4 posts tagged “friend”

I have been looking up wigs, for my friend who is losing her hair because of chemo. It has only been a couple days since her second treatment, and she woke up to her hair falling out in clumps. With all the hours she is missing from work because of all the doctor appointments, the surgeries and now the chemo, she really can not afford any expensive wigs. I wish I was working then maybe I could afford to help her buy a really nice one. I went on the American Cancer Society's website and did some looking. They have some wigs that are reasonable. I am going to show them to her tomorrow and see if she wants to try to get anything from there.

I knew my friend was going to loose her hair because of the chemo but I did not realize it was going to be so soon. I worry that she is going to get severely depressed. She seemed okay, when she came over for me to trim her hair into a tidier bob, but she could be putting on a brave face.

update: just had brunch with my friend and she is in much better spirits than I thought she would be, since her hair fell out. I think it helps that she is one of those ladies that was already losing her hair due to age, so she is taking it in stride. She also told me that she is not really sure she even wants to go the wig route. I guess the other thing that helps is the fact that since her cancer was caught so early she will not have to be on chemo for very long and then her hair should grow back after that. My friend is getting a lot of support from some of her co-workers too. One lady in particular is being very helpful because she learned a lot when her mother had cancer.

Hello everyone I have a very good friend that has a niece that is currently being held in the Missouri Department of Corrections. I do not know the exact details of her incarceration and that is not the point anyway. The problem is that she is suffering a tooth infection that is not being treated not even with meds. Her sister has sent an email that give a little more information about the details and I am going to just copy and paste it here, because it is her intention to let everyone know about the poor health care her sister is being provided, and I am willing to help her get the message out. (I have not edited or anything this is the letter of one concerned sister for another)

On Behalf of my sister Kalynne Graves,

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

My name is Katherine Holloway. My sister is Kalynne Graves, and she is incarcerated in St. Louis County jail in Clayton Missouri. The night my sister was incarcerated she was on her way home from the hospital because she had a terribly infected tooth. She received antibiotics for the tooth, but unless she received either a root canal or extraction the infection would return. I know this because I have worked as a dental assistant for several years. Unfortunately she was arrested and incarcerated and did not receive any p ost-op care. Even though the infection was cleaned out prior to her arrest, she let her guards now that she now needed further care. They allowed her to remain on antibiotics and ibuprophen for the first seven days of her incarceration, and then nothing. This was two months ago. And as I knew it would, the infection has returned. It is an upper molar that is infected. I am very concerned about this is because if the infection remains untreated it could get into her bloodstream and spread to her brain and cause further complications that could ultimately cause death. It has enraged me and my family that this matter is being grossly overlooked because she is an inmate. She may be incarcerated, but she is still human and deserves proper medical care. I do not want to get a call from anyone telling me my sister has died from unknown medical reasons. To me they would not be unknown. It would be the fault of the MO Department of Corrections for ignoring this. I will personally hold them responsible for any neglect that could hurt my sister. I have tried to contact several people, including my sister’s attorney, with not so much as a courtesy call in return.  I will be forwarding this email to everyone I know and instructing them to pass it on, and so on. Next I will be contacting news channels, posting blogs on  the internet, and even protesting outside the jail if I  have to in order to get her the care that she needs. I sincerely hope that this mat ter will be resolved so that my sisters tooth infection and the excruciating pain that she is in will be taken care of quickly and efficiently. I would appreciate someone contacting me when this is received to inform me of what, if any, actions will be taken.

 

A very disappointed Missouri Taxpayer,

Katherine Holloway

I went to Phoenix recently to visit some family members. Before I left Missouri, I met up with Country By Design, but I forgot to take any pictures. But that is okay, as WPG told me it give me an excuse to meet up with Country By Design again later.

My trip was not near long enough there was so many more things we could do. I did get to go see an old friend of mine, with my sister, and it was a very fun afternoon. On another day I got to meet up with WPG, again I do not have any pictures because this time I let her do the picture taking, so we will have to wait for her to post pictures. (I had digital camera envy, I so want a camera like hers). I took some of the jewelry that I have been making to show, since my camera is not up to the task. I was so surprised and pleased when WPG asked to buy some of the pieces. I am definitely going to have to get pictures taken and post the rest of my jewelry online to sell it, then maybe I will get the chance to by my dream digital camera similar to WPG's.

While on my trip I got to go to The Organ Stop Pizza restaurant . My Uncle tries to take me there every time I am in the Phoenix area. The place is built around this amazing pipe organ, some of the pipes are even 3 stories tall. I took a picture 

My Uncle also took us to Tubac, where we went to a small little hole in the wall kind of Mexican restaurant called Wisdom. We brought a paper home with the history of the place but my sister has it right now, I am going to have to try and get it from her so that I can tell more about it. We also went to a little shopping area that is an art district kind of place. My Uncle is not a big shopper so we did not get to spend as leisurely of a time looking, as we probably would have if it was just us girls. But that is okay because then we would have been even more tempted to buy something that we really can not afford.

Oh we also made a really brief stop and a mission that is being rehabbed, called San Xavier Mission. I got a picture of the plaque with my digital camera,

San Xavier Mission plaque-0409

but the other pictures that I took were with my film camera and I have not gotten those developed onto a CD yet. I will try to remember to post pictures when I get it back.

We stayed at my cousin's place and it was like getting to stay at resort. When my cousin moved to Phoenix to be closer to my aunt and uncle her husband let her design the house the way she wanted and she has great taste. Because they were moving to Casa Grande which is outside of Phoenix and is so much more of a desert style landscape, her husband made sure the back yard was landscaped to soften the desert feel. It was my favorite part of the house.

Since it is much warmer in Phoenix/Casa Grande than it is in Missouri, there was some wonderful spring foliage. I did manage to get pictures of one particularly lovely flower that was pool side.

I am not sure what the plant is called but I really liked the looks of the flower on it. Maybe WPG can tell me what it is.

I took some other pictures with my 35mm camera but I will have to wait until I get them developed so that I can see if there is anything worth posting.

I knew it was getting bad out but I got to find out just how bad. Our friend that has a mobile home on our property, called me to let me know that she was stuck in the ditch on the hill where the pavement ends and the gravel begins. I was able to go and get her and get home, but it was very iffy at several points. There is just enough ice everywhere to eliminate traction, especially since the temp is fluctuating at the freezing point. The ice is damp from the rain and this makes it even slipperier.

I just checked the forecast that I am not so sure if I will be getting out of here for Christmas. The temperature is not supposed to get very much lower tonight, and it is supposed to drop during the day tomorrow so there is little chance that the ice will be going away any time soon. As I have mentioned before we are so far out at the edge of the county that we are one of the last areas the county's trucks get to. I am not even sure we will be able to get Maggie's car out of the ditch tomorrow, I am not sure that the tow truck would be able to get enough traction to get her out.