I Made It . . . Sort Of . . .

So, my last chemo was actually Monday the 26th, but then I had the Udenyca shot Tuesday the 27th, and fluid treatments on Wednesday the 28th, Friday the 30th, and Monday the 3rd, so I rang the bell, which you do when you’re done, on Monday. Waited until I was home alone to do the happy dance because innocent bystanders . . .

But wait, I had an appointment at the VA on the 4th for which they sent me two text reminders, called me twice on the phone to remind me and mailed me a reminder card. The second time they called to remind me, I was in the car on my way to the appointment. I was running a tad late (I should have been there 15 minutes early so I could wait in the waiting room for the full 45 minutes), but by the time I played their little “match your eyes to the circles” game, actually got in the building, and was standing at the line waiting my turn to check in, the lady came out and called my name to take me back. Arrghh.

This VA appointment wasn’t actually “for” anything. It was just a review. Note any changes in medications, renew prescriptions, talk over any health concerns. I got to look at my spine x-rays and the scoliosis leans to the left, is minimal, and is mostly in the thoracic (ribcage) portion. The trick now is to formulate some kind of program to keep it that way, i.e., core strength and stronger “traps” (trapezius muscles pull the shoulders back).

We reviewed my estrogen replacement therapy, which I’ve been on since my TAHBSO in the 1980’s (to prevent “surgical menopause”). I’ve consistently resisted efforts to take me off it (increased cancer risks in organs I’ve already had surgically removed, supposed to offer some protection against heart disease). Now the thinking is that it helps prevent osteoporosis. My last bone density test was normal, and I’d like to keep it that way.

I did mention that month before last, my oncologist was worried about me and sent me to see the cardiologist who said he wanted to do a chemical stress test, which he would have had to clear through the VA, but I never heard anything about it after that. My PCP said she’d check into it. (That evening, at 7 p.m. (!), my cardiologist’s office called me to schedule one. How’s that for service? It’s this coming Monday at 8:15 in the morning. Sigh.)

My VA appointment was at 1:30. I didn’t leave my PCP’s office until sneaking up on 4 p.m. because right in the middle of our visit, she was called away to deal with a hypertensive crisis over in the dentistry department. One of her patients had an adverse reaction to dental anesthesia (which contains epinephrine to minimize bleeding), and their blood pressure kinda went through the roof . . . It took her nearly 45 minutes to get that sorted before she came back and we finished talking about what we needed to talk about, but then, that’s why God gave us Instagram.

After I got done with the VA, I made a Walmart run. They didn’t carry what I went there to get, so I got clothes — some jeans and a pair of light-weight black pants with pockets. The only pair of lightweight black pants I have has ribbed cuffs, which I’m not all that crazy about and I’ve had them long enough that they’re not exactly black anymore . . . I also got some cute tops — a blue green one and a dark grey one with a crescent moon design on the front as well as some close-fitting long sleeve tops that you’d wear under a vest, a light jacket or a boyfriend shirt. (One of the basic philosophical differences my mom and I have is that she like tops that button up the front, and I hate them. The only tops I have that button up the front are a couple of velour boyfriend shirts, which I never button.) Oh, and I got yarn. And big buttons. To be fair, it’s el cheapo acrylic yarn, but I got 3 skeins of it. Lion Brand Mandala Ombre.

Wednesday, mom called to tell me she’d thrown up all day Tuesday and had been having chills. It’s always difficult when she calls because she can’t hear/understand me when I try to talk to her because of that jicky phone of hers. Since the nurse hasn’t called me about her, they are evidently not worried that it’s anything serious. In the environment mom is in, she is exposed to caregivers, residents and visitors who have (grand)children, so all kinds of goodies from the public schools (which are an epidemiologist’s delight) can get brought in. It could be some kind of Norwalk virus, or other GI bug. Those kinds of things turn up fairly regularly in the population she’s a part of. But, nasty as they are, they are only briefly nasty and tend to be self-limiting. Again, if it was anything serious that required medical treatment or hospitalization, they would call me.

The yarn I got at Walmart Tuesday is going to be a shoulder cowl, with three cables: a double braided cable down the center with horseshoe cables down each side. I actually got all the way to the second cable repeat and then had to rip it all back to the button band because the horseshoe cables were repeating too frequently, which was an easy fix, and the double braided cable, which is formed by two braided cables side by side, wasn’t braiding right, which was a temporary stumper. It’s less time consuming than diving down the rabbit hole of fiddling with search parameters until you stumble across a pattern that somebody else has already worked out for this than it is to just wrestle with the angel on the needles until it blesses you with success.

I’m also doing that nifty little selvage edge thing where you bring the yarn in front as if to purl, slip the first stitch on the row purlwise (sl1 wyif), move the yarn to the back of the work and continue with the pattern. Then you work the last two stitches in the row as sl1 wyif, k1. This is a picture from another project that shows it better. It’s hard to see in the Mandala variegated yarn.

Like I need another WIP.

Advertisement