Happy Birthday Robert

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBERT


Robert Sears Wages
October 31, 1967 ~ October 5, 1984

Forever 16 to me, but today would have been his 41st birthday.
My, I just cannot imagine him that old.

He was killed in an automobile accident on the way to a high school football game, on the way to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, October 5, 1984.

I have not written about him in my blog, but I think the time has come.

Not sure why I haven't, but it feels good to do so now.

We did not have digital cameras back then, so I do not have the amount of pictures that I have of the grandchildren I do today.

I have had lots of thoughts of him throughout the years, and maybe now is the time I will put them down.

I am headed to my MG neurologist right now, but after I get home, I will get back to this.

I love you Robert.
Momma

Special prayers for Coleman today

Coleman's counts are down, low enough to require platelets and a blood transfusion. This means a lot of sitting, and drip, drip, drip while the separate two drip into his little body, and especially for a mother who tries to keep two boys satisfied for ???? hours.

Results:
hemoglobin 7.7 and platelets back down to 26,000...he's going to need a transfusion for both. They didn't even give me the ANC yet, but I'm sure more shots too. Our local dr. wanted to call NY and Iowa City and talk to them, then he will be calling me back with what we're supposed to do. I'm praying we can get these transfusions ASAP so they can get working.

THEN after our shots, we’re hoping Coleman’s blood and platelets will FINALLY be here so we can get them going. They thought they’d arrive around noon. I sure hope so. Then it will be sit, sit, drip, drip… I’m assuming we’ll be there for a long time because just the platelets took about 5 hrs total last time, and we have another transfusion after that…which means, NO TRICK OR TREAT NIGHT FOR THE BOYS- bummer.
Have I ever mentioned that they’ve never ever been trick or treating? I know!!! Oh well, with his counts so low it’s just as well. I’ll just be glad when we get his transfusions in him. He’s looking pretty pale to me and just isn't himself- Scott mentioned it too. For now, we sit and wait. I'll update when I know more and get the chance

Why the green for Team Larson's quotes? That is their colors. That and gold.

Why the big spaces :-(

Well, you see, it was like this, I was looking around Google. Checked on the Adsense to see what it was all about and the next thing I knew it was on my blog, and I've not been able to get it off yet. But.... they have been after me to complete the verification message *they* said they were sending, and had sent to me - NOT that I ever received! I've gone to all kinds of help provided. Joined up with the forums; you think it, I've tried it.

So, for now, I apologize. I do not like it, but don't know what nor how to get rid of the spaces, nor the big blue ads. Wonder what they will put there after the election. At least I do like the VOTE ad that appears as a reminder. So, until I manage to get rid of them from the body of my blog (which I'm still in the revamp stage - told you I am sloooow. ) But, at least take off the week of the IVIG without my hotspot...... another bear's growl.

So much for now, and a little 2 year old to brighten your day. I'm ready for some new pictures from granddaughter. Use 'em once and I'm ready for a new one.

Playing dress-up

A real cutie full of curls

Happy Anniversary

48 Years

Jocelyn & Jim Perkerson

May this be the first day of many more years.
It is fun to think back over the years when we were newly weds.
Jim and Jim never learned the "twist" did they?

Love to you both,
Jim and Billie

Wrestling with widgets

I have spent waaaay too much time trying to place a widget on my blog. I always get the code and do all the rest myself, but this one does not give me that option, and is acting stubborn. Hear me growl like a bear...... grrrrr.

When you come back, if this is all that is still here, body or sidebar, then you will know it has bested me, and I don't like that! Hear me growl like a reel-ly big bear......GRRRRR!



Oh, I'm soooo sorry. I didn't know you were here.


Ahem..... Maybe I sould start again without quite so much passion.


Here, is this serious enough?
Care for a Baskins Robins anyone?
Your treat maybe? I'm broke.
Shopping for all the grandkids, you know.

Don't forget to VOTE

What can I say?

There is nothing that I can bring together with the amount of time I have time for right now. I tried and tried to stay awake earlier, but just could not wrap my thoughts around any one thing that felt right, especially with the time I needed. I finally gave in to the sleep, with the scalawags taking precedence after all. As Popeye said, or maybe still says, "I'm strong to the finish....." (is that the way it goes now?) Now that I've written to say this, I've thought aplenty, but without the time now that I need to do a good job. I'll look through and see if I have any good pictures to also share, but if not, I'll just let this go for now, and begin working on the next one of which I already have ideas. Hopefully, I'll not get caught napping again.

Here, I think I found the one I want to show. It is of me with two of my aunts at the reunion on my grandmother's side of the family. I have to get some identifications of some others before I can do a good post of the whole reunion. These two, though, I grew up with, and have sooooo many fond memories. Another one who is missing is Aunt Alice. She was not well that day, and I was so looking forward to see her, too. We had emailed and talked a bit, and my anticipation was really high.

On the left is my Aunt Carolyn, and on the right is my Aunt Margaret.
I was so glad to get to see them that day.
So there. See, I "did" have something to say today, plus
"I missed you at the reunion, Aunt Alice!"
Aunt Margaret's husband, Uncle Carroll, had a heart attack last week,
and is in the hospital right now.
I've not been able to check on him the last couple of days.

---

QUOTE by AJ's Dad: "Isn't it a shame that the richest nation, with the highest standard of living, the greatest world power, the country that went to the moon, has to rely on kids selling lemonade while their parents get their heads shaved bald to try to stop the #1 killer of our children? While it sounds like a bad comedy, I put forth that it is a tragedy."

Home with new antibodies and scalawags

The scalawags were slow in coming aboard and joining the show this week, but when they did, they came in full force! The last day in the hospital, they were showing up, but not too very bad, and old ole optimistic me brushed reality over into the corner, thinking believing this was going to be the time I'd been looking for when they were subsiding, and not being such rascals they are known for being.

Due to their intensity, and consequently the treatment for them making me so sleepy - plus sleeping is the only time I am without them - this is going to be short today.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. It has turned cool here, and maybe it just seems like a warm, snugly day to me. Another picture of one of the "Bopsy" twins as they are known.

Shirleen playing a very important role here.

Can Linda get all her tubing untangled?

Good nurses, both of them.

TOODLES
Striving for a world without Myasthenia Gravis

ACCESSED !

MONDAY: We are off to a good start. Well... I guess it was good. It was 11:45 a.m. before the whole show was on the road. Terry and Linda got my port accessed, getting a blood return their very first try this time :: thank you very much port :: but the pharmacy did not have my IVIG medicine up until 11:45. Since we were so late in getting it started, I asked at 1:00 for Linda, on the right, to up it as high as we could safely go, and she bumped it up to 170. And away we flew, Shirleen, on the left, along with us!

I started the day off with a horrible neck pain that had begun at home, bringing me to tears several times during the night, continuing on into morning. I took perc but it did nothing so I finally took a lolly somewhere around 2:00 or so. It was very evident a few hours later that the lolly and perc did the trick of relieving that pain, even though it did come back later on, but not quite as badly as before treating. :: sigh ::

Since it was already so late, and we both had eaten, I just crawled, very slowly and carefully, upon the bed on top of the covers. Jim watched football, and I sorted through my stuff that I had just thrown into a Chili's bag from home.

'Bout 10:00 p.m. we called it a day. I woke off and on throughout the night in pain, but just did not have the energy to get up for anything.

Just as this was all ready for publishing, we lost our hot spot here at the hospital.

Here it is Friday, and my hot spot is working as it should, and hopefully I'll get another update today so I will not be too far behind. Who knows?????

The date says the 21st, but it is actually the 24th when I am finally getting a chance to upload this.

Not the day Coleman and Team Larson asked for

Things were going fine. Peggy had the boys at the pottery place. They had a couple pieces from earlier in the week that they wanted to get painted. Coleman awoke happy and ready to go paint. Scott was back at the Ronald McDonald House doing things in preparation for going home Monday.

All was right with the world.
Then Coleman could not make his brush go where he wanted it to go.
He became shaky.
His speech became slurred.
He couldn't remember what the brush was called.
Peggy tried helping him, but he became frustrated and mad.
She called Scott and he came down.
They called the doctor, and he told them to take him to urgent care.
They walked the few blocks there.
Got a room. NOT where HE wanted to be!

From Peggy: "Coleman was very angry...he had asked me last night, "mommy? do we needa do teemo ta-morrow?" I told him, "no! you don't have to see ANY dr's or nurses tomorrow- it's just going to be a day of fun!" Again, what a liar I turned out to be... I have never seen him so upset, he kept crying, "I WANT OUTTA HERE! I DOAN WANNA BE HERE! I don't need ANYFING they have here ann I wanna doe HOME!" He was definitely not himself and we had a tough time comforting him."

Poor Coleman, and yes, poor Peggy and Scott. And a scared, attentive brother Caden.

I will put Peggy's report here now,
"We sat at the hospital all day. They did blood counts, and a CT. We had to wait for a neurologist to read it...and finally at 6:00 they said they faxed it and it looked the same as his last one, so we were free to go.

NO ANSWERS! They didn't know what caused it... Just if it happens again to bring him in right away. Finally at 6:30 we walked to get a piece of his favorite pizza, we came back to the house, did baths and they are in bed. He seemed better once we got back to the house.

Today is a day we don't want to relive. It was a long scary day. There were blessings though- we had a VERY kind nurse, and Coleman was so afraid he was going to have to be admitted...so thankful we are all 4 in bed together tonight. (did I ever mention our room at the RMD house has two twin beds? we pushed them together to make one big TEAM LARSON bed!)

We're praying tomorrow is better.

Please pray that we can make our flight on Monday and make it home okay. Scott and I both feel like we've been ran over by a train tonight.

We appreciate the support and prayers so much. THANK YOU!

Blessings to you all,
Team Larson"

Surely prayers for Coleman, and I hope each one who comes by my site will offer up a prayer for him, and continue as you go on your way. He has been on a long battle, and he is ready to win this war. Having read his mother's writings since before last Christmas, him weaving a place in my heart, going with them through the stem cell .... all this and much, much more. I was thrilled to see their local, and their church rally behind them this summer, and glad for the few days in the bouncy thing-a-majig before they left for NYC, their surprise.

God, keep him safe, under your wing. Whatever it is, work a miracle.

It's 56° and "I'll take you home again Kathleen". . .

. . . is playing on iTunes. My "Celtic Dreams" CD has put me to sleep twice already. I woke just now to movement I thought, and pulled my laptop forward. Sure enough, it looked something like this... well, it did look like this because I took this picture then:

That is my bedside table with my little TV and our printer/scanner on it. My aim is to get my legs and arms working good enough for me to make it to the printer/scanner to scan all my pictures that are upstairs and get them organized. As it right now, though, I do not have the body stamina, or usefulness to get to the end of my bed very well (I may try it later). That is the muscle weakness that I have. In August when we were there, I bought a simple printer for printer for $50, and I think I am just now getting where I might be able to use it. I am going to try to use it either after I get through here, or in the morning.

What I am going to do, is to print some childhood caner stuff and take to the hospital with me Sunday for the nurses. I do not come in contact with anyone else while I am still there. As I was typing that, I remembered, too, that the computer room in the Annex has a small printer in it, and I could load up my flash drive (2 g) and plug it into the computer there and print what I want. My mind is beginning to work a bit for PAC2 and myself. That is how it is with me. I will type it here, publish it, and then come back and copy it to my spiral notebook because I will forget that it is here. Bummer! They tell me it is my medicines, but I am not sure. This has been developing for two or three years. Donna and Arthur (I can call him whatever I like, Franklin) did an MRI at least two or more years ago, and there was some lesions in the white matter. Then I started having headaches. We took the films to Saeed, but he said he didn't need to look at them, and never did, so......? What was the purpose in having them done? Nothing was ever said to us about them. It was a change from the ones before, and a change in my behavior. I would have appreciated an explanation at least.

Doctors are funny. Not ha ha funny, but strange funny in that they go to these means (usually expensive ones), and order these tests or what-nots, and that is the end of it. You never hear anything else about it. Same as with my gastro doc. He told us all I needed and all he was going to do. He got my stomach diagnosed, which was the main thing I needed done, and then that was it. We did our part in getting the swallowing studies done, and the speech therapist, too, for both doctors. He got the report, but we still did not hear anything from him. If not for Latiff, my endo, I never would have known the outcome, and how it all fit together. Gastroparesis. Diabetic gastroparesis. He directed my treatment for that. My stomach is bothering me now, so who do I see, and talk to about that? So many doctors, and not so sure of whom to see. And now, I've lost my train of thought, my direction. See what I mean. Oh, you didn't even know we were trying to go anywhere? Me neither. We just happened here didn't we? I just have a terrible time keeping up, and I'm not so sure it is all my fault. Gosh, if I write everything down, I'd never have time to actually live!! Just keeping up with all this makes me look looney, and I don't think I am. Something is messing with my brain that is slowing it down. "Spanish Lady" is playing now..... :) Thing is, I think there is something that could help me, but no one takes the time to go there, and address the issue. I honestly think that Arthur and Latiff do a pretty good job on their own. They definitely are not slackers! Me, neither. Let's go see what else is on iTunes.

I think this is a good stopping point, and run ~ chug, chug, chug ~ back over this, format it to my liking as much as it is gonna be with this software ~ oooh, "Loch Lomond" is playing now, love it! ~ back over this to make my notes of what all I need to do. im got me this CD from Wal Mart one day and I sure do like it.

TOODLES
Striving for a world without Myasthenias Gravis

It is time to go again

The time has slipped upon me. It is time to pack our bags and head for Jonesboro for my IVIG infusion once again. I've been having a little dance around with what I need to do ::lots:: what I have done ::near to nothing:: what have I been wasting my time on ::crazy little meecie behavior:: what I have been doing that has been good for me ::meeting the other *girls* from NE Ark and learning their story and what they are doing::~~~~


So there you have it, I'm not a total sloth. Oh, I just looked down at my task bar and saw a page open to "Because I Said So Reviews: Home From Glamour Reel Moments"
by Dawn Meehan, a blogger from Chicago, now a successful author due to her blog, and now her publisher Guidepost.

But this meecie is driving me crazy!! It is acting like I have picked it up backwards. It is just going all over the place, and I am having to chase it down. Grrrrrrr. I think the best thing to do is to go ahead and publish this, and begin anew, do some cleanup here, and start all nice and fresh, then see how well it performs, then. Sometimes a reboot will clear out anything in the registry or some place else that is throwing it off kilter.

Before I go, let me introduce you to Jennifer and Teresa, and you can go and get to know them, too.

I give up. My computer shut down on me, and I lost what I had done. BUT I WILL be back. It is only about 4:30 a.m.!! Maybe I need to eat something. We'll see!!

Hope Violet Fimiani

Little Hope Violet Fimiani, age 2, died Monday Oct. 13, 2008. Hope had fought a courageous battle with Leukemia for six months. She also had Down Syndrome. She is survived by her parents, Dyana and Anthony, and sister, Juliana Marie Fimiani.

The family has asked that all friends and family wear pink during services in memory of Hope.

Remember all of Hope's family in prayer as they go through this difficult time of dealing with the loss of Hope, an angel who has earned her wings. She no longer is in pain.

Memorialized by Making Everlasting Memories

For Childhood Cancer Awareness go to PAC2

Going on with the Wages' Family Reunion

Oh, my, but if only the cameras could talk! Don't you know this is one reunion that hearts would tell an anxious, but happy tale? Peg and Dottie didn't get to see each other when Dottie and Mike came last year, when Jim and Betty got to see her for the first time in fifty years. Now it was Peg and Dottie's turn. Here are a few of the few photos
taken then.......

Dottie was just a little girl the last time Peg saw her. Here they were as they talked Saturday. It is impossible to imagine what went through each of their minds and hearts as they propelled through space (talk about cyber space! ha ha!)the past fifty years. I know if Jim remembers so much about Dottie and her mother so vividly, then Peg does also. I'd love to hear Dottie describe how she tumbled through the time machine from then to now. Here is a picture of the reunion that warms my heart, especially knowing how it affected Dottie.

Now, off to see what else the cameras have brought.
Baby brother has joined with older sis and the niece.

I will edit it with captions later.
Maybe............