Today Annie and I went to JP's and the music inspired us (to act like idiots)...

I am hearing from my fellow participants from the Shambhala and they are sending me such good vibes. ahhhhhhhh. thank you, universe.

Deborah, my sister in law for twenty years and great sister-friend ever since, is coming to stay for two weeks from florida. Haven't seen her for a couple of years. When we were very young, we called ourselves Cheech and Chong and had many adventures (I would do it all over again, too, at least most of it!) 

looked at some cars-my friend Nancy suggests I take a look at Subaru Foresters as well as Rav4s...to me this seems like a Coke vs Pepsi deal. Any opinions out there?

Annie is home again. She posted the beautiful drawing of my eye tonight. We are working on designs for my new eye. 

It just keeps snowing and snowing! Thanks to Nathan for bringing THE MOST AWESOME BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE, crusty bread, gouda cheese and pears for dinner...he also shoveled, hooked up my printer and my dvd, made me laugh as usual, and did all of this knowing that a hellish drive back home awaited. 

Also CAR NEWs:  My Yoda Toyoda is officially totalled. May he RIP. 

left eye

this is annie again, posting a drawing of my mom's left eye - the first of many that i plan to create.

this picture shows beautiful and delicious soup prepared by artist and friend Jan Propst...and flowers from Sherry and Christina.....thank you, lovely women....

Sherry and Bobbi light up my life (and my stairs!)

Sherry was put in charge of lighting up my shady stairway and came up with the brilliant idea of using rope lights! She brought them over after work today, and Bobbi, the self-described "queen of rope lights", is right now doing an expert installation (Bobbi can do anything. REally. I am convinced of this now.)
She also brought me gobs of fresh fruits and veggies...I love her so much.

Kathy took Bella for some walkies and Carolyn brought me these cool eye patches that she made.

Get this: she wore one all day sunday so that she could help me adjust better.

such friends!!!!!! such love!!!!!!

here is the note I got from Dr. Aaberg:

"Dear Ms. HayesHagar:

I was able to speak to your father today and explain your situation and treatment options.  He (as you can imagine) has an excellent grasp of everything.  Regarding the extraocular tumors (the "little guys" escaping from the eye [my terminolgy, as you might have guessed...], these are removed "en block" with the eye...in other words, all as one unit.  Regarding the one week delay, it is very unlikely to make any difference in your clinical course.  In fact, when radiatio therapy is performed (wheter it is brachytherapy or proton beam irradiation), ther is by necessity a 2-4 week delay between diagnosis and treatment.  When outcomes were compared betwen patients undergoing enucleation versus radiation therapy in the Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study, there was no fdifference in ultimate outcomes.  Consequently, we must conclude that a few week delay is inconsequential. 

Hope this helps-

Tom Aaberg

note from my doctor

good morning,

I'm posting an email I got from Dr. Aaberg with more info--I had asked him about the nodules that are outside the schlera of the eyeball and also needed some reassurance that waiting a week wasn't going to have any negative consequences (I look at fredd and think he looks hungry...)

kathy sent me the bella pic from the camera...as you can see, it was such fun. I can tell you that room 17 was rocking that day! also as you can see, I am still learning how to download pics! 

really, I am so tired today and feel overwhelmed...I woke up early and opened my eyes, and my left eye was in twilight mode...just a few glimmers of light. the vision begins to creep back, but first thing in the morning, I get a preview of how it will be.  I noticed today that everything seems very difficult to do and I am a little overwhelmed...the elem art guys were going to come over but I cancelled that-too much for today.  am going to rest a little and Carolyn is running some tylenol over at noon. thanks, honey.

surg plans: my dad and his wife, annie and Jon are all coming up on Saturday afternoon. My dad and Geneva will be getting a room nearby and Jon and Annie will be here. Jon's girlfriend, our wonderful Vanessa, is flying up from the 14th to the 17th, taking a few days off from her teaching job in austin. as you can see, I am one lucky woman.  For those of you who don't know, my dad is a Radiation Oncologist and had a thirty year career treating all manner of cancers and teaching at IU. He is not only a concerned pappa but a hell of a doctor, too. I feel so glad about that.

 I am preregistering with Spectrum Health East Paris Campus-that is where the surgery is going to be. NOt sure yet about the time...kids are on his schedule that day and they come first.

i am going to crash for awhile...as always, thanks for your thoughts, interest, care, shoveling, coffee, bad eye jokes, advice about HD tv, designer eye patches, brownies.....

fredd photo

Thanks, Anna, for posting the photo! I have a good one to post, too, of Bella being smuggled into the ER on Saturday. It was just like Oceans Eleven!

Fredd has a face (and it's creepy)

hi everyone,

this is annie posting for my mom. take a look at the below composite picture of her eye...

hello, all, 

Today Dr Giny Hoekman, my family doc, earned her money, giving me a comprehensive physical and an ekg. She was multitasking....covering her list of Physical Must-dos, covering all of the items on the pre-op list and also making sure I'm recovering from the car crash...still have lingering ditziness, like repeating myself, but my kids assure me that I was doing that BEFore the accident.  Sherry took me to this appointment, then to the grocery, and then went to get my stuff out of the car and told me it is a total loss so feeling lucky to be sitting here writing this.  Thanks, Sherry, for giving me this day. For those of you who may not know Sherry, she is a very organized person and a regular Jewish mother to boot...thank God she was there. I now have some future appointments written down on my calendar so I won't forget. She will also nag me to follow through.

My two Kathys brought food tonight--veggie chili from Thornhill (Candi can cook) and brownies from Hamm.  Lemme tell you--delicious. I could get used to this. Rest assured that I am not wasting away.

My eye is so weird. it is like a Jackson Pollock painting today...very weird floaters. very dark when I first got up. it changes all day long. It aches a little, too. I have a feeling that my vision is just going to keep deteriorating until the surgery next Monday. Maybe it will just get dark, like the lights went out. I feel sad about what is happening to my poor eye.

I also miss work and my kids and hope that they are coping allright. this stuff is heavy enough for grownups! I am thankful to Carolyn for telling the kids what is going on and adding a link and blog for me onto her MIKIDS website. this way I can comunicate with my waukazoo gang.

Thanks to other teachers too for talking to the kids and reassuring them...of course, I work at the best school in the world, in case you had not heard!

I'm scheduled to be out until the 22nd and then back to work on the 25th....

in the meantime, I sure can see that new tv!

will try to post a photo of Fredd the Tooma...