Back To Nature

NOTE: I originally started this entry almost 2 weeks ago on Nov. 8th. Whoops!

Nov. 8th - BACK TO NATURE . . . by which I mean I am currently travelling through gorgeous countryside near the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York via Amtrak, and my cell phone frequently has NO bars. (What did you expect? I grew up in a NYC Housing Authority project. It’s highly unlikely I’d be going camping . . . although the concept does hold a certain exotic appeal, come to think of it.)

All of this fabulous natural beauty has helped me be zen about my inability to finish my wildly overdue quarterly billing (I am literally THE last person in our division holding up the quarterly reports) due to the pathetically poor wi-fi service on the train. [I am writing this in Word, and then pasting it over later.] That spotty connectivity, plus the ancient laptop issued to me by my company (it was assigned to several other users before me, so do the math) have rendered logging into the network impossible.

Hence, zen.

I mean, just LOOK at this, somewhere on Lake Champlain . . . how could you remain unmoved by this?

Nov, 12th - BACK TO LIFE . . . BACK TO REALITY

Everybody who remembers Soul II Soul from the late 1980s, raise their hand.

The portion above the photo was written on my way north to Montreal, on Friday, November 8th. Now, I’m on my way south, returning to NYC. Taking a leaf, er, cue from my earlier trip, I’m just gonna go zen and resign myself to no wi-fi unless I move to the café car, which is frequently closed for periodic cleaning, despite being very tidy (my translation? don’t mess with the unions and their work break rules). At those points, I’d have to move my laptop back to my seat. So as they say in New Yawk, fuggedaboudit (translation for my Europals: forget about it).

Besides, I sense a nap soon with my handy dandy, (relatively) new, buckwheat hull-filled, U-shaped neck pillow. Woot!

Yep, those inflatable pillows are kind of annoying, and between two 11-hour Amtrak journeys, and next April’s roundtrip to Amsterdam (WOOHOO!) I figured I could splurge on a nice firm travel pillow for US$20 and more storage in my already cluttered home. Since I remember that memory foam traps your body heat (and I already get hot flashes) I opted for the buckwheat filling – and its minute potential for air circulation – instead.

Oh boy. I’d forgotten just how much rambling I did in my blog. Hope my stream of consciousness musings aren’t giving y’all whiplash.

[Sidenote: making it out of Canada just in time, as it’s snowing, and this morning was “my ears hurt, and face is frozen” weather. My ears may stick out from decades of eyeglass wearing, but I do prefer them to remain attached to my giant head.]

[insert nap: here! heheheheheh]

Nov. 12th - THREADING THE NEEDLE (AFTER A NAP)

Speaking of my giant head, we arrive back at the ever expanding list of potential health concerns. (Yeah, middle age pretty much sucks that way.) While my noggin, as I’ve mentioned before, is biologically disease free (note the word “biologically” >> after the laughter dies down, let’s have a hearty “BOY HOWDY!”) apparently my liver is not so lucky.

Despite having a cholesterol level of a mere 187 (WIN! and my triglycerides are low, and. . . ) the past few rounds of blood tests at Sloan Kettering AND my annual physical have shown elevated levels of certain liver proteins. One of the causes of THAT could have been my tamoxifen regime (4 years down, 1 more to go). Ergo, my oncologist ordered a liver ultrasound this summer.

I never got much detail about the ultrasound results from the oncologist, but my primary care physician was not pleased by them and mentioned some medical term I didn't catch, but which he explained involved fatty deposits in my liver, which -- if left unchecked -- can lead to cirrhosis. Ummm....ICK! I mean, check out this photo for a visual of what a liver cross-section would look like.

So the upshot is that I will need to [1] change my diet to a low-fat regimen, since I can't just up and stop taking tamoxifen, and [2] gradually* lose some weight, since obesity is also a possible contributing factor to non-alcholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Plus, my knees will be happier carrying around an extra 30 pounds. *Ironically, rapid weight loss exacerbates NAFLD.

[insert another nap: here! I love long train rides. . . ]

Nov. 19th - CUT!

Okay, in the interests of finally publishing this meandering ramble, I've chopped off the last (and unfinished) section for a future post, and am ending THIS post:  [here].