8 October 2023
OK, I’m officially wiped out. I took a Xanax after everyone left last night and slept for 11 hours. There was another bout of diarrhea in there somewhere but after that, nothing but sleep. I’m not sure if it was exhaustion from cooking for Joel and John or the night before catching up with me or both.
I don’t like taking Xanax because I feel hung over the next day but I knew I needed the sleep. Maybe after the second cup of coffee things will start to function: toes, limbs, mind. I have absolutely nothing planned for today other than vegging out and talking with my cousin Jimmie. One good thing about having people over is that at least the house is pretty clean after the visit because I cleaned before they came and they don’t make a mess. The kitchen table is clean of junk for the first time in a long time. My table is the catchall of everything that I bring in from the front door: mail, medications, miscellanea.
As Mr. Rogers would say, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. The sun is out, it’s only 82°F and the humidity is an amazingly low (got South Florida) 74%. Like I said before, fall weather in South Florida. I’m surprised the humidity is so low because just as John and Joel were kicked out the door last night, there was a huge downpour last night. That moisture usually lingers until the next day to provide a sauna effect. And yes, I literally told them it was time to go.
I have a blood draw while fasting tomorrow for my endocrinologist. He’ll probably go into cardiac arrest when he sees my glucose and A1c level but it’s due to all the sterol drugs they give me at the cancer center before each chemo treatment. Last time his nurse called me in a panic about my levels. Tuesday is my next to last Taxol treatment and I’ll find out if they want to start the injection protocol again to boost my white blood cells. Then Friday is my hydration session. Lately, I’ve been feeling like a yo-yo. Up one day and down the next. I’ll be curious to see how an every three week regimen on Herceptin affects me.
In particular, I wonder if the numbness will start to abate, my skin clears up, I stop spontaneous bleeding on parts of my body, my nose quits running like a faucet…. The problem is that the drug affects everyone slightly differently. Some of the effects are similar to Taxol. I’ll just have to wait and see. At least there’s a longer recovery time between treatments.
I meant to take a photo of the spaghetti sauce last night to show you but after dinner and putting together some take-home dishes, there was none left. They were nice enough to tell me they liked it but I couldn’t tell. It tasted familiar to me but I couldn’t determine if it really was like Mom, and now me, used to make. I forgot to rinse the starch off the spaghetti and it all stuck together to the point to get it out of the pot and onto a plate we had to cut it with scissors.
I think my favorite thing last night was the garlic toast. I got a fresh loaf of French bread, sliced it on the diagonal and then coated with a butter, olive oil and garlic mixture and toasted under the broiler until golden brown. Considering Dad hated the taste of garlic, I’m glad I inherited my love of it form Mom. I’m a little like Emeril Lagasse on garlic – the more the better. In reality, I dearly love anything in the onion family.
As a kid, when Dad planted a garden, I would often go and pick an onion and eat it raw right there in the garden. I didn’t care whether it was a scallion or a regular onion. Spice World lists 10 benefits of onions. Most are probably garbage but even if one or two are true, that’s good. I just like the taste.
Come to think of it, I ate a lot of raw stuff from the garden. I would go eat raw butter beans, corn, tomatoes, English peas, and even dig for raw peanuts. Only later did I know you could eat squash blossoms or Dad would probably have never produced any mature squash.
Oh well, to quote Scarlett Ohara “…tomorrow is another day.”
Stay tuned!