Sun, 11 Dec 2005
My Dear Friends,
It has been a busy weekend and I still have not started Christmas shopping.
On Friday, I went to Beaumont for my radiation simulation. That's the setup appointment when you lie on a hard, narrow wooden table for 45 minutes and can't move no matter what. They put a big rubberband over your shoes to hold your feet still. The technicians take digital pictures and x-rays. They draw on you and in the end, give you a few tattoos. No roses or skulls, just dots to help line up the machine for the real radiation. They gave me three. The one on the left hip was no big deal, but that darned thigh muscle seized up for the two on the right. I kinda knew that would happen.
My dad had taken me to the appointment with the kids in tow because they had a snow day. It was really hard to get into and out of his truck. We'd had six inches of snow on Thursday night. Too dangerous for the school buses, I suppose. When I was little, it had to snow like 18 inches before they considered giving us a snow day! Back then, a blizzard was two feet of snow. We would've stayed home all winter if they gave us a snow day for every six inch snowfall! These kids today have it so easy...
Mark, Jesse and I went to the Palace on Friday night to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Mikey went to Aunty Lindsay's as planned (and had a great time!). When we arrived at the Palace, we paid the exorbitant $15 parking fee ($15 car, I think $30 limo and $60 if you drove a bus). We parked in handicapped and went in. I waited at the info desk and asked them to order a wheelchair for me while Mark went to the "WILL CALL" counter to pick up the tickets he'd ordered.
Mark was taking a long time, so I hobbled over to see what happened. Mark said they had no record of our order! Eventually, they traced his credit card and found the phone representative had ordered three tickets to last week's Manheim Steamroller concert in error! The ticket clerks were very apologetic and refunded our parking fee.
I joked that we had come in a bus ($60) but they didn't buy it. Then they searched the system for available seats. The seats Mark had ordered were in the lower bowl but way in the back. This time, the system spit out three tickets in the sixth row, side stage! We had to walk a short distance to the "disabled access" where the wheelchair was waiting. Some woman almost knocked me over, tripping over my crutches and then her kid did the same thing! She yelled at her kid for being clumsy.
The wheelchair ride included a jaunt around the back of the stage, past the dressing rooms and all the black trunks for the band equipment. Didn't meet any band members. Would not have known them if they walked by, as I have never seen pictures.
I had to go up only about eight stairs to get to our seat. I was the fourth seat from the far end of the aisle so we did have to climb over a bunch of people. The seats were great! We were sitting behind the keyboard player which I hoped Jesse would find inspirational as he is studying piano.
When I looked to my right across the aisle, I noticed that the first section of sidestage seats by the wall was blocked off. A tarp was covering the first two seats in every row, all the way up. I knew why when the pyrotechnics started going off! At times, they were so hot that I put up my coat to cover the right side of my face!
The concert was excellent. I highly recommend it. In the first half, they played their Christmas music. In the second half, they played other stuff, including The Flight of the Bumblebee! It was cool that the string section was made up of local musicians, probably from the DSO. It was very classy to see heavy metal guitarists in tuxedos with tails. For some reason, I respected them more as musicians. It must be human nature to respect well-dressed people. Usually, rock musicians wear T-shirts and torn jeans. This catered to a more refined audience. Even the audience was well-dressed, freshly showered and perfumed. No smell of stale cigarette butts in this concert!
Jess got a kick out of the laser light show. They had snow-making machines on the ceiling above the ground floor. The snow sparkled like green glitter when the lasers hit it. Very cool. Jess also liked when two of the guitarists ran toward the back of the arena and onto a small platform that rose straight up as they played.
In the middle of the concert, there was a drum solo. It was absolutely thunderous, like the grand finale of the Downtown Detroit Fireworks. When the drummer came offstage in front of us, I noticed two things. First of all, all that drumming had made his chest and arms pretty big (not my type though, never liked guys with hair longer than mine!). Secondly, I watched him remove his earplugs as he walked offstage. That was a good lesson for Jesse. Even professional musicians wear earplugs! I made Jess wear them to the concert and I wore them too. After I had seen my first concert (Prince in 1986) I had come home half-deaf. My hearing returned and most of the ringing went away but I said never again!
After the concert, Jess wanted to get an autograph. He and Mark had gone up while I waited by the seats. I marveled at the speed in which the Palace crew disassembled the ground floor seating and began to clean. When the wheelchair came, I had trouble getting down the stairs. Between the radiation simulation and sitting for three hours straight at the concert, my hip was not happy. I massaged the muscle after every step and made it down. I was the last audience member out of the arena but luckily the person pushing me was able to find Jess and Mark. The cell phones helped. It turned out the line for autographs was a mile long so we decided to skip it. We had a fun time and Jess is looking forward to going again next year.
It's getting late, almost 11pm. Chemo starts tomorrow. I am bummed and nervous. Not sure how I will react to the new chemicals. The infusions should take close to four hours, starting at 9 am. The nurses said I'll feel pretty good tomorrow. We shall see about Tuesday and Wednesday.
I start radiation on Wednesday. I will have to change my standing radiation time (early afternoon) on Thursday because I am supposed to read to Mikey's class at 2pm. Wouldn't miss that for anything!
I will try to write about how I reacted to the chemo by Wednesday. Please continue to pray for me.
Love,
Jeanette
It has been a busy weekend and I still have not started Christmas shopping.
On Friday, I went to Beaumont for my radiation simulation. That's the setup appointment when you lie on a hard, narrow wooden table for 45 minutes and can't move no matter what. They put a big rubberband over your shoes to hold your feet still. The technicians take digital pictures and x-rays. They draw on you and in the end, give you a few tattoos. No roses or skulls, just dots to help line up the machine for the real radiation. They gave me three. The one on the left hip was no big deal, but that darned thigh muscle seized up for the two on the right. I kinda knew that would happen.
My dad had taken me to the appointment with the kids in tow because they had a snow day. It was really hard to get into and out of his truck. We'd had six inches of snow on Thursday night. Too dangerous for the school buses, I suppose. When I was little, it had to snow like 18 inches before they considered giving us a snow day! Back then, a blizzard was two feet of snow. We would've stayed home all winter if they gave us a snow day for every six inch snowfall! These kids today have it so easy...
Mark, Jesse and I went to the Palace on Friday night to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Mikey went to Aunty Lindsay's as planned (and had a great time!). When we arrived at the Palace, we paid the exorbitant $15 parking fee ($15 car, I think $30 limo and $60 if you drove a bus). We parked in handicapped and went in. I waited at the info desk and asked them to order a wheelchair for me while Mark went to the "WILL CALL" counter to pick up the tickets he'd ordered.
Mark was taking a long time, so I hobbled over to see what happened. Mark said they had no record of our order! Eventually, they traced his credit card and found the phone representative had ordered three tickets to last week's Manheim Steamroller concert in error! The ticket clerks were very apologetic and refunded our parking fee.
I joked that we had come in a bus ($60) but they didn't buy it. Then they searched the system for available seats. The seats Mark had ordered were in the lower bowl but way in the back. This time, the system spit out three tickets in the sixth row, side stage! We had to walk a short distance to the "disabled access" where the wheelchair was waiting. Some woman almost knocked me over, tripping over my crutches and then her kid did the same thing! She yelled at her kid for being clumsy.
The wheelchair ride included a jaunt around the back of the stage, past the dressing rooms and all the black trunks for the band equipment. Didn't meet any band members. Would not have known them if they walked by, as I have never seen pictures.
I had to go up only about eight stairs to get to our seat. I was the fourth seat from the far end of the aisle so we did have to climb over a bunch of people. The seats were great! We were sitting behind the keyboard player which I hoped Jesse would find inspirational as he is studying piano.
When I looked to my right across the aisle, I noticed that the first section of sidestage seats by the wall was blocked off. A tarp was covering the first two seats in every row, all the way up. I knew why when the pyrotechnics started going off! At times, they were so hot that I put up my coat to cover the right side of my face!
The concert was excellent. I highly recommend it. In the first half, they played their Christmas music. In the second half, they played other stuff, including The Flight of the Bumblebee! It was cool that the string section was made up of local musicians, probably from the DSO. It was very classy to see heavy metal guitarists in tuxedos with tails. For some reason, I respected them more as musicians. It must be human nature to respect well-dressed people. Usually, rock musicians wear T-shirts and torn jeans. This catered to a more refined audience. Even the audience was well-dressed, freshly showered and perfumed. No smell of stale cigarette butts in this concert!
Jess got a kick out of the laser light show. They had snow-making machines on the ceiling above the ground floor. The snow sparkled like green glitter when the lasers hit it. Very cool. Jess also liked when two of the guitarists ran toward the back of the arena and onto a small platform that rose straight up as they played.
In the middle of the concert, there was a drum solo. It was absolutely thunderous, like the grand finale of the Downtown Detroit Fireworks. When the drummer came offstage in front of us, I noticed two things. First of all, all that drumming had made his chest and arms pretty big (not my type though, never liked guys with hair longer than mine!). Secondly, I watched him remove his earplugs as he walked offstage. That was a good lesson for Jesse. Even professional musicians wear earplugs! I made Jess wear them to the concert and I wore them too. After I had seen my first concert (Prince in 1986) I had come home half-deaf. My hearing returned and most of the ringing went away but I said never again!
After the concert, Jess wanted to get an autograph. He and Mark had gone up while I waited by the seats. I marveled at the speed in which the Palace crew disassembled the ground floor seating and began to clean. When the wheelchair came, I had trouble getting down the stairs. Between the radiation simulation and sitting for three hours straight at the concert, my hip was not happy. I massaged the muscle after every step and made it down. I was the last audience member out of the arena but luckily the person pushing me was able to find Jess and Mark. The cell phones helped. It turned out the line for autographs was a mile long so we decided to skip it. We had a fun time and Jess is looking forward to going again next year.
It's getting late, almost 11pm. Chemo starts tomorrow. I am bummed and nervous. Not sure how I will react to the new chemicals. The infusions should take close to four hours, starting at 9 am. The nurses said I'll feel pretty good tomorrow. We shall see about Tuesday and Wednesday.
I start radiation on Wednesday. I will have to change my standing radiation time (early afternoon) on Thursday because I am supposed to read to Mikey's class at 2pm. Wouldn't miss that for anything!
I will try to write about how I reacted to the chemo by Wednesday. Please continue to pray for me.
Love,
Jeanette
posted by Mark Kappe @ 6:59 PM
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