I Am Awake......

.....and showered and properly medicated.

Ahead of schedule.  This month's trip was so bad that I estimated that this would not happen until Sunday night.  You know, in time to catch the 4th episode of "Fear The Walking Dead".

Besides Pomalyst, every other month I get an Aredia infusion.  On those months, I am even more disorganized and confused.  I should not try anything ambitious during that time.

This was an infusion month.  And yes, I tried something ambitious.  And yes, it was much harder than it needed to be.

The next infusion is November 22nd.  If someone would be kind enough on November 18th as to tell me not to schedule anything else until November 25th, I would appreciate it.

My time in Virginia as more than a visitor is nearly at an end.  I think my eagerness to end it, is causing these bad decisions......yeah, that's my latest excuse.

I joke about "never winning with the 50/50 questions" but really, that's very true.  If I am faced with an either/or situation, I almost always blow it.  This happens if the question is high stakes or of no consequence at all.

And I do a lot of "counting my chickens before they are hatched".  I always have.  I am constantly making plans based on things happening in a certain way.  Things I have no control over.  And there really are things I have no control over.  I, Princess Crabby, the Empress of the Moat, she who has no equal, Princesa Malhumorada have very little control over things in real life, as opposed to what happens in my imagination.  This really messes me up!

When I go to infusion it's supposed to go like this - I check in and they take my vitals, put me in an infusion room, take a couple of vials of blood and send it off for testing.  They can't give you Aredia if certain things aren't stable.  Plus, with a blood cancer.....there is lots of blood tests.  Makes sense, right?  Then the numbers come back in thirty or forty minutes and they send to the in-hospital pharmacy for the Aredia.  It can't be ordered without the test results.  Pharmacy sends the IV bags up, they hook it up and attach me ( I already have an IV in my hand or arm from the testing) and from that point, it takes one hundred and twenty minutes.  There is a product that is faster, Zometa, but I tried it and had a crazy flu-like reaction.  So, being reasonable (not my strong suit, but I can be) this process should take a little over three hours.  When I have nothing to do after an appointment, it takes about three hours.  But if I schedule anything for afterwards....it can take (and has taken), six or more hours. I should not plan anything for afterwards... yet I do.

Because I never learn!

Thursday, I wanted to go look at an apartment in the evening.  And, I planned to fly from Boston to BWI at 5:50 am on Friday morning.  I chose that flight to save money and be in DC for the train to Staunton, which only runs on Friday, Sunday & Wednesday.  I wanted to hurry back out of Boston because my monthly visit there causes me to spend an inordinate amount of money.  Once I actually have a place of my own to live back in Boston, this won't happen.  So, in order to save, I decided this month would be a "get in/get out" month.  No visits, no family time, no dinner with friends.  In.  Out.

Getting in was no problem.

I was scheduled for a 2pm appointment and I had scripts to fill.  So I called and asked if I could be moved up and was offered 1pm.  I went in that morning and picked up the prescriptions, so I could check that off the list.  Usually I wander around and get lunch while the blood is being tested.  This can make the process longer because sometimes I am not back when the IV bags come up.  But instead I went and got lunch before I went to the appointment.  I arrived, fully prepared; lunch, books, snacks, water, charger, everything so I could sit and not move, at 12:45pm for my 1pm appointment.

Is My Marine paying attention?  Early and fully prepared.

I didn't leave until 5:45pm.

And I am always groggy after infusion because the majority of this time I am sitting in a geri chair, in a room that is too warm for me.  So I doze.  I am not a napping person.  Naps don't help me and they make me....CRABBY!

Now, at this point I could have cancelled the 5:50 am Friday morning flight and stayed until Sunday when there would be another train to Staunton.

This was my "50/50" decision.  And I blew it.

I didn't look at an apartment.  I didn't cancel the flight.  I was like a zombie at Logan, BWI and then Union Station.  I was nauseous on the plane.  I fell asleep last night without a proper meal or the right pills at the right times.  That's why I predicted that I would not surface until Sunday.

So, don't ask me to do anything November 22nd.  And don't let me plan anything for November 22nd.

When Was Steroid Day?

I don't know, I'm all messed up.  So I guess it's today.  Wasn't bad and gave me the burst of energy it sometimes does.  You know, where you don't just throw a load in the washer, but you clean the washing machine.

Anyway, a couple of nights ago, I somehow missed the lyrica and of course couldn't sleep and it feels like the onset of flu.  Muscle/joint pain, yada, yada.  So I slept through the next day's morning meds.  I think that's how I missed steroid day.  And my sleep schedule slipped right into midnight to 3 pm.

And the glasses still aren't fixed.  And the humidity and heat were killer.  And waaahhhhhh.

But today I was up before noon.  Took the steroids,  The humidity broke.  Whew!  Just in time to prep for "Fear The Walking Dead".  My Marine better be caught up, cause I'm tired of getting chastised.

Hopefully, on October 1st, my best pal from 7th grade and I are moving into a 2 bedroom together.  We could have chosen from dozens of places by now, but she has two cats & wants off street parking.  It's stressing her to the point where her boss is looking to find us a place.  You know I don't care about parking, animals, where the laundry is, bedroom size, sharing a bathroom.  So I just keep saying pick whatever makes you happy!!  Although it was a bummer to pass up an apartment 5 doors down from my previous Charlestown address b/c of size. The important part is Boston & that she'll be just as good at that balance of watching me and ignoring me as Tommy is.

So I think I'll whip out the Hershey's cocoa and make something.

Well, Thank Goodness For Tommy

It's not like I need nursing or anything.  But while I am on Pomalyst (14 nights of pills) I am clumsy and disoriented.  Needless to say, accidents happen.  Spills are legion.  I have to put a hand on the wall when I walk from my bedroom to the bathroom here in Virginia.  The hall is a converted porch and there is a slight pitch.  On Pomalyst, this might hall might as well be a carnival fun house.

So the other day I was walking to the post office to mail some silly little things to my grandson.  It is still hot here (really, even to the natives) and madly humid.  As I was walking I wanted to change from my glasses to sunglasses.  Unfortunately, the humidity combined with my butterfingers.....the glasses hit the ground and then I stepped on then when I tried to catch them.  I was actually lucky that I didn't hit the ground.

How big a problem is this?  Well, I have always been a bit of a hoarder.  That means the last two times I lost/broke glasses, I just pulled out an old pair.  Always meaning to get new ones....but I haven't.

I can't even believe how much of a pain in the ass this.  I have one undamaged lens, so I can watch TV if I sit still and balance them carefully. But I can't walk around with them.

Yesterday, not only did Tom have to drive me on my errands....he had to walk me through the aisles of the supermarket.  I couldn't read any signs.  I couldn't make out anything more than .a few feet away.

If not for Thomas Owen, how would I have found these delicious Mallo-Cups????  Thanks Tommy.

Gypsy Hill Park Pool Breaks My Heart Again!

So, as I explained in the post above, sometimes the City of Staunton changes things and doesn't post it on the website.  They have a website.  It's a fairly comprehensive website.  I have used it to find out lots of useful things.  But they don't seem to update it,

As far as the pool goes, they have a dry erase sandwich board for that. so....for someone who has no car and takes the trolley, this can suck.  Cause you don't just walk to the pool.  I did that when I was young and I ran up to the Clougherty Pool in the Doherty Park at the top of Bunkah. Here.  Have some history from the always fabulous Helen O'Neil.  Grab a towel and some change for the ice cream truck "Bye Mum!" and I was off till I was waterlogged or more hungry than an ice cream could satisfy.

But now?  Towels, book, water, snack, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat...and the list goes on.

I set my alarm, did my morning chores, packed my bag and Tom drove me to the pool.  I could walk it, it's just under a mile and a half.  But *cue whiny voice* it's hhhhhooottttt and I have a bbbbaaagg.

As we pull up I say to Tom "Where are the people?  Why is the pool cover on?"  Tom puts on the "Down South" voice and tells me "Ah don't know".

I get out of the car and read the sandwich board "Pool closed for season due to lack of guard".

HELLO???  I was a lifeguard.  Sure it was literally twenty years ago.  And kids in Rocky Nook said I was the meanest lifeguard evah.  But they didn't even ask.

So now I am sitting in front of the AC, pouting.  I can't even do what we did when I was little and sit in the yard with the garden hose.  Tom took it and all the yard tools to go help a friend at their new place.