R.I.P Mom

Mom in Law Passed away on Tuesday 19th at 9.10 CST - her passing was very peaceful, I was holding her hands.

She had fought her battle with cancer for just over two years and remained a strong courageous woman throughout. She taught me a great deal over the time I became her daughter in law and full time caregiver and I shall miss her greatly, she was not just my Mom in Law but she became a wonderful friend to me. I know she is in a much better place and she is smiling and dancing with her Angels.

Thank you to everyone who sent healing, thoughts and messages.

We will be away for a few days for the funeral.

God Bless you all x

Take a moment this holiday season..

To think of those less fortunate, the hungry, the needy and the sick.

We spent most of yesterday in the hospital with Mom.

I had to call EMR yesterday morning as she was having trouble taking a deep breath and had pain in her chest.

When we left last night she was resting comfortably on the oncology ward, dosed on morphine and awaiting a CT scan to determined the cause. The Doctor hasn't ruled out Pneumonia or a blood clot yet and we are on our way back up there shortly and I will keep you updated.

Doc said she wouldn't be coming home anytime soon and I know Mom isn't ready to leave us just yet. She's a strong woman and a fighter, I truly admire her strength.

The hospital was so busy yesterday, ER was full of sick people needing urgent care and they looked run off their feet.

Mom was placed in a room with a young lady also fighting cancer. I couldn't help but overhear them talking to her about insurance and how she wasn't entitled to SSI or medicare and she would have to apply to a charity to help pay for her hospital bill.

I was thinking how sad that is that a woman laying in a bed, so sick would have the added stress upon her shoulders of how she would pay for her medical care.

At least in England when it comes to a serious illness like cancer there's no waiting around or stress on who shall foot the bill.

This can be such a sad, tough world for many..

Please spare a thought or prayer for those in need as you bring in this new year..

Love & Blessings..

SW

Nearly Christmas Already!?!?

I don't know where this year has gone, but I know it has been a busy one and quite a stressful one for this household!

Thanks to Jacqui for the little nudge that prompted me to write this post and see I had not blogged since September!

Well as usual life's been busy and hectic and stressful, Mom's back on chemotherapy after several rounds of chemotherapy already and 4 lots of radiation the news is not good :( - the cancer has spread into her liver ( several spots) and several spots on her brain. She has partial collapse of her left lung and fluid gathering. She's holding up pretty well considering what she is facing and with a little nudge here and there she is making the best out of the rest of her life while she can. When she's feeling like it she requests I give her some Reiki, those sessions have helped her deal with things emotionally and her visions have been wonderful. I became a Reiki practitioner back in July, it had been something I was drawn to since my own illness and Reiki healing back in 2002.
I'm also excited to mention that a good friend built my web site and It went live just a few weeks ago.
Hubby is doing good, still working hard and at the moment his car is in the shop after he was hit again whilst he stopped for a pedestrian on a crosswalk.

My boys are doing pretty good, Carl's been busy working overtime and recently bought himself a nice new car. Daniel got his license a couple of weeks back and is now looking for work to help pay for his insurance and to start saving for his own car, I have the stress of worrying about him on the road now and especially as he is using my car from time to time. lol - Ryan is doing ok, he's been getting a few headaches from playing video games so once again his time is restricted each day, he's growing so fast!! - I took him to the movies on Saturday with some tickets I won online to see Mr Magorium, it wasn't too bad, I loved a quote from that movie "your life is an occasion - rise to it!" - after the movie finished we decided to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks too!, glad we did, we had some giggles lol

Well I hope you are all doing good, sorry for my absence, I'll make it a new years resolution to at least update something on a weekly basis..

right let me see what pics I can post on my flickr..

over and out! - for now..

A long day..

The weather was really bad again last night, Carl called me on his way home from work at midnight waking me from a benedryl induced sleep...needless to say I was umm slooow, but I came down to wait for him to arrive home safely, as I know how bad it was raining I was nervous as the creeks were pretty full already!. he did get home safe thankfully but I was sad to hear on the local news that a young couple out on a first date got swept away as their ford focus car hit about 5ft of water on a low water crossing about 15 minutes down the road from where we live. the guy manged to grab a tree and the woman got swept away, sadly her body was recovered late this afternoon :(

Mom went for her second dose of chemo today and the doctor has decided to change the new drug as he doesn't feel it is working, the cancer is larger in the node in her neck and has traveled further up. he wants to go back to the first drug she had as this seemed to shrink the tumors in the beginning. hopefully with that and alot of thoughts prayers and healing it will prolong her life. he's wanting to begin as soon as possible once the drug is approved with the insurance.

On a brighter note Ryan had a wonderful 12th birthday, he had a few friends over and one stayed the night. I awoke at 2.30 am and had to remind them it was time to sleep and couldn't believe they were up again at around 7.am *yawn* I guess I was the only tired one and I don't think I have recovered from it either! lol

I thought I had got back into my good sleep routine but just lately I seem to be waking up too many times throughout the night! - making my dream life rather active and vivid moreso than usual lol

Oh and if you haven't checked out my flickr pics, here's one for you..this is our resident spider, lives in the back garden by the air con unit..he moved in while I was away in England and seems quite happy, just wish I could train him to cut the lawn once in a while and stop leaving the lids off the trash cans!

Todays forcast - Rain!

We've had a fare share of rain this year in San Antonio, so today is not an unusual site, hopefully it won't be as bad as some of the past flash floods we have had recently, one preventing Sheldon from getting home from work for 4 hours and only 5 minutes down the road, the creek flooded leaving the road leading to our sub-division flooded under a few feet of water!
One poor gentleman got swept away in his car but luckily broke out the back window and managed to grab and climb a tree until he was rescued some hours later, luckily he was able to call for help using his cell phone!

Today the local news is about the gun fire we heard over the weekend not so far down the road..
apparently it's dove season!

where to start?

First let me apologize to those of you who have emailed me over the last few months.life has been busy and every time I tried to blog I couldn't remember my password and I couldn't be bothered with it!

Mom is still fighting the cancer, the kids broke up for summer back in June and every week day during she went for radiation, so it was go, go go for me. I was lucky enough to take a 2 week trip back home to England for a much needed break lol - Kids started back to school on Monday and Mom is now on her 5th regime of chemotherapy which is once every three weeks and then she will have more tests to see how things are.

Ryan turns 12 on Saturday, can't believe my baby is going to be 12 and another year he'll be a teenager!

Daniel started drivers Ed at the begining of summer and he shall get his license in December.

Carl is now working as a phone teller for a well known branch, better pay and conditions.

Sheldon is doing good, working hard as usual. Unfortunately he could not get any time off to come to England with me so he stayed here with mom and her Brother, giving me the chance of the break.

England was great!, I got to see all my family and a couple of good friends and my Godmother!
Also got to meet my new great neice Alisha, her and her Sister Lauren are just so gorgeous! - I miss them all.

I got to eat fish and chips and curry too many nights for the waist line :S but hey not very often I get to taste home food is it? lol

Everywhere looked different, close together and the area I lived looked a little run-down..

I enjoyed my visit very much but I enjoyed returning to my life here too.

I stayed at my Mums, a one bedroom flat..it was tiny lol, when I got out of the bath I nearly bumped my head on the wall opposite! lol

Even though it rained for the most part it seems to be alot muggier than I recall, or am I just used to A/c?

It was my niece Emma's birthday whilst there and we got to ride in a limo for her birthday! afterwards we went round town, drinking just a little...lol

Changes

So much has been happening, time for a little update at least..unless I start to ramble lol

Well My Son tuirned 16 on the 17th, which was also the 5 year anniversary of my being told I had breast cancer, what a day to be told that kinda thing uh, your Sons birthday..anway I went for a check up on the 13th, yes Friday the bleeding 13th, actually it turned out to be a good day for me, he took me off the Tamoxifen and I am now free sailing! wooo hoo, I am glad I hated the drug and the side effects that came along with it, wonder how long it takes to get out of my system? Hubby is a little nervous as he feels it was a kind of safety net for me. I got to the point oif actually thinking it was doing me more harm than good.

Mom is on her second dose of Taxotere, she's just starting with the tingly hands and feet, a well known side effect and the Doc has also put her on steroids recently as she is getting short of breath and wheezing some. Her blood counts have been alot better and she is currently planning a trip to spend some time with her brother and to go fishing :)


Kids are doing good, Ryan passed both his English and Math taks and will graduate to 6th grade woo hoo

I'll update more soon.

Hope you are all well..