A Beautiful Long Weekend

Despite the fact that I felt like crap most of the weekend, it was still a very nice weekend and a productive one, too. Kevin was hell bent on making progress with the house painting so we did quite a bit of that. I painted trim and didn't get any higher than a few rungs up the ladder. I left the aerial to Kevin.

I had such a lousy cold on Friday. My throat hurt each time I swallowed. I didn't stray from the couch Friday night while Kevin walked down to the river to see the fireworks. I hate to miss fireworks but I really felt awful.

Then, when I woke up Saturday morning, I felt so good! Really! I even tried to swallow in such a way as to encourage a sore throat, but it didn't hurt at all. I mean, yes, I could tell that I had some remnants of a cold but nothing very bad. No headache. No stuffiness. I had such a productive day with house cleaning and I gave all my house plants a trip outside for a spa treatment. They look all tidied now. I gathered up paper and cardboard recycling ... carefully ... with one had so as not to trouble my left arm which seems to swell in the pit area now if I do anything with it at all. Despite my care during the day, my arm was uncomfortable that night as it is almost every night now. Still, I was as careful as one can be and that night we walked down to the river together and watched the gorgeous fireworks from the beer gardens. How fabulous to have beer gardens, fireworks, and loud music only 4 blocks from our house. It was all so pretty and we sang along with Abba as the sky lit up.

I was both incredulous and a little cocky about dodging that cold on Saturday. So maybe I had it coming when I woke up at 4:30 Sunday morning feeling awful again. How does that happen? Now I've felt mostly pretty rotten since Sunday morning and have been getting through the days and nights with Tylenol Cold medication. I got groceries on Sunday because it just had to be done. There was no putting it off any longer. And Monday was a full on painting day. The Wilsons graced us with an afternoon visit. They kept us amused while we painted. I expect we'll be painting all next weekend, too.

That underarm issue I'm having. I think I figured out what started it. It's been bothering me for a few weeks and I'll bet it got aggravated when I climbed the scaffolding to secure the ladder for Kevin after Luke had gone to coach lacrosse. Kevin asked if I could climb the scaffolding and since I'd already been climbing ladders, I said, "Sure"! Until I actually started climbing, it didn't occur to me that it wasn't at all like climbing a ladder, which is slanted and which I could do with one hand tied behind my back. Climbing straight up scaffolding required me to pull my weight up with both arms. As soon as I started up, it occurred to me that perhaps this would be too much of a workout for my arm. I should have stopped. But I didn't. I went up and then irritated things again by coming down. And ever since then my underarm has been quite uncomfortable. It's usually better in the morning when I wake up and then worse in the evening even if I haven't done anything even remotely strenuous with it. And if I do anything ... even regular house work ... it's really puffy at night and it makes it hard to get comfortable in bed because I typically sleep on my left side but can't when my arm is puffy.

I see my oncologist tomorrow and I'll ask him about it, though I'm not sure they know so much about "aftercare". I'm sure he'll recommend I see a lymphedema specialist and then I'll make an appointment with my massage therapist.

I love this particular species of hydrangea. The flowers start out white and then turn elephant popcorn pinkish before turning an even deeper pink. I took some photos of the various colours. It's especially pretty in late summer.