Early Spring is here and showed my students!

                                           Barely blooming "saucer magnolia"

      It was cold for the 5:00 class, but we bravely met on the steps in front of the college library so I could show them "a bit" of nature on campus. By nature I mean budding and not even really in bloom trees, a type of "cedar waxwing" that had flown into one leafless tree, and places to sit and relax on campus.
     When the wind is a cold whip of air at your back (and front too!) there is little time to sit still and relax. So we didn't. I took them to a quiet place, the Alumni gardens, and pointed out the peeling bark maple, and then we saw a fairly dirty koi pond (the koi and goldfish were "under" a grate that was covered with rotted leaves and some litter people had tossed in). And pointed up to a squirrel's nest very high in the tree sitting next to the pond.
     I also pointed out what will soon be the "prettiest" flower on the campus (see photo above). The soulange or saucer magnolia has these huge flowers, which look like big, elongated tulips with almost wine red and white stripes. They were getting ready to open and you could see some red, but were not open yet--- aw shucks! We have had a long, cold winter in Virginia and we really needed a break from the cold. Hopefully, in the next week these pretty, pretty blooms will make an appearance. I look forward to these classes with my students. They are too connected to technology and should enjoy this bit of outdoors when they can. Put down that durn cell phone and enjoy nature!

An old fashioned train arrives

   One of my students mentioned in class the fact that an old timey locomotive would be arriving in town from Bristol, TN/VA. My husband received even more info -- it would arrive near the Glencoe Museum in town!
    Well, partly yes. I had taken my temperature a second time (the first time, around 9 AM, it said 100.2 degrees)and it was now down to 98.2 and so we went. We arrived close to noon at the road behind the museum. We heard the plaintive "waaaa,   waaaa" of the train whistle and it disppeared. But someone walking back from the sighting said we could still see it, and headed to the old main street depot. We parked a bit past the old depot area as the parking lot was already packed. There were brownies out selling cookies, a customed Yogurt yelling to come to the yogurt shop, and some people selling food and jewelry and book marks at a makeshift farmer's market. WE pulled into the parking lot generally reserved for the red college commuter buses, which were also near the depot area, and got out.
    We took a lot of pictures, me with the digital camera and Frank with his ipad, of the front of the train, the old timey black engine with the white and also grayish smoke/steam coming out, a symbol of a bygone era. Behind it were two modern diesel engines pushing the old locomotive, and a string of Norfolk Southern wine colored passenger cars. I'll bet they haven't been regularly used since the seventies. But gas is so expensive. Should we go back to using trains?
   

Still awaiting medical test results, neurotic cat

    Don't you just hate it when doctors take forever to get back to you? It's been about 10 days since my abdominal ultrasound, and I haven't gotten any results back. The xray of my hips didn't seem to turn up anything unusal, according to the report I just got in the mail. So I don't have ovarian cancer? What about my liver and lungs (still have a soreness in my back)?
    Once you've had cancer once you can get it again, it seems. And as I am typing this the cat is at my feet and trying to get into something (the closet, a space near a drawer) or into my lap. the spouse says she is neurotic because the dog is gone. Possibly. But in the winter she is "in and out" and in and out of the house, though there is a "cat door" in one of the porch doors so I don't have to get out in the cold to get her all the way outside.

Got ultrasound to see if I have cancer,the dog, Gerson therapy

   Well, it was a "really long" ride to the Bristol Wellmont hospital so that my husband's insurance can "sort of pay" for medical expenses. First they tell me there is a $300 deductible for the ultrasound on my middle region (abdominal area, under both ribs and the middle, where the vital organs are and I have felt some pain) so I put $150 down, THEN I FIND OUT my lab service connected to my husband's insurance isn't even in the hospital anymore. That is a financial bummer. But "most" of the healthcare in this country is a financial bummer. My mother is spending "all" her extra dollars on doctor bills. We need a healthcare tax that is "better" than Medicare, that covers lab work and some specialists. Healthcare is just too expensive.
    So they tell me his lab service moved down the road near Kroger or some such place. But if I did go there after the ultrasound then I probably wouldn't have eaten a bite till 11:30 (as I had to fast and not eat/drink from the night before for the bloodwork AND the abdominal ultrasound-- the bloodwork had to do with insulin fasting, I think and they like your abdominal area 'flat' so it is easier to take pictures). And I was kind of exhausted, so I took the higher deductible and had the blood work done at the Wellmont hospital.
    I was exhausted as the dog, Grover, had been yelping on and off all night. Should I have taken him to the doggie emergency room that evening? I almost did, but I knew I had to leave by 7 and thought I wouldn't get any sleep if I did. Well, he was yelping on and off (we think it was constipation but I say he had a blockage) and I got almost no sleep. Finally, at 6 am the husband took him to the doggie emergency room but he died on the way. We should have taken him that evening, put him out of his misery sooner, as I don't think he would have survived then. He collapsed twice at home that evening. And he'd had seizures since being put on the heart medicine for an enlarged heart -- could the drug have had a bad side effect? I felt bad we waited to take him to the vet. We haven't had much luck with dogs and this is the last one I want to take care of. I'm not really a small dog person anyway; they can be whiny.
    So after the medical 'stuff' I got with natural friend Carrie and she told me about a man who had bone cancer and had been on the Gerson Therapy (alternative cancer therapy) for 2 years. It involved juicing everything, coffee enemas,  and supplements, but he hadn't gotten better. In fact his cancer had spread. I don't think I will try that if I have cancer, but the Kelley therapy is kind of similar. I think I'd rather do a targeted therapy and do "Protocel" instead.

Still don't have a doctor's appointment

      I think our  health insurance is schizo. ON  the one hand, my husband's doctor was distantly related to the "Wellmont" health netwoek and he was able to see him and sort of have his visits and lab work covered. But for me, two doctors later, they say they are "not" in the Wellmont network (it's all about networks, not people, it's all about profit, not health) so can I go to these
people or not? They are 50 minutes away on the interstate. I risk having to see another dr.
2 hours away because his network doesn't reach this far. It stinks.

Decent doctors anyone?

   I believe I have serious health issues and yet my husband's doctor can't take the time to call back and let me know if she can take me on as a patient or not. That really sucks. With back soreness/pain and pain under my ribs, that is not a good sign. I hope it is my gall bladder but I don't think I'll be that lucky.
     Why can't doctors treat you like you are somebody? I know this doctor is new, but geez, how about fitting in a really sick person? I may have to travel a very long distance to see a doctor "in my network".

What if I have cancer again

 I didn't do great with cancer treatments the first time around. I had breast cancer then. But I have this soreness in my back that is not going away -- a bad sign. It could be pancreatic (no) or lung cancer. I am not a very lucky person. Maybe I should have stayed on the Femara. I have tried to
lose weight but my intestinal tract and thyroid  I don't think have cooperated.

    I did lousy on chemo, but some people don't do chemo, or do it in combination with different things. I need a plan.