Ten down, two to go

I come to you, like usual, from my bed. I had chemo on Tuesday this week because my doctor nurse (she's a nurse practitioner with a doctorate in nursing) was off on Monday. I see her before every chemo day unless I see my oncologist. Usually by Thursday, I am feeling a little less fatigued, but I'm off a day this week and man, oh man, the fatigue just keeps getting worse. I slept about 12 hours last night and can't imagine doing much more than sitting today. Hell, propping up my pillows takes work. I'm even too lazy to download a movie.

My blood counts were low again this week - just over where they needed to be to go on with chemo. So, let's everyone reading this do a little cheer for my white blood cells. They need to encouragement to build back up more quickly. It isn't the end of the world, if they take more time, but I want my last chemo to happen before the end of the year. There is something about putting all of this behind me in 2008 that is comforting.

Have I mentioned how much chemo makes me stink? I know, gross. But it is really peculiar how in the two to three days after chemo, it manages to make its way out of my body. And, I'm not talking about going to the bathroom. My feet, my breath, everything just smells. I can't stand it. I've never had stinky feet and now I'll need to throw my slippers in the garbage after all of this is over. If the hair loss and weight gain weren't enough, I also get to stink.

In most excellent news, my tuition stops today.

My ipod is dying. It is four years old and the battery is getting flaky and the click wheel isn't really working any more. I'm trying to figure out what to do. Should I bite the bullet and buy a new one? Should I limp along with this one, never knowing if the battery is going to hold a charge? I listen to music during chemo. Each week I select a different band/artist and imagine that my chemotherapy is being brought to me by them. Usually the music puts me in a good mood, so I don't want to go without it. This round, I listened to the Killers. Last time it was Pink.

Remember when I wrote about the house down the street that went into foreclosure and then was sold at auction? Well, the buyer/investor/flipper never closed the deal so it is back on the market for $10,000 more than the auction price, which is about half what it is worth. I wonder if he couldn't get financing or what? I notice that ReMax is now advertising the place as student housing. The frats and sororities passed on it the first time. Who knows what will happen now.

Speaking of houses, we'd like to sell ours. I'm done owning a single-family home. We've mostly owned one because of me. Now that I've had cancer, I don't want the maintenance. I don't want to own anything that weighs me down and I feel like all our belongings are like an anchor holding us back. We're getting rid of lots of stuff as soon as I'm up to cleaning it out. Then it is going on the market. We're going to list it lowish so we can be done. What will happen next? I don't know. Maybe renting until we can figure out if we want to buy a condo/townhouse.

I conclude with a few cute kid stories all having to do with Oatmeal.

She asked me why I didn't have kids. I told her because then I wouldn't be able to spend so much time with her. That shut her up.

She asked me if I went to church. I said, "no." She said, "why?" I said, "it isn't for me." She again asked, "why?" This lead into a discussion of why it wasn't for me. I didn't do a great job of explaining. But she eventually stopped asking.

Finally, the nieces have been learning about secrets. It started with SIL teaching them that adults shouldn't ask them to keep secrets (basically a stranger danger kind of lesson) and has lead into other conversations about secrets. At some point they learned that secrets can be rude. Then, last week during the twins' pre-school Thanksgiving program (singing four songs to a room full of parents), one of the teachers whispered to one of the other students because he was misbehaving. Oatmeal noticed the conversation and said loudly, to the entire room, "We don't tell secrets. It isn't polite." Oatmeal, Oatmeal, Oatmeal, what are we going to do with you?

Comments

[Shan]

I love living in a townhouse for the no-external-maintenance aspect. It's so great having someone else take care of your yard and shovel your driveway and front walk. Of course you pay an association fee, but the freedom! The time! It's great.

[Christopher]

I hope you're feeling a lot better by now! Not having to pay tuition is a nice little perk, eh? There's lots to think about here... If you can unload your house in this market, you should. And lots of townhouses/condos let you garden, to some extent, on your lot. Oatmeal sounds like what my mother would call a "hoot." I'm never sure if that's good or bad, but she sounds entertaining.