Last week or the first week in March I noticed a slowness on my left side. I still walked and did yoga, but over the weekend when we were in Kalaloch, it got worse.

On the Monday March 7th, when I got back, I went into school to talk to the staff about my plans for coming back. On the way out of school, I was walked out by Jill and Nancy. Jill gave me a big hug and I was not able to reciprocate because my left arm would not move! I didn’t think too much of it at the time until later in the day. At 4pm, I was waiting for a call from my oncologist as we had told him that symptoms had worsened. I was sitting in the bed in my yoga room and the phone rang; it was the nurse checking me in. I was little panicked, and in my panic to get to the phone I slipped off the bed! I put my my arm down to catch myself but it didn’t work so I landed on my clavicle and banged my head on the floor. Dave was outside unpacking the camper and he did not hear me screaming and yelling for him, so poor guy walked in to find me on the floor yelling and screaming. We had the meeting with the doctor and he said go straight to the ER and have a an MRI and a cat-scan.

We spent a long afternoon and evening at the ER Swedish Issaquah. The CAT scan showed no bleeding in the brain, so that was good. The MRI showed a huge amount of swelling, so that was not so good. This is what’s causing my lack of mobility. After talking to my oncologist, he is not sure why the swelling occurred. It could be the injections I had to help raise my white blood count, or it could be something else unknown. I’m having another scan that will check the brain activity. I can’t remember the name of the test but it is an MRI to look specifically at the activity of the tumor site so they can tell if the tumor is growing by observing oxygen and glucose test intake. Here is where I’m hoping the keto diet has been helpful and that is not a whole bunch of glucose causing the cells to multiply.

Right now I’m on steroids to take the swelling down and hopefully get some movement back in my left arm, which is not working just yet. This morning my meditation teacher said that everything already is and presents itself when ready!

Can you please be ready now and tell my arm to work!

Kalaloch

At the weekend we took our first trip of the year in Flo and headed to Kalaloch with our good friends Jack and Melinda. They took their new camper, Lance. Kalaloch is beautiful if you’ve never been you need to go! We walked the beaches and ate good food and just mostly breathed in that beautiful ocean Air. We spent a lot of time sitting looking at the water which paid off because we saw whales pass by. We first spotted the blow hole spray and then the humpback of the whales. That was very special and at nighttime the Stars were spectacular. Once again the solo stove was fantastic and kept us warm while we ate outside and then of course Flo is cozy at bed time.