the sink project

Well its been quite a week. My vision has really decreased, I can still see all the cars around me, the signs are getting to be a problem, and this next week will be the last week I have to drive myself. After this week, Ken will be here for 3 weeks.

I may go and have a cheapo pair of glasses made, just for the driving. They advise you not to get your eyes checked until 8 weeks after you finish, but this is just so you do not spend unnecessarily on glasses you will not need. I figure if I can maintain my independence, it will be worth the cost, and a friend told me that they are pretty cheap at this one chain. (not walmart)

My symptoms all came back this week and I had to take pain meds during the night and the antinausea meds, but am better today.

I met with the doctor yesterday. They are there every day, but thus far I have only seen them in passing and they occasionally wave at me in the chamber. One of the doctors was leaning on the chamber trying to ask me in sign language how I was doing. I was TRYING to point to the sign on the outside of the chamber that said "do not lean on the chamber"...........

..Doctors just never follow the rules...

The reason I saw the doc yesterday is that I had asked Scott, the tech, if it was normal to have a funny feeling in my chest for the first half an hour after every treatment. To doctor explained that there are certain changes in the lungs that occur with the hyperbaric treatments. I have read into this and my simplification would be that the lungs have some microscopic inflammation from the high levels of oxygen and this clears after treatments. Studies done on the pulmonary function tests of those treated with hyperbaric treatments showed a decrease in their FEV1 (which is the volume of air you can breath out forcefully in one second) which is progressive as your treatments to on. The studies went on to show that this is all reversible after the treatments ended, approx 8 weeks after (according to the studies)

So what this means to me is that perhaps being just a little more short of breath when I am running is to be expected, and will get better afterwards.

Anyways while I was seeing the doc, I asked him about what to expect at this stage as far as my radiation enteritis, since many of my symptoms seem to have come back last weekend and for the first few days of this week. He said with the radiation changes they did not really look for improvements until the end of the first month (20 treatments)

Well I am at 19 and actually doing pretty well today. So perhaps I was just expecting too much too soon.

I also asked him about the occasional reference I see questioning whether HBOT can stimulate cancers to grow. He said that this gets brought up every year at the HBOT conferences and thus far there has been no study that had proven that.

So onwards and upwards.....

This has been a colder week in Eugene, and though I have over 400 plants growing in my greenhouse, we have turned our energies inwards, and indoors for this week.

We purchased a little cabinet at pier one imports, replaced the top of it with hardybacker and then tiled it, replaced the sink and faucet and finally applied the tiles to the backsplash.

Well actually Ken has done pretty much all of this, I am just the one who dreams it all up.

If you look off above the shower in the background you can see my handywork.

I decided yesterday that the top row of tiles in the shower did NOT MATCH my colour scheme for the sink. I guess I had expected that perhaps the tiles would just come off sort of like the white icing comes off gingerbread houses. ,........ NOT!!!

Whilst tearing them out yesterday I was wondering why it reminded of the many times we have torn apart walls in our renos....... the reason being I WAS tearing out the wall, WHOOPS>>>

Ken rushed out to get a better tool before I completely destroyed the walls in the bathroom, I feverishly worked at it to show Ken I could get it done before he got back with his TOOL.

Well I got it half done and the job was easier with "the tool", why DOES he always have to be right ???

Anyways with our extensive experience with home renovations, we are more than able to fix a few little holes in the walls.

So when Ken goes back to Bandon on Monday I will complete the tile work in the shower, I was feeling so left out with the sink project.

THAT IS unless the weather gets better and I turn my attention outside again. :)

Oh and guess what OTHER good news happened this week, I have been chosen to perform at FOlk life a festival in Seattle at the end of MAY.

I have to also chose a Dolly Parton song to perform on a second stage....hmmmmmm

bye for now

luv

Janet

jankenb @gmail.com