Wednesday

Poui at sunset.  I love the gold on gold with gold carpet look of this tree.  It’s no wonder that I miss being home at this time of year, except for the heat and dryness, as this is the peak of the dry season, and rain doesn’t often fall.  Very different from here, where we started the day with snow!!  Jerry is curled in a little heap squeezing Don off his seat on the sofa.  He just wriggled his way in and settled down, after leaving my lap.  He was annoyed this morning as his snuggle time was interrupted by the arrival of my nurse, and he’s been letting me know that he doesn’t approve.  Don is happy that his team won their last game, and is quietly cheering for them to defeat their opponent in this series, plus a few of his preferred players are doing well.  He was up fairly late last night watching recordings of various games — this time of year there are 2 different sports, and I might find that what he’s watching switches suddenly from one to the other! 

Last night was one of those where I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, and I feel sleep creeping over me now, although it’s early.  I have chemo tomorrow, and an appointment with my doctor just before, so it’s a long time at the hospital in the morning.  I’ll try to pack a picnic lunch so I can eat between meetings and not starve… the handy little coffee shops at the hospital have moved to the far side of the campus, so it’s not easy for me to get anything… The challenge, if you want to overstate the case, is finding something to eat that I’d enjoy but which has no smell — so no Chinese, tuna, fries, or pretty much anything like that!  

I did some online searching for “how to gain weight during cancer treatments” and on the more reputable sites (UK Cancer, Canadian Cancer Society, Mayo clinic) they recommend (naturally) eating calorie dense foods.  So some changes, which I think I could do, include things like making sandwiches with croissants, eating ice cream, drinking whole milk (I already do that), or adding malt to hot drinks (break out the Ovaltine!) instead of drinking things like tea, which is a zero calorie beverage.  

Having finished reading The War of the Worlds, I’ve come to the conclusion that humans haven’t changed much in 130 years.  Wells describes, for instance, that news outlets wrote reams saying that the Martians posed no danger to Earth because their bodies wouldn’t be able to move under Earth’s stronger gravity and thicker atmosphere.  Then they dismissed reports of the dangers posed by the first lot of Martians and their death ray… and I found a lot of parallels to current news coverage and opinions of various topics, including wars, incursions, politicians, etc.  Ironically, that behaviour seems to go back as far as we have writing… some of us become so firmly entrenched in our ideas that we can’t admit anything new.  I’m hoping that I never get to that stage (although I recognize that there is a danger given my stance on conspiracies, pseudoscience and “homeopathy”). I’m a great believer in double blind randomized trials; consistent, repeatable results and regular testing.

OK, I’ve got to sort out something for dinner.  My support worker called in sick, so we didn’t get to cook together today.  What we started yesterday will hold for a few days, so there’s a backup.  There’s a good chance of no post tomorrow as chemo leaves me feeling tired, so we’ll catch up on Friday.  Good night!