All through the month of June, while we suffered through temperatures in the low 60s and something like 20 days of rain in a row, one of my friends (yes, you, Peter), kept saying, "Summer never comes to Seattle until after the 4th of July," which I found annoying, because June of 2009 was a wonderful month ...
But, in any case, here we are, on July 8, and temperatures are supposed to hit 94 today. (So Peter was right, at least about this year.) To go from low 60s to 90s in just a day or two is brutal. I'm not sure my garden can take it, and I have drafted Younger Son to help me water. We soaked the garden this morning, and when I got home from treatment at about 3, the strawberry plants were wilting.
I'm not sure I can take these temperatures either--I am wilting like a strawberry plant--and so I sent YS out to water again. He's acclimatized after China, or so he claims, while I collapse on the couch with cold drinks, my dog, and my laptop. I would prefer not to have to go to my cancer center--or one of my cancer centers, I should say--for IV fluids, so I am going to do my best to drink a lot and stay in out of the heat.
Laurie and I tried to walk Connie this morning, at 9, and it was already too hot. We ended up in the park, sitting in the shade and throwing Connie's new frisbee from the shade. It was high 70s at 9 a.m.
My plan tomorrow is to try to wake up earlier than usual, and get a few things that require brainpower done while it is still cool--like calling my mortgage company, which still hasn't responded to my request for a extension on my "forbearance plan," which I mailed to them in April. Yes, this is Citibank I am talking about.
Because I've blogged about Citibank a few times in the past, I frequently receive e-mail from people who have had problems with Citibank or have been treated badly by the bank. Of course, most of these people want my help, and I feel like saying, "Read my blog," since everything I've done in my battles with the bank is detailed there. (See: Citibank)
That sounds a little pissy, which we can blame on the heat, but also on my own lack of energy and the fact that I like to reserve my "helping energy" for people who have cancer, preferably people with advanced or metastatic cancer or people who are newly diagnosed--those are the people I feel most drawn to. Middle-class people who are employed (with health insurance) and healthy and just had their HELOCs canceled? Not so much.
OK, I'm wandering here. I had my second radiation therapy treatment today to the right femur--the second time this bone has been radiated in the past six months or so, but in a slightly different spot. So there will be more "Tales From the Gowned Waiting Room," even though I don't bother to change into a gown for my treatments--I just pull down my pants.
Also, I realized this morning that I don't even remember how many times I have had radiation therapy anymore. I'll look it up on my blog, once the heat wave is over, but this is something like the eighth time. I keep thinking they are going to run out of spots to radiate ...
I want to get one of those little human outlines that sometimes pop up in my medical chart and mark off all the areas of my body that have been radiated, because I'm guessing it's something like 30 to 40 percent of my entire body, depending on whether or not you include my whole head for the tumor that was treated with cyberknife in January.
OK, this is getting weirder and weirder. Signing off now. Don't worry about me, those of you who worry. I'm in a good mood emotionally, and I'm pretty fair physically. Still behind on jewelry orders and replying to e-mail.
P.S.: I looked it up: This is the NINETH time I have had radiation therapy, all but the first time were to treat bone mets. The first time was after I had a local recurrence of breast cancer in the skin where my right breast used to be. Read more: Radiation
@ Jeanne Sather 2010.