My family rocks. Or as my sweetie said after meeting them all for the first time -- and not running away screaming into the night -- (and I do mean all: it was Thanksgiving), "They are fabulous."
My nephew calls periodically to see how I am doing. My younger niece sends me cute cards from the Left Coast. And my older niece sends me pretty flowers. (See?!) My mom counts down the days of treatment left, and my sister is there whenever I need to chat (unless it's after 10pm, when she turns into a pumpkin ;-P and which is when *I* should turn into a pumpkin but don't always do... even though I am tired! Schizo, I know).
So okay, I know family members are supposed to be there for each other, but I can still stop and smell (and appreciate) the roses, can't I?
And in other RTBT, my digital phone and digital cable modem mysteriously returned from the void tonight, without my having to take off Thursday (not my preferred use of a vacation day!) to wait for the cable repair person. Hoorah!
Of course, when my cable company advertised their "triple play" package, I don't think they meant to emphasize the fact that "oh yeah, now you can lose ALL of your connectivity to the outside world in one fell swoop" (thank goodness for my cellphone... so I could call them for a service appointment!)
And in other happymaking news, I only have FOUR MORE TREATMENTS TO GO !!! EUREKA! (Um, yeah, I'm just a bit excited.) Today was my first radiation "boost" and since the x90 express bus mysteriously did not show, I wound up taking a cab to the hospital (ouch! well, it was only $10 more than the x90 and it can go in my ever growing pile of medical expense deductions) since I knew it would take a while longer to set me up for the first shot.
The past several weeks have been the "shotgun" approach, as I've mentioned, and this "rifle/sniper" version requires a different machine with higher dosages/frequencies/something or others. So yes, once again, I was meeting new men and semi-topless within minutes. Sigh. Oh well. Since one of them was a HUGE Streisand fan, I think we can understand why he was the "designated scratcher" (I was motionless on the table for 30 minutes and suddenly noticed tormenting itches in various places) using some gauze pads.
So both men used Sharpies and vegetable dyes to draw a big circle around the target area with a big "X" right above the incision. My boob now (sort of) looks like Petey, the dog from The Little Rascals (a show I never liked, BTW). Unlike Petey, I am planning on MY circle not migrating from side to side (evidently, the show did not have a continuity person on staff).
While the treatment itself, like the "regular" radiation, is painless, I do occasionally experience sharp shooting pains afterward. (Well, I am poisoning my boob, after all -- I can't expect my body not to register some displeasure.)
On to more cheerful topics, like FOOD! (of course)
The photo below the flowers shows the remnants of the oxtail soup, after I fed my sweetie dinner last night. Since I let it simmer some more while I was reheating it, the meat fell completely off the bones by the time I served the soup. I found the pile of bones a funny sight. Hee! Also, since it was refrigerated, I was able to skim off all of the congealed fat. WW would be so proud. ;)
The next shot shows the roasted pork loin I fed my knitting buddies on Sunday night. Jackie and Marci had no quibbles with the superbly simple recipe which essentially consisted of sticking some fresh rosemary in the pork, shoving it in the oven with apple cider for 90 minutes and basting every 30 minutes. You can see the pile of rosemary I pulled out from the lusciously crisped layer of fat.
And of course, there were the accompanying roasted vegetables, which included the Japanese turnips I bought at the greenmarket. The seasoning was also wonderfully simple: toss with sherry (one of the only good things to come out of my ill-fated trip to Spain 5 years ago), salt, thyme, and olive oil.
Okay, thinking about this food is making my mouth water. Time to go to sleep and avoid eating anything else.
My nephew calls periodically to see how I am doing. My younger niece sends me cute cards from the Left Coast. And my older niece sends me pretty flowers. (See?!) My mom counts down the days of treatment left, and my sister is there whenever I need to chat (unless it's after 10pm, when she turns into a pumpkin ;-P and which is when *I* should turn into a pumpkin but don't always do... even though I am tired! Schizo, I know).
So okay, I know family members are supposed to be there for each other, but I can still stop and smell (and appreciate) the roses, can't I?
And in other RTBT, my digital phone and digital cable modem mysteriously returned from the void tonight, without my having to take off Thursday (not my preferred use of a vacation day!) to wait for the cable repair person. Hoorah!
Of course, when my cable company advertised their "triple play" package, I don't think they meant to emphasize the fact that "oh yeah, now you can lose ALL of your connectivity to the outside world in one fell swoop" (thank goodness for my cellphone... so I could call them for a service appointment!)And in other happymaking news, I only have FOUR MORE TREATMENTS TO GO !!! EUREKA! (Um, yeah, I'm just a bit excited.) Today was my first radiation "boost" and since the x90 express bus mysteriously did not show, I wound up taking a cab to the hospital (ouch! well, it was only $10 more than the x90 and it can go in my ever growing pile of medical expense deductions) since I knew it would take a while longer to set me up for the first shot.
The past several weeks have been the "shotgun" approach, as I've mentioned, and this "rifle/sniper" version requires a different machine with higher dosages/frequencies/something or others. So yes, once again, I was meeting new men and semi-topless within minutes. Sigh. Oh well. Since one of them was a HUGE Streisand fan, I think we can understand why he was the "designated scratcher" (I was motionless on the table for 30 minutes and suddenly noticed tormenting itches in various places) using some gauze pads.
So both men used Sharpies and vegetable dyes to draw a big circle around the target area with a big "X" right above the incision. My boob now (sort of) looks like Petey, the dog from The Little Rascals (a show I never liked, BTW). Unlike Petey, I am planning on MY circle not migrating from side to side (evidently, the show did not have a continuity person on staff).While the treatment itself, like the "regular" radiation, is painless, I do occasionally experience sharp shooting pains afterward. (Well, I am poisoning my boob, after all -- I can't expect my body not to register some displeasure.)
On to more cheerful topics, like FOOD! (of course)
The photo below the flowers shows the remnants of the oxtail soup, after I fed my sweetie dinner last night. Since I let it simmer some more while I was reheating it, the meat fell completely off the bones by the time I served the soup. I found the pile of bones a funny sight. Hee! Also, since it was refrigerated, I was able to skim off all of the congealed fat. WW would be so proud. ;)
The next shot shows the roasted pork loin I fed my knitting buddies on Sunday night. Jackie and Marci had no quibbles with the superbly simple recipe which essentially consisted of sticking some fresh rosemary in the pork, shoving it in the oven with apple cider for 90 minutes and basting every 30 minutes. You can see the pile of rosemary I pulled out from the lusciously crisped layer of fat.And of course, there were the accompanying roasted vegetables, which included the Japanese turnips I bought at the greenmarket. The seasoning was also wonderfully simple: toss with sherry (one of the only good things to come out of my ill-fated trip to Spain 5 years ago), salt, thyme, and olive oil.
Okay, thinking about this food is making my mouth water. Time to go to sleep and avoid eating anything else.
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