autumnmsblog

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Music Therapy

I am so excited to say that after a year and a half of waiting Avery had her first music therapy session last week!! It was better than I could have ever imagined. Avery absolutely loved every minute of her session. The first session was just seeing what instruments Avery is interested in. Well, that turned out to be every single one. Avery played with the guitar, piano, drums, xylophone,…

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Meet Amber!

Something funny happened at the mall the other day. I filled the cat sized hole in my heart! We have been looking for a while but hadn’t really found “the one.” To be honest Amber has some pretty big shoes to fill. We will always miss our Percy bear but it is time to have some new paw prints in the house 🙂 Funny story about our new friend Amber. I had went to the humane society a little over a…

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CTCA and a trip to Chicago!

Last week we made the trip down to cancer treatment center for my 6 month scans. I am so happy to report that my scans were clear and my lab work was good. I was a little hesitant to write this post quite yet because there is a little confusion on how many follow-up appointments I have left. After I get the final all clear from my Oncologist my mind is celebrating and I space out a little. So,…

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Equine Therapy Time!

First Equine Therapy Session

Avery had her first equine therapy session last week. We had been waiting on this wild Wisconsin weather and we finally got the warm stretch we were hoping for. By wild I mean going from temperatures cold enough to have freeze watches and warnings to now being humid with a tornado watch. Anyway, we were lucky enough to have a sunny and 70 degree day for our first session. I was really not sure…

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You just have to finish

Today was a rough day at the gym. I haven’t really ran for about four months. I thought the time off would help the arthritis in my hip and the swelling in my right leg.  Even though I cut out running I didn’t stop exercising completely. Over the winter I got a lot of snowshoeing in, started yoga and started strengthening exercises for my hip. The yoga is going really well and I can do it right…

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The Play Day

Yesterday, Avery and I had an unplanned and unplugged play day. We started things off with a trip to her favorite play place and then home for lunch, a walk and some sidewalk chalk fun. It was definitely something we both needed. Things have been rough lately for both of us. Avery has been having a rough time at school and at home. She hasn’t been sleeping well and her anxiety is high. If she…

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The Rejection

For the most part I have been pretty lucky when submitting pieces for publication. Out of all of the pieces I have submitted to various outlets I have gotten the rejection twice. The first one really bothered me. I let it affect the way I wrote and it really made me question submitting anything ever again. Looking back, it really was not a huge deal at all and I should have moved on way more…

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That Old Scan Feeling

I sit at my computer watching the cursor flash at me. I don’t want to write this post but my fingers keep moving. I hate that I am scared. I hate that every six months cancer is on my mind 22 hours a day. I feel like I should not be complaining because there are so many people fighting right now. And me? I am lucky enough to be in remission. I have 18 more months of this left. Only three scans…

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The Swelling: Part Deux

I had written about my swollen leg a while back. If you didn’t catch that post you can read about it here. Things have actually improved a little. Instead of treating my leg for a couple of days and then getting frustrated. I have actually been sticking with my plan. I wear my stocking once a day during down times. Usually, during Avery’s nap or at night. The Epsom salt baths have been helping…

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We have to keep going

Yesterday, we had an eval for our daughter to start equine therapy. As excited as I am for her start I remain a little guarded. There is no guarantee that she will like it or that she will be able to continue. It went about like what I expected. We are both battling head colds and I questioned whether we should just reschedule. I wanted her to feel good and be in a good mood. But there are no…

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ISO-Lymph Nodes

If you frequent for sale sites then you know what ISO means. If not, ISO means “In Search Of” Well, I am in desperate search of lymph nodes. I wrote a while back about my swelling problem that was enhanced by a wasp sting. I have always had some swelling on my right side (mostly my ankle) since my hysterectomy but nothing like this. During my surgery I had lymph nodes removed so that is where…

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Goodbye Percy

Today was a day I have been dreading for quite some time now. Today was the day that we let our Percy go. I wish things would have been different and we could have our orange bear with us forever. But it was time. For the last week or so Percy has been crying in pain and really only wanted to be holed up in the bathroom with the radiator blowing on him. He was getting more disoriented every day…

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There are good ones too

Much of the time I feel like I focus on the hardships of finding help for Avery and/or working with the people that we do receive help from. I forget about the good ones. We have worked with and still work with some pretty amazing people. These people have touched not only Avery’s life but mine as well. They make our days so much easier and I don’t think I could ever thank them enough. It’s a…

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At Least It Wasn't The Tree

We have been quite busy around the house and not in a good way. Two things have always worried me about this house. One is the huge tree in the backyard. It needs to come down. We have had it trimmed and we were told that there are some parts of it that are dead. But then it will sprout off of the pieces that were cut so it’s confusing. Every thunder-storm, high wind, heavy snow and ice storm I…

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The Snowiest of Shoes

We are getting hit hard today with snow, rain and whatever else mother nature wants to throw at us. Luckily, we have gotten mostly snow. I can deal with snow way better than ice. Instead of hunkering down with my DVR I thought it would be a great idea to go snowshoeing in the arboretum. I am so glad I did. It was absolutely beautiful!! We got two different types of precipitation while we were…

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The little 5ker that could

I cannot believe that it’s 2017!! I am pretty much on the same page as everyone else that 2016 was the worst. But there were some bright spots for me in 2016 and a lot of them included the 5k’s I participated in. My goal was to do one 5k a month this summer. I ended up doing seven 5k’s the summer! The only month I skipped was June. Some were easier than others but I pulled through and was able to…

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A girl and her diabetic cat

It has definitely been an interesting past couple of months for Percy. The insulin train was rolling on without a hitch for Percy until one day back in October. I had never given Percy his shot and ran but that day I had to go and get fabric for Avery’s Halloween costume. So, I shot him up and took off to grab my fabric while Avery was at school. I came home with lots of red felt for my first…