(no subject)

[the_rck]

I have my preliminary appointment, the one for the radiation planning and scans and such, for October 1st at 11:00. It'll last at least two hours, so I'll probably need to pack a lunch to take with me. Hopefully, there will be time for me to eat and a place where it's okay if I do. Then again, the the appointment really is over at 1:00, I could probably just eat after. As long as I eat by 2:00, I'm usually okay.

I've counted weeks on the calendar. If I'm really lucky and if everything happens on the best possible timeline, I'll finish radiation the week before Thanksgiving. I'm hoping for that because Thanksgiving would put a bit of a crimp into the whole process. I'm assuming I'd still need to go in that day, but the staff wouldn't want to be there any more than I would.

I've pretty much decided that there's no way I can do Yuletide with this going on. I regret that. I've never had any luck getting myself to write treats, so I doubt that will happen, either, even if I find myself able to write. I will look around and see if there are any requests that I might be able to write a treat for, but, without an actual assignment, I'm unlikely to carry through. I know myself that well.

Scott and I discussed UCon yesterday, too. We concluded that there's no way we're going to be able to do the whole weekend. He and Cordelia may go in for the day on Saturday, but I'm probably not going with them. Well, it will depend on how I feel, but... That's fairly far into the treatment, and I'm likely to be pretty tired.

I have the feeling right now that there's something I really ought to be doing, something that I've completely forgotten. I think it's just that I'm reacting to knowing that there are things coming up that I want to get done but that I can't actually start on yet. All I can think of at the moment is the dozens of emails I have stacked up. I have been deleting a lot of things unanswered because I don't feel like I have the energy to deal with them.

I'm trying to figure out how we went from three full boxes of granola bars Saturday afternoon to the current two bars in the cupboard. That seems like a heck of a lot of granola bars for three people to go through in three days. We must have as the alternative is gremlins, but it doesn't seem reasonable. I hope Scott doesn't mind being asked to pick up more on his way home from work. He expects to work until 7:00 tonight, so stopping on the way home is a much bigger deal than it would be normally.

Cordelia was really appalled yesterday to learn that it is possible for cancer to come back and for the same person to get more than one type of cancer. I think she's actually more worried now than she was over the surgery, and I have no idea how to address that. I have some age appropriate materials from the American Cancer Society, but I don't know if I can get her to look at them (or if I can remember where I put them).

Scott bought me a ginger candy bar yesterday. It was supposed to be sweetened, ground ginger, but it didn't taste like ginger at all. The overwhelming flavor was scorched sugar. The ingredients were coconut sugar, ginger, and pectin, in that order, so I have no idea how that's possible. Is coconut sugar that nasty and that overwhelming? Why would anybody make a ginger product that doesn't actually taste like ginger?

The current estimate on the arrival of the new car is eight weeks. Neither Scott nor I are very happy about that, but there's not much to be done given that nothing already on the lot meets Scott's needs. Scott's still investigating financing options. He says that the best terms he's found are at the university's credit union, so we have to find out if my status as an alumna and as kind of employed by the U (I'm on long term disability leave, but for some purposes, I'm still considered technically an employee) are enough to let us qualify for a loan there.

Comments

[retsuko]

I will cross my fingers for that schedule working out for you.

I'm sorry to hear that Cordelia is scared and I wish there was something easy to suggest to help out, but I've got nothing. I'll keep sending good thoughts for her.

As for the granola bars, is there a chance that the boxes got moved somewhere?

[the_rck]

I threw out one empty box yesterday, and the remaining two boxes are in the cupboard with one granola bar each, so it's not that.

[minim_calibre]

With the radiation, has your oncologist let you know that, at some point after the radiation therapy, the area that got irradiated may have a visual change that may be terrifying? (AKA, my RN mother was convinced everything had come back, only to have her oncologist tell her, "Yeah, that happens sometimes after radiation."--nothing had come back, she's still in remission. It's obviously something that, should it occur, would need to be investigated, but is also something that might happen, but may be a known issue, and therefore less of a severe panic attack moment.)

Coconut sugar is weird. It tastes like stale brown sugar.

[the_rck]

They told me that there might be thickening of the skin and scarring, but they weren't very clear about other changes except to say that that breast will end up looking different from the other one. I'll ask for more details.

[kyrielle]

*offers zen hugs* I know very little about any of this to offer something helpful, but I care and I hope it goes well.

Also, I don't think I want to try anything with coconut sugar. Yikes.

[the_rck]

Thanks!

[chomiji]

*hugs*

My radiation treatments ran over Christmas/New Year's, I think. I do remember them being suspended for a day or two. Also, the area was hit by a huge snowstorm at one point, and I missed an appointment or two then. I actually could have walked to the hospital, but the staff couldn't get there.

I did get a second bout of cancer but it's likely that the only relationship between the cases is that Tamoxifen (which I started after the radiation was finished) is implicated in endometrial cancer. And the endometrial cancer was stage 0, and they didn't need to do any followup therapy after the hysterectomy.

Cancer is scary for anyone. My daughter was 15 when I had my first diagnosis, and I remember her worrying.

[the_rck]

That's good to know.

I must admit that the increased risk of uterine cancer is the main thing that worries me about the tamoxifen. I mean, I'm likely to get side effects because I often do, but that's the biggest potential problem.

I think cancer is one of those things that gets scarier for kids as they get older because they become more aware of the things that can go wrong. My eight year old nephew hasn't been worried at all about my sister's illness. Some of that is that they've been very careful about what they let him hear, but some of it is that he's still young enough to assume that his mother is immortal.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I have a bank account at the UM Credit Union because I'm an alumna, so I expect that you would count too.

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

I've got this picture of Granola Gremlins now. They are ugly in an almost cute way. :)