As for me ...
Radiation Treatment Status: 16 treatments done. 14 left! I'm on the downward slope. It's good to be over half way. My skin is getting more pinkish and feels a little more uncomfortable every day.
I'm disappointed to report that my joints aren't feeling any better. In fact, today they feel very bad. After my treatment this morning, I ran a couple of errands, which meant getting in and out of the car three times. By the time I got to Sobey's for my last stop, I could hardly walk at all. I wonder if the cold weather doesn't make things worse? Maybe the cold seeped through my thin soles and froze my heels and my lower calves. They just didn't want to bend at all when I was trying to walk about. After the grocery store, I was just glad to get home. I hope that getting warmed up will make a difference, but so far it's not. I think I'll try a hot bath.
Oh Heather. I envy you the fact that you CAN have your hot bath. I have a jacuzzi tub, with lots of room to get into and to fill right up with hot water, but with my joints, which yours seem to be mimicking (for other reasons), I cannot get back out of the tub! Anyway, I hope you did get toasted up, and am cheering for you that the joints do get more free-moving once meds. and radiation get all sorted out.
ReplyDeleteTonight, I will finish reading "The Magician's Elephant", a children's book, which I could not resist when I was looking for a book for my nephew. If a title has "green", elephant" or "book" in it, I will be reading that book, albeit slowly. I am not a fast reader, never have been; although I will often have three to six books on the go at the same time. I am also re-reading several of the joyful entries in Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (outloud to myself) before I give it to my niece to read to her two little girls.
Cheryl
P.S. I do not mean to diminish the weighty number of problems you are so valiantly enduring and being so open with us about.
ReplyDeleteCDB
Hi Cheryl! How nice to hear from you ... and the 2nd part of your post was completely unnecessary, you know!
ReplyDeleteIt does feel wonderful to have a hot bath! I can't lie down in the tub because of the radiated area but I can still warm my bones. I'm sorry you have similar trouble and I sympathize with your trouble getting out of the tub. I, too, have trouble getting out of the tub and I'm so glad nobody can see me because I look completely ridiculous! At least I can look forward to improvement once this drug starts clearing my system ... I expect ... I hope! I'd be very sad if this was to be my life ... this way I'm hobbling around now. I had hoped I'd be more nimble by now but I guess you can't turn drugs on and off like a tap. Tell me, does the cold weather make your joints worse?
I laughed so much at your inability to resist any book with "green", "elephant" or "book" in the title! "Elephant" I know about, but what's with the "green"? Are you Irish, a Rider Fan, an avid recycler, or all of the above? I can't resist any book that's about books or libraries. And I, too, am a real Shel Silverstein fan. My kids loved his books, too ... the poetry and, in particular Luke liked "The Missing Piece". I also have an adult book by Shel Silverstein. Definitely "adult" but the concepts expressed in the otherwise "adult" cartoons are relevant to everyone and I appreciate the simple way Silverstein expressed them. I love that book. It's called "Different Dances". And "The Giving Tree". Doesn't it just tear at your heart? My friend, Elaine, and I used to give each other a children's book every month so we both built up quite a nice collection before I ever had any kids to read them with. I still love to browse the children's lit sections of bookstores just to admire the stories and some amazing illustrating and when amazing art illustrates a wonderfully told story, it's heaven. I wish I could still collect but it's an expensive hobby.
When Luke was little, his favourite book was about an elephant named Bump. Before he had much of a vocabulary, if he saw a picture of an elephant, he always called it "bump". I don't think I have many books with "green" in the title, by the way. Now I'll be watching for them.
I'm going to finish up some books I have sitting around here waiting for me to read them. When I do get a chance to browse a book store or a library, I intend to look for some of the titles you recommended earlier.
Stay warm, Cheryl!