Holly spent the last 3 days in Kansas attending her parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration. I had the weekend to my self-a girlfriend free weekend (GFW) as we call it. I had planned to drive to Asheville by myself either Friday or Saturday but my bone marrow biopsy Friday afternoon made me pretty sore. Tanya had to drill two holes in my rump this time since she couldn't get enough liquidy marrow for the slides and tubes from the first hole she drilled. I finally took the bandage off today, and it was a bloody mess. No wonder I'd been hurting there all w-e. I didn't think 3 hours in the car there and back to Asheville was the way to go.
I am reading a great book about breast cancer that I found in our little library. It's called " Five lessons I didn't learn from breast cancer and one big one I did" by Shelley Lewis. She was working for the Air America radio program when she was diagnosed. The book is her (funny) take on how breast cancer didn't teach her anything phenomenal or philosophical except that you get cancer, you do what you have to do, and you move on. None of that spiritual awakening stuff for her. I have to say, she has some of the pink ribbon stuff dead on. I did experience a twinge or two when she wrote about deciding which chemo regimen to pursue by electing the one less likely to cause a secondary leukemia. I don't remember being given a choice. Maybe I could go back and have a redo on that one. I wish. As she put it, leukemia seems like a step up in the cancer seriousness scale. I'm with ya babe. It sure felt that way to me too. That whole 7 + 3 treatment I took with continuous chemo for a week WAS the pits. Glad that is only a distant memory.
On to another subject. I saw one of my sweet older patients last week. Lora is a 90 yo black woman who lives in one of the local rest homes but manages pretty well for herself. Her mind is intact, and other than some high blood pressure and arthritis, she does great. She and I had talked previously about her sharecropper days when she picked tobacco and watched children while she was in the fields. She would set aside a place for the kids to play and pour kerosene in a big circle on the grass around them. The kerosene would keep the fireants and other bugs away from the kids while they played. After every row of working the tobacco, she'd head back and check on the kids. She used to collect $1 per child per day for babysitting them. It supplemented her income and allowed the parents to work. Talk about affordable daycare. I can't tell you how happy I was to see her and have her remember me too. We don't have any long term relationship or anything; we just really like each other. She calls me "mam" which just seems plain wrong, but I know it's a term of respect. I call her "mam" too because I brought up right, thanks to my parents and grandparents. Are people in the South still teaching their children to do that?
Photo: Holly and I at the top of the Lover's Leap hike in Hot Springs
2 comments:
I've appreciated reading your blog. I went through the precise same treatment as you from late October 2007 through mid March 2008. My diagnosis is the same--the inversion on chromosome 16. I went back to work (a paleontologist) May 1. I still feel a little tired, but whether this is continuing depression, chemotherapy fatigue, the previous winter's lack of exercise, and/or all of the above isn't clear. Keep writing, and remember that I think there are a lot of people who read your posts, but maybe don't post.
Best,
Ed of Albany, NY
Ed-Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement. I am just now getting my usual energy back and I think my brain is finally clearing too. I was very concerned about the difficulties I had with word retrieval and memory in general when I first started back. Have you noticed that and does it continue to improve? I try new things like crazy hoping that mental exercise, like physical exercise will help. I have to say, physical exercise and activity have been a godsend. Hope it helps you get back to where you were and better!
Post a Comment