"There goes the little man..."

Hey. Sorry this post is so late in coming. I've been busy... and lazy. Hopefully I'll remember everything that I had wanted to mention.

I think I'll start with how radiation to my spine went (wow, that was a long time ago). I had ten treatments of radiation and they all went rather well. It took a couple of weeks for me to feel the effects, but now there is no jabbing pain in my arm, only a tingling every once in a while. I'm happy the radiation helped: it means I can play saxophone and not have to worry about pain.

After radiation I had a treatment of chemo. It was not pleasant. I really hate CPT-11; it makes my stomach roll for twenty-four hours straight and then some. I usually always get sick a couple of times, no matter what medication they give me to help with nausea. Luckily, I didn't get a full batch of 5-FU since I had just finished radiation and Pitot didn't want to put too much stress on the healthy tissue in my throat that had also been exposed to the radiation.

Anyways, I finished up chemo, got to feeling better, and spent a couple days hanging out with friends.

Oh, I entered photographs into the amateur division of photography at the Olmsted County Fair. One of them got a red ribbon for its class, which means I won four dollars. It was pretty exciting. I've posted the photo on the blog before, the one with the red rose surrounded by the black and white roses. I really don't know what the judges were looking for, but I guess they saw something they liked in that photo.

The first week of August I went camping with Ben's family in Two Harbors. We went with two other families and the whole trip was awesome. We explored various places along the North Shore, played poker and other games a lot, and pretty much went from day to day without an agenda. It was wonderful. We had great weather too; it wasn't hot or humid and we only had rain the morning we were leaving. I had a rather interesting experience while I was up there too, but I think I'll put that story on the other blog- so keep an eye out for that.

I got home from camping and had chemo again. It wasn't fun. It never is. To worsen the experience, my right hip has been bothering me. We don't know what the cause is and, as always, Pitot is slow to go into action about figuring out what the deal is. So I've spent the week with a sore hip that causes the tops of my legs to cramp and has made me lose feeling in two of my toes. I take lots of pain killers that don't deal with the pain, just make me crazy in the head so I don't notice the pain. We called Pitot again Friday and said something has to be done, so I have an x-ray or some sort of scan Monday. Pitot thinks the pain might be from exercising more while I was camping and that my strange gait has put stress on parts of the bone that aren't usually pressured. I hope it's nothing more than that, but with my past luck, I doubt it. We'll see, I guess.

What else...

Wednesday we moved Greg down to Iowa State so he could join the ranks of freshmen Cyclones that are beginning dorm life. It was sad. Now I'm an only child who keeps wondering what time her brother is getting home at night and realizing I probably won't be seeing him for a while yet. =( He seems to be liking it down there, though, so that's good.

On Friday I went sailing for the first time. It was lots of fun and very relaxing. I went with my mom and dad, Ben, and my parents' friend, Greg N., who owned the boat. We sailed around Lake Pepin for a while and then went out for pizza. Like I said, it was relaxing floating out on the lake and it was really cool seeing what you have to do to get a sail boat to sail properly.

Yesterday, I went shopping with friends Ann and Connor. I think that might have been a mistake since the mall was filled to the ceiling with people who were trying to escape the rain. I must say I am very disappointed with fall fashion thus far. I haven't found anything I really like, except maybe for the shoes. I love the slipper look; "yay" for no heals and shoes that are reminiscent of dance. But the shirts are another story. It's like fashion designers thought everybody would be pregnant this year and made shirts that look like they belong in the maternity section. Ugh. I would like a nice, clean cut sweater or long sleeve, thank you very much. Simple things. Not shirts that might be short dresses and vice versa. But I have yet to find a simple, long sleeved shirt. It seems that designers are also expecting some serious global warming too since all the new clothes in stores are either T-shirts or tank tops. Meh.

A random tid-bit: I hope to start painting and rearranging my room sometime soon. I have the general color palette figured out, but the arrangement of furniture is still a mystery.

I think that's all the news I have.

In a little over a week I start band and a photography class at RCTC. I'm excited for that and hope that I can make it all work with my chemo meshed in there somewhere.

Oh, I have some thank-you's! I want to thank Pastor Mark for the T-shirt from Star Lake (I really wish I could have gone with you guys). Thank you, Ann Jones, for the prayer shawl; it's beautiful. And thank you to everybody who has been sending me cards and prayers. I appreciate it a lot. =D

Much love,
Cheryl

"Little Man"- Alan Jackson