IT IS BEST TO VIEW THIS BLOG AS A WEB PAGE

View this blog as a WEB PAGE in order to see all the categories.

The web page view is divided by the following subjects:
GARDENING, WEAVING, and FAMILY. 

There are sub-headings of scarf, hat, or plant inventory and a separate heading for Multiple Myeloma.  

I write this blog on a desktop while agonizing over the format -- only to find that it comes out looking in a completely different way on a phone. 
There it just shows posts in decending chronological order.

FALL AND WINTER IN THE GARDENS 2015 - 2016

It was a mild winter with a small exception. 

Last November we had some sudden cold days right after the fall rains started the plants into a growing cycle after their very droughty summer.  I was not allowed out in the garden after my stem cell transplant because my immunity was wiped out with the pre transplant chemo.  Fortunately my wonderful caregiver, my husband Frank,  was also up for some hasty garden care in addition to all the housekeeping and cooking he was doing.

so out side he went whenever the weather forecast was for low temps to protect one main plant--the Euphorbia stygiana--which had lots of new tip growth that would be susceptible to the 28 degree nights.  Out came the Christmas lights spread under the plant with a couple sheets over the top. That little extra warmth really worked as the new undamaged growth in spring attests.

Euphorbia stygiana with
fall new growth

cold night protection
with old Christmas lights

But backing up a month to October. 

I was released from SCCA Oct 17th and did not have to stay in downtown housing any longer. This was so much easier on Frank for cooking and caring for me at home. 

But I was still VERY fragile and definitely not allowed out in the gardens for fear of fungal spores etc. in the air. 

There my gardens sat. Not only had very little gardening taken place since July, but no way could I get out to do any fall clean up.

Rescue came in the form of our wonderful horticultural community, called together by Walt Bubelis, one of my hort professors from Edmonds CC. 

On Oct 20th, 20 volunteers of former students, many of which are professional horticulturists, spent all day on a Sunday, cleaning up, transplanting, replanting, cutting back and all the various other fall clean up tasks in my garden. 

I watched from inside the house going from window to window,  as they worked and hauled load after load of old biomass down the hill to the brush piles.  

With much gratitude, as I waited for Spring and my doctors' ok to get back out in the dirt, I could look out all winter and see the much nicer, tidied up gardens. 

   

                              

 

     

TIPS ON TALKING TO A CANCER PATIENT / SURVIVOR

I LIKE THIS ARTICLE FROM TODAY'S EVERETT HERALD

One thing I would add:

If you want to do something that would help

please offer a specific thing or two you are willing to do

rather than just telling the survivor to call you,

 --or that you will do anything. -- Really?

We know others have a life and are busy, too.

No way is it easy to request something

that may not be what someone is comfortable doing.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150815/LIVING/150819614 --AUGUST 15, 2015

Tips on talking with someone who has cancer

By Mary Kay Jurovcik

Special to The Herald

There are times in our lives when we know exactly what to say.

When someone gets married or has a baby or graduates from college, we say, “Congratulations.” When we meet someone new, we say, “Nice to meet you.” When someone loses a loved one, we say, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

When someone is diagnosed with cancer, we often don’t know what to say. Just starting a conversation can be difficult because there is no presupposed way to talk to someone who has cancer.

It’s important to remember that the cancer survivor is still the same person you knew before, and much about that person has not changed. But even for someone who you are close to, discussing a cancer diagnosis and treatment isn’t likely something you have practiced.

I’d like to offer these tips on how to talk to someone who is living with cancer:

Let the survivor guide the conversation.

Some survivors will give you every detail about their diagnosis and treatment. Some would prefer to remain private about what’s happening to them.

I suggest following the survivor’s lead when it comes to discussing the details of the disease.

I’m quite open about my experience, but I know some survivors who consider the details of their diagnosis and treatment to be on a need-to-know basis.

If they say they are OK, they are OK.

My survivor friend Lauren says when she told people she was doing fine while in treatment, they didn’t believe her. They would press her by asking, “I mean, how are you really doing?”

If a survivor tells you she is doing OK, she probably means it. Maybe she is masking her true feelings for your sake, but I’d suggest taking her at face value. Sometimes, we just don’t feel like talking about it.

So…

Talk about something else.

One of the hardest things about cancer is that it takes over your whole life. Sometimes it’s the last thing in the world you want to talk about. Visiting with a survivor and talking about everything except cancer can be so helpful.

When I was in treatment, my friends sometimes worried about complaining or talking about mundane things. Often, there was nothing I wanted to hear about more than their regular, non-cancer lives.

Be careful of comparisons.

Pretty much everyone knows someone who’s had breast cancer, so when I discussed my diagnosis with others, they often wanted to tell me about the person in their lives who had the disease.

My friend Karen, also a survivor, remarked to me once that it was least helpful to hear stories about people who had passed from the disease.

While it’s natural to want to relate to the survivor by sharing other peoples’ experiences, remember that every patient, every person and every experience is different. The details of your neighbor’s or friend’s diagnosis and treatment might be quite different from the survivor you’re hearing from now.

Advice is great when it’s requested.

I got some wonderful advice while I was in treatment from other survivors and from friends and family. But, there is a lot of less helpful and misguided advice for cancer patients out there, too. If survivors are receiving treatment, they are being cared for by a team of medical professionals.

At Providence, we don’t just have oncologists. We have access to nutritionists, financial counselors, therapists, classes and support groups.

While sending articles about new treatments or ideas might seem helpful, it might be more than the survivor is able to process. Wait for the survivor to ask for advice, and if you choose to share something, be careful that it comes from a reputable source.

Sometimes the sun isn’t shining.

Especially when treatment ends, survivors are sometimes expected to just be “OK” — whatever that means. Survivorship can be hard, and it can be difficult to remain positive all the time. Even for generally cheery people, the weight of cancer can bring on the gray clouds.

Bear in mind that the survivor’s life has changed dramatically since his diagnosis. Accept that he might be blue sometimes, and that your support is still vitally important.

Be careful about minimizing the survivor’s feelings by offering artificially positive statements like, “It could be worse,” or “It will be better soon.” This may or may not be true, but it probably won’t improve the survivor’s mood.

Reach out.

I had many people tell me to reach out to them when I needed help, but while in treatment, I was so drained, just looking at my phone seemed like a colossal task. Don’t wait for the survivor to call you. Reach out to him or her. Call, text, show up (if that’s OK with the survivor). Treatment can be very isolating, and survivors often just need friends to come spend time.

Mary Kay Jurovcik is a Lake Stevens wife, mother, writer and breast cancer survivor. At the age of 33, with no family history or prior experience with cancer, she was diagnosed with stage 2B, HER2+ breast cancer. Jurovcik is documenting her journey on a personal website, BoldSurvivor.com, and contributes to the Providence Regional Cancer Partnership website.

HOW NOT TO SAY THE WRONG THING

A CONCRETE WAY TO THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ALL KNOW BUT  OFTEN STRUGGLE WITH--

from an LA Times article by Susan Silk: 

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0407-silk-ring-theory-20130407-story.html

When Susan had breast cancer, we heard a lot of lame remarks, but our favorite came from one of Susan's colleagues. She wanted, she needed, to visit Susan after the surgery, but Susan didn't feel like having visitors, and she said so. Her colleague's response? "This isn't just about you."

"It's not?" Susan wondered. "My breast cancer is not about me? It's about you?"

The same theme came up again when our friend Katie had a brain aneurysm. She was in intensive care for a long time and finally got out and into a step-down unit. She was no longer covered with tubes and lines and monitors, but she was still in rough shape. A friend came and saw her and then stepped into the hall with Katie's husband, Pat. "I wasn't prepared for this," she told him. "I don't know if I can handle it."

This woman loves Katie, and she said what she did because the sight of Katie in this condition moved her so deeply. But it was the wrong thing to say. And it was wrong in the same way Susan's colleague's remark was wrong.

Susan has since developed a simple technique to help people avoid this mistake. It works for all kinds of crises: medical, legal, financial, romantic, even existential. She calls it the Ring Theory

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma. For Katie's aneurysm, that's Katie. Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma. In the case of Katie's aneurysm, that was Katie's husband, Pat. Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones. When you are done you have a Kvetching Order. One of Susan's patients found it useful to tape it to her refrigerator.

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring.

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings. When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you're going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn't, don't say it. Don't, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don't need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, "I'm sorry" or "This must really be hard for you" or "Can I bring you a pot roast?" Don't say, "You should hear what happened to me" or "Here's what I would do if I were you." And don't say, "This is really bringing me down."

If you want to scream or cry or complain, if you want to tell someone how shocked you are or how icky you feel, or whine about how it reminds you of all the terrible things that have happened to you lately, that's fine. It's a perfectly normal response. Just do it to someone in a bigger ring.

Comfort IN, dump OUT.

There was nothing wrong with Katie's friend saying she was not prepared for how horrible Katie looked, or even that she didn't think she could handle it. The mistake was that she said those things to Pat. She dumped IN.

Complaining to someone in a smaller ring than yours doesn't do either of you any good. On the other hand, being supportive to her principal caregiver may be the best thing you can do for the patient.

Most of us know this. Almost nobody would complain to the patient about how rotten she looks. Almost no one would say that looking at her makes them think of the fragility of life and their own closeness to death. In other words, we know enough not to dump into the center ring. Ring Theory merely expands that intuition and makes it more concrete:

Don't just avoid dumping into the center ring, avoid dumping into any ring smaller than your own.

Remember, you can say whatever you want if you just wait until you're talking to someone in a larger ring than yours.

And don't worry. You'll get your turn in the center ring. You can count on that.

Susan Silk is a clinical psychologist. Barry Goldman is an arbitrator and mediator and the author of "The Science of Settlement: Ideas for Negotiators."

THANK YOU! TO MY TEAM AND DONORS: 5K / 1 MILE RUN / WALK JUNE 28th 2015

So proud of my Team "RemissionMMPossible" today. 

big THANK YOUs to my Team and those donors who joined me in spirit. 

Together we raised about* $3000! 
( *some matching funds and other donations are still to come) 

What a fun day for me. 
I've never done a race or participated in a fundraising event before,
 nor had two others on the team.

There were speakers broadcasting music to to pump us up. A personal trainer/ gym owner led us in warm ups. Donated food, water, fruit, energy bars, lots of volunteers working to guide us in what to do and where to do it. Free Cancer cookbooks, origami cranes to make, Dr. Green from SCCA/ Fred Hutch spoke about the importance of Research and the role MoveMMORE has played. 

I can't wait to see all the pictures of the other teams 
soon to come on the MoveMMORE website. 

CALLING ALL WALKERS, SPECTATORS, VOLUNTEERS, AND RUNNERS

CALLING ALL WALKERS, SPECTATORS, VOLUNTEERS, AND SERIOUS RUNNERS.

There is ONE WEEK  ONLY 2 DAYS  now to go until the 5 K Run / 1 Mile Walk on June 28th at Magnuson Park. 

Who has 2 hours on a Sunday morning to help raise funds for Multiple Myeloma Research at Fred Hutchinson? 

I know there are many very worthy causes out there but this is a cause very personal for me to help cure this damn Cancer! 

Please join us for a fun time. 

Bring your roller blades, walkers, wheelchairs, dogs, strollers, or even running shoes and meet some Myeloma Fighters and their families and friends. 

I am very close to achieving the goal that will allow me 

to tour the Research labs at Fred Hutchinson 

and have a chance to KILL an actual Myeloma cell! 

Please consider donating to this important research. 

http://org.grouprev.com/judybracikhttp://org.grouprev.com/judybracik

thank you for considering how to make a difference in our lives. 

TWO DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER AT THE APRIL RATE FOR MOVEMMORE 5K

2 days left to register at the $25. April rate for the MMore Myeloma 5K/1Mile Run/Walk at Magnusen Park June 28th. 

Registration fee goes up to $30 in May. 

100% of registration and/ or donations goes to Fred Hutchinson for Myeloma Research.

It would be fun to have you all on my Team! the "Remission MM Possible" team. 
Details on my MMORE page:    http://org.grouprev.com/judybracik?saved=1

Team captain "Judy Bracik", password to register "swedish"

MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH IS SORELY NEEDED

click for  My 2015 fundraising page and story.

Last year, on June 28th, 2015,my team ReMission MM Possible participated in a 5k / 1 mile run/ walk at Magnuson Park in Seattle to fund Myeloma research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  I would like to invite you all to join my team or donate to help find a cure  ( there is no known cure) for Multiple Myeloma. 

To join my team or donate for 2016 go to https://www.firstgiving.com/team/317339

I was diagnosed this past February 2015 after several years of vague troublesome symptoms always attributed to something else. My treatments of chemo so far are about half way over, If all goes well in June I will have stem cells harvested and then in July receive a stem cell transplant.

 This disease is one of the fastest-growing cancers in the world. Despite its high numbers and devastating effects, the public -- both patients and physicians-- (and Physicians--can you believe that?)  --remains largely unaware of myeloma. As a result, patients can go mis- or undiagnosed for years. 

My other goal is to raise awareness of the possible symptoms so others can get a diagnosis and be treated in a more timely manner before damage is done to other areas of the body. I will be happy to share with you what all I have learned about this disease. 

It would be fun to run and / or walk with you on my team, or even have you come cheer us all on. Please go to the MoveMMore site to register and/ or donate.
 My team is "ReMission MMPossible"  and the registration will want the Team Captain; Judy Bracik and  the password for my team is "swedish"

5K / 1 mile RUN / WALK BENEFITS MULTIPLE MYELOMA

I plan to participate in the Run / Walk benefiting research at Fred Hutchinson SCCA.  I still need to come up with a team name so anyone who wants to participate can join our team.

MARCH IS MULTIPLE MYELOMA AWARENESS MONTH

Multiple myeloma is a little-known, devastating cancer of the bone marrow for which there is no known cure. Multiple myeloma affects approximately 75,000 to 100,000 people in the United States, and with more than 15,000 new cases diagnosed each year, is one of the fastest-growing cancers in the Western world. Despite its high numbers and devastating effects, the public — both patients and physicians — remains largely unaware of myeloma. As a result, patients can go mis- or undiagnosed for years.

MULTIPLE MYELOMA is a blood disorder caused by the proliferation of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow.  It develops when a plasma cell genetically mutates then takes over and crowds out the normal healthy plasma cells. This results in anemias, compromised immune function and bone loss. The symptoms are often ambiguous and easily attributed to commonplace disorders. 
Fatigue, frequent infections, and various aches and pains or even no symptoms at all may be the only signs in the early stages. However as the disease progresses there will be high levels of proteins and calcium ( from the bone loss) present in the blood which can then lead to confusion, kidney damage, fractures, severe pain, and nerve damage. 
There is is a simple blood test, SPEP (serum protein electrophoresis) which can lead to an early diagnosis if you have a doctor who is familiar with this disease. 

SALMON RELEASE DAY MAY 10th 2014, (IT WILL BE MAY 14, 2016)

SALMON RELEASE DAY IS MAY 14TH THIS YEAR, 2016, AT 9:45.
Once again another successful day!
This year we were even treated to watching the bee hives get checked and maintained and Larry Brainard, beekeeper, was there selling his local honey with 100% of purchase going to Honey Bee Conservation. northwest beekeepers
Don't miss the Salmon Release Day next year, it is always ( usually) the Saturday before  mother's day. 

John:  " We've got fish!"

   

"Let's get these fish to the creek!"

first bucket full released

There they go!

second trip- "thanks mom"

the bottom of the tank empties
into Swamp creek

Happy bees

This is the 21st year that the Solberg family will sponsor Salmon Release Day at their property along Swamp Creek in Alderwood Manor.

Willow Creek Hatchery (Deer Creek) brings a truckload of 30,000 Coho Salmon to be released into Lake Washington via swamp creek. 

Dress your children warmly,  everyone wearing boots!, and bring their little or big buckets to carry their little baby fish from the truck to the creek and release them. 

 

 There is parking on the large lawn at - 20905 17th Place West, Lynnwood, WA. 

Be there at 9:45, prepare to make a trip to the creek to get some water in your buckets, and then wait in a line to get your fish then carry them back to the creek. --several times.  

Have fun -- the whole event takes about an hour and a half. 

 

 

A string NOT too short to be saved

Going through my mom's stuff and found this carefully wound ball of string--strings actually. 
These are strings which once closed up a 10 pound bag of sugar, or a 25 pound bag of flour--(which was in a decorated cloth flour sack--many of which are still in her cedar chest).  
The longer strings likely held feed sacks closed. It took a bit of skill to know which end to loosen so the whole string chain unraveled in one long piece. 
I still like to work at that whenever I get a chance to open up a sack.
I could even suppose this string was saved by my grandmother, or my father. 
They all knew the virtue of not letting anything go to waste. 

So now is the time to pass this lesson on.
When it was time to plant the sugar snap peas my grandson and I started last month, I decided to use this string for the peas to climb. Since it was many smaller pieces of cotton string. I almost felt it wouldn't work, then decided to simply tie them together. They are very old so we are hoping they will not fall apart, but if so,there is more left with which to patch it. 
Patch it. Hmm, that's a thought almost as archaic as saving string. . .

                                

Oso Strong

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

–Stevie Nicks

It has been a tough month around here.
Still getting over mom's passing a few months ago, then my cousin about her age died this past week,
And the three tragedies--the Malaysian airliner, the Seattle news Helecopter and now the Oso mudslide.
Mentally this has been hard on me for some reason. Hearing about a grandmother babysitting her 4 month old grandchild getting buried in the mudslide, when here I babysit my grandchildren makes this particularly close to home.
We live on a hill. The evidence of erosion in the forest below is ever before us. The mudslides on the railroad tracks just barely a quarter mile downhill from us happening during all this late winter rain.
What was emphasized in my geology classes at Edmonds Community college a few years back keeps coming back to me; " be aware of your surroundings when you buy a property for your home."
The strong willed, self- sufficient folks of Oso and Darrington-- Lumberjacks. Tarheels.  Enjoying the wonderful Pacific Northwest outdoors along the river where they could fish for Steelhead trout and knew the the backwoods ways.
They are there now for each other.

But they could use a little help now that mother nature has dealt them a tremendous blow.

Oso strong. They are. But they are grieving and basically stranded. What was a 50 mile route to their jobs is now a 100 mile route.
We grieve with them.

https://www.booster.com/osostrong

Go Seahawks!

My son and I were still in Ohio on Jan 11th and were able to watch the Seahawks/ Saints game while there with my cousin whose son had played with the Steelers, Ravens, and Jacksonville so that was fun, though a bit of a nail biter of a game.

Then we flew back home in time to join the festivities leading up to the 49ers game and the Superbowl!!. Go Seahawks!!

I had made some scarves for two of my cousins who were helping me with the funeral plans for my mother.  One had a brown wool winter coat and the other had a camel wool coat.  They have real winter back there! Both of them have reddish tones in their hair. My daughter said a teal color should work. So I went with some brown tones mixed with a teal, and again used three different wefts: a taupe, a brown and a black. . 

 

Again you can see the difference with the exact same warp threads yet how much difference the weft makes. All three scarves on the couch show, left to right, the black weft, the brown, and the taupe.  I also played a bit with the weft and added some plaid-type mixed color horizontal striping for interest instead of having plain vertical warp stripes.

     

Marie chose the taupe weft to go with her camel coat and Marlane picked the one with the brown warp.