That’s where I’m at now. After staring at a blank screen for a while, falling asleep twice, watching a couple of clips from “Throw Momma From The Train” on Youtube, making some tea (also in the beginning clip of the movie) and, my favorite procrastinatory, staring out the window and watching the Carquinez Straits roll choppily on by (yes, that’s a word, unlike the one further back in the sentence.) Ahh well with the way I feel I can’t blame my muse for taking a midnight flight out of Shitsville, or should I say the County of Constipation.
I never know until I get in there and the meat hits the seat. I do bring the Jungle Juice with me nonetheless, because the most painful of times have been in that little room, and I have thought, more than once, don’t let me die on the crapper. There are a number of ways shit happens, I’ll leave that there, but I haven’t had a normal, pain free, bowel movement since before my diagnosis. OK, enough of that shit.
Mumsy’s birthday was a blast! She brought Grandpa Ray with her, one of our favorites of Mum’s friends. He’s been asking her to marry him for a long time now, but at seventy-eight, being “in love” still matters to her. But Ha and I love Ray and will always root for him; at the same time we both want Mom to be as happy as she can be. Raymundo Cassani has some truly great stories that we love listening to; he’s quite gestural in the telling of them, animated even, but often times he doesn’t have his hearing aid volume up enough and let’s just say in those times they can be a bit off topic. But we find that kind of funny in a charming way. Ray's Birthday was just a few days away so we got him a hat. For Mum’s birthday Ray bought her a very nice stainless steel microwave, so Ha and I got her all the “microwave safe” cooking accoutrements we could find. Everything from a rice maker to an egg poacher…she was happy. Then I made a fancy salad with pears and radicchio, candied nuts, and some crumbly cheese. The main course? Pizza pie! Homemade dough and sauce with spicy sausage. Desert was chocolate on chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting, Mumsy’s 78th, which would have said 79th but she corrected me in an email a couple of days before. Nice night!
Mum spent the night and the next day met us at the VA for my appointments with my primary care, Dr. Drye, and oncologist, Dr. Katie Kelly. I had my blood-work done earlier so Dr. Drye had already looked at those numbers, which were not so hot (bilirubin@11) but quite representative of the way I had been feeling as of late. I’m learning that she, Dr. Drye, tends to be a bit cut and dry. No harm intended but we felt a bit worse when we left her office than when we entered. On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Kelley, who knows my status better than anyone yet she was quite positive about the blood test numbers. Asking us how all the alternative treatments were going and was I still walking every day, yes. We left feeling renewed and like we had a partner who would and had gladly fought for me as far as she could in the world of Western medicine. Kudos Katie!
I have started the Artemisinin and will start the Chinese herbs next week, which we are intuitively psyched about. Hopefully the Artemisinin won’t negatively affect my liver, and I’ll be able to continue with it and add the Chinese herbs. That’s why I started the pills a week before, so if there are any bad side effects I’ll know exactly what it’s from. The Chinese herbs will come in tincture form and are pretty costly, especially when I gradually get to the maximum doses. It runs about $1,200 bucks a month, so keep those donations coming. We are truly grateful for all the help we’ve gotten so far.
Acupuncture was pretty intense again this week. Christy is absolutely amazing, and the fact that I sleep quite a bit after the sessions is good because, to me, it means something is being or trying to be healed and I need to rest so that can happen.
OK for now.
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