A Season of Change

These last few weeks have been filled with outdoor walks, beautiful fall mornings sipping coffee and our first fall fire outside on the deck.

Oh!! And the beginnings of a first floor makeover! It’s a season of change here and I’m embracing it.

It’s rainy on this chilly fall Friday and I’m out the door soon to visit Effie. Yesterday was rainy and chilly as well and it seemed like a good morning for coffee and writing in Effie. I decided to give Yoga a try in my tiny little space. Coziest Yoga space ever.

Change in Our Living Room!

We’ve talked about removing our living room carpet and putting in hardwood floors for a really really long time, and that day has come. Our worn leather couch had developed holes in two of the three cushions during 2020, and with no guest in the house, it was easy to ignore the growing holes. I put a cozy blanket over said holes and we put “new couch” on the back burner. At the beginning of the summer we finally ordered a sectional and it has recently arrived! My brain has been thinking of ideas for the living room for the last few months and now it’s GO time!

So…..I got busy removing things from the living room so I could do my best to work with a blank canvas, then tried to decide on Agreeable Gray or Wordly Gray for the walls.

Mike didn’t agree with Agreeable, so we went Wordly.

The living room and the dining area are the only rooms in our house that we haven’t re-painted since building our house over 22 years ago. It’s time. I’ll likely take the same color into the dining area and now I’m pondering what to do with the kitchen since all three rooms flow together with our floor plan. Basically one big rectangle divided into three sections. The first floor could really use a full update, but counter tops and cabinets and light fixtures sounds overwhelming to me. I painted the kitchen walls white a while back because I was tired of the red walls, and for now, it’ll do. The floors, a sectional and paint feels like a lot right now.

As I type this the new floors are getting their final coat and we should be able to walk on them Saturday then slowly work in furniture next week. I’m super excited about painting the fireplace and book cases, picking out an area rug, maybe something new to hang on the walls, new lamps, and a few new accessories for the bookcase shelves. Maybe an accent chair. Maybe two! All the fun stuff. Hoping to have the living room and dining room 100% complete for Thanksgiving. Goals.

I painted Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday Mike ripped up the carpet and padding. After watching that Chiefs game on Sunday, ripping up carpet was a great stress reliever!!

I love this color!!

This is overwhelming to my eyes! New flooring, whether carpet or wood floors, feels kinda like moving. Kinda.

Tuesday.

Wednesday night before going to bed. We think we are painting the fireplace the trim color. Ironically, the color it was before it became what it is.

Effie – No Change. She’s perfect just the way she is.

I had two camping trips planned for the end of October and had to cancel both, so kind of a bummer, but maybe I’ll get in an unexpected November trip? Likely not with the house project, but it is so nice to be able to come hang out in Effie, even if not at a campsite.

Breast Cancer Awareness

While October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I do hope that you are taking time every month to do a self breast exam. This is a great month to schedule your annual mammogram if you haven’t yet done that! Be proactive in your health. Early detection of breast cancer increases survival rate by 95%. Read that last sentence again!

GO FEEL YOUR BOOBS!

I met with my breast surgeon for our regular six month check up. The plan was to meet for five years. It’s been four. She said she was comfortable releasing me if I was comfortable with it and I could not be more pleased. I will continue my monthly self breast exams and meet with the oncologist for one more year, but it felt good to close the chapter with the breast surgeon.

Now I’m all done with doctor visits and I have some answers from the rhuemotologist as to why my body feels so crappy.

In a nutshell, I have osteoarthritis in my hands, knees, hips, feet and lower back, which apparently for a 54 year old, is not all that uncommon. I had no idea. I also have bone spurs in my knee caps and hips, which explains a lot. Super fun stuff. My blood work is hinting at some sort of an autoimmune disease, but the doc says that I don’t have enough physical symptoms to diagnose any one autoimmune disease in particular. I’m learning there are a gazillion types of autoimmune diseases out there and zoning in on one and coming up with a diagnosis can be difficult until more symptoms are present. I go back in six months for labs and to see how I’m feeling physically.

My rhuemotologist says the osteoarthritis is likely being exacerbated by surgical menopause and possibly the tamoxifen therapy. In his opinion, the tenosynovitis in my hands and wrist may have been related to the aromatase inhibitor therapy and tamoxifen, both of these being estrogen blockers.

He did recommended prednisone but with all of the possible side effects of that, I’m not interested for now. We first tried meloxicam and that did not help at all. He has now prescribed an anti-inflammatory gel and I haven’t really given that enough of a chance to know if its working or not. It’s to be applied four times a day, then 10 minutes to dry before dressing. Not super convenient but I do need to give it more of a chance.

I had my last follow up with the hand surgeon and we discussed my visits with the rheumatologist. They both agree that the tendon issues in my hands could be a result of the tamoxifen. I currently have trigger finger when I wake up in the morning in four fingers, both pinkies and both ring fingers. This is how the trigger thumb started. Trigger thumb in the morning only, turned into trigger thumb throughout the day. Eventually it began sticking all the time. After a series of four cortisone shots over a two year period, I had trigger release surgery in my thumb. Six weeks later, when everything finally seemed to be healing fine, the tendon ruptured and I had surgery number two. Apparently too many cortisone shots can over time weaken the tendon. With the infection that followed and a third surgery, it is my hope we can stay on top of this.

For now, the plan is to keep an eye on the fingers and hopefully it’s just a morning thing and doesn’t progress. If it does, he suggest only one or possibly two cortisone shots, but if it continues to stick, trigger release surgery would be the next step.

So, overall I’m going to focus on staying active, working in those anti inflammatory foods on a regular basis, fill my head with positivity, get plenty of rest and move forward.

A Season of Change

I knew going into November I would have some answers and I needed a plan for myself to move forward. I needed to make a change. As my WW Workshops have diminished to only one (but a great one it is!!) and I look ahead, I need to get myself back into some sort of a routine, a schedule. 2020 threw me for a loop and I’ve been a little lost trying to find my way back. In Workshops we reflect to help determine what is working in life, what isn’t working and what has or hasn’t worked in the past. For me, blogging regularly was such a great accountability tool for so long and that behavior and habit that I had developed encouraged me to challenge myself in many different ways. I liked sharing the variety of foods I was eating and I always had fun taking pictures of my food. When I was blogging regularly I was keeping my body moving more often and challenging myself physically with walking goals or trying new classes. I’ve wanted to get back to blogging regularly, but for several reasons, haven’t made it a priority. So that’s about to change.

I’m going to blog daily for the rest of 2021 and it feels good to commit to this. I need it.

Each year I look at January as a refresh, but I’m going to jump in now so I can glide into 2022 feeling as good as I can.

Big hugs to all of my breast cancer warriors! I’m so happy you’re here. That we’re here! I so appreciate you all sharing your own journey with me through the comments or emails. You’ve given me advice, you’ve shared whats working for you. You’ve offered support. Sharing your own experience with the estrogen blocker, or menopause and adjusting to these new bodies we have certainly reminds me that I am not alone and how many wonderful people I’ve met during this chapter of life.

Thank you for your own vulnerability!

To ALL of my readers….Youre just the best and thank you for your continued support!

Here’s to a season of change!

See ya tomorrow!

“love the life you live, live the life you love”