Good morning, everybody!

I am still banned from my fitness pal at work lol

@swenson19d. How did you find Loki? That is quite a pack you have got going. Growing up we had nine dogs due to unplanned litters. Unfortunately, it was really hard as they developed littermate syndrome and there was just constant fighting. A lot of the reasons why I don’t want a dog again.

@shanaber I hope those antibiotics work! It’ll be so nice to get that surgery done and keep that ball rolling.

We are doing OK here. Not much is really new. Black cat is hanging in there without a gray cat, it is still so weird not having him in the house. Black cat has developed some separation anxiety so we started his antidepressant/appetite stimulation pills so hopefully he feels better.

No movement on the property or the house. Still just waiting for people to do their jobs.

No movement on getting healthier or losing weight either. I did pretty good last week and then just fell off the wagon over the four-day weekend. We didn’t eat a lot, but we definitely ate what we wanted. DH is under the impression that I “just need to start running “and I will lose my weight.🙄

We still have that 10k at the end of next month that he signed us up for, I reminded him yesterday, and he got a slightly panic look lol

Work is pretty boring, I have just been handling appointments. I did get a call from our commander last week saying that I was being offered a tenure waiver to stay in one year longer. It’s something that I’ve pursued for the last two years, but was told that the Air Force was not giving them, but then suddenly they give them 100 days before I separate. We talked about it, but we feel that it was too little too late and I’m already well on the way to being retired.

Next week, I have a small gynecological surgery, I honestly don’t know why they need anesthesia, maybe it’s a civilian world thing and they actually spend money on you lol but I reckon that’s about it for here.

Have a great week!

Thank you so much for updating us @shanaber! I've been thinking a lot about you. I, too, was ecstatic to see that they got clear margins! That was a really long surgery. Getting to come home early is great!! There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed. I agree that it helps immensely to be in good shape when something major happens. I know my heart surgery would not have gone so well if I hadn't been training for the HM. I hope you can start eating more normally soon. Hang in there..... Again, I am so happy for the good news! It made my day!

@CMorning99 - I hope you are recovering from your surgery and feeling better. I can't imagine deciding to stay longer when you are that close and already into the retiring mindset. When I retired they asked me to stay too but it was more about what they owed me in vacation and other time off and how they were going to pay me. We settled it by them keeping me technically as an employee but 'on vacation'. It was good for me in the long run as I didn't have to pay for COBRA insurance for the 3 months and I suspect it didn't hit someone's budget as an expensive payout.

@SummerSkier and @quilteryoyo - thanks for the happy dances! I envision Snoopy 😂

Hi @swenson19d! I am supposed to be on a bland soft diet - veggies aren't on that list. Mostly because they are more difficult to digest and I need to give my stomach some time to recover first. Hoping when I see the doctor next week she will green light them.

I am so glad the therapist is helping to manage the MDD along with your DH! How is Kevin doing? Staying away from the snakes I hope!

I am finally feeling somewhat normal. Pain is down, still just taking Tylenol but cut it in half other than at bedtime. So far so good. I have been trying bits of other foods too. Got bored with the soft, bland diet. Not that I went crazy but had a piece of cranberry walnut toast one morning and some chicken and veggie kabobs from our favorite Mediterranean restaurant. No tacos yet... I am craving them and so many other things I probably shouldn't eat yet. DH says it is worse than when I was pregnant. I also decided yesterday that I need to get back to myself. I know that sounds weird but it seems to be too easy for me to slip into this sad frightened place and just do nothing. That isn't me and I need to stop it. So today after getting lab work done DH and I ran errands and grocery shopped. Later I will get out for a walk, hopefully with Hobbes and DH in tow.
Our concert series at the Hollywood Bowl starts this Friday and since I can't go I told DH he had to and made all the arrangements for him to go with our friends. John Williams is conducting and it should be an amazing concert. I am thinking they might play some of the music from the latest Indiana Jones movie. It may also be one of his last appearances at the Bowl - I hope not but he is in his 90s now.

Kevin recovered from the copperhead bite within 36 hours. I kept the benadryl in his system for the first 24 (75mg/8h). I hate to say the bite was "good" for him, but there were benefits. He had a steriod shot which improved his join pain significantly. He romped like a pup again. We also had the opportunity to work on snake aversion. He knew what bit him him by the smell. I showed him the snake and told him "snake bite" and bit him with my fingers close to his face where he got bit. It took twice before he backed up and decided that snake was a bad smellin' dude. Kev has has an appointment the 11th for surgery consult.

@shanaber glad things are improving! It is hard staying engaged when you are limited physically. And so easy to slip into a funk, mourning that loss of ability.

@CMorning99 "small surgery" in the sensitive area... ya, take the anesthetisa. (how did it go btw?). You remind me of a story I heard about a German doctor new to the US and the notion that we (American's) are babies, LOL! The story was about tubes in ears...probably over so quickly that there is no use for numbing. Alex's girlfriend (not the crazy B that was with him at the time) had Loki and posted on FB that she needed to rehome him due to her health and she wasnt able to meet his needs like she wanted. No brainer to take him. But, yes, it is a full house. Dh fenced the back yard so they have about 2 acres to run. The cats are happy to have the safe space in the front.

We are missing Cori more than a week now. We have a dumb A. neighbour who "raises" feral cats... just coyote/fox food. A litter of 7-ish week old kittens went missing the same day Cori did. Seems I found one, the black kitten that bit the heck outta me and i took to the pound. Something dropped it... wonder if dogs barked at it and it high tailed it sans kitten. I'm really mad that they let these cats reproduce. Prob why I lost Goober, Mallory and Cori. f-ers.

11 days til NCLEX exam.

@swenson19d - I am so sorry about Cori! I hope maybe he is just out exploring and will eventually find his way back home but it sounds like that won't be likely. People here trap the feral cats and have them neutered and released. That is great for limiting the overall population but still provides food for the coyotes and foxes which should be going after all the rodents instead.
What is Kevin having a surgical consult for?
I am sure you are studying hard this weekend for you exam but please take some time to relax and de-stress too!
@CMorning99 - I hope you are doing ok!

I saw the surgeon this week and she was so happy with my recovery. I got the staples out and it feels so much better! She told me to start my walks with just 30 minutes and increase as it felt doable, I am still just doing about 30 minutes. Today was a little longer but it just feels good to get outside and move. I have to be sure to get out early enough though or Hobbes overheats, even with it only at 80, he just isn't used to it.
Also saw the oncologist the same day as the surgeon (he had a cancellation). I am a bit frustrated with him because I don't feel that he read my file, the results, or even remembered our previous visit (which he had documented with notes). Basically told me because I was over 65 I was not a candidate for the more aggressive chemo which we had talked about before as the most affective. DH and I walked away feeling a bit stunned and taken aback by his change in attitude. So I sent him a message and also started the process to get a 2nd opinion. He called in response to my message and said ok we can go with the more aggressive chemo but he didn't think I was recovering well enough from the surgery?!?! I actually said 'Seriously??? It has only been 2.5 weeks and the surgeon was extremely pleased with my recovery so far! We'll see how it goes but I really don't think I want someone on my team who doesn't seem to be invested in helping me to the best outcome or discussing it in more detail if there are concerns.
I am also eating better and more but my weight is down again. I've got to find a way to stop that descent!
ETA - Also I finally got my tacos last night! SO SO Good! and I had a small salad the other day. Surprising the things you miss!

Hi Folks!

Sorry I was MIA - I really hate getting on the computer after work LOL. But I am working half days now so I figured I would get back into it.

@shanaber So glad you are doing so well! Aren't Doctors the pits sometimes ugh. Don't settle!

So what has it been, like a month? Oof.

My surgery went well - I had a polyp removed and a cervical cutterage. I asked since I was going to be under anyway, if he would replace my Paragard copper IUD since when they put it in the first time I thought I was going to pass out. Talking to some friends they said to take the anesthesia and it just makes things so much easier on everyone. The Friday before my surgery I had a colposcopy (they don't bother me) but he hit a vein in my cervix and it was rather humorous thinking back as I was just laying there and him holding pressure for 25 min...we were both over it by the end of that appt LOL. But all results came back as expected with only mild cell dysplasia.

Work is boring, I mean at this point I have 7 "working" days left so I just go in for a couple hours to do out processing stuff and then have lunch with DH and go home and work on reselling.

I have my VA appt tomorrow with the Doctor to go over all my aches and pains for my disability rating - I can't even fathom what it is going to be and I had to stop reading the VA message boards b/c they were just wacky people.

House stuff is moving. I ended up having to "buy" the developmental credit for $25K - it was comical because when I went to drop off the cashiers check, the ladies at conservancy office had no idea what I was talking about. I guess it had just been a convo between the conservancy director and the county lawyer. Even my Project Manager was rolling his eyes. We finally got the civil engineering reports back for the driveway and we are waiting on final approval to start that project. I swear this project is like a hydra - cut one head and 2 grow back. I had to get an attorney to do all the easement/driveway maintenance agreements that would be attached to the deed of the split. Hopefully submit house plans to county in the next 60 days.

I got another job offer but turned it down. I am really torn. I have a good friend who recently retired and got a good contracting job and is able to put his full retirement and VA money to his mortgage - they expect to pay off their house in 10 years. It is so tempting. I am still not sure how money will shake out when I retire, we will have enough for sure but the house is such a money pit that it makes me nervous. DH says to stay the course but I feel like I should be making the money.

I started tracking calories for a bit and then lost interest again. My Gynecologist put in my records "overweight but does not impact health"... well humph. We have our 10K this weekend, is going to be warm and I have not walked over 2 miles yet LOL. It is going to be...fun... We also have a friend coming down to visit us for a week to escape the heat up north so I figure there is no point in trying to start tracking now.

I have given myself a start date of 1 Aug - my first day of using up some of my vacation before I retire. I am taking 31 days of vacay and selling back 59 days...yeah I am a work-a-holic. Start tracking calories again and going for a walk/jog every morning...I won't have any reason not to LOL...I am sure I will find something though.

I guess that is about all the updates for now. I will check in again soon to see how folks are doing! Stay hydrated!

@CMorning99 - Glad to hear your surgery went well but that is kind of funny about the vein! I also can't believe you only have a few days left!! The only think I would suggest is enjoy a day or two of doing nothing then set a schedule. Otherwise it is SO easy to just put things off. I really had to push myself to keep getting out to run and working out which honestly slipped way more than I like to admit. Some of it though was just not wanting to do strength workouts alone.
I agree with @quilteryoyo on getting a job. If you really want to then do it and you have lost nothing if you decide to quit. Also though you have a job already with your resale business so maybe just focusing on it?
I hope things keep moving forward on the house. It will be good to get the house plans submitted I bet. How long will it take the County to get an approval do you think?

Had my 2nd opinion visit today and OMG what a difference! This doctor basically asked me to start at the beginning and describe how the cancer was found and all the steps that brought me to him. He then talked about different types of cancers and suggested that they be categorized by spread, danger and personality, He called pancreatic cancer a mean sneaky cancer (personality) because it spreads before you know it, is dangerous because it recurs frequently and doesn't respond as well to chemo therapy making it necessary to use more aggressive treatment. However mine was found early enough that it is likely curable (his word) with the more aggressive treatment. We talked about treatment plans and options, etc.. I asked to start chemo in early Aug when I am 6 weeks post surgery and he thought that was reasonable rather than starting next week when the port is put in. So I have a new oncologist that I really like and have confidence in! WHooHoo!

Just a quick update here… my port site is mostly healed I think. Technically they said I can’t shower or remove the bandage until Friday but also said 7 days and tomorrow would be 7 days. Hmmm I think what I may do is take the bandage off tomorrow but wait to shower until Friday morning.
Our DD flies in Friday morning and we are going to the Hollywood Bowl Friday night. I am so excited to get out a bit. I think we are also going out to dinner on Saturday and to the dog beach on Sunday if it isn’t too busy. The surf championships are going on so parking and crowds could be an issue even though they won’t actually be on the dog beach but just up on the other side of the pier.
Monday is chemo day. I have no idea what to expect but have my iPad ready with shows to watch and music to listen to. 6 hours to sit there seems like a long time! I don’t know when the side effects might kick in either. Will be interesting!

@CMorning99 - how are things going for you. Retirement must be soon!
@swenson19d - how are you doing? I know your test went really well. What happened with Kevin’s surgery consult?

Thanks @chris_in_cal!! Not looking forward to chemo other than having it kill whatever may be left of the cancer. I am definitely looking forward to getting it over with and on with my life, including getting back to running!