Call me Harold Crick

My life. Interesting to me. Others? Hmmm........ I guess it all depends on whether or not you enjoy watching everyman(woman?) live his(her?) life.

Today was my second six month follow-up with my Radiation Oncologist. This is the last of my follow-ups for this round. I will start another round in 4 months. Each round goes about 2 months in order for me to see all of my doctors. I have also thrown in Optometrist and Dentist with that group since I have to see them regularly as well.

All went well with the check-up and I continue to exhibit signs of being a healthy, cancer-free human being. The energy level is coming back although there are still days of fatigue that pop out of nowhere just when I am least expecting them.

Today is one of those days. I feel like a narcoleptic in action (or perhaps inaction). Working on Excel today, I actually dozed off in the middle of copying a formula down into a group of cells. I snapped out of it rather quickly but not before copying formula all over the spreadsheet and having to start over again. It is not necessarily that I feel tired but rather fatigued. For those of you that have not experienced it, the difference is difficult to explain. I guess feeling tired means that you feel it is temporary and you may get over it if you just rest or sleep. Feeling fatigued is with you from the moment you wake up and is attached to a lethargy, heaviness of the body and bones and general feeling like this will never go away and I will never be able to move at a pace faster than a snail under water. Anyway, the fatigue does indeed go away sometimes and these days, those times of non-fatigue are getting longer and longer - thank goodness. I do have to keep reminding myself that I am only 2 1/2 months past my last surgery and 5 1/2 months past my last Herceptin treatment - not a long time at all.

On other notes, life outside of cancer does go on. Friday eve, it was off to Bay Meadows for an evening of $1 admission, $1 hotdogs and $1 beer. The parking, unfortunately, was still $4. Altogether, the whole evening cost me $15 and that was even with buying my friend Diane popcorn, beer and hotdog, too since I arrived first and the lines were long. It was good fun and there was a band for some dancing. I can't honestly tell you which horses raced or how they did but they were sure beautiful and it was exciting watching them run.

Saturday dawned early with clouds and rain. I decided it was a good day to lounge in bed a little longer with the dogs and a magazine. Finally, I got up and went to pick up my new contact lenses and some groceries. About that time, the guy I had called to clean up the yard, called and decided he would come over to give me an estimate. Yes, for the first time in my life, I had someone else working on my yard besides myself. After 10 years, this year's freezes and this year's rain, the yard had finally gotten out of my control. I just didn't have the time, energy or leaf bin space to clean it up so called a guy to come in for a one-time clean-up. Best thing I could have done for that yard. He and his one-man crew got everything, except the weeds and rose bushes shaped up in just a little over 2 hours. I worked on the weeds and filled my whole leaf bin myself while he took away a truckload and the equivalent of 4 more leafbins in barrels tied to the top of the stack. The front yard cleanup will follow this week. Needless to say, after all of that, I was tired out Sat afternoon and decided to take a nice bath and read a book until bedtime.

On Sunday, it was so nice to once again see the sunshine. Hooray! I got up and headed off to my 8AM Yoga class. Afterword, feeling invigorated, I grabbed a Mint Mocha and headed off to Costco for grocery shopping. Can you believe that there was a big line just to get in on a Sunday morning? I thought there might be some kind of special going on but, NO, it was business as usual and just folks out shopping.

I really thought at this point I would be able to take a break and read the paper, watch a video but, when I got home, I realized that I needed to mow the lawn so I got the mower out and mowed the lawn. Then the pots on the way up the front walk caught my attention and I decided that they needed trimming and cleaning out. A couple of hours later, I finished filling the leaf bin and left the rest (all the big stuff) for the gardener to come in and clean out. Now, I thought, I will rest but then I remembered that it was Earth Day, and, in the spirit of my ongoing efforts to "let go" and clean out my house, I remembered that I had a computer monitor which the dog had chewed in his panic attack and a TV that had a blue screen where the picture should have been so I loaded them both in the car and drove off to WalMart where the ASL folks were waiting to receive them.

They were very nice and gave me a nice blue disk to plant in the ground that they told me would grow wild flowers. They also gave me a card that was worth $50 somewhere at some merchant on some thing - all unknown. I went home and looked it up but no details posted yet on the website.

I planted the blue disk in one of the pots I had cleaned out that morning. Now, I thought, I can take a break but discovered I only had 1/2 hour before it was time for my afternoon workout at the gym with the Paddle Past Cancer team. I sat for 1/2 hour and then headed off to the gym. My good intentions were thwarted by an accident on 101 that closed off all lanes of the freeway. Arriving at the gym 45 minutes late, I found that they had only just finished warmups and were starting the main part of the workout. 2 hours later we were finished and hungry. Chinese food sounded really good so we headed off for dinner. I finally got home late that evening and crashed. It was a good day but very busy. At the end, I was more happy and grateful than ever that I had had help with the gardening. Now, if I could just get a helping hand around the house for all of these chores that I am trying to catch up on.

Another recycling day comes on Tuesday and, once again, my bins are full. Yeah! Some day, I will finish with all of the letting go and my recycling will return to a normal level (except the leaf bin of course) but that day is not in sight yet.

It does feel good to have an emptier house, emptier closets, etc. Everything feels so much lighter. Now if I could only get this extra 19 pounds off of me that found its way on after I started work again.

As Roseanne Roseanna Danna used to say, "Its always something"..........

Have a great day!