23 July 2023
I’m still recovering from the surgery. I seem to need to sleep a lot. Nap time has taken on a totally meaning in my life. I can get out and around (I did grocery shopping this morning) but feel kind of blah. No bad but not good. The hematoma from the surgery seems to be going down a little and I’m not nearly as bruised as before but I still drain about 30 ml of very dark red blood every 24 hours. I am still quite sore from the biopsy of the axillary lymph nodes but I have a good range of movement. I can now put on a tee shirt without grimacing.
I looked up how long you can keep a drain in and one cancer website said three weeks. After that, you are prone to infection. I seem to be heading to the three week time frame. I go back to the surgeon on Friday but I can’t believe my drainage will lighten in color much less turn straw colored or clear so I’m sure she’ll tell me it stays in. I still have to sleep on my right side because of the drain on the left.
A friend who had a hysterectomy also had a drain. I commented I was afraid I would scare little children with my bloody bulb pinned to the outside of my shorts and she said she wore hers on the inside of her underwear. A lightbulb went off and I realized my shorts have pockets!
I’m a creature of habit. My wallet goes into my left back pocket, my house keys and car fob go into my right front pocket, and my cell phone goes into my left front pocket. Ever the old fashioned guy, I have a handkerchief in my right rear pocket. Another confession. Until TSA got so snippy about pocket knives, I used to always have one in my right front pocket. I was always cutting off branches on field trips around campus to show students botanical concepts.
It never occurred to me to put the bulb in the pocket of my shorts. I did for the grocery shopping and the tube was neatly hidden by the shirt. Of course now I’m discombobulated because my phone has joined my house keys and car fob which causes me all kinds of confusion. Half the time I can’t find my phone now. If I still have the drain for Halloween, I think I’ll sit outside the house and pass out candy with the bloody bulb visible.
The feels like temperature is only 106°F today. We are yet to have our afternoon thunderstorm but there’s still time. I did manage 1.4 miles this morning but it was at 7 am and still somewhat cool, comparatively.
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On my walk this morning I passed a house that has their front yard looking like a jungle. Both the swale and the front yard are overgrown with both native and non-native plants and when you walk on the sidewalk it’s like you have a jungle canopy over your head. It’s a great look and I like all the plantings. One plant jumped out at me in that it was right at eye level.
Can you believe the color of this? I grew up with maypops or passionflowers (Passiflora incarnata). I always told my students it looks like a flower from outer space. Most of the genera Passiflora are said to be neotropical. Perfumed passionflower is native to Central America and northern South America. The fruit is technically a berry but I know the fruit of P. incarnata (maypop) is mostly hollow with fleshy seeds. I think most are all vines in their growth form.
It’s called a maypop because when you step on the egg-sized fruit, you get a loud pop as it splits open. My first exposure to this phenomenon was visiting my brother at his father’s house in Brandon and riding horses in his pasture. The pasture was full of maypops and the horses would step on them. Then when I walked the pasture, I would take great pleasure in jumping on the fruit to get the popping sound.
Later, I found out the fleshy covering (aril) over the seeds was edible and I became addicted. Unlike rattlesnake, the fleshy seeds didn’t taste like chicken. It had a creamy, tart taste that is very distinctive to the fruit. I always liked taking students around campus where we had P. incarnata growing and letting them taste the pulpy seeds. Food always interests young college students.
Most species are a source of food for butterflies and you can often see caterpillars feeding at will on the leaves.
Several years ago, my friend Chris gave me a young native species Passiflora suberosa. It’s also known as the corky stem passionflower which pretty much tells you what the stem looks like when cut open. It has a very tiny flower and is pretty much green or cream colored . It still grows along the northern edge of the pool in among my Cabada palms. Florida has 12 species of Passiflora and one hybrid species. As far as I know, the fruit of all species are edible.
Stay tuned!