Surgery

Hey there! Heading out of town to Lehigh Valley tomorrow, for surgery on Tuesday morning. My surgery was moved up a week..... i explained in my last post that i was going March 2. I'm anxious to have the ports out, my stomach looks "alien" with all kinds of bumps, now if only i could get rid of the "road map" of scars, that would be SO cool. Also hoping to be able to go back to a normal diet, so we'll see if my genius of a doctor will be able to fix my small intestines at this point in time.
I'm tenatively scheduled for Tues. 6am arrival, and we'll stay in a hotel tomorrow night, since we are expecting snow and ice.
Well, that's all. I'm only expected to be there for the day and hopefully will get back up on my feet soon. Thanks for checking in :D laura xxoo

middle of it!

I'm in the middle of my last big round of chemo! Bartt and i went away Sunday and came back today - it was nice to not have to get up so early and travel back and forth. We found an inexpensive hotel that was nice and had breakfast included - right down the road. I'm home now and traveling down for day 3 with Mary Ann - an aerobic's class friend tomorrow. At the moment i'm scheduled for surgery on March 2 to take out my ports in my abdomen and hopefully fix the scar tissue that sits on my small intestine, so i can back to a normal diet. That will be nice! That's all for now. take care everybody and thanks ALWAYS for checking in :D
laura xxoo

our cute little visitor!

Drew brought his girlfriend, Kelsey, home from college to meet us this weekend. Well, she's just so adorable and nice..... and just look at her, ....we didn't raise any dummy! :D

We had a fun weekend and i miss them already. Her birthday is this coming weekend, she'll be 19! Happy Birthday Kelsey. laura XXOO

chemo drivers and visitors!

Hi, new pics. Last week I had Drew and his friend Lauren drive me Monday, then my sister-in-law, Susan, and Aunt Bev on Tuesday and Alex on Wed. We took pics on Monday, when my friend from college came to visit me! Paige was my freshman roommate and she traveled about an hour to come sit with me for awhile. The funny thing is, that when Alex came home from college after finals, I mentioned Paige and her husband, Kevin - also from college (i fixed them up!) when bringing in the mail. Alex says to me ...."Now, how do we know them..... from hockey?" So i explained that i knew them from college and that we stayed with them when their son Scott played ice hockey against Alex when they were probably in 4th or 5th grade. So, that's probably the last time we saw them, with the exception of Christmas card pictures. ....plus, i hadn't talked to Paige in about 2 years. So, Alex then says "Well, I've been looking at this kid at college..... and i think it is Scott". Sure enough, it is! Alex and Scott also go to the same college - what a small world!!!!!! That would've been real funny if they were set up as roommates!! Well, we all had a wonderful visit and Paige still looks like she did when she was in college! She is a warm, friendly, and funny person - always ready for a laugh. I wished she lived closer......... :D

Thanks for checking in, everybody. I love that you actually stop by to read my "stuff"!

laura XXOO

The Traveling Necklace for a great cause!

Check this out when you have a minute .... and you can still participate, this necklace is traveling the world! Warm Hearts Around the World Contest by Ngan from Enve Designs. She is raising money for St. Judes Hospital for children's charities and donating money for every stop the necklace makes - you can read up on her blog. The necklace just made a stop here in Dallas PA, before it heads on to Bethlehem, on to Lynn from Unaodd Here's our picture wearing the necklace. This is me, Kelly (my neice) from Sweetnessjewelry and my youngest sister Jenn, from JennReese7. You can read about us on Ngan's blog.... and ALSO on Lillyella's blog on new years resolutions - which Ngan was a guest writer for. Very cute article! Thanks Ngan, you're a wonderful person!!!

Also, check out teamepe (etsyprojectembrace) and the money they've donated to the American Cancer Society... almost $6,000 - WOW! What a great group of people i never actually met!!!! (Well, i met 2 of the team members, but the whole bunch of others I know only from the computer!!) I wish i could meet them all some day!!!!!

A HEALTHY New Year to all my friends, new and old... and my family, too! laura XXXOOO

Christmas card picture..... just a few days late!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I'm thinking of being a little different and sending a New Years card - since i was a little late for Christmas! We had a great Christmas here at the Slocum house and Christmas cookies seem to be allowed on my new diet.............who knew??!! LOL
Oh... my beautiful and festive hat was made by Kristen from loveartworks.etsy.com! It was fabulous and comfortable...and very holiday, too! Thanks a whole bunch, Kristen!

What's going on?

Hi everybody! Thanks for all your well wishes, comments and prayers. So. I thought I'd give you an update. I'll try not to be boring....



1. Surgery ? No. The dr. wants to hold off till Feb. or March.

2. How did I manage not to have surgery? 10 days of ice chips at 2 different hospitals, (with an ambulance transport ride - when i totally felt fine - kinda funny.)

3. Weight Loss? yeah... like 2 pounds.... that's it for 10 days of ice chips. really.

4. Chemo? round 6 started last monday. Got out of the hospital ... JUST IN TIME - yay!

5. Weight Loss? yeah, a few pounds after i actually started eating. See, ......starvation diets don't work!

6. Low Residue Diet? That's the diet i'm now on til surgery - very low fiber - (totally how i DON'T eat. ) What happens is that i have scar tissue on my small intestines. A high fiber diet makes it kink and then nothing goes thru. You feel like you are dying. .....until you get to the hospital for pain medicine.

7. New favorite pain medicine: Delotid - more powerful than morphine! works wonders.

8. New favorite food: cheetos. most of the "good for you foods" will send me for trip 3 to the hospital.

9. information? just trying to get the word out. If anybody ever has questions- you can reach me thru my store. I'd be happy to help and answer any questions. I hope to help people get to their Dr. as soon as they possibly can if they suspect any problems.

10. Merry Christmas XXOO laura