Miraculous Medal Novena

Please join me in praying the novena starting today, November 19, and ending on the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, November 27.

Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus and our Mother,

penetrated with the most lively confidence in thy all-powerful and never-failing intercession,

manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal,

we thy loving and trustful children implore Thee to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena,

if they be beneficial to our immortal souls, and the souls for whom we pray.

[Here privately form your petitions.]

Thou knowest, O Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of thy Son, Who hates iniquity.

Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone

so that our every thought, word and deed may tend to His greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we may recover by penance

what we have lost by sin and at length attain to that blessed abode where thou art the Queen of Angels and of men.

Amen.

Feels Like Fall

Brrr, it's chilly here today. But it is sunny and pretty, so no complaints.

Ron and I just got home from the hospital. I was supposed to have Rituxan in my port and Methotrexate in my Ommaya, but I have to go back tomorrow for yet another darn bone marrow biopsy, so my doctor decided to wait and do the Methotrexate then. I think he was behind and trying to get caught up; he was running around like a crazy man. I don't mind waiting. The bone marrow biopsy was a surprise I didn't expect. Seems like I just had one, but it was in late September, so they want another. They hurt.

Did okay getting the Rituxan; it just takes so long. They do my labs first, wait an hour for them to come back, then order the chemo from the pharmacy, then put it in through the IV so slowly. They increase it every 30 minutes, but it still seems slow to me. Blood counts were low, but acceptable.

I was famished when we got home. I ate some cottage cheese with canned freestone peaches and some saltines and a glass of peach tea for lunch. I'm still hungry, though. Oreos, here I come.

I completed the other side of the sweater front and am now working on the sleeves. I took my knitting with me today, but I'm too easily side-tracked. I was knitting along, looked down at the right side, and there were 5 or 6 little purl bumps right in the middle of my smooth knit side. Arrrgh! Now I'll have to rip it back a few rows to fix things.

Reece will be home from school soon. I hope he had a good day. He did not want to go this morning. Tomorrow they are having a "kinder feast," and he and his parents are going to get cupcakes or cookies to take for dessert. When my kids were little I made dozens upon dozens of cookies and cupcakes for them to take to school, but now they only allow store bought treats. I guess they are afraid someone will put something toxic in the cupcakes. :o(

Happy Weekend!

Weekend Roundup

More laundry and kitchen cleaning yesterday, and I finished the left front of one of the girl's sweaters. I have the back and one front side finished now, still have the right front to do, then the two sleeves. Because the sweaters are small, the knitting goes pretty fast.

I also made dinner last night, which was kind of fun because I haven't cooked in awhile. Ron got some bowtie pasta, alfredo sauce and breaded chicken tenders, so it was pretty easy. I just boiled water for the pasta, heated up the sauce, baked the chicken in the oven and heated up some frozen veggies. Not really "homemade," but it tasted pretty good and everyone liked it. Then the kids and I baked chocolate chip cookies (Nestle's ready-to-bake from the refrigerator section) for dessert. They were all gone when I went downstairs this morning. :o)

Josh and Cyrise took Reece, Aubrey and Camryn to the last day of Wurstfest in New Braunfels today. They had fun, but it was hot and the kids were so tired when they got home. They had food on a stick and fried pickles, rode the merry-go-round and ferris wheel.

Gina stayed here with me and Papa. Kelly came over and we went out for lunch while Papa watched Gina. We just went to Chipotle, close by, and then to Bath and Body Works, so we were not gone too long. Gina loved seeing her Aunt Kelly.

I got some antibacterial handsoaps, some wallflowers and a bottle of lotion at B&B Works. I like the Pink Sugarplum scent that they only have at Christmas time, so I got that in lotion and one of the handsoaps. I always wind up getting more than I had planned when I go there. I got Kitchen Lemon, Fresh Lavender and Winter Cranberry handsoaps (4 for $10). And Pink Sugarplum, Winter Cranberry and Frosted Cranberry wallflowers ($6 for the 2 pack of refills). That should last me through the holiday season. :o)

My dashboard is showing that it is 85* here. Feels like summer outside. We have the AC on one day, and the heat the next.

Life seems so normal right now, other than the cauda equina syndrome causing my legs to be numb and tingly so that walking is difficult. I'm still not using the walker at home, but use it when I go out. My calves have felt stiff and sore sometimes lately, but I walk anyway, and they loosen up after a bit. I'm not looking forward to the weeks ahead--the strong chemo and the transplant.

Fab Friday!

We just finished dinner and I am so content. Josh grilled thick, tender filet mignon for all of us. Oh my goodness, they were delicious. I'm glad I'm not a vegetarian.

Cyrise made roasted potatoes with rosemary and we also had broccoli florets. Yummy!

It's been a busy day. The kids went shopping and Ron and I stayed with Reece and the girls. They played outside for quite awhile, after their naps. The girls got new tops, jeans and jackets and look so cute in them. The weather was cool enough that I wore a jacket myself. It was fun to sit outside and watch them play.

Josh and Cyrise bought Reece a new mattress and box springs, but it won't be delivered until the 22nd.

Papa took Reece with him to visit Gran. They said she is doing fine. They took her the leftover Chinese we had last night and she enjoyed that.

I cleaned up the kitchen this morning, and have been doing some laundry today--sheets and towels, mostly. I get tired pretty quickly, but it makes me feel so much better to do something. Now I need to get our mattress pad and sheets back on the bed and fold towels. Have a great weekend!

She Had A Happy Birthday

Love that grin and the smiley eyes.















Her family gathered around her. She liked her cake, especially the frosting.

One of her birthday gifts. The other little girls are very interested in the purple doggie, too. But it can be programmed to say Gina's name and favorite things.

Happy Birthday, Gina!

Gina is one year old today! She is the sweetest baby, almost always happy and smiling. Love you, baby girl!

Not feeling my best the past couple of days, but nothing serious. My blood sugar is high, and I admit I haven't been watching it like I should. My diabetes has taken a back seat to the cancer. I will start watching it more closely.

I went in for the echocardiogram today. Don't have any results yet, but the procedure was quick and easy.

Tomorrow I'll see a dentist at Wilford Hall to make sure I don't have any kind of infection in my mouth. I know I have a couple of broken molars, but they've been broken for over a year and never caused any problem, so I don't expect any trouble from them. I hope the dentist will just put fillings in them. He said he could put a filling in anything when I saw him last year. :o)

I finally finished the little blanket I was knitting for Gina, and have started on one of the cardigans for the little girls. I hope they turn out cute. I like the yarn. Kelly and I went to one of the local yarn shops a few weeks ago, and I got a sweet raspberry colored yarn for one sweater, and a pretty lavender for the other one. Girly colors. :o) I'm almost finished with the raspberry back. I think the two front pieces and the sleeves will go really fast, but I'm worried about sewing it all together so it looks nice.

Ron and I were hungry after I finished at the hospital, so we stopped and had Mexican food on the way home. He had cheese enchiladas and I had chicken flautas--pretty good. As usual, my eyes were bigger than my stomach, though, and I brought most of it home.

We were going to shop for Gina's birthday, but I started to get a migraine (those darn sparkles), so we came home. Cyrise and I had talked about what I wanted to get for Gina, so she and Josh went shopping for me. We'll have a little celebration later this evening. I took some ibuprofen as soon as I got home, and lay down for a little while and I feel okay now.

The Plan

We met with my new doctor today. He talked with us (me and Ron) for quite awhile about my treatment. He said that there are two options. The first one is to continue as we have been, using the Rituxan and Methotrexate to keep the cancer at bay. But he said that that usually only works for a few months, and then the cancer will come back. The prognosis would be only months to live.

The second option is to do the bone marrow (also known as stem cell) transplant. He gave us all the scary reasons why I might not want to do it. He said that I'm older than most of their allogeneic transplant patients, and I have the disadvantage of having had a lot of chemo and other treatments already. He explained how sick I will get, how they will kill off all my cells, all the risks and awful things that can and will happen. It will be worse than the autologous transplant I had last year, where my own cells were used. I can't even imagine being sicker than I was then; it was awful. My body may try to reject my sister's cells. I'll have no immune system for several weeks and any tiny infection could kill me. After he told us all of that, I told him that I will have the transplant. He said, "Even after all that I've told you." And I said, "Yes." He seemed relieved. He said it was a reasonable decision. He said that I'm kind of "in the middle"--I'm not the best subject for this procedure, but I'm not the worst, either.

There's a lot to do before the transplant, getting me ready and making sure all my systems are healthy enough to do it. So far all of my tests have come back fine--the CT scan, my opthalmology exam, the pulmonary exam. I still have to have xrays, an eccocardiogram, appointments with GYN, the dentist, the bone marrow transplant social worker and bmt coordinator. What a whirlwind!

My sister is coming down November 27, after Thanksgiving, to donate her cells. She will have exams and labs the first few days, then have the neupogen shots for four days. Then they will harvest her cells. During the time she is getting the neupogen, they will be giving me chemo to wipe out my cells. I'll probably get her cells on the same day they are harvested. If it takes two days for them to get enough cells from her, they will give me more the second day. Then I'll be in the hospital for at least a couple of weeks, probably longer, to recover. My immune system will be totally wiped out, so I can't get even the tiniest infection or I could die. The weeks following the stem cell transplant will be the worst. But if it works, I'll never have to worry about any kind of cancer again.

Please pray for me, for my sister, Johnnie, and for my family. Thank you!

Lamb, Butterfly, Octopus

I was going to take more pictures of the little girls in their Halloween costumes, but it's just too much trouble to get them all dressed up again. I didn't get good pics of them that day, but I'll post them anyway, just so you can see their costumes.

Gina was a little lamb.

















Aubrey was a butterfly.


















And Camryn was an octopus.

All Souls Day

The practice of recommending to God the souls of the departed in that we may mitigate the great pains which they suffer, and that He may soon bring them to His glory, is most pleasing to God and most profitable to us. For those blessed souls are His eternal spouses, and they are most grateful to those who obtain their deliverance from prison, or even a mitigation of their torments.

Hence, when they shall enter into heaven, they will certainly not forget those who prayed for them. It is a pious belief that God manifests to them our prayers for them, that they also may pray for us.

Let us recommend to Jesus Christ, and to His holy Mother, all the souls in Purgatory, but especially those of our relatives, benefactors, friends, and enemies, and, still more particularly, the souls of those for whom we are bound to pray; and let us consider the great pains which these holy spouses of Jesus Christ endure, and offer to God for their relief the Masses of this day.

The Roman Missal (1962)

The Feast of All Saints

We can pay no greater honour to the Saints than by offering up to God in their name the Blood of Jesus. The efficacy of their past merits and present prayers is greatly increased when offered to God in close association with the merits and prayers of our Lord.

Therefore the Church commemorates on this day all the Saints in Heaven without exception, and thus honours also those who are unknown and who have no public recognition in the Liturgy.

The Roman Missal (1962)