So how is your day today?

How will it be tomorrow?  Your choice of course on how you deal with tomorrow, so start that day with a smile.

So today, I started the day with of course radiation and have only this week left and then done.  Right, wrong or indifferent, I have now received the max and any more will poison my body, kind of a sarcastic statement as radiation in itself is poison.  Oh well.

Then mid-afternoon went for the famous ‘Shave the Head’ since yesterday the hair was coming out in clumps.  To be honest, I got sad.  Last time, I decided when I would lose my hair, this time; the decision was made for me….  No matter, I have accepted the fact so now ALL gone. And the good thing is that I do have a pretty hat to wear for the memorial service to my mother-in-law scheduled for tomorrow.

Then what will I be doing tomorrow?  After radiation of course, we are having a small closure service for Alma Louise Keating (Gal).  You know, at 95 and not in such good health, we expected it, but when it happens… it is still very sad.  She was an adorable lady and she was a wonderful mother and my husband Pat loved her very much.  I thank God every day for the way she raised him and in looking at how he took such good care of her the past 5 to 7 years makes me know that I am in the best hands ever.

When tomorrow comes, if you would look up at least once and smile at Gal as she completes her journey to heaven…  That would be nice.

Love y’all

ME

Another Angel

Another Angel…

Alma Louise Washburn Keating (Grandma Gal) passed away in the early hours.  She was Pat’s Mom and the sweetest mother-in-law ever.  To think of her, everyone remembers first and foremost her smile and a very close second ‘the love for her family’.

There are many more things she was known for and just to name a few for giggles:

-        Her laughing at a joke even when she did not really get it

-        Her pies, all her pies and her cakes incredible

-        Not to say the many the cards, if she ever met you once and had your address, you got a card every year for the next 20+ years

-        Pictures, she took pictures of everyone, everything and made copies…  many, many copies

-        She was definitely the glue of the Washburn family staying in touch with each and everyone always

-        One of the most selfless people I ever met, her needs were hardly known because her happiness relied on that of her love ones (including friends)

-        And talking about friends, she had hundreds, you can imagine with her persistence on staying friends with the world via Birthday Cards

-        Now, she was a major pack rat, I found a container full (FULL) of match boxes and each one was labeled with date, who she was with and in some cases what they ate

-        She wrote in her diary every day.  Yup, she documented everything and that is why I know what a Happy woman she was and what a Happy life she had

For those that knew her I am sure you can add many more anecdotes about her and all will be funny because that is who she was.

And although her health at 95 years old was failing in the past few weeks, she will be missed.

Love you Grandma Gal….

Love y’all,

ME

Keep them coming...

How do you describe what the heck is going on around here?  Yes, there are a lot of good people in this world, I happen to know many but how wonderful that it is me who is surrounded by a bunch.

So Monday, we had homemade lasagna made by a beautiful young lady (Nicole Lutz Nickel) who is actually a newlywed and that Pat picked up at a bar.  I had to say it that way to get your interest.  She was a bartender at our favorite Louie’s while going to school.  In any case, another homemade meal tasting great. BLESSING

Brooke Nafarrete is here keeping the boys in check and my house clean and will help organize my junk a bit more.  BLESSING

Our neighbor from back in the days when Pat and I got married here in Norman came by and brought us homemade baked potato soup.  BLESSING

And then, you just will not believe what happened, as I am getting ready to get a bite to eat…

Or did I tell you the bad news?  I lost 6 pounds in 1 week; sign of treatment and cancer so a very bad thing.  I am almost at the wedding weight.  Yikes!!!  So I can’t waist time eating fruit, or low fat yogurt.  Burgers, ice cream, eggs, toast, sloppy joes, pasta, ice cream, calories, ice cream, cheese, did I mention ice cream?  Anyway I have digressed.  NOT A BLESSING

And then, the door bell rings and one of my dearest friends Doctor James Flores (Jim) is standing in my kitchen.  I cried, of course I cried, and then I cried some more.  Jim was originally our family dentist in California over 20 years ago.  We had stayed in touch and lately not so much but prayed for him every day.  His sweet wife read my message on Monday and he hoped on a plain yesterday and here he is, oh my God.  Did I tell you I cried?  BLESSING

My poor children, this time it was Michael who kept the secret, he washed his sheets and cleaned his room and called his aunt Ligia saying I will need to spend the night at your house as another surprise friend is arriving.  You know, I did not know that my family was this good at keeping secrets; actually we are not but boy lately.  BLESSING

What can I say?  Please know that you do NOT have to come see me, your calls and inspiring messages keep a smile on my face, you do not have to buy me gifts or bring food.  Just continue to pray, and when possible stay in touch.  BLESSING

And one more thing, call a brother, sister, nephew, a parent, you know a family member that you are at odds with and say ‘I want you to know that I love you and staying apart will never change that’.  BLESSING

Love y’all,

ME

PS. The best part of my blog is that with one click you can get to my daughter's 'Leachlove' who is an excellent writer.

Rise and smile

So I was going to publish the message below this morning when my internet went down and they called me from the hospital to tell me to come for radiation… bummer.  Anyway, here we go.

Okay so you do not have a reason to smile… do it anyway, it feels good.

We are done with tornadoes for a few days in Oklahoma… reason for joy.

Had lots of company come and go this weekend… reason for joy.

The radiation machine is down… reason for joy (or not but will joy for now).

Had delicious homemade food delivered… reason for joy.

And if this does not make you happy enough to smile then call someone and tell them that you love them and it will put a smile in their face.  Better yet call someone you have not called in a long time… I love surprises.

That is all I have to say for now…

Love y’all,

ME

Cancer and a bit more

A little information on cancer treatment and a bit more

Before I start on ‘educating’ I want to once more thank each one of you for your support, prayers, messages, calls, cards, visits…  Lesson learn, be good because people are watching. YIKES!!!

Now a few things that I assumed people new but realize now that they might not:

   1.     When you have a port and it is flushed it taste HORRIBLE.

   2.     When going through brain radiation, hold your breath or you smell the laser frying your brain.

   3.     When getting a Neulasta shot in a weak body, you hurt like hell for 3 or so days.

   4.     If you do not like to take pills, get over it and take them before you need them… before the symptoms tell you to take them…  This way you are in control.

   5.     Your hair will change, get over it.  Choose hat, scarf, wig or plain boldness and smile.

   6.     Keep your mouth clean, brush often and rinse lots… worst bacteria ever.

7.     No fresh flowers, no fruit or vegetable that can be pilled or boiled to death… second worst bacteria ever.

8.     Have lots of yogurt, watermelon, ice cream, ensure, small bottles of juices, good water, a piece of good dark chocolate handy, sometimes you just need a little something.

9.     When you are feeling good, cook a lot of freezing type food, so dinners are easy (spaghetti sauce, chili, meat loaf, stuff bell peppers) and when this is not doable then get lots of menus from favorite restaurants an call it in.

10.  Love everyone; love hard because that is what will keep you going and laugh, laugh, laugh… just don’t let the tummy ache.

And now I might get corny for some but stay with me:

Love God, you don’t believe in God, no problem…  What do you love?  What do you think makes good?  Call it what you want or don’t but I don’t have a follower or reader who is not good in my eyes and even my angels on earth.  You can’t change how I view you so get over it.

So if my logic is correct and all of you are good, and I think that God is ALL good then like it or not I KNOW YOU BELIEVE.  Now with that concept out of the way, please stay good as I will like to see you in the other side.

PS. Don't forget to read my daughters blog Leach Love that can be found on this screen to the left... she writes better than I do...

Love y’all,

ME

I am so blessed

How do I begin to describe my feelings?  I admit that it is sad that my time here is shorter than I expected.  I have fought and will continue to fight until no more… but God has blessed me in so many other ways.

Most of you know that I am the middle child with six sisters… three older, three younger who are spread throughout the USA. There are a total of 2 nieces and 5 nephews. I also have a wonderful husband, amazing son and the most loving and talented daughter married to an incredible man who together gave me a Queen for granddaughter… Add to this the hundreds of earthly angels called friends… I am so blessed.

This past Friday (Good Friday) happened to be also my birthday.  The day started out with radiation and a visit to the nursing home where my mother-in-law is not doing so well; back home and rest.  Michelle and Pat woke me up and said that my birthday present was too big and if I could come with them to my one sister’s house that lives in town.

There are no words to describe what a most beautiful surprise it was to see ALL my sisters there, they all took time off work, life plus the expense and all and flew here just to be with ME.  Please feel free and safe to click on the link below, warning, it will make you cry.

Front View video:

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Back View video:

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All night I kept counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 yup all here, there really isn’t a word that can describe how I felt that day and the whole weekend as we all were here celebrating my life while we could.

How do I explain the feeling, tell you about my sisters, introduce them to you so you know how significant this is… we are not the hug/kissy type family, we are logical, practical, loving yes but not like this…  all very intelligent and hard workers, actually I am the only normal one. They are all way above me when it comes to brain power and working and life I was the mushy mushy, love, kissy so for them to do this on the spare of the moment just does not happen, specially  because we had just gotten together at the end of January for my mother’s funeral.  Mind you, they had planned this before the news of my situation last week.

Now this is not all, my nephews Hermes and his wife Jill also blessed us with the coming of their baby Allistyn Rose on my birthday, so for years to come this day will be special to all.

I was blessed with a visit from neighbors, some of the Ex-Louie’s girls which melted my heart and blessed by an incredible cocktail party on Saturday given by Paul Ziert and then there was Easter Sunday celebration here at my house with all my family around.  Well the once that were still here.

Another blessing is also you, so many of you and I am not exaggerating when I say hundreds of you have called me, sent me beautiful cards, flowers, messages via the blog, facebook and e-mail of encouragement, of birthday, of how I have influenced you…  My oh my, if I had known I was been watched so closely I probably would have used less bad language… nahhhh.

And my daughter, my personal angel with the most beautiful granddaughter I could ever have.  And my son, here at my side for now and I continue to ask God that he can be free before I go.

And my husband, how can he keep this up caring for all of us and still make me laugh.

 There are so many things I wanted to talk about in this next few weeks but this message deserved a posting of its own.  I am not exaggerating but I truly know that I am one blessed person and all thanks to you all.

Love y’all,

ME

 PS. When you sign my blog as anonymous, can you give me a hint on who you are?  I have some beautiful messages and no clue who my lovely friend is…. Thanks,

Sadly I see the finish line

For those of you who have facebook, this might not be a total surprise. I want to let you family and friends who have been by my side and prayed and sent good vibes that I am sorry to say that the time for me to say good bye is closer than I was hoping and praying for, remember is not that prayer does not work is that sometimes the answer is NO and God must need me up there really really bad because he has heard yours and my prayers and still says I need you.

So to bring you up to date, last week in Houston the doctors indicated that my cancer had spread all throughout the body and that in conjunction with the skin burned so badly it was obvious that the trial was not working so they sent me back home.  On Thursday I met with my oncologist and she noted a concern that an ‘unspecific lesion located in the left cerebellum’, so she recommended that we have a brain scan before starting chemo.  Sadly enough the results are that what looks to be tumors are spread throughout the brain so instead of chemo at this time I went to see the radiation oncologist which said ‘statistically’ if I do this for 14 days and it works, it might buy me 6 months.  So you see, now I see the finish line and I hope that I have six month with no pain or horrible side effects.

Please know every one that my first and foremost prayer is Michael, I ask God a million times a day that I get to see my son free and become a productive member of society so if I am gone and this wish did not come true I ask you all to continue praying for him.

In my heart I worry so much about my family since I took the role of the pillar, in the end they will all be okay but I am worried about their road before they get there so another favor I ask of my friends, if you know any member of my family Pat, Michelle, Michael and my sisters, please give them support, they will tell you they are okay even if they are not so impose yourself upon them because they can use a hug.

I am sorry if I am asking for too much but I picked my friends very carefully and know that each one of you would be happy to help out.

For now is all I can write, honestly I have not stopped crying but will continue to write until I can write no more.

Love y’all,

ME