the sweetest thing...

Gizmo

Oldest grand daughter (17)  found this little kitten at a gas station last week.  My daughter sent me this pic of them both napping. 

More pics...

the sweetest thing

I think he's found a home... what do you think?

Other news on the horizon:

First - Thanks to all of you who shared my joy with the publishing of my book, "Time After Time"!  It's a good feeling to scratch something off my very small bucket list. But at the ripe old age of 74, time was running short. 

On that same 'time was/is running short' theme... I will mention here also that I've been very concerned that my 'radiation' cough has gotten worse lately. Now I cough so much in the morning and sometimes after I eat or drink - that I choke and my eyes water and nose runs. Also I cough up very thick mucus. And when this happens, my nasal airway closes up and I have to breathe through my mouth. The episode doesn't last too long, but it's worrisome (and I hope I didn't gross you out too much). 

I know some of the reasons this could be happening. And of course one of them is that my Breast Cancer could have metastasized to my lungs.  This was my worst fear.  However, this worry was put aside yesterday when I went for my annual Oncololgist's appointment. He both listened to my lungs and x-rayed them. Said that they were clear - no problem there. Thank goodness! What a relief!

However, he mentioned that other things that could cause these symptoms were reflux, asthma, and aspiration... and wants me to have a breathing/swallowing test run in the near future. I will do this, but probably not until September. We hope to visit our son in Hawaii in a few weeks... and that's the priority on my agenda now. 

If anyone out there is even halfway familiar with these symptoms (which I have put off as due to 'old age' for a long time), I would appreciate your input. 

But now I have another reason to celebrate besides the book being published! My worst fear hasn't come to pass.

Hugs,

Rian

it's been a while...

my comfort cat

Tux spent the night with me on the sofa last night. It's been a while (and I'm grateful for that) since I've been sick. Realized Friday that my chest was getting awfully congested and my coughing (I do have a chronic cough since radiation back in 2000) was increasing. Hoped it was just old age (I find that fluid sometimes builds up at night which causes me to cough a lot in the mornings) or perhaps allergies (although allergies have never been a problem for me).

So I took some Mucinex Saturday morning before heading out to my pottery class. But by about 1pm (class runs until 4:30) I realized that things weren't getting better and even the hot tea I had brought in a thermos wasn't helping... so I had DH come and pick me up.  I usually drive myself but that morning I didn't even feel well enough to do that (should have taken that as a hint to stay home). 

Anyhow... between Tylenol and Mucinex... with plenty of water and hot tea, Tux and I got through the night. We spent it as you can see on the sofa in the den as it was necessary to 'sit up' to sleep - lying down only made things worse. Besides, DH would never have gotten any sleep with my coughing. 

Feeling better today. Still congested, but the Mucinex and Tylenol help a lot. I'm guessing it's just a bug of some sort as I was running a little fever yesterday evening. However, I may check in with my doctor if it isn't entirely gone in a day or so as my last CAT SCAN back when I had my appendectomy last year showed some fluid around my heart. I gather that this is probably also the result of the radiation and possibly the cause of my chronic cough. I doubt if it has anything to do with this episode, but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to check.

On a happier note, today is our oldest son's 50th Birthday! He's the one living on Oahu. I can't believe he's 50 years old. But I'm going to share with you a picture of him at one year old. He was such a happy child.

Well, have a wonderful Sunday! This week starts early voting... so hopefully everyone will vote! While sometimes we feel that there's nothing we can do... this is something that we can!