The Holidays 2011

So, since my September post, things have not gotten much better. My migraines continue to plague me and Scott’s diagnosis of Epstein Barr sometimes hits him full force and just takes him down. On September 19th, his mother was admitted to the hospital with a UTI and after a very long, protected process where things spiraled ever downward, she passed away on November 22, five days after her 89th birthday and two days before Thanksgiving. She was in a wonderful hospice where she was able to pass peacefully with her children by her side. Needless to say, this has caused stress, regardless of the fact that at the end it was a celebration of a life well lived.

I now look forward to bladder surgery to hopefully give relief from a situation called Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome which is linked to things like chronic pelvic pain  (which I deal with on a daily basis) and migraines. Hmmmm…could simply stretching the bladder help all this? I’m willing to take the chance on December 20th since it’s a short, out-patient procedure. Please pray that this helps all these debilitating problems right now.

My wonderful Scott is dealing with his mom’s death better than could be expected, and we have moved on to things like cleaning out the house and all that someone dying entails.

I am not a holiday person; I’m a very scheduled person so the holidays make me sort of blue and depressed. I have moments of pure joy and enjoyment from them, but by the New Year, I am ready to go back to work and have a schedule. I know…I’m weird, right?!

This year, unfortunately because of Scott’s mom’s passing, we will be spending the whole Christmas holiday with my family in SC, something I haven’t done since before marrying Scott and he’s never actually done it. Please pray that we don’t kill each other before the end of it!  LOL…just kidding! It’s something I’m looking forward to greatly!

Holidays are meant for family and to be enjoyed, and I intend to try with all my might to do that this year with the good Lord’s help. Thank you God for sending your Son on that cold night in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago so that we could have everlasting life. If we all remember what Christmas is all about, maybe more joy will be had and people will slow down to look around and enjoy the blessings they have. There are always those who are worse off than you, always. Today I am thankful for a family who loves me and Scott, and would do anything to help us. We feel the same way and send you all CHRISTMAS greetings during this most wonderful time of the year!

Much Love,

Lisa and Scott

Getting old is hard!

I cannot believe it’s been almost a year and a half since I have posted to my blog! A lot has happened in that 16 months for sure so here comes the update!

January 2010 – differences between my boss and me force me to start looking for another job. I’ve been at this job for almost 10 years and am sad to leave.

July 12th 2010 – I leave Assessment Plus and start work at Emory University’s Woodruff Library…I am SO excited!!!!

August 2010 – Due to a severe adverse reaction to a migraine medication, I go into stage 5 kidney failure. Fortunately I recover but it was a scary time.

October 2010 - I walk the Susan G. Komen for the Cure 3-Day for the second year in a row! Unfortunately, I probably damaged my feet vascularly and in 2011 will be crewing instead of walking. After the 3-Day my feet swelled horribly and I had to go to the doctor for a diagnosis. She put me on an extra water pill every day and after three days they were pretty much back to normal…whew!

February 2011 – Joined vanpool for work, including driving it. All went well until…

April 11, 2011 – After having a routine mammogram and getting back normal results, something “not right” starts happening with my right breast. My gyn says, “let’s watch it for a month. I think you may have been bruised during the mammogram.” While I’m not sure this is true, I go along with it but after a month the something strange is still happening. On May 6th I am in a breast specialist’s office having more mammograms and ultrasounds. The radiologist has me back in the following Monday after locating a slight thickening in my right breast that wasn’t there the year before. They performed a ductogram to pinpoint a 5 mm polyp in one of my milk ducts. All I’ll say is that you don’t want to have a ductogram unless you have to. No pain meds and tiny needles going places you never imagined WHILE they are doing a mammogram. Not nice. The only way to diagnose if this is maglignant or benign is a excisional breast biopsy which is done under general anesthesia. They take out the polyp, the milk duct and the surrounding tissue to biopsy. 98% of these cases are benign. I’m scheduled for this on May 24th.

April 28, 2011 – In the midst of all the scariness surrounding my mammogram and biopsy, I have a really freak accident on the vanpool which leaves a huge hematoma on the top of my right foot, and I find it hard to walk. After a visit to the clinic on campus confirming that nothing was broken, a visit to the podiatrist’s office gave me the bad news that I have to have it removed surgically! It is sitting on a nerve and a blood vessel, thus causing much discomfort and extra swelling. This surgery is scheduled for June 8th, two weeks after the biopsy.

Needless to say that during this whole time many prayers were being said by my family and friends. At some points I just simply reached out for God’s hand; that was all I could do other than get through the day-to-day of getting up, going to work and coming home. My poor Scott was suffering too with his h-pylori virus and its treatment with antibiotics so again, needless to say, we weren’t the best company for awhile.

My biopsy was benign (thank you Jesus!) and the foot surgery was easy. Recovery from the foot surgery was very aggrevating since I couldn’t get said foot wet for two weeks…are you kidding me????

I am finally back in the pink as far as the foot and breast go, but now it seems my knees are giving out on me. Arthritis is my guess. Trip to the ortho in a couple of weeks. I’m hoping cortisone shots will do the trick. Get old is no fun, that’s for sure!

Daffodils!

I know spring is upon us when the daffodils start blooming. Every year when I see my first daffodils, it’s like a little ray of sunshine warms my soul. Daffodils are my birthday month flower so maybe that’s why I’m particular to them. What’s more likely is that because my grandmother (Mama Nan) had a yard full of them, they hold a special place in my heart.  I can remember walking around the yard in springtime and Mama Nan telling me the names of the different kinds of daffodils. I can’t remember them all, but my favorites have always been the double bloom variety. One in particular is called “Butter & Eggs.” Or at least that’s what I remember Mama Nan telling  me.

Now the other flowers are starting to come out too, slowly but surely, but the daffodils are the first heralds of spring to me!

When Things Don’t Go Right…

So what do you do when things just don’t go right? When something hits you out of the blue and knocks you off your feet? Most of the time we just go about our daily lives, cruising along in our little worlds, same old thing, day in and day out. But then, all of a sudden, wham! Someone does something, thinks something, says something that rocks our world. Regardless of whether they’re right or wrong, whether you caused them to act that way or what, it just knocks you off your little pedastal.

Happened to me the other day; totally took me by surprise. But it hit me so hard it drove me straight into the loving arms of God. I ran like I haven’t run in a very long time. Running and pulling every prayer from every prayer warrior I knew. And you know what? I am now calm and feel the peace of the Lord. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few days or weeks, whether I’ll have a job or not, whether I will have insurance or not or whether I will be able to find a new job. But of one thing I am absolutely certain and positive and have no doubt: God loves me and will never leave me or forsake me. His arms are wrapped tightly around me, and even if it’s hard and painful, He is there.

I drove to work this morning singing His praises in my head the whole way. The radio just annoyed me because what is better than praising His name? Nothing is sweeter than singing “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, for loving me!”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (King James Version)

 ¹⁶Rejoice evermore. ¹⁷Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

A Letter to Family & Friends – Christmas 2009

What are your favorite Christmas memories?  When I think of Christmas, the very first thing that comes to my mind is when I was younger and the trees we decorated. Nowadays trees are so…planned. They all have a theme, they have to be all color coordinated and have certain lights, and on and on.  When I was growing up, our tree had homemade things on it.  There were the requisite ornaments that Jane, Alan and I made at school, but there were also the homemade things we just made at the kitchen table; the construction paper colored loops of garland, the strung popcorn, but the one I remember the most is those darned styrofoam balls with glittered pipe cleaners sticking out of them.  They looked like small space satellites or something! Now, I know that Mom had us make them to fill the holes in our fake tree because it was getting pretty worn, and those things were really not pretty…but I loved them.  We made them and we had fun making them and it was fun to put them “in” the tree, so to speak!

The other Christmas tree I think of is the one at Mama Nan & Papa’s house.  It was always, always, always cedar, freshly cut. When you walked in the door you smelled the tree. It had big old honking colored lights that blinked! And it had icicles ALL over it with garland and colored balls.  The first year I lived completely by myself I went out in the field with my uncle and cut a little bitty cedar tree.  It was more a table tree because my apartment was so small, but I wanted a fresh cedar, and a fresh cedar I had.  It only had little white lights, gold jingle bells and red bows, but it sure did smell good!

Of course, there’s also the time when I was very small and got a baby doll “buggy,” as we called it. What do I do? I try to get in it and push myself down the hall, which if I’m not mistaken, resulted in my breaking the buggy. Leave it to Lisa to get into trouble with her gift first thing!

Jane & I had tons of fun after Alan was born! We got to help play Santa!  We didn’t get to see our gifts early, of course, but I remember one Christmas when we got an Atari game.  Remember those?!  Mom had to get onto Dad and Jane several times because she was afraid they’d wake Alan up playing the darned game. We probably had more fun with that game than Alan did!

Now here’s one memory that Mom probably doesn’t even know about.  I don’t remember hold old I was, but I was old enough to be nosey and and old enough to know better. I remember looking all over for our gifts…and I finally found them. How exciting! Not! I didn’t realize that by finding my own gifts I would ruin Christmas for myself. I never did that again; it took all the fun out of the holiday. What fun is it to open the presents when you already know what they are?

So this is all to say that the best part of Christmas for me is the memories. Every single year that I go to my aunt & uncle’s house on Christmas Eve, it never fails that we have to talk about the year that Alan & Wendy (our cousin) were about two and proceeded to open all the presents under the tree.  That was the last year that my aunt put the tree and presents in the closed off living room!

As we get older, the precious memories we have become sweeter and sweeter; I would rather have my Christmas memories than all the gifts in the world.  I keep the memories with me all the time; no one can take them away. I can’t lose them; they are always there keeping me company and making smile and bringing a tear to my eye.

Share your memories with your loved ones, year after year…isn’t that what life is all about? Making the memories that last a lifetime. 

Much, much love to you all!

Lisa & Scott

To My Brother on his 36th Birthday! (A little belated!)

From your sister on your 36th birthday…

Having a brother like you has taught me a lot of things.

 

That laughter is good for the spirit, That forgiveness is good for the soul.

 

That relationships are very resilient. That sisters better be, if they want to survive.

 

That time really does fly. That memories improve with age.

 

That people can surprise you. (and not just from jumping out from behind doors)

 

 

Having a brother like you has taught me that life is amazing, love is enduring,
and family is forever.

 

** I take no credit for writing the words above, but simply picking out a beautiful card and putting the words with my pictures.

Analysis of an 18-Mile Walk…in the Rain

Yes, 18 miles…in the rain.  Why, you ask, would anyone do such a thing?!  Simple.  To help others.  I’m training to walk 60 miles in 3 days at the 2009 Atlanta 3-Day Walk sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  I’ve been on this journey since last November.  Yesterday I added another 18 miles…in the rain.

I met five team members at our favorite local park at 7:00 a.m.  Now, we’ve done these several Saturdays in the past two months, but this time was different.  We knew this would be the closest to what we’d actually be doing on the 3-Day…and it was in the rain.

At 7:00 a.m. in September, it’s still a little dark, but when it’s rainy and overcast, it’s really dark.  It gets light quickly, but it’s still gloomy.  Our first three-mile loop went off well, but we ended it…in the rain. On our ponchos went; unfortunately two of us didn’t have ponchos, but they walked on anyway.  Even…in the rain. I mean, you can only get so wet, right?  After you are drenched to the bone, what does it matter?  And honestly, those of us with ponchos were pretty wet too.

The first six miles were the worst for me, at least mentally.  After three I thought, “I’ll quit after six; at least I will have done something.”  After six, I was ready to quit, but everyone else went on and so did I.  I got my second wind during the third loop. After the fourth loop, we were all moving pretty slowly. Two of us changed socks, one attended to her blisters, we all drank water and Gatorade, we had snacks, and we all started our fifth loop…in the rain.

On the fifth loop, I stopped with a friend to attend to her blisters. And I stopped with her and another friend on the final loop to attend her blister again.  All…in the rain. We saw possums, chipmunks, huge spiders, a cat, and plenty of dogs and ducks…all out in the rain.

I say this because we did it all in the rain; everything we would have normally done, we did in the rain.  The point of the 3-Day is that breast cancer stops for nothing, not even the rain…and neither did we yesterday. Most of the group walked 15 miles today too…in the rain.  And we’ll all walk 60 miles in 3 days on October 23 -25, 2009…in the rain, if we have to. Because we’ve now trained, we know we can do it; we are prepared and ready to go. I feel like nothing can stop us now…not even the rain!

**If you would like to help out our team, go to www.the3day.org/goto/therackpackatl.  Most of us have raised our $2300, but we have one team member still trying to make her goal.  Her name is Catherine Baker.  If you’d like to help out, please click on her name to donate.  We will all appreciate it!

Marriage…new surprises!

After being married almost 12 1/2 years, I have to admit, our marriage felt a little stale. Scott will tell you the same thing. We did the same thing every day: get up, go to work, come  home, watch TV, go to bed, do it over the next day.  Weekends might include a trip to a Mexican restaurant and almost always included a nap on Saturday and/or Sunday.  We both had begun to feel that we needed friends and people besides the other person; you just can’t be everything for someone!

Hiking in SC, March 2009

But, as luck would have it, just when we were beginning to feel stale, God had a plan for making us realize what we had and how good we had it.  Two weekends ago was the first weekend that we (or mostly Scott) had to spend taking care of his elderly mother after her two strokes and congestive heart failure in May.  She has been in the hospital and nursing home from May 27th until August 5th.  Scott went over after work on Friday and stayed until he went to work on Tuesday morning.  I was there every day, and he did get out for a few bike rides, trips to the store, etc. 

What it made me realize on my end is that I depend on him just being there! He’s always here and if he’s not, I know where he is and when he’ll be in.  I depend on him to just be there.  You’ve heard of the 7-year itch?  Well, I think we had the 12-year-staleness.  God has a way of taking care of things. Not only did it make me appreciate Scott, it made him appreciate me.  I so love my husband!  And whether it’s his mother or someone else, I don’t like sharing! Be that good or bad, he’s mine! 

Panama City Beach, May 2009

Then this week, He brought it even closer to home.  I had a massive migraine last Sunday driving home from Scott’s mom’s house.  I had to pull off the road and call 911.  I’ve never been that scared in my life.  I was tingling in my hands and feet, scared that I was having an anerurism or a stroke…at 46!?  Scott came, the ambulance came, and we went to the hospital.  After 9 hours in the ER, the diagnosis seems to be severe migraine made worse by my hyperventilating (thus the tingling).  A head CT and a lumbar puncture showed no bleeding on the brain, but did result in an after effect headache that sent me back to the ER for a “blood patch” on the lumbar site.

I am still recooperating somewhat after taking it easy for a few days, but needless to say, Scott and I are closer than ever.  The little things don’t irritate me as much now; the fact that he’s here with me all weekend is all it’s taking to make me happy and thankful that I have a wonderful husband who loves me and can look past all my annoying habits, as I can his. Tell your spouse you love them today!

Clemson, October 2008

60 Miles in Three Days

There is so much I want to say about this experience so far…and I have no idea where to start.  I feel like there is no way I can give back to the 3-Day what it’s already given to me.  So much in so little time. I agreed to join a 3-Day team last October.  I was very hesitant. With good reason.  I was out of shape, overweight and about to have major surgery on December 4.  How in the world would I be anywhere near the kind of shape I needed to be in by October 2009?  Honestly, I did think about it, but obviously had other things on my mind.  So, I took a leap of faith.  Something told me to do it.  I sent out emails to friends and clients to start raising my $2300 before my surgery.  I had my surgery on December 4th as planned, was in the hospital for two days and everything went very well.  I spent four weeks at home recovering, returning to work part time on January 5th, working my way back to full time by January 19th.  The whole time I was recovering, in the back of my mind I knew I had to get moving as soon as possible to start training.

On Sunday, January 11th, my husband and I went to one of the local parks and I committed to walking one lap around the 1.25 mile loop.  We planned it, but that day was very cold.  I would not be deterred! Scott whined and complained the whole time we walked.  It probably took 20 minutes to make that loop because I was still moving slowly, but complete the loop we did. 

January 11, 2009, Briscoe Park, Snellville, GA

After this walk, I never turned back.  On January 12th three of our team members met at my boss’s house after work and walked 2 miles.  On Monday, January 19th our team went to Big Peach Running Company, took advantage of their “FIT Process,” and bought new walking shoes.

Big Peach Running Company, January 2009

 

Sometime between January 12th and the end of Janauary, I decided to walk a 10K near my house, “Run the Reagan.”  They actually shut down a 6-mile stretch of freeway connector and there is a 1-mile fun run, a 5K, a 10K and a Half Marathon.  Serious runners can vie for a Peachtree Road Race number, but most people are just doing it for fun, to raise money for a good cause, and for the exercise.  So, even though I was near the end of the 10K folks to come in, I did it!  I walked 6.2 miles…and I was darn proud of those miles!

Finish line of "Run the Reagan" 10K 2009

Catherine Baker, myself, Jennifer Taylor

Even though we got rained on a bit and it was cold, the three of us did it.  We are the original three members of “The Rack Pack!”  After the walk, because of Valentine’s Day, my sweet husband took me to SC and we stayed at the Hilton in Anderson.  What a treat!  Great dinner, great company and a hot bath…what a sweet husband!

So…what’s next?  Well, fundraising.  Unexpectedly, fundraising has actually been the most rewarding and easy part of the 3-Day.  I expected raising $2300 in this economy to be very difficult; I was happily surprised by people’s generousity for such a good cause.  My $2300 was raised by April; my part of the fundraisers we’ve had since then has gone to other team members to help them raise their $2300.  If you are reading this and want to help, please let me know.  We have three team members who haven’t reached their goal yet; if  you want to help me, please help them!

The Rack Pack @ Martinis for Tatas, Urban Flats, Lawrenceville, GA

Crop for the Cure, Archiver's, August 2009

 

In March we even had an article written about us in The Gwinnett Daily Post! Great press for us and The 3-Day!

Picture for article in The Gwinnett Daily Post, March 2009

As time went on, we walked at work during lunch.  I was doing great and very proud of myself.  I had actually thrown some running into my walks!  Me?!  Yes, me!  God has a way of knocking us down a peg or two when we get too “high and mighty,” as they say.  Around the end of May, my mother-in-law had two strokes and a bout of congestive heart failure which nearly killed her.  During this time, I also had a hormonal “crash,” as they call it, after being thrown into surgical menopause after my surgery last December.  My body used up its stores of hormones, and although the hormone therapy I had been on had worked thus far, now it wasn’t working so well at all.  I was depressed, I was agitated, I was anxious, I couldn’t concentrate, I had no short-term memory, and my work and personal life was suffering.  I had physical symptoms too which were driving me over the edge.  It took a little while, but after talking to the doctors a lot, both my family physician and my gyn., we came up with a therapy that has me back on track.  Those were not a good few weeks to go through, but thankfully I have a wonderful husband and wonderful family and friends to support me and lift me in prayer.  I felt prayer so much during that time; I craved it and yearned for it.  I truly felt like only prayer could help…and it did.  I called out in my darkest hour and God answered me.  Not quickly, not miraculously, but in his time and his way.  And I felt it.  I still feel it and am glad every day that he has helped me along this not-so-pleasant menopausal path.

During this time, I completely quit walking.  If you look at my Nike+ online, you will see a gap.  Between May 31st and July 5th I only walked two times for a total of 5.14 miles.  In July, it gradually dawned on me that if I didn’t get my butt out there and walk and start building up stamina, I would NOT be walking in the event that I had so diligently trained for thus far and raised money for.  So, on July 5th, I got going again.  Slow but sure, I built up to last Saturday when I walked 8.19 miles with two other friends doing The 3-Day.  I came out with two blisters and got nauseated, but I learned and I’ll keep going.  I learned how to doctor my blisters, what not to do on the next long walk and what TO do on the next long walk.  I have a lot of training left to do, but I am happily on my way again!

Emily Armistead, Cindy Haislip and me! Tribble Mill Park, August 8th, 2009 - 9 Miles!

There is still much to do and much to learn in the next 2 1/2 months.  Tomorrow I will walk another two miles to test out the blisters on my feet.  But they’ll get tougher, and I’ll get tougher.  I’ll wear my fanny, uh, 3-Day pack, and I’ll carry extra socks and change my socks.  I’ll get hot and sweaty.  I’ll eat snacks, I’ll make new friends at other training walks and by October 23rd, whether I’m “ready” or not, I’ll walk 60 miles in three days.  Will you be there when I finish?  You are invited, in person, in spirit, on Facebook, via email, via my blog, via text, via phone and however else you want to be there, but come October 25th, you will know that I finished my 60 miles and I’ll be happy to tell you all about it!

God has a plan, oh yes he does!

I am writing this in the midst of great emotional stress. Scott’s mom has been in the hospital since last Thursday afternoon. It has been a very long scenario but we’ve been on a true emotional rollercoaster since this started. From suspected TIA (mini-strokes), bouncing back and having a great day, attending Scott’s nephew’s wedding and then back to the brink of death, God has been there every step of the way. I have no idea what the purpose of going up and down like this is; it can’t be good for Mrs. Granholm’s 86-year-old body. But one thing I am confident of; God has it in his hands.

If there is one thing I have learned in my life, it’s that we must leave it in God’s hands at some point. Times like these make that abundantly clear to me. As stressful as it is, I have a peace about Scott’s mom because time and again in my life, people do get through things like this. His mom is a strong-willed, if not strong in body now. Regardless of whether the outcome is good or bad, God knows what he’s doing. When you fully grasp this, trust it and don’t try to figure out the reasons, you will find amazing peace. God has a plan, oh yes he does! Of that you can rest assured!