Jan Curran Events

Happy to report the Tramadol is working great , took away the pain and did not make me feel drunk. More good news -- my skin infection around the feeding tube finally, after almost three months, cleared up! And on the book front, Active Senior Living continues to rack up the sales on Kindle and with some good reviews, too. For those who want a print copy , you still need to go to lulu.com. Book will be on Amazon but not for a few weeks yet.
Off to lunch today with my friend Ann Shields who I met at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference back in 1977. She read each chapter of Active Senior Living as I wrote them and gave me fantastic feedback and great editing ideas.

Kindle smindle...

Do you Kindle? Do you have one of those? I don't and only know one person who has one. My friends here at Senior Living aren't in to tech stuff, most don't have computers or know how to use them, so a Kindle would be beyond their knowledge.

But someone has a Kindle and those folks have spiked my sales on Amazon's Kindle page. If you have a Kindle go order my book there. Downloads in seconds and according to my one pal with a Kindle, it looks great.  But, best of all, readers of my book on Kindle have been leaving rave reviews of the book and that makes me very happy -- and surprised. Didn't expect that.

If you are still of the age and mindset that you want a "real" book here's how you get a print copy of my book..

You can order my new book ACTIVE SENIOR LIVING here: http://tinyurl.com/yh9oc43

Other news? Those of you who have been reading this blog since 2003 have followed , and supported me ,through a zillion Pet scans and doctor appointments and battles with cancer. I have had cancer 6 times, and gone through 4 years of chemo and two years of radiation. This new cancer is a tumor in my liver. My recent scans showed it is growing.

Treatment? Doctor says I have been through chemo so many times that my body can't handle it again and radiation , I assume, is out of the question.

There is a clincial trial being conducted by a Doctor in Santa Monica but that would mean a long haul to get there and back and my doctor said that the pill makes you sick. Oh, great. On the good side, if it works then the cancer is gone but it is a big risk to take. Will think about it.

 

In the meantime, a visiting nurse is coming here twice a week to check on this darn infection around the feeding tube. Seems to be getting better but the site sure hurts. Which reminds me I have a new pain pill and it works pretty well. Tramadol. Have you heard of it or taken it?

 

I also had a crazy thing happen. I had some really bad pains in my lower back, was taking Tylenol every 4 hours and it was just taking the edge off. Finally, off to the doctor and bottom line is I have a compression fracture in the spine. Just what I needed ,right?

It all gets to be a joke after awhile.

 

Book talk?  I shared son Lee's " Monk In Trouble" with a few people in here and they loved it. I did, too. I think it is his best MONK book. It's really two stories in one and lots of neat stuff about the old west. Do yourself a favor and go to Amazon.com and order that book.. or go into a Barnes and Noble to buy it.

What really tickled me is he had a character move into an  Active senior Living place that surely did resemble where I live.  Our family does that, puts in inside jokes or names characters or places after family or friends. Coming up with names for characters is one of the tough parts of writing a novel. I used high school friends' names, people from Palm Springs, people from Washington, DC. and a girl friend I have known about 40 years.

 

Yes, the rain here in Southern CA was pretty bad but yesterday we had blue skies and sunshine and today looks nice out, too. Chilly, but nice. More rain due on Wednesday. Natch , cus I have a doctor appointment that day.

 

My caregiver called in sick today with a cold so I am on my own, so time to log off here and try not to make a big mess giving my self that formula in the feeding tube.

 

Thanks for stopping here for a read.

 

 

 

 

Twittering

This is a test to see if my blog posts cross-post to Twitter and Facebook. If it does, wow, one-stop serves all.

It's Complicated...

That seems how my life has been of late with this damn infection...but it is also the title of the film I saw here the other night and I loved it. I don't normally like Alec Baldwin but he was great in the movie, " It's Complicated."

Want to learn more about movie nights here at my old folks' home? Then you need to read the funny and sad and moving and interesting look at life behind the walls of a senior complex. My book is called Active Senior Living and ....

You can order my new book ACTIVE SENIOR LIVING here: http://tinyurl.com/yh9oc43

 

You know how that works, don't you? Just click on that link. Amazing how many of the seniors here and even a cousin of mine didn't understand how to order... It will be available for Kindle but not for a few weeks.. son Lee will upload it when he gets back from New York City.

 

Now, about that infection. It is around the feeding tube and I have had this damn thing since the week before Thanksgiving. Was on Penicillin for 20 days and that didn't cure it. Now been on Keflex for 10 days. It is looking a bit better ,still hurts like crazy,but hopefully is on the mend now. A visiting nurse was out here twice this week and says it is starting to look better.

 

You want a bit of background on the book? I began writing on my blog about life here shortly after I moved in and people were laughing at what I was writing. One of my kids said don't blog it, go for it in a book.. so kept on writing but as a book. Wrote about a full year here, my first year ,from the day I moved in until a year later with all the crazy people I met, some sad things , some very funny things, some touching things and some things that touched me. And some that did not touch me, like the men eager to tell me that either they had Viagra or didn't need it and mind you, these old goats were in their late 80s, to mid 90's.

 

There is a fan page for the book on Facebook called Active Senior Living. Easy to find and it has some excerpts from the book on it. Son Lee has also written about it on his blog and put some stuff from the book on there.  You can get to the fan page of Facebook by typing these words into google....  book by Jan Curran.. and up comes that facebook page plus a link to ordering the book plus a link to this blog and a blog son Lee created for the book, too.

 

Daughters Karen and Linda sent out a charming little newsletter to their fans announcing my book.. now just waiting to see what son Tod Goldberg does. he always makes up stuff about me, has me doing things I don't do and goes for the laughs. I may be sorry when he goes to promo the book.

 

Brother Burl Barer put a promo on his blog , too... those are true crime readers and I hope they don't find my book to be a true crime.

 

I also worry about the people who live here. Although all names have been changed and composite characters created, some are dead accurate and I hope my daughter Karen, the lawyer, will be prepared to defend me if someone decides to sue even though the book is listed as fiction and in humor category.

 

It's not all funny cus I wrote about my battle with cancer that first year, too, the radiation and all and how supportive the people here were to me. Very loving, just as they are now when I am fighting cancer again.

 

I hope you will enjoy the book and that it will give you a smile. If your parent is considering going into a retirement home or you have a friend battling cancer or you just want to know what goes on behind the walls of one of these places.. then this is the book for you.

 

Oh, funny story I got from son Lee Goldberg today.He is in New York City for a meeting of the Mystery Writers of America board and was walking down the street when a stranger approached him. Turns out the man is one of Lee's fans and recognized him from his picture on his blog and the back of his books. Lee was shocked.  Neat story.

 

Had my cancer scans yesterday with the results back to me on the 21st. Daughter Karen will go with me to be my advocate. Will keep you posted.

 

Now, you go relax. Maybe with a new book??

 

 

 

Drat, have one mean infection around the feeding tube.. skin all bright red and hurts like the Dickens... yesterday called the surgeon who said go to the gastro specialist who then said go to the surgeon. Finally I put my foot down and got angry and said , " I have a bad infection, someone has got to see me and now!". The gastro guy agreed to see me. What a cranky son of a bitch he was. Barking orders to his staff ,barking orders at me, mad that no visiting nurse has been here since early in November. Hey, that's not my fault, yell at Medicare, not me! After being on penicillin for 20 days this doc put me on Keflex and enough for two weeks so hope that will do the trick.. otherwise he says I have to go see an infectious disease specialist to find an antibiotic that will work.
My caregiver is a very sweet girl but she never once said to me, " I think you have an infection" and she looks at that site every day when she changes the bandage. I looked at it on Sunday with a mirror after my shower cus it hurt so much and gees, bright red skin in a big circle all around the feeding tube and very obviously infected. So Monday morning by 8 a.m. I had already made contact with the surgeon, but didn't see the specialist until about 3 that afternoon. Today is my first full day on the antibiotics. Oh, the doctor said I needed a visiting nurse to be here, well , so had his partner said that to me in November and no nurse ever showed up. So today I called the nurse agency myself and asked if they had a work order for me from the doctor. Well, not yet, but they will call the doctor and get the ball rolling since I have this nasty infection and really do need a nurse to check it out every day until it is gone.

Dragged along Grisham's collection of short stories to the doctor office with me in case I had to wait and I did so started the book. Think I am going to like it a lot.
Karen got it for me as one of my Christmas gifts.

Was 71 here today and they call this winter? Last winter was chilly and damp but this is like summer and I am loving it. Perfect climate.

This is coming to you by way of the new keyboard son Lee got me. It's very touchy, barely touch a key and up pops the letter in my writing. Will take a little getting used to.

Okay, this is supposed to be the quick compose feature on Typepad which means you just write a little bit and I am sure I have gone over the limit. Sort of like Twitter but without a character count....

Until next time...

Happy New Year! Didn't do anything exciting here. Was in bed with Dominic Dunne before 9 p.m. Slept in until 8:30. Caregiver has the day off so went downstairs for lunch. First time to do that since last May. People were surprised to see me. It was fun. Been going down for dinner now for a couple of months, but hadn't gone down for lunch yet. Usually the caregiver gives me the feeding tube or feeds me Filipino food for lunch but with her gone, down I went and glad I did. Was getting bored up here all alone. Chilly here today. Okay, so chilly here means 60 degrees but that is chilly enuf for me, and the mornings are downright cold with it in the 40's. Thinking, still, of tossing my old mink coat across the bed as a blanket. Why the heck now, surely not going out anywhere where I would wear it now. Ah , the days of glam events in DC and Palm Springs are long gone now.. and the nights of wearing the coat, too. Feeling okay, just the ongoing fatigue that is so frustrating.. but hey, no pains, so thankful for that! See the oncolgoist again on the 8th or did I already tell you that? Don't like this new " Quick Compose" thingee on typepad.