Places I Have Lived

 

My life in flags and countries:

America 1954 (Portland, Oregon)  Born there 

 

 

Greece 1955-57 (Athens)

 

Okinawa 1957?

 

Afghanistan 1959-61 (Kabul)

 

Thailand 1976-78 (Bangkok)

 

Poland 1979-81 (Poznan)

 

 

Thailand 1981-83 (Chiang Mai)

Norway 1984-86 ( Tromso)

 

Taiwan (Taipei) 1989-90

 

China (Guangzhou) 1990-91

 

Australia (Perth) 1995-98

 

 

 

This t-shirt makes me laugh!

 

Life is so confusing!

 I don't have a brain tumor according to the MRI I had last week.  I announced it at church yesterday and everyone applauded.   It's a real relief.  But also a mystery.  Why do I still have these damned headaches?

I have been waling up all achy too.  My legs feel swollen like they did a few months ago.  I know that I was diagnosed with CRPS ( Complex regional pain syndrome)   but I thought that I was all better.  But I guess maybe it comes and goes.

 It's hard NOT to be depressed.    I honestly don't feel like doing anything most of the time.  My knitting helps a lot.  Also, I am glad I have started to go to church.   Being around people helps a lot too.  Combine that with a church knitting group that I have joined and I am actually happy.

Dream are strange too.  I usually don't remember my dreams, or at least don't think about them much. The last two nights my dreams have been strange and very real.

The first one was my mom- completely healthy- not stroke symptoms- visiting me with a man (a date?).  She looked great.  I offered them some coffee but then I was not able to figure out how to make coffee even thought there were a variety of coffee makers.

Last night I dreamed that I was at the funeral of a young soldier.  At Arlington Cemetery.  There were a group of us women sitting around a round table working on decoration the table and organizing snacks.    The dead guy was on a table.  He had his uniform jacket on but just boxer shorts on the bottom.  Someone said they were waiting for makeup and manicure before completing dressing the guy and placing his in his coffin.   So strange.

One re-occurring theme is that my dad is in a special burial place at Arlington where I can go into an underground room and visit his coffin any time I want to.

What the heck?   

 

Sometime in the next week or so I am going to North Carolina to help out with Galileo.  I am not sure what I'll be doing exactly, but I am cool with babies, and this one is my grandson which makes it all worth while!  

I Do NOT have a brain tumor!

 I have been thinking lately of the things I want to do.  Nothing daring or exciting in normal people's live, but something that I am good at and gives me great pleasure!

 I would love to spend at least a week at each of my kids' homes and really helping.  I am good at cleaning and organizing and find a great deal of satisfaction in doing it.

 I try to do little things when I visit.  Do the dishes, fold laundry etc.  

With Darcy and Jody maybe I could do more to take care of the baby and even let  them go out- alone- for dinner or a movie.

It's funny how sedentary I am at this time and space in my life .  I sit at my computer like I am doing now.  I watch TV.  I read.  I knit.  And I am almost always tried.  I know that it'd my sedentary life style.   

I am 71.  I guess I am old.  Or on the cusp of bring old.   Then I come across this picture of my mother around age 42 with Jimmy, her first grandson who was about 18 months old.

She was so young!   Jimmy was so young too.  If I had become a grandmother at 42 my grandchild would be in his late 50s.   Instead, I became a grandmother at 70, and when my grandson is in his 50s I will be way past 100 years old and dead!

The age old questions about where did the time go and how.

When the kids were little and living a home, I was also home- being a full time mom.  There were times when I got tired and needed a break.  But I did all of the domestic stuff- cooked, cleaned house, did laundry and washed diapers.   For the most part our house was pretty neat and clean.  And I mostly loved it.

I sewed costumes and there were pretty creative.

Do I really want to go back to all of that?  No, I am pretty sure I don't.  Would like like some of that energy back?  In a heartbeat!

I have had two brain surgeries to remove brain tumors.   The headaches I have had for the past month or so have had me convinced that I have another brain tumor.   I had an MRI and found out that I don't have any tumors in my brain.   It's such a relief!

 

***************************************

 

MR Brain WO contrast

Encounter ID: E26003044954

21

July

Results For NANCY RUTH SHERWOOD

Exam Date 7/21/2025 9:57 AM

Facility STONESPRINGS HOSPITAL CENTER

24440 Stone Springs Blvd
Sterling VA 20166

• Exam

Radiology reports are just one tool used in diagnosis. It is important to discuss the results with your physician in order to fully understand what the findings mean in your situation.

                                    StoneSprings Hospital Center
                                    24440 StoneSprings Boulevard
                                          Dulles, VA 20166

                                     Magnetic Resonance Report
                                               Signed

Patient: SHERWOOD,NANCY RUTH                                      MR#: V001468485
DOB: 05/05/1954                                                   Acct: E26003044954
Age/Sex: 71 / F                                                   EMR#: N00881439
Loc/Rm/Bed: E.MRI /                                               ADM Date: 07/21/25
Attending Dr: Neeraj Bhushan MD


Ordering Physician: Neeraj Bhushan, MD
Date of Service: 07/21/25                                         Result Code:
Procedure(s): MR head/brain wo con                                 Result:
Accession Number(s): N000000124744E                                 Follow Up:

cc: Neeraj Bhushan, MD
MRI OF THE BRAIN WITHOUT GADOLINIUM:

 History:
 Persistent headaches

 Technique:
 Axial T1, FSE T2-weighted, FLAIR, and diffusion weighted. Sagittal T1. Examination performed on a
1.5T closed MRI
 scanner.

 Comparison:
 4/16/2021

 FINDINGS:

 There is evidence of left frontal craniotomy with left frontal lobe encephalomalacia. Adjacent
FLAIR hyperintensity
 consistent with gliosis. The ventricles are normal in size and configuration, and no midline shift
is present. The
 gray-white matter distribution is normal. No other focal areas of abnormal signal intensity are
present in the brain
 parenchyma. No extra-axial collections are present. No areas of abnormal enhancement are present.
No foci of restricted
 diffusion are present.

 There are flow voids within the vessels at the skull base. Visualized paranasal sinuses as well as
mastoid air cells are
 clear.


ORDER #: 0721-0110 MR/MR head/brain wo con
IMPRESSION:
1. Postoperative changes left frontal lobe.
2. No mass, hemorrhage or abnormal enhancement identified.
3. Stable appearance of the brain.

Electronically signed by:  Arun Kumar             7/21/2025 1:41 PM
         Signed on workstation:  HCA-REMOTE02A


Dictated By: Arun Kumar, MD
Signed By:07/21/25 1341




DD/DT: 07/21/25 1339   Technologist: DS
TD/TT:     Transcriptionist:

 

Odds and ends of living abroad

 

 

 

I was looking through some Rubbermaid bins in the basement and came across these "souvenirs"  from my childhood.  The camels are from Afghanistan.  My parents had these sitting out somewhere- I don't remember where.  I just remember seeing them all of the time as a kid.    When we lived in Afghanistan, we often had to wait to a caravan of camels to walk past our gate so we could get across the street to the school bus. (if you could call it that)

 

 

When we were living in Afghanistan, my sister needed her tonsils out.  She and our mom rode on the Khyber Pass to get to Peshawar, Pakistan so they could get a plane to New Deli India.  They must have had an embassy car?    Anyway, they went to India and my sister had her tonsils out.  When they returned, they had this doll for me.  I named her "Lobster".  No idea why.  Her dress was a bright green- after 60+ years it has faded.

 

My sister and I were recently talking about Lobster and wondering whatever happened to her.  I was sure she was long gone!  Surprise!   I found her! 

My doll named Lobster

 

 

 

 

We lived in Athens Greece before we lived in Afghanistan.  I was a baby when we went there and three years old when we left.  So I don't really remember much at all.

 This doll is a Greek lady. 

The doll beneath is a Greek policeman. 

This little doll is a Swiss Guard- like they have at the Vatican protecting the pope,  Again, I don't really remember, but this doll has been in my life for as long as I can remember.

My family traveled in Europe- most likely on the way from Greece back to the US. 

Another Afghan camel

 

This fellow in the pleated skirt of an Evzone.  The Evzones are the official guards at the royal palace in Athens.   All of the Evzones are  6' tall or taller which is pretty unusual for Greek man.  This is how they look during the changing of the guard.

 

Family lore has it that I spoke Greek before I spoke English.  I don't remember, but I would love to study Greek sometime and see if it is at all familiar.

 

So by the time I was 7 years old I had lived a pretty interesting life!