Category: Life

Life

Here she is…

This is the new doggie.  I don’t have a name for her yet, so any suggestions are welcome. Thanks to the Collie Rescue of the Carolinas for bringing her to me.

She’s a sweet pup.  I’m not sure how old she is, but the vet paperwork says “> 8.”  She seems to be deaf, so it’s ok that I don’t have a name for her yet.  She does respond to hand gestures, which is pretty cool.   I can motion to her to come to me, and she does!

My new collie girl

Here’s a picture I took yesterday.  I think she’s feeling safe and secure here.  She took over my bed!

My collie

I’m still considering names, but her inability to hear me call her means there’s no rush.  She’s quite a pistol.  She’s getting into the garbage and eating cat food. We walk every night, when it cools down a bit,  and we’re both enjoying that.  Once the temperature gets a little cooler, we’ll start going to the park to walk.  Buddy used to love that, and I hope the new doggie loves going there, too.

Test results and other stuff

I had blood drawn on 6/3, and got the results back today.

Test: Result (Normal Range)

IGG: 455 (600-1700)
IGM: 34 (35-290)
IGA: 466 (40-400)

This is from last time, so you can see there’s not much change!

IGG: 466 (600-1700)
IGM: 31 (35-290)
IGA: 408 (40-400)

I found a new web site that I’m still checking out.  It has details about lab tests and other info.
http://www.clinlabnavigator.com/

Anyway, the doc says I’m still smoldering!

I was at Five Points Pet Resort a couple of weeks ago, where this green-winged macaw engaged us.  He has a lot of personality!

StoryCorps/NPR Broadcast on Multiple Myeloma

From a reader:

I’m writing from StoryCorps, America’s largest nonprofit national
oral history project. Because our broadcast this morning on NPR talks
about the experience of a family affected by multiple myeloma, I
thought it might be worth sharing with your readers. Please have a
listen!
Sy Saliba talks to his daughter, Yvette, about her mother, Pat, who
passed away from multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in 2005.
http://bit.ly/93jYOB

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to
honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Since 2003,
tens of thousands of people from across the country have interviewed
family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded
on a free CD to take home and share and is also archived for
generations to come at the Library of Congress.

A Southern Pines Sunset

It’s been raining off and on for a few days, which is good. We needed it. I think we might continue to have showers over the next few days, but I usually don’t pay much attention to weather forecasts.  I just wait and see what happens.  I’ve known people whose every movement hinged on the weather forecast and that never made any sense to me.  It wasn’t like they were farmers or anything.

Anyway, it was a great night for a walk, so Buddy and I went out. I took this picture with my trusty iPhone.

Sunset in Southern Pines North Carolina

The week in pictures

These are some of the pictures I’ve taken over the last week on my iPhone.  Most of them are stuff from the garden.  We planted broccoli, squash, tomatoes, peppers, some herbs and green beans.

The snake pictured is a scarlet king snake.  I found it in my pool, but not in time to save it.  It’s not as big as it looks in the picture.  I estimate it to have been about 8″ long.

The hearse was parked in the bank parking lot.

There are three families of geese in the neighborhood where my aunt lives.  Last time I was by there, I got out of the car to take a picture.  I didn’t get close though!  Geese can be scary!

Broccoli in my garden

Here come the tomatoes

Squash blossoms

A scarlet kingsnake

An old hearse I saw today

Geese over by my aunt's house

Myeloma Blogs web site gets a facelift

MyelomaBlogs.org, a blog feed aggregator for patient and caregiver myeloma blogs, has been revamped.  It’s all new, thanks to our good friend, Lopo Lencastre de Almeida of iPublicis.

The site has a new look and will allow you to read a short excerpt of posts, search posts and browse by tags.  You can also help spread the word by sharing blogs posts on many social networking sites.

You’ll see what I mean.  Head on over to http://www.myelomablogs.org/.

Somewhere over the Southern United States

Southern US

I took this photo someplace between Texas and North Carolina.  It was probably closer to NC than Texas.

This was on my return from a trip to California. During the time I was there, I had a nasty cold, so I wasn’t really able to enjoy myself.   I was afraid if I rescheduled, I wouldn’t go at all.

Now that I’m back home, I’m feeling much better.  I hope to be fully recovered within the next couple of days.