Recovering

It’s snowing!  All day, wet and chilly.  I do not approve of this in the least, for the record.  I know that snow is due at this time of year, but that doesn’t mean I have to be excited about it!  I looked out and the streets were white… so not pleasant (doubly so because my clothes don’t fit!)  Jerry has been utterly inseparable from me for the past few days; out of 24 hours, he spent about 23.5 of them on me, either on my lap or in bed… I get to my chair, he jumps on my lap; he accompanies me to the bathroom; he races me to bed… loving little dog.  Don has been more up than down lately, which is good, and has been glued to hockey and football… I swear he watched about 10 games on Sunday nonstop!  And now there are the juniors who are playing and several tournaments which he watches diligently… you’d think he had an upcoming exam on the players or the games!

So I’ve missed several days of blogging, I know.  The last post was on Thursday; and I’d explained that I had to focus on my assigned grant applications, which were due today.  That was plan A.  On Friday I had severe constipation and was in distress, so I needed to lie down to regain some energy.  I never opened a single application, as I just felt so out of sorts.  Saturday I spent reading and making notes on the applications, with the intent of typing them up on Sunday and posting here… that also didn’t work as I was having more issues, dreadful pain, shaking and feeling like a shredded rag.  I couldn’t eat yesterday, as I felt so awful.  Today’s visit from my nurse was a lot longer than usual as she ran extra checks on me to try to help.  My blood pressure was low, even for me, and my heart rate was a bit high.  I was able to eat most of a chicken pot pie for lunch, which is a major improvement over the past few days!  I also managed to type up my reports and submit them on time 🙌 so I don’t have to worry about that any longer.  

I know I’ve mentioned the grant process before, and how inspiring I find it to be.  There are submissions from researchers from across the country, and depending on what we’re looking for, a range of levels of expertise.  This round was for senior level researchers who are at the pre-clinical stage where they’re exploring the development of new drugs and molecules to treat some rarer cancers.  Once again I’m awed by the ideas, and I’d love to be able to hand money to all of them!  My role is as a patient to see how well the documents communicate information to lay people.  The fun part is that I learn a number of new words… like “xenograft”, “haematopoesis”, and “genotoxicity” to name a few.  These weren’t in the glossary that was provided, so I’m happy for Google and medical definitions.  I’m going to have to find a way to include these new words in my conversation… although even my doctors don’t use them when we talk!

I remember that way back in my university days there was a writing course that all science students were required to take so that we wouldn’t resort to just using jargon if we had to speak to non-scientists.  I found it boring because I was able to switch my writing style depending on what was required, but that wasn’t the case for a number of my classmates, who moaned endlessly about the exercises.  I still think that it’s an excellent idea, and not a waste of time, as keeping the public informed about science is vital — and can help in reducing those outlandish conspiracy theories.  I won’t rant about that, and just leave that there…

I’m going to get something to eat, and then I’m heading in to bed fairly early tonight, as I’m feeling wiped out.  The boys are snoozing on the sofa, so I’ll just leave them quietly and reheat my leftover lunch.  I do feel better than I have most of the weekend, so that’s a definite improvement.  Good night!