June Sunday

These are Himalayan blue poppies, in full bloom this week at Buchart Gardens in Vancouver, and sent to me by my friend who lives out there.  Aren’t they lovely?  Blue flowers are naturally rare, so these are even more special.  It’s another cool, sunny day today, although there was a smog warning in effect.  I did notice that it was a little hard to breathe easily today, although I didn’t do anything strenuous.  Jerry was a well behaved little gentleman last night, and he curled up on my lap to sleep instead of stressing my arm.  He then spent as much of the day as possible touching someone and bouncing on and off my lap.  I was trying to work on some crochet (back to my earlier project) and attempting to decipher the pattern, which is far more difficult with a dog sitting on my lap or lying across me.  Don was glued to the never-ending baseball game this afternoon after he’d watched the start of the Stanley Cup finals late last night.  He’s doing pretty well with the cooler weather, as it helps him breathe more easily.

My appetite and tastebuds aren’t working together yet.  I’m hungry (🎉) and I ate the remainder of the barbecue today for lunch (2 ribs and some of the macaroni and cheese) but it still has zero flavour.  Eating to a schedule seems to help too, as I have a timer set to have something every few hours.  I’m not certain if I’m actually eating more than before, or just redistributing the calories.  In other, good news, my arm continues to improve.  I still have twinges and the occasional spasms, but the constant pain is not present.  Happily, this is without resorting to any additional pain medication, just using the muscle rub and heat.  I realized that I can’t just use a heating pad on my left side, as I have very little feeling there, and I’ll just wind up with burns before I feel anything.  I use the little microwaveable heat pads as they don’t get too hot (at least, not when used as instructed) and they cool off slowly enough to help without risking a burn.

I had some very amusing/interesting conversations in the past few days — serendipity is real, and fascinating.  Someone said to me that “as long as you have your health, you have everything.”  I gave a cynical smile, and they said that anyone meeting me would not believe that there was anything wrong with me.  Funnily enough, shortly after that, a friend of mine saw me for the first time in a long while, and she said, “Oh, you’ve changed so much!  When I think of how you were, so strong, dancing until late, and I see you now, it’s a shock.”  Then today, my sister said, “You look so healthy!  It’s such an improvement over Easter when you weren’t feeling well and had tummy problems and issues with travel.”  We are of the opinion that my haircut has helped my overall appearance, and more than that, the chemo pill is probably helping me.  We certainly hope that the scans show that it does!

OK, I have to share this.  While I was talking to my sister, my niece got into the conversation to ask what I wanted for my birthday gift.  For me, that’s one of the most difficult questions to answer.  I can never decide, as if there’s anything that I particularly want, I usually buy it for myself.  So she asked (prompted by her mother) and I asked for a day or two to consider my options.  Then I asked her what she thought would be a good present for me.  Without a pause, she said, “a crown.”  The child knows me so well 🥰😁  I can’t top that as an idea, literally or figuratively!

On that note, I’m off to settle the little jackrabbit of a dog that I have who is jumping around to play with one of his toys.  I’ve had to toss one that he shredded, but he found a replacement and he’s throwing it and jumping up… and then I’ll have to take my chemo.  Good night!