Due to inflation costs I must say goodbye to my dearly beloved. I've always proclaimed to be a "Tide" girl but I must say that money and referrals talk! A good friend of mine told me that her cousin makes her own laundry soap. I thought at the time, ya right, like I'm going to be a pioneer in the 2009's. Well I'm here to say that after talking to people about this home made laundry soap it is WORTH it. My sister in law Cicily is the one who gave me the recipe and she told me it's great soap, clothes come out clean and they smell good. So I decided I have 10 bucks to loose if I don't like it. Instead I now have a 5 gallon bucket FULL of soap that should last me at least 6 months, maybe even more!
So for under 10 buckaroos Eric, myslef, and the kiddos made our own detergent. First you have to go to Home on the Pot, otherwise known as Home Depot and invest in one of their posh orange buckets with the lid for 2 dollars! I know it's quite expensive. Then you go to your local grocery or Wal-mart store and buy
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda,
Borax, and
Fels Naptha.
Then you follow the directions: I just grated the bar of Fels Naptha into some water.
Once the bar of soap is dissolved you add the other ingredients:
Then you pour mixture into the orange bucket! You have to wait 24 hours before you can mix the soap. I found mixing the soap the funnest part. It feels WEIRD! But it smells CLEAN! The next day you can use your soap. I use the regular tide cap and fill it full and my clothes are just as clean as they were with the Tide. Hooray! I'm a pioneer.
Here is the real recipe:
Ingredients:1 whole bar of the Fels Naptha grated ( I just use an old cheese grater)
1 1/2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1 1/2 cups Borax
All of these can be bought at Food City, or Walmart on the detergent isle (down low on the shelves)Directions:Mix grated soap and 12 cups of water until melted. Remove from heat. Add other ingredients and mix until dissolved. Pour 8 cups of hot water into the 5 gallon bucket. Now add soap mixture and stir. Next add 2 gallon plus 12 cups of cold water and stir. Let sit for 24 hours and then mix up. After 24 hours the mixture forms a gel like consistency that needs to be separated. You can use a whisk or spoon but the best way to do it is get your hands in and break it up. It will look like egg drop soup when it is done. Very weird consistency but it really works great!Give it a try my fellow bloggers, you just might love it too!
The culture he sent off came back fine and so he sent me home with pain meds. The days went by and this spot on my leg kept growing. It was super painful because of wear it sat on my inner thigh. It was constantly being rubbed by my other leg. Ouch, I began to despise this new addition to my leg and wanted it gone NOW. So I figured if I went back to the ER they would see how nasty it was and cut it out. 
Once there a nice PA told me I wish we could cut it out but unfortunately this isn't emergent and so you will need to go to your primary care doctor and get a referral to a surgeon. The next day Eric changed my primary care doctor to a new one and made me an appointment to have this "thing-a-ma-jig" out of me once and for all. I went to this new Doctor and was so impressed by there promptness and there genuine concern for me and my pain. By the time I saw this Doctor it was the beginning of May. With a referral in hand I made an appointment with the surgeon. When I went to the surgeons office he was super kind and told me he had never seen anything like it before. He said that it was most likely double the size inside my leg and he wanted to take it out as soon as possible. We talked about worst case scenario, he said when he sends the mass off to the pathologist there is a chance they won't know what it is. And so in that case we would just chalk it up to having a weird deal and unless another grew back we wouldn't worry about it. I asked him if it appeared to be cancerous and he said not at all. On May 19th he finally removed my mass. The surgeon told Eric he was able to remove it all and it was about the size of a golf ball. He said it was very granular and he had never seen anything like it. The mass was sent off to the pathologist here in AZ and they said it was some sort of lymph tissue but they didn't have all the necessary tools to give it a name. So my mass went off to Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic pathologists. On June 1st while I was up north enjoying the cool weather and family, I received a call from my surgeon. He said he received the results from the Mayo Clinic and he was sad to tell me that it appears to be Lymphoma. I said, " I have cancer"? He said yes, you have a form of lymphoma called T-cell lymphoma. Then he began to tell me of a cancer center with a really good oncologist that he has worked closely with before. He hung up after giving me the address and phone number to the oncologist. I had an appointment scheduled that day with Dr. Joseph Nabong at the Ironwood Cancer Center. I invited my Mom to come with Eric and I so that she could take in all the info given to us. We all three were super impressed with the doctor. He was gentle, calm, knowledgable. Everything we weren't he was and I immediately felt at peace with what was going on in my body. I have a serious fight going inside my body and I need chemotherapy to attack it and rid it once and for all. The form of lymphoma is aggressive and rare. The doctor wanted to get right on my therapy so that I would have the greatest chance of remission. I began to have pain in my left breast and when I called the doctor he told me I needed to go to the ER. He said that we needed to make sure the lymphoma wasn't already spreading. The CT scan I had showed a mass on my left breast and on my liver. It isn't very relaxing to be in the hospital. In fact they poke and prod you so much you hurt worse while there. But I was grateful to be in good hands where testing could be done if needed. I spent three days in the hospital while doctors scheduled different tests and blood work. On the last day the pathologist came in and did a bone marrow biopsy. I was so relieved the pain was short lived and the results of the biopsy came back clear. I had an outpatient mammogram done the next day and the radiologist there couldn't believe that the mass on my breast was now nowhere to be found. What a blessing! Two miraculous blessings in a row. My spirits were high and the oncologist said we're starting chemo ASAP. Friday June 18th. It went well sitting down at the cancer center with all the white haired people drinking my chemo juice. I was there for 3 hours and left with only a headache. I felt very good for the next two days and thought I was getting lucky with my symptoms being NONE. All that changed drastically on Sunday day three after my chemo. I felt like life was being sucked from me. It literally feels like my body is dyeing. I have no energy and I feel nauseous. The symptoms today, 7 days out of chemo are getting better. I still have nausea but I believe its caused from heartburn. Each day is getting better, I understand I must continue on with the treatments for my families sake. I will do it for my family, but I DON'T like it! Not one bit!
