still sweating. So embarrassing! Good to see old friends. We stay about 1-1/2 hours. I'm tired. Must go home. Did eat some.

So glad to see that Mom's doctor gave her some anti-nausea medication, and that she has decided to take it frequently. Also, eating small frequent meals and drinking plenty of fluids is a good way to manage the nausea.

As for her handwriting, it does seem to be a little less flowing, but otherwise it is perfectly readable, not a scribble at all.

According to Web MD, fatigue and nausea are the most common side effects of chemotherapy along with neuropathy (numbness or tingling in the fingers and toes). It also states "Although chemotherapy affects every woman differently, overall it's a much better experience than it was a couple of decades ago because now doctors have more drugs available to relieve or even prevent side effects."

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?

Italian Feast

Thursday November 12, 1992

I feel much better today. I have alot of energy. We go grocery shopping for a couple of hours of coupon shopping. I'm surprisingly not tired. We rush home to get the spaghetti and cheese bread ready to take to the potluck tonight at Shirley & Jim Turner's house. There are 6 couples. We have a great Italian feast and share vacation pictures. It's a great evening and I feel fine but am very tired when we get home about 11 p.m.

It certainly didn't take Mom long to recover from her surgery. It appears she was trying to spend as much time with her friends and family as she possibly could while she was still able. This evening sounds like so much fun!

July 4 Potluck

Saturday July 4, 1992

Slept in, took it easy all morning. My cold is better, so we pick up some chicken and take it to the 4th of July party at Harold and Joan's. They have a good turnout of 40 plus with lots of good potluck food.

we visit, play games, and dance. After dark we watch the fireworks at Simi High from their front lawn. Then we come home. I'm tired, but it was a great day! Feels so good to feel good!

Wow, that's quite a party with more than 40 people. By being part of the square dancing club, they will always know just about everyone there and are guaranteed to have a good time.

July 4 is one of my favorite holidays. We watch the local fireworks show here in Windsor from our neighborhood on July 3. The fireworks are shot off from the high school or Kaiser Park next door. Then on July 4 we usually see the fireworks set off in Healdsburg 7 miles north of Windsor, and sometimes we even see fireworks a third time on July 5 by driving south to the Marin County Fair, where the fireworks are shot off a barge in the small lake there. Last year we went to Lake Tahoe for the first time to see the fantastic fireworks set off from 3 different barges from the south shore. That show is one of the 5 top displays in the country. Nevada Beach is just 200 yards from our timeshare in south shore, which provides a good viewing spot. We immediately decided we wanted to go again in 2012, but July 4 was already booked up a year in advance. We have been waitlisted for almost a year, so so far there are no cancellations.

Potluck

Saturday March 21, 1992

Slept much better last night til 8 a.m. By 10 a.m. I have joined everyone outside at the picnic tables. That's always fun. I did alot of perspiring after my shower. Seemed like 1/2 hour cool down. We all walked and shopped some more, had leisurely lunch and by 2:30 we were dancing Plus level. We had great fun dancing with experienced dancers. At 4:30 we were getting ready for the potluck dinner. Harold brought a birthday cake for Joan. Our 5:30 potluck was great! No rain! Thank you God! Good food!

Back dancing by 8 p.m. til 10 p.m. Then to Harold's trailer for after-party birthday cake.

I wonder if Mom is talking about Joan Larson, our neighbor across the street from the Lemona house where I grew up, and her husband Hal. I suppose Hal could be short for Harold, but I did not know that they went square dancing. Joan Larson is the friend who found out March 12, 9 days earlier, that her cancer had returned.

Sounds like Mom better bring a fan next time they go camping in their fifth wheel!