Thursday Morning Mish Mash

Well, I'm cuddled up here on my comfy couch with the trusty iBook (what DID we do before laptops? We had to work at WORKSTATIONS, that's what), trying to pull myself together after the past few days, which were off the stress-ometer, even with generous helpings of (legal) drugs.

The best thing that happened yesterday was that I ate the first peapod straight off the vine. That was delicious.

Actually, there was one other good thing: I received an e-mail of support from my former stepsister (my mother used to be married to her father, so I guess that makes us former stepsisters; we were all grown up when the marriage happened in the first place--second marriage for both our parents, and now they are divorced. How's that for a relationship?). In any case, I was touched to receive the e-mail.

I also saw my new oncologist here in Seattle, and he agreed with the break-from-treatment plan, so I don't have to do anything cancer related until early July, when I will have more blood tests plus an MRI and a PET/CT.

So this was good news, plus I like this new doctor quite a bit, but I had gone to see him just an hour after receiving the e-mail telling me that the mediator/arbitrator had ruled against me, so I was in that can't-see-straight, head-hurts, spaced-out-zone.

We've all been there. Usually after some nasty test results come in.

So today, the Big Plan is to pay my bills for the month of June, finally, and clean the bathroom, including little Percival's litter box, which is stinking to high heaven. He may weigh only 2 1/2 pounds, but he poops like a big cat. And walk Connie, of course. May sneak a little gardening in there, but that's it.

I need a recovery day. Time to myself. Low-stress time. Time to just allow what has happened to take root in my mind on its own.

Once I feel like myself again, I'm going to kick a** back online with some more posts about medical mistakes--a big topic for my readers.

8:40 p.m. Update on the Mish Mash
Well, I was more exhausted, and depressed, than I realized. Couldn't find the focus to pay bills, or the energy to clean the bathroom, but I did walk Connie (thank god for Ravenna Park, it feels like you are out in the woods) and do a bit of gardening.

Picked a bowl of strawberries and cleaned them to freeze toward the six or seven cups I need for a batch of jam. Ate another pea pod off the vine. Then I crawled into bed for the afternoon with three different books (I kept jumping back and forth, in between naps) and the dogs nearby for company. And that was my day.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

Comments

[Teri]

It sounds like you handled the depression just fine - with liberal applications of garden, dogs, and reading in bed! I have that on my list of things to do later today - up now due to fretting about my MRI today. Yep, we all have those days, but it sure is nice to know we aren't alone. Thank you for your writing skills! You are my tonic when I can't focus enough to pay bills!

[Sara]

You poor thing. I'm so sorry.

I'm not sorry about the peas. I'm jealous. My one English pea plant has been mangled by squirrel play just as it was starting to bloom (two whole blossoms!). I wasn't expecting much, especially since this plant came from a bunch of old seed I just stuck into the soil to see what would happen back in April. But I was hoping to get one good snack sometime while I was out watering the pots.

Peas I grow, no matter how many, never make it into the house. I view them as designated snacks for the gardener.

Okay, to be perfectly honest, it's also all I can do to bring inside any measurable portion of the tiny tomatoes and strawberries I grow when there are enough bees. Sun warm and fresh off the plant, they are just soooo good, so irresistible.

[Jeanne]

Oh, yes, waiting for the MRI...is this a "routine" one?

I just scheduled MRIs with my new doctor, so of course it is a different machine, and I said I needed an open-sided MRI (claustrophobic, big time), and then said "well, it's not exactly open ..." So I am going to go and see and if I can't do it, I can't do it and will go back to the place I got them before.

But I don't have to go in until early July--a whole month with no cancer-related appointments!

Please let me know how things go with the MRI, if you feel like it.

Jeanne

[Jeanne]

Sara--I have a lot of things I eat that way too--peas rarely make it into the house, blueberries NEVER do, cherry tomatoes sometimes.

A reward for the gardener. I like that.

Jeanne