Bad Storms Yesterday

(The above pic is outside my front door. I took this pic.)

There were varying degrees of intensity depending on where you were but I heard about tornadoes touching down in various places. I haven't heard of any significant damage. I heard about quarter sized hail.

The local fire department then posted these pics these to their facebook page. It was a little ways outside of town!

Weakened Immune System Post Lymphoma?

I read something recently that said that you can experience a weakened immune system after lymphoma. I read that you need your flu and pneumonia shots and to be more careful about getting sick, etc. I have of course paid attention to this, but have experienced no trouble at all. I am not sure that I will. According to all my blood tests at my oncology office my blood is normal. My doc even went so far to say is that you wouldn't even be able to tell I ever had cancer in my blood work. That's always something good to hear! So I guess not everyone deals with that. I haven't had it too bad this winter but everyone has a sore throat right now. Even I have been fighgting a soore throat. It seems better this morning. I think strep throat, pink eye and some rather nasty stomach bug is making it's rounds in Illinois. So....consider yourself warned!! lol

Plans to Travel....North Carolina

My family and I plan to make a trip to North Carolina sometime soon. We are hoping to travel there in January. It's for a special occasion. I had some family move there in 2007. My mother and father in law to be exact. They felt incredibly bad that their move came at the precise time I was diagnosed but luckily by the time they actually left town the chemo had begun helping. I was breathing a bit better so they reluctantly continued with the move. I miss them dearly. I have never been to North Carolina so I am pretty excited. I am wondering what things there are to do and from what I hear there are some nice mountain views.

I am a born and raised Illinois gal. Yes. I said gal. Still I love the flat, wide open spaces. It's fall so the corn is coming down fast. You can see for miles and miles. The leaves are not only changing color but now barely clinging to the trees. It's been warm. Yesterday I saw it was 76 degrees. I am wearing a tank top....in Illinois....in November. Wow.




I hope to turn this trip into a real vacation. I am excited about visiting family but really I haven't taken a real vacation in a long time. Honestly who has the money these days? There are so many other things that we need to do with our money but this is a good excuse to take a trip. I love the ocean but have seen it only twice. I can still see it clearly in my mind and I know without a doubt I'll see it again some day.

Before I got sick I was terrified of flying in any way. Now, I am still nervous about it. I won't lie. But I'd do it. I still have never been on an airplane but I had to be on Life Flight two times. The first I was pretty out of it. I was on a magnesium drip to stop some preterm contractions brought on by my chemo treatments. The contractions were mild but continuous and the hospital I was at was not prepared to deliver a 30 week baby if necessary. I didn't really experience that flight too much. The second time was when my water broke at 36 weeks. I was still a tiny bit early and with my high risk situation I wanted to be at the best hospital so again I was Life Flighted to a better hospital for the situation. This time I was wide awake and alert. I was terrified I'd go into hard labor on a helicopter but I didn't. It was cold so I was bundled pretty tight on the gurney. They positioned me so I could see out the window. The sun was just coming up. It was such a symbol. Here I am going to go have my baby and the sun is just peaking over the horizon. Illinois looks like a patchwork quilt from the sky. Maybe everywhere does, but this is my only experience seeing it from a bird's eye view. It was gorgeous and I loved the whole trip. I wasn't scared. I hope to do a lot of traveling now. There is so much I no longer take for granted.