Update on Darlene --warning--long!

[Guest guest]

This is long, so you may delete if not interested.............

Dear Sarc family,

I have not been very active for the last few months and I do apologize to

all of you for that. It has been a terrible spring and summer for me and I am

hoping it will start to get better soon. As you all know, I have been helping

with my preemie granddaughter since last November and she is doing great!

I try and keep her on Monday and Friday only now.........when I can. I

have had several flare-ups since the first of 2008 and in April I thought I had

finally gotten better. I was feeling better and breathing better, but it did not

last but about a week. I came down with another flare, and another, and .....

well, you all know how that is. Then came the floods in our small town. We

had to evacuate and were gone for 4 days. I frantically sort of grabbed things

to take and left my house in a horrible mess..........and, sad to say, it is still in

that mess. I try each day to pick up a little and try to get back to normal. You

cannot imagine what it does to a small town when a flood hits. The smell was

horrible when we came back. 2 of our highways in the area (main roads in

and out of my town), are still closed! Both had part of the road completley

washed away and the one nearest to our town is unbelievable! Where the

road was, is a ravine, 22 ft deep and over 40 ft wide! No idea when it will

be fixed................

On top of that, hubby has been fighting skin cancer and going to the

Doc for surgeries very often. Has had several this summer already. His

Doc is 88 miles away, one way. Then about six weeks ago, one of our

daughters (here in town) had a place on her arm and went for a biopsy and

you guessed it, it was cancer. When she went back for surgery, she had

2 more spots, also cancer, and about 3 weeks later, she went back for

more surgery and found another place on her leg. Thank God, it was NOT

cancer.........so she is doing ok for now, but this has been really hard on

our family. Then we heard from our daughter in Georgia, and she had

another seizure! This is the daughter that had a brain tumor in 1992 and

had surgery............we came very close to losing her then. And we were

getting another new great grandbaby and her mommy was having problems

through her pregnancy, but all has turned out well there......we have another

great granddaughter and she is a doll. Born just last Saturday.

With all this going on and on my mind, I have had to help my daughter

answer the phones at work a lot this past two months (she is the one with

skin cancer). When evening comes, I just collapse............and not sleeping

well at all. I have been up for the last two nights. I have been reading the

messages and doing some behind the scenes work on the list but have just

not been able to be active on the list much. I have a lot of problems going

on right now with the sarc. Someone wrote in about the little bumps on your

face and etc.......I have had them for many years and so far, they have never

gone away. When I have a flare up, they get bigger and then get smaller again

when the flares let up. I also have the purple spots mostly on my arms and

legs. When someone touches me, it leaves a mark -- if I shake hands, it leaves

a big purple blotch and my arms have them all up and down them. I also am

haveing trouble with my stomach and severe diahrearer -- plus having severe

headaches again............actually, I am a MESS!

Ok, I have rambled on enough! I do apologize for the length of this

message. I will try and be around more and help more. I have been keeping

ALL of you in my thoughts and well wishes.... I know Tracie has had a rough

summer also and like she said, I also appreciate all that our Mods have been

doing. THANKS!

Lots of hugs,

Darlene

NS Co-Owner/Moderator