A Long Weekend

The holidays just keep on comin! It seems that the children just returned to school from their long Christmas break and already they are getting a three day weekend. MLK day will be celebrated on Monday.

I received a call from the Cyber Knife Center yesterday and my radiation treatments will start on Tuesday. I was puzzled at first. Why not on Monday? Cruising the web, I discovered the reason. It's a holiday.

On a positive note, at least for me. I have hair. Oh, it's not much but it's much better then the slick look I was sporting. I get petted a lot. Carrie will walk by and run her hand over my head. The husband, as he passes behind the sofa where I am sitting, will run his hand over my head never missing a step while on his way through the room. This is done by both he and Carrie unconsciously. Carrie views me without a blouse on and says "Nana, you know, it isn't bad. You don't look bad". I don't know if she means this or just has the kindness in her heart to not want me to feel bad. I smile at her and thank her for her words. Occasionally she will question my decision on not having reconstructive surgery. She attributes it to my age stating "Well, Nana, if you were thirty then maybe you would have it done."
I agree with her and she seems satisfied with that explanation. By these sporadic comments, I know she thinks about my health and our future. We go day by day.

I've been monitoring the charges associated with my latest surgery. I have to be on the ball doing this. My insurance coverage doesn't cover labs unless they are associated with a treatment. The pathology done on this last surgery sent me a bill for almost $3000.00. Had my husband been handling the bills on the health care this past year, he would have paid it automatically. Me? I check and recheck. Sometimes I have to call the provider and have them rebill the insurance company and change the coding on the bill to let the insurance company know the charge was surgery related. Hopefully by the first of February, I won't have to be as diligent on this as I will move into Medicare. I've already sent a cancellation notice to Blue Cross to stop coverage on February 1st. I'm hoping this goes smoothly and there is not a glitch in coverage as I will be well into the radiation treatments by then.

Another cold night has required the furnace kicking on and me bundled up in a warm robe. Today we should be back into "normal temps for this time of year" and we will await another cold front to follow once again. This has truly been a strange winter for us. More cold days and nights then I can remember in the 20 plus years I have lived in this city.

This weekend would be perfect to spend in New Orleans strolling the streets and enjoying beignets and lattes at Café Du Monde. We should take advantage of this slow time in the oil field. The husband was notified yesterday that his job should pick up soon. He has been home for the past three months enjoying the slow down that has swept the patch here. I haven't been eager to see him go back to work. He needed the break and I needed him to be around.

Yesterday we went shopping. I shopped while the husband patiently waited. I wanted to get some new rugs for the bedrooms. A pair of black flats, a pair of pumps, a pretty blouse and some new underwear was purchased and it wasn
t until the ride back home that I remembered what my initial goal was. Ah well, there is always next week.

We have been doing some organizing here. The back bedroom was beginning to look like a storage room. With house guests arriving soon, we decided to clean it up a bit. The husband connected the TV cable in there and we hooked up the huge Sony TV and placed it on a chest of drawers that was moved to that wall. This required the bed to be moved away from the window and onto the opposite wall. All the wall decorations had to be moved and rehung. The room is now ready for guests. As soon as Carrie came to spend the night and saw the room, she declared it would be her room now. The room is bigger and has more free floor space to accommodate her friends when they visit. It really doesn't matter where she chooses to sleep unless house guests are here.

I'm off to get dressed and spend some time outside. It is supposed to be warm today and for the next week. We do get a reprieve from the cold temps; though not as long as "normal for this time of year"!
I'm done here.