************Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!************  Woohoo!!  I wished for it and here it is.  Weird, huh?  I wished for some of my delicious soup and-wallah!!-it appeared!  I wished for snow, and what do ya know?–here it is!  I was reading an article in “Good Housekeeping” last night about affirmations, and how they can get you what you want.  I think tonight I’ll think over and over: “I will win lots of money, I will win lots of money”, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow!!  While I’m at it, I might as well add, “My chubby cheeks will deflate” and “I’ll find a wonderful job when it’s time”, and “I’ll meet a hot, dog-loving, hiking, snow-loving, funny guy”…do you think that’s too much to ask in one night?  I mean, I’ve got a good track record now with the soup and the snow…I figure I might as well take these wishes as far as I can!!!!

Regarding the title of this blog, I am still of the firm belief that removing a bandaid hurts exponentially more than having a bone marrow aspirate or biopsy.  Why am I thinking this now, you wonder.  Well, because I no longer have my Hickman catheter, so when they check my blood, they have to stick me with a needle each time.  Needle, nooooo problem.  Bandaid post needle prick, I have issues with it.  Or actually, bandaid any tme (following the bone marrow or a cut or whatever it may be), big problems.  Anyhoo, so they stuck me last week and yesterday to check all my blood levels.  I waited until I was in the shower to remove it, letting the water run over it to help remove the stickiness.  Then I started my yoga breathing to help myself deal with the shock of ripping it off my skin (no I’m not kidding about all this!!  I seriously do it!!!).  Then I try to take it off.  The first step in peeling it off is often the most painful, and I can’t help but yell “Ow!!!” and maybe a few expletives.  I tell myself: “You can do bone marrows, skin biopsies, spinal taps..anything without feeling much pain…you can handle a bandaid, you wuss!”  Nonetheless, I close my eyes as I try to peel off the rest.  Is it best to just rip it off all at once so you have redness and radiating pain for only thirty seconds or so?  Or is it better to go slow, and prolong the pain, but perhaps reduce the amount of it?  I don’t know.  Either way, I’m always proud of myself once it’s off.  Does anyone have the same trouble with bandaids (and the medical tape too–just as bad!)?

Remember when I wrote about the show I was watching the other night…”Say Yes to the Dress”?  It was pretty good!  I admit it made me teary a couple times because they were trying to give deserving women their dream wedding dress, and each couple had a difficult story.  The one that got to me the most was the couple who were both in the army, and they had to deploy to Iraq right after the wedding…very touching.  After that show, I COMPLETELY changed gears and tuned into “Extreme Marksmen” on the History channel.  It was fascinating, following army snipers as well as Old West Shooting Exhibitions.  It was truly amazing, but I was cracking up thinking of the contrast between my tv choices..choosing the supergirly dress show, and moving from that to a show about gun-wielding experts.  I certainly didn’t think I’d find myself searching for a link to share with you guys from http://gunsandammomag.com/!  I’ve only used a gun twice before, and I loved it (don’t worry…no one got harmed in the process.  In fact, I was pretty OK at it…just ask Ronnie)!  By the way, I never did find the link I wanted for you guys.  I wanted to share with you one of the shots that Bill Oglesby pulled off, but I couldn’t find it.

Another wonderful show I saw this weekend (yah, so maybe I did sit on the couch a lot….got a problem with that?!) was “Iditarod, the Toughest Race on Earth”.  Remember when I told you way back when that Jackie, my nurse in Seattle, volunteered at it last year, the year the Discovery Channel was there to film the race? It was an amazing film with beautiful shots of Alaska and what the mushers and dogs go through along the 1,112 mile trail…yup, 1,112 miles!!!  I highly recommend that you watch these DVD’s.  Whether you’re a dog lover or not, the story of each of the mushers and the dogs, and the spectacular shots of Alaska will captivate you.  Jackie, I can’t wait to go up there and volunteer!!!  What an experience!!  The Iditarod 2009 will start March 7th.  Check out the race’s website:  http://www.iditarod.com.  Who wants to go to Alaska with me in a couple years?

Let’s see…what else is going on.  I went to see a bone marrow transplant nurse practitioner yesterday (at my practice), and my white count has gone down a little bit.  Platelets and red blood cell count are about the same.  My magnesium count is actually good so all those pills are making a difference!  She wasn’t too worried about the decrease in white count, thinking that they just fluctuate sometimes.  I see the doctor (the head of the bone marrow transplant program here) on Friday, so we’ll see what my counts are then and how he feels about everything.

When I found out they were lower, I reminded myself that I need to start doing my visualizations again.  I think now I’ll visualize little circle guys (like the cute ones on the M&M commercial, without the big M on the front):  yellow for platelets, white for white cells and red for red cells.  There is something they call “graft versus leukemia effect” where the new cells go after any old leukemic cells trying to spread around my body (hopefully I don’t have any!!!).  So I’ve decided to picture the little circle guys as an army against any bad stuff…infection, leukemia, bacteria, etc….I’ll try to picture them all as expert marksmen just like the people in the show I watched the other night.  Some will carry the sniper rifles to pick ‘em off from a distance, and others will use the pistol and other guns Bill Oglesby used to show off his crazy skill.  :)  I will also visualize myself feeling normal, looking normal and going out on the town…looking forward to that!

Better start with those affirmations, huh?  Now that I know I have this crazy power to make things happen (e.g. the soup and the snow), I will start working on my other wishes!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day playing in the snow (if you had snow)!!!  Enjoy the photos below of our jaunt in the snow this afternoon.  Jameson and Guinness are exhausted!

Take care.

Love,

Julie