Hears Different Drummer: May 2021

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Pratt loop walk

The sky was blue and the temperature was perfect for a Saturday drive to Island county for a nice walk at Ebey landing's Pratt loop trail.

The day was so perfect I'm just going to post the pictures. I hope you enjoy looking at the area as much as my husband and I did while looking through our camera lenses.

Come sit with me and bring your coffee or tea because there is a grand world to see❤

Scrolling time😍

It was nice to be able to take my hat off in the shade, hats can be scratchy and hot.

One last look at the wide open space.❤

It was a good Movement is Medicine day, and I hope it lifted your spirits as well.

Friday, May 14, 2021

On my Chemo infusion week I'm trying to not go as far or intense with my activities so I'll be rested up when the symptoms start showing. Since I have chemo every three weeks on Wednesday's I'm getting used to what happens. This week was my third infusion. The first couple of days are great because I'm on steroids. The steroids give me a false sense of how I feel, which led me to not be as proactive as I should have been with my diet and meds on my first and second infusions. I also took my diarrhea and nausea meds after symptoms showed up which was a major fail on my part because then I was playing the catch up game. The symptoms hit hard on this last one, thankfully not for long and I bounced back quickly. My husband went above and beyond for helping me to get through the second one's symptoms. At my last Dr. visit she let me know that it's more of a do more of everything early so it's preventative instead. She helped me list out everything and we've added some new meds, so we're thinking more optimistically for this one. This time I started the BRAT diet before the infusion and started on my meds the night of the infusion. So hopefully this round will be managed a bit better before the steroids wear off. It seems I'm always learning while I'm going through this cancer journey, just when I think I have a plan I find out that it isn't helping. Things get overwhelming quickly in my brain, so the gentle mannered Dr. visit was a healing day mentally for me. She laid it all out much more understandably for me. Her Dr. bedside manner is wonderful. She said she wished she could hug me but can't due to covid restrictions. Of course I fell apart and cried and cried with her, which was good because I didn't realize just quite how strong I was trying to be. The release of emotions in her office was the best medicine of the day for me.

I found this photo and thought it summed it all up pretty well. So much to learn and process on this journey.

So on Thursday the day after my third infusion we planned just a short walk in the forest. There was plenty of shade. The Taxol Carbo cocktail infusion I get can give you sensitivity to the sun, so I have to watch how much I'm in the full sun and be quick with sunscreen or a hat so I don't burn.

The location and scenery were just perfect. Facemasks at the ready also. The new CDC guidelines about no masks for vaccinated people indoors and outdoors don't apply to me. I'll have a weakened immune system throughout my treatment, so my take on this is keeping my distance in public and either visit with me outside or wear masks if we're inside.

Vanilla plant

Turkey tail

Piggyback plant

In the photo below, you can see that I attempted to take a photo of the large Douglas fir near the trail, but it didn't show the height at all, so I took a vertical panorama photo of it.

Click and zoom in on the photo below to enlarge it and see it's grandeur.

Watch out for the alligator😉

Just as we were heading to the car we noticed that they had planted a small grove of Magnolia's. They were in bloom so I lingered and took photos of the beautiful blossoms.

The first tree had pinkish purple blossoms.