A Few Of My Favorite New Pieces

6 1/4"-6 1/2" Chunky green apple bracelet $10.00

7 3/4" MG Awareness Bracelet with Czech crystals, hope ribbon charm, snowflake charm and magnet closure $15.00

Made from all Swarovski crystals and Czech Preciosa, this 7 1/2- 7 3/4" bracelet is sparkly and gorgeous! $25.00

Multi-media purple and green bracelet featuring malachite 71/2-7 3/4" $15.00

Three large apricot mother of pearl stones highlighted with other natural gemstones. 7 1/4" $12.00

Blue glass beaded bracelet featuring chalk turquoise and Czech Preciosa crystals. 7 1/4" $10.00

I'm still plugging away at making jewelry in between medical appointments!  Geez.  Busy.  But it mellows me out, believe it or not.  As always, ten percent of everything I sell goes to the Great Lakes Chapter of the MGFA.

Tomorrow I have my last (hopefully) plasmapheresis with needles.  Getting a port, hoping that will make things easier all the way around. 

So what did you do this weekend?

Updates and Prayers

IMPORTANT....PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ABOUT MY DAD ON FACEBOOK...COMMENT ON HERE IF YOU WISH.
THANKS. 

Okay.  First of all, I don't know if I'm gonna get in trouble for sharing this or not.  Technically, I'm not sharing on facebook, so...anyway.  My dad is a VERY private person.  He is 72, and in that generation, you keep your problems to yourself, it's nobody's business, we don't talk about things like this, blah, blah, blah.  Well tough.

My dad is also a Christian.  They have told their closest friends...I have asked a few people to pray via e-mail and such, but I want as many people praying for my Daddy as possible, so I'm making it known.  My dad was just diagnosed with cancer.  Adenocarcinoma to be exact.  Right now all we know is that he has one "small" tumor in his right lung.  He had a PET scan last Saturday, and an MRI on Monday which will determine if the cancer is anywhere else, and what stage he is.  So I am asking you to please pray that this cancer is only in the one spot, and that it can be treated and cured without surgery.  My dad is not in the best of health anyway.  Ironically, he quit smoking about 3 months ago after 60+ years.

Also, if you know my parents, please do not say anything to them at this time.  His name is Harold.

Obviously this is horrible news, and it's stressing me out.  I'm not ready to lose my dad.  I know no one ever is, but Jacob is only 5 and he needs his Papa.

Stress is not good for my MG.  Nor is this wicked cold that will not leave me alone.  So that's my second request, that you please pray for me to get rid of this blasted thing.  It's really starting to take its toll.

Jacob is mostly better...still coughing a bit and runny nose on and off.  Doug hasn't gotten the head cold, but he has been achy and just generally feeling kind of under the weather for the last week or so as well.

Finally, I am scheduled to have a port put in Wednesday the 28th.  I MUST be over this cold, and I want everything to go well.  I have toughed out a lot of bad treatments with the plasmapheresis, but this last one was just too much.  I have never wanted a port.  The risk of infection, of it clotting, not working, having to be replaced too soon, etc.  But my veins are revolting, so after 11 years, I think it's time. I would very much appreciate your prayers for that as well.

So thanks everyone....as you can tell I kind of have a lot on my plate right now, and knowing you all are praying helps me SO much.
Thanks.

MG and Me

Whoever tells you this disease isn't progressive is full of it. Whoever tells you that there's no pain involved is full of it. I've been taking a medication called CellCept for 8 years now, and it's worked really well. I don't know if my body got acclimated to it or what. Although I WAS off it for 16 months with getting and being pregnant with Jacob. I think maybe that's part of it. Your body changes SO much when you're pregnant. Maybe what worked before won't work again. I don't think I'll ever get to the level of strength I had before having Jacob. I wouldn't change anything, because I can't IMAGINE my life without that child, but it was a huge physical sacrifice from which complete recovery is unlikely.

Plasmapheresis works well, but ideally I should probably have it once a week. Well, that's not practical when you have to drive 280 miles round trip, find someone to watch Jacob, etc. No hospital closer does in it my arm veins (peripherally), so I woud have to get a fistula, port, or quinton cath. to get it anywhere around here. I've had the quinton cath, and it's HORRIBLE. Ports and fistulas can easily get blocked or infected.

An easy solution is to go back up on the prednisone, and have my weight go up even more, have my bones thin even more, and give me more arthritis. But the MG might get better. There's a medication they just started using for MG called Rituxan. It's actually a chemo drug (you don't lose your hair) that they use for luekemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis. There are some crazy side effects though....like if you've ever been exposed to something horrendous (like TB, which I have been, shingles, etc.) it could come back en force. Or you could get some lovely new virus that your body is unable to fight off.

Don't you love my choices? I know, you really wish you could be me! One other option is to stop the CellCept and try Imuran. Been around forever. Kind of the Prozac of autoimmune drugs.

SO anywho. If you are a praying person, please keep me and this situation in your prayers, as well as my family. It's very difficult for Doug to be a full time boss, as well as a caregiver to me and parent to Jacob. Oh, and he's a husband. I completely get when he gets frustrated...I just don't think he gets my end of it sometimes. Like I told him the other day...it's not a lot of fun being me.