www.cancermonster.net

 11:30a

I have been lying around this morning.  Napping off and on.  Didn’t sleep well again.  My tush is tot!   The skin is finally screaming for relief.  I thought a bath would feel good last night, but I have to tell ya . . . It was . . .not so great.

I tried to soak in the tub last week as well and it was just too hard to get comfortable.  So this week, I brought along a couple of those little rafts we bought for Robbie to sleep on when they came up before. I thought, you know, that I could lay on the rafts and it would cushion the cantankerous catterwhompy on my caboose.  You have to understand that I have been living in a twenty year old motorhome since May and a good long soak in a tub is just not something one can do with this manner of lifestyle.  This is my last week in my spinster retreat and my last opportunity for this relaxing form of recreation before I go back to the water-on-water-off kind of showering in the motorhome.

I really wanted to soak in this dern tub!

It just wasn’t working.  By the time I figured out a half way comfortable placement for both the air cushion and my natural cushion, I figured out that not much of me was actually soaking anymore.  I was an island in the sea.  My great plan just wasn’t so great.  Go figure.

Back in the bed, I flipped and flopped once again trying for a comfortable position.  If I laid on my right side and off the scorched skin, it hurt the left knee that is still taking time off for bad behavior.  If I laid on my left hip. . . Well I can’t lay on my left hip because my CancerMonster has had one too many tanning booth sessions over there.  I can’t sleep on my tummy because I sleep with a breathing machine (Did I forget to tell you that?) and although the air will continue to come in no matter how I repose, what goes in must come out again or I get very high. (ooh, maybe that would have worked after all? No, maybe not.)  So think again.  Straight flat on my back is impossible with this monstrosity on my nether side, but if I wedge this pillow here and that pillow there and another . . . Well anyway, I had a hard time getting comfortable there playing the pretzel.  This brings me back to the lying around this morning, see?

My second to last treatment is not until 2:45 this afternoon for some reason.  The change in the schedule is making me squirrelly.  I have been puttering around in between paragraphs packing what I can, doing the dishes, and the laundry.  I am having dinner out again tonight!  This time my hosts are the Lovely Lady Leenie and her Dashing Darling Denny.  Twice in one week eating out - three times if you count the Popeye’s Chicken dinner I had on Tuesday night in my room.  I am getting spoiled here!  Just in time to go back home. . . Since I am going to be out for a while tonight, I wanted to get as much done before dinner as possible. Tomorrow is CHECKING OUT FOR THE LAST TIME day!  But . . . I think I’m done again for the moment. Maybe another quick nap.

********
3:30p
Well, my radiant ladies were in rare form over there today!  And it wasn’t my fault, I swear!  They were already giggling before I uttered a word.  In fact, I was very quiet at first.  I was even taking a cat nap in the clubhouse before they came to get me. (This late schedule cut into my afternoon nap time and the girls were running behind.  I had just enough time sitting there in that dreadful gown to sneak off to la-la land for a couple or three winks.)   H wanted to know why I was coming in so late- when she made the schedule! That started it bubbling with her.  As I walked into the “Tropical Room” (Someone else has a sense of humor, too, with that name for the radiation room!), all I said to K was that I wanted her autograph because I saw her on a TV commercial for the cancer center.  And those two were off and running.  Getting ME into trouble!  Well, I wasn’t actually in trouble, but I didn’t get my “You’re Doing Great” kudos for lying still.  How could I lie still with H singing Sesame Street songs!  All the while, I was repeating, “This is not my fault!”

Please don’t get the wrong idea about my Ladies of the Tropical Room.  It’s not their fault that they have sunk to my level.  They are not like this with the other patients. (I have listened in sometimes to check on that.)  Somehow once I leave, they pull themselves together and are once again the extremely competent and professional starship bridge crew.  I feel for them, I really do.  Once I am finished here, they will not find such an opportunity to let their hair down in the middle of the day.  We have all discussed this.  There is no one else like me.  And that’s a really good thing.

I stopped off and talked to BB about getting my files and scans to carry along with me into the next chapter of this story.  They will have everything ready tomorrow for me to pick up.  I have found that having a copy of your records comes in handy.  I do not have a doubt that the staff at the center will pass on my files to Dr H. (Remember,  “House” is my surgeon at OHSU. He will be taking the ball from here out.) It’s just that files get lost through no fault of good people. And the University is a big place.  I asked BB to make me a copy to cart along AND send them on via the normal channels.  We’ll see who gets them there first.

Tomorrow’s it.  My last day.  The Last Zap.  Time flies when your having . . . Well anyway, it’s time to go home and stay there a while.

It’s amazing. It went so fast. This, too, really will pass.

Next!

********
.

.

On a site administration note: Dan says we -meaning his brothers and me- have to take our joking around (especially in regards to him, lol) from the Guestbook into the all new Discussion Forum.  Register once and click “remember me” and then join in.  We can talk about what ever you want!