A busy week......

This has been such a busy week, if I don’t start writing at some point, I’ll never catch up.

Back in December and January, when things looked so bleak for me, physically, I asked the Lord to please just let me live until June 7 and be able to celebrate our 50^th  anniversary.  Well, He has more than answered that prayer.  A week ago Saturday, June 16, we had a big anniversary celebration. This was as soon as the kids could be here.  We had a cake, punch, nuts, mints, balloons, beautiful cards and notes, and most of all family and friends.  Some people that I thought might come, did not, but others came that I had no clue would come!  There were lots of delightful surprises.  The grandkids did the serving, and we just visited and visited.  I wished I could have been more than one person in order to adequately visit with everyone.  Mark set my iPhone up to record the event live for FB.  This was mostly for my sister, Colleen, who wanted in the worst way to be there, but could not.  I was so thankful that I felt good and withstood the day well.  I’m sure the adrenalin flowing helped.  I received so many beautiful cards and sweet notes that I was able to sit and leisurely enjoy later in the evening.  Here are a few pictures from the event.

Flowers Colleen sent to us.

The cake

Mark, Amy, Dylan, Christian

Jeannine and Maya

Mark and Jeannine and the grandkids were able to be here all this last week.  Mark had to take Dylan back to KC to go with his team to a soccer tournament in Indianapolis – Regionals.  In the 2^ndgame, Dy scored the only goal in overtime to win the game, but today (Sunday) they lost and were eliminated from the tournament.  😒 Mark and Chris had to return home this afternoon, but Jeannine and the girls are here for most of the summer.  They will be in and out a bit, and so will Mark, but it is always nice to have your family together.

Sunday, after the celebration, I really felt pretty good, but on Monday, I bottomed out!  My legs felt like noodles, and as soon as I stood up, I needed to sit down again.  My BP was under 100, so I knew I needed fluids. I knew I had not been drinking water over the weekend as I usually do. It was time to have my port flushed anyway, so I called the infusion center, and they told me to come on in. After a liter of fluids, I felt like a new person.  This is the 1^sttime in a long time I had to have fluids.  The IV chemo dehydrated me on a regular basis, but this pill I’m on does not affect me like that – thankfully.

For several months now, my left knee has been bothering me, particularly when I would first stand up and start to walk on it. I had asked my PCP to recommend someone for me.  I knew there was no way I wanted – or could even have – another total knee replacement. But this knee was acting just like the right knee I had replaced in 2010 – arthritis.  UGH!  So, Tuesday, I saw Dr. Larimore in Hutch.  My PCP had already taken x-rays.  Dr. Larimore said I had “grade 2” arthritis.  I’m not up on my arthritis grades, but he said it was not bad. Whew!  He said he would inject it with a steroid, and if that did not help, I should come back for an MRI to see if it was a torn meniscus.  Oh, boy!  I dreaded that injection!  I had had two different ones in the right knee before having it replaced and it was NOTfun!  I’m such a pansy when it comes to needles.  😖  The other two times, the doctor shot lidocaine in the knee, waited a bit, then injected the steroid.  I said to Dr. Larimore, “You’re going to numb it, aren’t you?”  And he said, “Yes, I’ll take care of you.”  He just had me sit on the edge of the bed, and I didn’t see any 2^ndneedle.  I folded my arms tightly, shut my eyes tightly, and felt something cold on my knee.  I kept waiting for it to hurt on the inside, but suddenly he was done!  I said, “That’s it?”  “Yep!”  Well, that was practically nothing!  Within a short period of time – and ever since – I could walk without pain – like magic! BOY, I hope this lasts a long time!

After that, I felt like a new person!!  

Thursday, when I went to bed I had a couple hive-looking spots on my anterior thighs.  And my left underarm had been itching during the evening.  I didn’t think too much about it, because little “funny spots” appear and disappear on my skin from time to time.  “Rash” is a side effect of this pill.  In the night, my left arm, at the site of my flap scar began to itch.  It was enough that I woke up and decided to take a Benadryl.  I didn’t really even look at my arm – just took the pill and went back to bed.  I did go back to sleep, but when I woke up about 9:00, I was covered with hives!  It was all over my upper thighs, arms, and some on my trunk.  NOW WHAT??? I had no clue what had caused this. I had not eaten anything different, hadn’t changed the laundry soap or lotions.  I thought at first I would go to the urgent care unit in Hutch, but decided instead to call my pharmacist at KU.  I asked if there was any chance that the steroid given in my knee could have caused it.  He didn’t think so.  He said that 87% of the people on Mekinist have skin issues.  He said to take another Benadryl and call him back in the afternoon to let him know how I was doing.  He would shoot an email to Dr. Powers to let him know what was going on. It wasn’t long until Dr. Powers called me.  He pretty much concurred with the pharmacist.  He said to take the Benadryl and an Allegra.  If I had cortisone crème, I could use it, too.  If it was not better by the time I was to take the Mekinist (I take it at 4 pm), I should stop it until the hives were all gone and then start it up again.  He said I was on the maximum amount of that drug (2 mg), and I could go down to 1.5 or 1 without losing any efficiency if we needed to do so. At the time I was talking with him, the itching was not all that bad, and some of it had even started to fade a bit.

Earlier in the week, I had sent Dr. Powers an email to clarify when I was to see him again.  I knew I didn’t need a CT scan for about 3-4 months, but I wasn’t sure if I were to see him monthly still.  So, while I had him on the phone, I asked him if I could get my lab work here and send it to him rather than come up there monthly like I had been doing.  I really saw no need to continue to see him monthly since I was doing so well.  My appearance, visually, is not changing all that much - can still see a little darkened area on my cheek, and the stubborn little scab on my forehead.  I have a small dark spot just above the hairline, but it is not changing, and I’m watching it.  The little one by my eye disappeared some time ago.  He said that plan was fine.

 By 4:00 when it was time to take my pill, the hives were pretty much all gone.  By bedtime, there was only a little pink area on my arms.  I went ahead and took another Benadryl at bedtime, for good measure.  Tuesday and Wednesday nights I had not slept much due to the steroid in my knee that kept me awake.  You either have a painful knee or you take steroids and stay awake!  😀  Oh, well…..  

So, most of Thursday, I wanted to sleep all day with all that Benadryl.  One never knows how I’m going to feel on any given day, but I have to say that I have more good days than down days, and for that I’m very thankful.  I just wish I didn’t have to sleep so much to really feel good.  It seems to waste so much valuable time.

I’ll leave you tonight with this cuteness – 2 of Jeannine’s rescue dogs.  The bigger one is Willow, her therapy dog she trained.

And as always......I'm in His hands.......

Me and my music…….

I’ll get back to review of our 50 years periodically, because it might take a while to complete that.  In the meantime, I don’t want to lose other thoughts that come to me that I want to write about.

I want to write about music tonight.  Music has always been such a big part of my life.  I’m not a great singer – I wish I were, but I can carry a pretty good alto harmony on most songs, especially if I’m standing next to a strong alto in the choir.  😀  I love to listen to the oldies and doo wop songs of my teen years.  For some reason I like to listen to that music when I’m quilting.  It would always remind me of “home” and my high school years.  Now I can listen to it and be smack dab in the area – although things have changed a bit!  Most of my music revolved around instruments.  I played 1^stchair cornet my freshman year – although I was the only cornet/trumpet player!  😀  But most of it revolved around the piano.  I wasn’t a great solo pianist.  I was/am an accompanist – boys’ choir (which I adored, of course!), girls’ choir, all school choir, all kinds of ensembles.  I even played the base drum in a drum quartet for contest one time..  

My piano teacher was a little old delightful lady here in town, Marjorie Tidwell.  She just taught me to “play.”  There weren’t any real basics of music.  I learned that from my school music teachers.  I wish I had learned all about chords, but that came later as an adult, by necessity as the contemporary praise songs came along. But that’s another whole story.  I could not play by ear (I wanted desperately to!!), but I could play just about any music you put in front of me.

My most favorite music now is gospel music – especially the Collingsworth Family.  She I get to heaven, I’m going to play just like Kim Collingsworth!!  When I had my reconstructive scalp surgery and was in ICU for 7 days, I had one of their albums, “Fear Not Tomorrow,” on my iPhone, and day after day I listened to that album with my phone quietly beside my pillow. It was a large part of my healing process at that time (and still is).

I’ve always been a church pianist wherever we attended until the last church in Alabama.  It was a very large church with a professional-like praise team.  Their talents far outclassed mine.  It was quite an adjustment at 1st.  I wanted to play sooo bad!!  But I soon came to realize that my playing-in-church-days were over. I didn’t even play the piano at home!  I guess you could say I was sort of piano-deflated.  I settled for singing in the congregation and finding the harmony in the contemporary praise songs.

I guess it was in middle school or high school when I started playing in church.  Of course, we sang hymns.  I experimented a little with adding a few notes and a “run” or two here and there, but I didn’t get very fancy - I was too timid and self-conscious.  (Actually, I was too much of a perfectionist, and I didn’t want to hit a wrong note.)  Two people along the way helped me with that more than any others.  They pushed and challenged me to go beyond what I thought were my limits.  One was my freshman music teacher, Mr. Kaylor.  He’s the one that put me out there to accompany lots of choirs and ensembles.  It’s hard to remain timid when you accompany boys’ groups.  The other man was John Nance, our music director at Hutchinson 1^stChurch of the Nazarene.  This was/is a fairly large church, and we did some choir programs and arrangements that were HARD!  But with his belief in me (and pushing), I was able to play them.

When I was in early high school, I wanted to play the organ sooooo bad!! I asked the pastor (at that time) of the Congregational Church if I could practice on their church organ.  He said I could.  In those days, the church doors were always unlocked, so I would go in there for hours and play my heart out.  I didn’t have any lessons – just figured it out on my own.  When we moved to AL, I played the organ part time and the piano once in a while in the first church we attended.   Anyway, during the time Guy was in Viet Nam, I decided to buy an organ.  I didn’t really have his blessing, but I bought it anyway.  Well…….what else was I going to do for a whole year besides work????  It wasn’t a big fancy church organ, but it did have preset rhythms on it, and it was a lot of fun – and helped to pass the time away. I got pretty good with the foot pedals, too.

Somewhere in the early years of our marriage, I sold the organ and bought a piano – the same one I have today.  In our early AL years, I bought a keyboard.  It was a terribly fancy one, but it had a full 88 keyboard.  I used that at a church that we helped to plant. When that church did not make it, I donated that keyboard to that church district – not sure why.  I really wish I had kept it.  (It was a charitable tax donation write-off).  Several years later I bought another one, nicer one.  This one I still have, and it is nice – not giving it away.

For most of the years in Alabama, we attended a rather small Nazarene Church. I played my keyboard there. For most of the years there, we continued to sing hymns.  Then the contemporary choruses started to creep in.  We had a music director who played the guitar, and he began to teach us these new songs.  Some didn’t like it at first (some never did!), but I was determined to learn them. This meant a whole new way of playing. You didn’t just play notes on a page – you learned the chords.  OH, NO! CHORDS that I never learned as a youngster.  But I found out that that I felt the rhythm of the songs – I just had to learn the chords. When I did, it was a whole new freedom-way of playing.  Don’t bother me with the notes, just give me the words and the chords, and let me listen to the song a few times so I can get the rhythm of it.  I really enjoyed those songs and the total different way of playing.  So when we ended up at the big church, I wanted to play those songs!!!!

So now we end up in Little River, and we are in the Conservative Congregation Church, so much like the little Nazarene Church I grew up in. They have a piano – and there is that organ sitting there that I played so many years ago!  But no one plays it.  At 1^st, I was just thankful to be able to go to church, what with my cancer treatments and all.  But I decided to place my keyboard there – in front of the organ (I didn’t really have a place to put it at the house anyway.)  I was thinking, “Maybe some time – once in a while – when I’m feeling good, they will let me play it for the service.”  I could use the organ setting and play along with the pianist. Now, they didn’t know my music abilities from Adam, and frankly, I had not played for so long (6-7 years), I wasn’t sure of my abilities anymore myself! I talked with the pastor about it and let him know that I might be able/like to play my keyboard using the organ settings.  He decided to give me a try.  The first Sunday, I got so many complements – they LOVED the ORGAN!  “We miss the organ sound so much!  “It added SO much to the service!”  So Pastor began to ask me to play more and more as I felt like it. Now, I’m a regular!  😀  I do so enjoy the privilege of being able to play again – to have a place where I can “give” something. I hate just warming a pew!  Last week I played for a funeral.  It had been a long time since I did that.

Kind of an amazing thing is beginning to happen.  At 1^stwhen I started playing again here, I was sooooo nervous.  Could I do this?  Will I ever get comfortable again?  Plus, my eyes were really bothering me from the chemo treatments, and it made it hard to see the music.  But they got a light for me, and that has helped tremendously.   Playing for that funeral, I was more relaxed than I have been in a long time.  The old “feeling the music” started to come back. You know, there are people that play the piano – play the notes on a page – just to get through the song.  And then there are those who play the piano – they feel the music, and it flows from that feeling.  I started to feel that music again.  It’s hard to describe, but most pianists will know what I’m talking about. I have a favorite piano arranger - Elmo Mercer.  His arrangements have the chords that I hear but I just can’t find. His style of music is my style of music.  

I’m certainly no accomplished pianist – those are the Kim Collingsworths, the Dinos, the Karen Dimonds (my sister-in-law – you can just hum a tune, and she can play it.)  But I enjoy playing, and I want to play for the Lord.  When I play, I want it to addto the service. I don’t want to play in such a manner that it detracts.  I’m so thankful to be a part of a church where I can once again participate in this manner.  And I’m so thank that the Lord is helping me get back the “feeling-playing.”

Music is so much a part of my life that when I first get out of bed in the morning, the Lord gives me a song, and when I go to bed at night, He gives me a song.  

“What a Day That Will Be” when we can sing in the heavenly choir……♫♫♫

Reflecting on 50 years.....

Sitting here, reflecting on the last 50 years…..where has the time gone???  It seems just like yesterday Guy and I were beginning this journey together.  

We had just graduated from Fort Hays State University with Bachelor’s degrees – his in agriculture and mine in nursing.  A whole life ahead of us!  What would it bring?  We graduated on Monday and married the following Friday in the Nazarene Church in Hays.  Mom and Dad had sold the grocery store in Little River, KS, and moved to Iola that January of 1968.  I didn’t know anyone in Iola, and the church where I grew up in Lyons, KS was too far away to coordinate any plans for a wedding there, so we decided to have it in Hays, where we had been attending church for 4 years while in college.  I had lots of help from the church ladies and the mother of my maid of honor, Carol Henderson.  It was a small wedding with two attendants – Carol and my sister, Colleen.  My sister-in-law, Karen, played the organ, and my brother, Carl, sang.  I don’t recall right at the moment what the songs were – I think one was “Because.”  No wedding would be complete without that song!  My niece, Carla, was the flower girl. Guy’s best man was Keith Garey, his 2^ndcousin, and the other male attendant was Wesley Galyon, a high school friend.

 My sister, Colleen is on the left, (in the picture), and my niece, Carla, is standing by her.  My maid of honor, Carol, is on the right.

My brother, Carl, is clear to the left, and Karen next to him.

The wedding and reception went off without a hitch.  Lots of unwrapped presents were placed in the back seat of Guy’s car, a 1068 Chevy Chevelle SS, and we took off down the street with others following behind. It was not long until we heard a small voice coming from the back seat under all the gifts.  “How far are you going to go, Uncle Guy?”  We screeched to a halt and let Bruce, Guy’s nephew, out.  My brother had placed him there.  (By the way, today is the 6^thanniversary of my brother’s homegoing. How I miss his sense of humor!)  I guess he got picked up by those chasing us. 😀

We drove to Salina, KS, and stayed in a hotel off the interstate.  We decided to unload and open all our gifts.

The next day we went through the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene.  We didn’t have any money for a fancy honeymoon, so we did the next best thing. Mom and Dad were leaving immediately after the wedding for a vacation Dad had won through his insurance company, so they said we could spend our honeymoon at their house in Iola. Colleen was staying with a couple in the church.  As we pulled up to their house, another car pulled up also.  Out of that car jumped Colleen (5 years younger than me).  She yelled back at the church couple, “Oh! Never mind my having to stay with you! My sister is here!!”  Uhhhh…..that’s OK, Colleen……you go ahead and stay with them……. 😀

Our 1^sthome was a double-wide mobile home out in the country on some of the farm property, about ¼ mile from Guy’s parents’ place.  We only lived there for a very short time.  Due to some financial issues Guy’s brother had, we had to move from the double-wide into his brother’s house and his brother moved into the double-wide. That house was about ¾ mile south of  the home place.  

I was working as a nurse, 3-11 in Lyons, about 10 miles away, and Guy was working on the farm for his dad.  6 months into our marriage, the dreaded draft noticecame in the mail.  He left for basic training in Ft. Eustes, MO. I remember Mom and Dad taking me there in a terrible snow storm.  I don’t know if it was to take him there or to get him when it was over.  While he was in basic training, our pastor’s wife (in Lyons) got concerned about me going home each night from work, near midnight, and driving by myself up that long driveway to a big empty house.  They invited me to come live with them while Guy was gone.  And I did. Such a nice gesture they offered me. 

When Guy finished basic training, his next assignment was in Newport News, VA.  I’m not sure what he did there, but as soon as he was able to live off the base, I moved there.  I packed my car as full as I could, and Mom and I drove there – drove straight through, and then she flew home.  We lived in a little rented mobile home.  As I recall, pretty much all I did all day was knit afghans and watch soap operas. There was nothing else to do during the daytime since Guy took the car each day.  That assignment lasted a few months, and then the dreaded assignment came -  Viet Nam! 😢  This is what we all dreaded, but knew was inevitable.  And to make matters worse, he left for Viet Nam the day of our 1^stanniversary.  I’ll never forget it.  It was devastating!  I took him to the airport in Wichita to tell him a very tearful goodbye – not knowing, of course, if I would ever see him again.

My bags were packed with pretty much all my belongings, and when I left Guy in Wichita, I headed east to Iola to stay with my parents for the time he was in Viet Nam which was to be a year.

I got a job immediately in the Iola Hospital.  I think it was on the maternity unit.  But it wasn’t long until Mom and Dad moved to Hutchinson, KS, to continue his work in insurance, and I moved with them.  I immediately got a job on the maternity unit of Grace Hospital (no longer in existence). I worked nights.  I would work 11-7 and sleep most of the day, getting up for a few hours in the evening, and go back to work.   Work and sleep……work and sleep……trying to pass the time quickly. I wrote Guy every single day – did not miss a day.  To this day, I know Guy’s SS number by heart because it was part of his address.  He wrote me pretty regularly, also.

About 7-8 months into Guy’s deployment, I met him in Hawaii on his R&R for a week.  We waited that long, so that it would be a shorter time until he was home.  As it turned out, he stayed an extra 37 days in Viet Nam, and then he could come home and get an early out – be done!!  That was a loooong 37 days!!!  He had trained to be a door-gunner in a helicopter, but ended up with most of his time on the ground as a technical inspector.  It was a glorious - and THANKFUL day - when he made it home safely!!!

I know a lot of guys came home from Viet Nam and had many issues.  I can honestly say that I don’t think it changed Guy much.  I think if you went over there with your head on straight, you came home with it on straight. I’m proud of him for serving his time, and deeply thankful he made it home unharmed.

After Guy’s discharge, he took a job working for a well/irrigation company, and we lived in a little apartment in Lyons.  I worked just down the street in the doctor’s clinic.  There were 3 doctors there.  Those are some of my fondest memories as an RN.

I became pregnant with Mark during this time, and shortly before he was born, Guy took a job managing a feed lot about 50 miles west of Lyons between Great Bend and St. John. We bought a new 14x70 singlewide mobile home – the largest singlewide they made at the time – and moved it onto the edge of the feedlot. It was really nice inside, and I enjoyed living in it. I worked 3-11 in the small St. John hospital.  I would take Mark to the home of a nice farm couple just down the road with some little girls who just loved having a baby to play with.  They would keep him until Guy got done working, and he would go pick him up and take care of him for the evening until I got off at 11.  

I delivered Mark at the Lyons hospital since my doctor was one that I had worked for.  Colleen came to stay with me for a few days after I got home.  I had a bleeding episode the day after going home.  Colleen stayed with Mark, and Guy drove me (hurriedly) back to Lyons.  Just before getting there, a water hose came off the pickup, and we were stranded on the side of the road.  Guy only had one wrench in the truck to work with.  He got the hose connected again but had to walk to the nearest farm house to get water to put back in the truck.  No one was home!  But he found a little water in an outside container and walked back to the pickup with it.  It was enough to get us on into Lyons.  Meanwhile, as I lay there in the seat of the truck, I was convinced that I was bleeding to death!!  Miraculously, when I arrived at the hospital, the bleeding had stopped – never did know what caused it, but it didn’t return for the few hours they made me wait, and we went back home.

To be continued at a later date…….