Friday's Treatment and More

In case you haven't been paying attention to the weather in Seattle (and why should you?), we have been having a heat wave.

A "heat wave" by Seattle standards means temperatures in the high 80s, which melts Seattleites right down to their Tevas. (A perfect day in Seattle is 72--cool enough to play tennis or ride a bike.)

As a result of this heat wave, I've had to water my garden twice a day, and I've been picking a quart of strawberries every morning. (And eating a cup or more, every day. Yum, tasty antioxidants.) Jam is coming soon.

I decided to take a weekend off from the keyboard, which means I am even further behind than I was last week ... But I had a great weekend: Car Guy fixed the leaking shower upstairs in the Teenager Suite (I helped), and yesterday we went out to do the touristy-est thing possible: We rode the Duck--a tour of Seattle by land and sea in a floating vehicle. It was incredibly fun--and I was reminded of why visitors fall in love with Seattle: It's a beautiful place.

So, anyway, after that long-throat clearing lead, I started out to write about my treatment on Friday ...

The Korean TV crew--two guys, Mr. Kim and his side kick Kevin (never did get his last name), who did most of the talking since Mr. Kim seemed unsure of his English--came to interview me in the morning for a documentary about health insurance woes.

They decided that they wanted to tag along to my appointment at the cancer center and get some shots of me with Dr. Lee (who is, sadly, Chinese American, not Korean American--they would have loved to tell their viewers that my doctor was Korean American: son of immigrants makes good, and all of that) and getting treatment.

I was getting a little tired of them by that point (we had been talking for more than two hours and I was tired), and also getting a bit tired of attempts to make me cry on camera or get mad on camera--I realize it's hard to make health insurance woes dramatic, but it's a lot of "It depends..." and "Well, not exactly ..." Copays and deductibles don't make for sexy TV.

Anyway, the Korean guys shot me getting a blood draw and having my appt. with Dr. Lee, who was totally a good sport about it and explained my treatment very clearly in medical-ese that probably will have them scrambling for the dictionaries when it comes time to translate it. And then they took a few shots of me in the chair getting my drugs.

It was kind of a weird appointment. My blood pressure was way low, and my pulse was racing. I did admit to feeling a bit lightheaded. So Dr. Lee ordered IV fluids for me, and I got that at the same time as the zometa and the Avastin, which we just added back to my regimen.

I've never had to get IV fluids before, but it was hot on Friday, plus the Tykerb keeps my tummy pretty much permanently upset, which dehydrates me. Anyway, I felt a lot better after getting the fluids.

Everything else was fine. We got the results of the BRCA gene testing back, and I don't have the mutation, which means Younger Son (my biological child) doesn't have to worry about passing it on to his daughters or about an increased risk of colon cancer, which is also a result of the mutation.

I drove myself to and from my appt. in the Red Corvair, which behaved beautifully, and came home and crashed out for a couple of hours. Car Guy woke me up when he showed up at about 6, and we got take-out sandwiches from Subway and went to Golden Gardens to eat our dinner on the beach.

Seems like half of Seattle had the same idea, but it was a beautiful evening.

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[Amorette]

Ah, the Korean money-envelope :)

I used to have a job tutoring Korean kids in English. It morphed into a babysitting job, the best one I ever had (the children were impeccably well-behaved). At the end of every evening there was the discreet handing-over of an envelope filled with (usually fresh-from-the-bank-uncirculated)
cash.

I've carried over the practice when tipping mattress delivery people and so forth- much smoother than handing over a few bills.

Now if only all of these Asian news agencies who help themselves to my bento pics started paying up...

[jeanne]

Yes, it is supposed to be new bills. I forgot that part ...

Using your photos? Argh. Talk to Sara about that--she might have some ideas for protecting your images. Or hire an intellectual property attorney, but that could get spendy.

I know people snatch photos off my blog sometimes, but I haven't dealt with the problem yet.