mid-week

You can see the pile of stuff ready for the thrift store truck. Woodrow is nervous, as is Regis, that I have gotten rid of some of his things. Not to worry...everyone else's stuff is perfectly safe.

Michele and I went to our Livestrong class at the YMCA in Mankato last night. The roads going over were not so good...much better coming back. The snow was beautiful. Neither of us are night people, so until we get moving, we sit sort of quietly and think about naps. They have more equipment in that place than you can shake a stick at. A machine for everything, it seems.

I could do 50 pounds on the chest press and 190 pounds on the leg press. (By comparison, one woman who should be on the world's strongest man show, could press 410 pounds with her legs. Holy crap. My balance was awful. I was always the first one to go down. I had to come home and beat the Scrabble guy by a hundred points to make up for it.

Regis woke up early this morning with a stomach bug of some kind. I gave him the last two pills we have for that kind of digestive issue and I am sure I will be making a trip to the store for more. Then...I can buy another jar of Vicks.

I have had a jar of Vicks on my night stand my whole life. A few weeks ago, I must have had it on the bed and I heard it hit the floor...blaming Woody, of course. I searched high and low and it cannot be found so I went into the drug store the other day and bought another jar. When I brought it home...oh, no...yellow cap on jar. Open it up to take a whiff...lemon. Lemon scented Vicks. I was appalled. Lemon Vicks? Seriously?

Don't buy this!

My mom taught me that Vicks is the cure for many ills. If you have a cough or cold, rub Vicks on your feet before bed and cover with socks. For congestion, rub liberally on your chest before bed. If you are just sad and lonesome, rub a little under your nose. Just make sure you get the original scent. Lemon Vicks. Harrumph. An abomination.

I decided to snatch one thing back out of the thrift store bag. It's a big, nubby sweater that I bought at the consignment store but it's my favorite for wearing on cold mornings. I'll work harder at getting the nubs off it, I promise.

I mailed holiday cards yesterday. I am surprised at the number of people who confessed that they also were mailing cards late. I think it's a tradition I will change. Maybe mid-summer cards or vernal equinox cards.

I gave myself a hair cut yesterday and it did not go well. I have a big chunk out of the back that looks pretty bad. Regis caught on when he saw the clipper thing in the bathroom and realized I had worn a hat all day. I might have to consider a real hair dresser next time.

Hair concerns were one of the things I gave up when I was diagnosed with cancer. I could not deal with making appointments, being somewhere at a certain time, or having an opinion about my hair. There were other things but this is one.

I am finally becoming more interested in the details of my cancer. For a long time, I could not retain the details and even now when a health professional asks me how many lymph nodes I had removed, I am not sure. I say somewhere between 4 and 16 which is quite a spread. I threw all the papers away and my pathology report is not available online. I'll call Judy today and ask her to send it so I can be prepared with questions next time I go.

I got out the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer book which I bought this summer, thinking I was ready to read some of it. Nope. Couldn't do it. Now...I think I can.

I did find this in an online report: Today we spent 20 minutes talking about her pathology report, which shows a grade 3 of 3 infiltrating ductal carcinoma within the lumpectomy specimen. Margins are clear with the closest margin at 2 mm. Two out of her 4 sentinel lymph nodes were positive and one out of 12 additional lymph nodes were positive. You can see where I get 4 and 16, right. Four sentinel nodes, two positive, and 12 additional...makes 16. I know, I know. This is my math dyslexia.

I have been awake since before 4 am so I think it's time to go back to bed for a while.