FALL PREVIEW

This is just a preview of what is to come from Fall in Northern California. This photo was taken in Grass Valley, which is located on Historic Highway 49. This is Gold Country, where gold was originally discovered by the 49ers. The original site for gold discovery is located a bit south of here in a town called Coloma. Marshall discovered gold here originally and started the whole gold rush. We don't live too far away from Coloma; in fact you can get there in approximately one-half hour and it is situated along the American River.

This photo is in Grass Valley across the road from the Empire Mine State Park. It is a glorious park and I will have to make another trip up there one of these Fall days to take photos of all the great rock walls and Fall colors that are just now starting to make themselves known for this season.

Isn't it great getting to see different parts of the country via other people's blogs? I just love what I see every day. It is like a history lesson each and every day thanks to all of you out there with your cameras. Thanks for showing me what I need to see and what I can't get to, at least I have been exposed via all your hard work and eyes for details. Good job, everyone!

IS IT FALL YET?

Well, I can't say that I am officially all the way back yet but I am going to make an attempt tonight to at least update this blog and get my life back to a somewhat "normal" existence.

To update you all: I had my radioactive iodine treatment and it was AWFUL! I was sick all the time, I couldn't eat much, I lost my appetite AND THEN... I got a urinary track infection that was really bad. They gave me horrible antibiotics that had side effects of NAUSEA. (As if the nausea I already had wasn't enough). Then, after all that I ended up with acute renal failure and had to be admitted into the hospital. I spent 3 days there and they treated me so great, I didn't want to leave. And that is coming from a person that has always hated the hospital. Well, I guess I had an awakening regarding the hospital because I felt so safe there and like I was going to finally make it.

After I left the hospital (it was a Thursday, just like tonight) we celebrated by having breakfast with our entire family and celebrating my "coming out". That was the following Sunday. By Sunday night all hell broke loose again with a phone call from my daughter that my Mom had called and was having heart problems. They took her to the same hospital that I had just left, took her to ER where they discovered that her pacemaker wire had become fractured and she was having huge highs and lows, with the lows almost making her pass out. They kept her in ICU overnight and transported her to a heart hospital in Sacramento where they kept her another two nights in their ICU and late last Tuesday night they finally performed surgery where they had to replace her existing pacemaker with a totally brand new one. So, as you can imagine, it has been a really stressful two months. And on top of that, I caught some sort of head cold or sinus thing that really put me under again. I have been being tested almost weekly to make sure that my blood levels are remaining stable and that my kidneys are back to normal. I haven't heard about today's blood work yet and it is almost 8:30 PM so I am hoping that no news is good news.

I am hoping that life will be returning to normal very soon. I am walking a bit now. I walked two miles (very slowly) today but at least I am walking again. I know that I have to force myself to do things. It is too easy to just sit and feel sorry for yourself. But, the silver lining to the cloud is that the Endocrinologist called and said that I don't have any metastatic thyroid cancer anywhere. I had a Gamma scan that confirmed this. I feel like I have been given another gift and I am so thankful for it. I am trying to change my way of thinking; trying to remain more calm, focused, in the present. I am very emotional right now and find myself crying at the simplest things. I guess you get yourself stripped down to the core and this is what you find out about yourself. You find out what is really important to you and what needs to wait.

So, I am hoping that I can be doing some posting in the near future. I have some wonderful Fall photos that I want to post. Just be patient with me and send me good thoughts, won't you? I am looking forward to reading past postings from all my favorite blogs. I bet you all have been up to some really great things and I just can't wait to read them all. Oh...that's the weird thing too: my vision has changed. I can't wear my glasses to see far away any longer. Things are more blurry WITH the glasses than without. It has been difficult reading without feeling queasy but I seem to be doing pretty good right now so things are looking up.

The Bodhi dog and his keeper (B) are doing well. Thank goodness for the two of them who have been able to keep things running around here. What would I do without the two of them? (Especially Mr. B!) Love you!

LIFE FROM MY PERSPECTIVE LATELY

I'm almost back from the "walking dead". This has been one horrible month but there is light at the end of the tunnel if I can keep my kidney functioning properly. Having my body chock-full of iodine and being on a forced liquid reduction seems to be affecting the actual bloodwork numbers. What else could go wrong? I've never worked harder at sending my body positive health affirmations (except for when my daughter had open-heart surgery when she was 21). Life seems to be filled with twists and turns, ups and downs. I guess it's all part of the plan. A little bad makes you appreciate the good all that much more. I'm just ready for some good--and soon!

First thing on my menu on Monday is a poached egg and toast with BUTTER! Foods that I have been denied of include all dairy, all bread products, fish, beans, anything bottled, canned, or processed. This doesn't leave many food choices. Especially when even chicken and beef have started making you sick just to think of. I haven't had any of these in over a month. I've been making a mental list of potential foods; at least they are the ones I seem to be craving, and YES--they all contain proabably a great deal of salt and bad things for me. Things like pizza, chow mein, mochas, yummy bread, oatmeal, and most of all: my sister's home made Lemon Supreme Pie! OMG--it is to die for (well, don't want that--the dying part--but the pie? YES! Gooey macaroni and cheese sounds great too. It's bad that the things you crave are also so bad for you. Maybe not so bad for us if we do them in moderation though. I just can't make a steady diet of them, that's for sure.

So, can't wait to be back in the world, able to go for a walk, taking pictures of all things around me. Life is good and I'm not going to give up on it. Too many things to do remain.