My Last Herceptin Treatment March 9, 2018

My last chemo treatment was Friday, March 9th, 2018.  I have had 18 Herceptin treatments now, one full year! 

Friday was also the day that they took out my port.  I thought maybe I would be put under for the procedure, but the Doctor gave me a shot to numb the area where my port was at.  He made an incision in the scar where my port was inserted.  There was a lot of scar tissue that grew around the port and he had to cut all that tissue away before he could get it out.  He said that some people have a lot of scar tissue and others don't, I was one that had a lot! 

What I thought was really amazing was that when the catheter that went into my vein was pulled out of the vein, the vein immediately closes up the entry area.  How cool is that?  I thought I would have blood gushing out of the vein and they would have to sew it up. 

I wanted to ask to have the port when they took it out but wasn't sure they would let me.  When I asked, they said that a lot of people ask to have them.  They do all sorts of things with them, put them on the Christmas tree or put them in a box as a memory.  I'm not too sure what I will do with mine, it's a reminder of what I have been through and that I came out on the other side, feeling good and looking forward to the future. 

What Family Means to Me

I was asked by Cancer Centers of America to answer the question, "What Family Means to Me".  There were so many things I could have written, but I was limited to 200 characters in my answer.  That's hard to do, especially for someone that likes to write!  They featured my response on a Facebook posting on December 30th.

Me, Kasey and our sweet dog Lucy!

Click here to see the full Facebook posting.

2017 has been quite a year for us, I'm glad it's over and really looking forward to the year ahead.  I am truly blessed!

POW Paintings H Wenzel 1945

My mom has had these paintings for years, my Granny had them before her.  I think they are just beautiful.  They were painted by a Prisoner of War, named H. Wenzel in 1945.  

I have never found out anything about these paintings, I've google searched for him many times.  I think it would be neat to learn about him and what happened to him. 

Someday these will be mine and I will proudly display them in my house.  

What's Under the Carpet?

When they built the Tulsa Cancer Center, the employee's wrote Bible Verses in the concrete.  They have two picture frames showing the verses along with people writing them.  I think that was a really cool idea. 

Here's one of the verses. 

And a picture of someone writing in the concrete.

After they had written these, they carpeted over them.  I just love this story.  There are so many very cool things about this hospital, but this is one of the coolest I think.

Pioneer Woman and a Beautiful Garden in Tulsa

Mom and I went to this see the Mercantile, Pioneer Woman's store in Pawhuska, OK, not too far from Tulsa.  We ate dinner there and we both got grilled cheese sandwiches, how crazy is that?

We did get Cheesy Olive Bread, which was delicious!  I have made this at home before and it's really good.

Tomato soup!

This was the original painting on the old building that Pioneer Woman renovated, I'm glad she didn't tear it down.  The wood carvings were really nice too.

This is how I paid for the meal, plus I just entered my email address to send me the receipt.  How cool is that?

The Mercantile Store.  We didn't buy much, but was fun to look around.

It was really nice that it wasn't busy.  I've seen pictures of the store just jam packed with people.  I wouldn't have enjoyed that at all!

The next day, we went to a city park.  This was a truck outside the hospital.  Not sure why the guy had an alligator on the front, but was pretty funny!

This park was really nice.  Had several fountains, plants, etc.  The roses had suffered a disease so they weren't too healthy. 

 These mushrooms were in the yard, there were a lot of them around.

When we got back, the Tulsa Ukulele Club was playing some music.  There are so many different volunteers that go to the hospital and do activities.  It's really nice.

Short video of the music.

Mom went on the Tour of Tulsa one day, she enjoyed it. 

Mom's Visit With Me in Tulsa

Mom came with me last week to Tulsa, I'm not too sure it was a great trip for her, she never complains though.  I worked a lot and didn't turn the TV on all week, it was pretty quiet in the room.  She read her book a lot.  It was nice to have her here with me.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Isn't the hospital beautiful?



On the way down to Tulsa, we stopped in Carthage, Missouri at the Precious Moments Chapel.  It was a free tour.  I don't collect the figurines, haven't really been interested in them. I did like the Chapel tour though.  The grounds were beautiful.

This is one of the stained glass windows.

The grounds outside were really beautiful.  This was a castle playhouse surrounded by a moat. How cool?

This was a small cave with a statute in front of it.

This was the door to the Chapel.  It was heavy, carved wood and so amazing.  They had several doors like this.

Inside the Chapel, beautiful painted walls.

The Bridge to God.

The stained glass windows were really amazing.

Look at the light fixtures.  

Part of the outside gardens.

There were a lot of statutes around the grounds.

Trumpeters!

A small koi pond.

This was inside the welcome center.

The entry way into the building, from the inside looking out.

This fountain was really something!

Here's me and mom.  My hair is starting to grow back, black and gray.  It is what it is!