Laurie White’s Blog

Well, Charlie says it’s wrong to use “Ike” and “learn” in the same sentence. I think he’s right.

Ike went to the pet blessing at St. Francis the first Sunday in October. He took being blessed too seriously I think and when I drew a bath the next day, he was sure he could walk on water. He stepped onto the surface of the water, pretty as you please, as was a bit shocked it didn’t hold his weight.

Well, Charlie drew a bath today (it’s been a week since surgery–I can have a bath!) and, you guessed it, Ike tried again to walk across the tub.

He’s not at all unnerved by being wet (which makes using a SuperSoaker as a cat training device useless) and spent the next hour drying off in the middle of the bathroom.

Okay, so I went into The Breast Center for a procedure this morning. All in all, it went well. We were in and out in an hour.

If it took at all. The radiologist was inserting a gel marker. When the chemotherapy shrinks the tumor away to nothing (yeah, right), they want to be able to find the site for the lumpectomy. But he did two insertions (no big deal really–he’d inserted a needle and went in through the same hole for both, guided by ultrasound) and by the time I got home, there was a message to come back for another mammogram to see if the marker was visible.

But things that looked like big deals two months ago, like mammograms, are just something to do on the way to lunch after the oncologist tomorrow.

Now, the oncologist tomorrow is a big deal. We should have an idea of a treatment plan there. And for as daunting as that sounds, finding a routine seems better.

Mama told me there’d be days like this.
There’d be days like this my mama said.

Read the rest of this entry »

You know,

It’s amazing what people can get used to. If a month ago someone had told me I had cancer that had metastasized, I’d have been hysterical.

But I went to the surgeon today for him to remove my dressings and along with telling me I’m healing well, he gave us a copy of the latest pathology report. Yeah, cancer. Yeah, metastasized.

Yeah, so what else is new?

No more doctors this week. Of course, it is Thursday.

Monday I get the “Hope springs eternal” device. “You know, sometimes the chemotherapy works so well, we can no longer find the tumor. We’re doing this surgery so we can find the tumor when it’s time to remove it.”

Right. Losing the tumor. What a nice problem to have. Of all the problems I’m expecting, I don’t expect that one.

So, today Linus the dog and Ike the cat go to the vet, both to be clipped. Linus goes to the groomer and Ike to the surgeon for neutering. We pick them up and they give us these sad looks. “You don’t know what happened to us! I lost most of my hair.” “They cut me up.”

Sorry beasties, I got you beat. I’m going to lose all my hair and I already have more incisions than Ike.

Of course, Ike’s been up on the mantle and he’s climbing bookcases now. It’s a good thing I trust the vets because there’s no way you can tell this kitten has had anything done to him. So much for it calming him down.

Okay, so apparently Ike has been getting bad press. He’s just a young, strong, energetic kitten, but when I’m up in the middle of the night, he’s the one up with me. (Charlie works hard taking care of me all day and Linus the dog works hard barking whenever anyone comes within half a mile of the house, so they have important responsibilities too!)

But Ike can be quiet at times. Here’s a picture of him at his sweetest curled up in my lap.

Read the rest of this entry »

I figure everyone reading this knows my mom’s story and how important it is to my story.

But Mom’s been dead over 15 years, so some of you may not know her. Get to know her here.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, when you have an acrobatic cat, where do you have to put flowers?

Read the rest of this entry »

I got flowers from Rich, Ed, Dale, Becky, and Renee. Now, don’t get me wrong, flowers are really nice and usually make me cry and not just because I can’t find a place to put them where IkeGetDownFromThere can’t reach them. It’s just amazing that someone would think of me. And that I’m really sick enough to “merit” flowers.

But Rich, Ed, Dale, Becky, and Renee? Hmmm, not relatives. Not members of the church. To let y’all know how my mind is going already, it took me a good 5 minutes to figure out that meant Dean Fallis, Dean Weintraut, Dean Moore and staff. Wow. Even the deans are concerned. Which is good, ’cause this thing is just starting and it’s going to get much worse I’m afraid.

You know, I really have to find a better title for these. There’s gonna be a lot.

I had my first surgery yesterday. For the gory details, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »