April 26, 2009

• Update! Update! We want an Update!

  Greetings, fellow Xangians!

  It is Sunday morning and time for an update from your erstwhile correspondent, survivor and idiot.  Yes, idiot.  We’ll get to that.

  On the survivor front, I feel better than I’ve felt in a YEAR.  I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been since I was hospitalized and they didn’t allow me to eat…and I haven’t changed a thing about the way I’m eating.  What that says to me is that my body is finally starting to operate properly again!!  I have NO ovarian cancer bloat.  My ankles are actually bony.  My stomach is flapping in the breeze instead of loaded and bloated.  (Okay, I have to explain that one.  I have at various times during this illness been as much as 80 pounds heavier than I am right now, mostly in the abdomen.  The disease hasn’t been kind to my belly, that’s for sure.  But now, it is just empty flappy fat, sort of like after you have octuplets and need a tummy tuck…)  I have very little pain of any kind right now, and what there is is manageable and totally normal for an old broad.  I have hair, eyelashes and eyebrows…and to my embarassment, I recently realized my underarm hair is growing again.  One good hot day let me in on THAT secret.  Suddenly my showers involve shampoo and razors again!  I have a doctor’s appointment next week, and hopefully the numbers will concur with how I feel, but you know what?  They just don’t matter any more.  God is good, all the time, and He’s healing me in amazing ways, bringing spring and life to me after a dark year.  Hallelujah!

  Now that I’ve kept you waiting long enough, let me tell you why I’m an idiot.  You see, when I started feeling better, I started doing more housework and catching up with long overdue tasks.  The one I tackled this past week was the icky grout in my shower stall.  But being the brilliant college educated person I am, I decided to do it in a very efficient manner.  Every morning last week when I stepped naked into the shower, I sprayed a section of it with Kaboom® (brand name for Stuff That Will Take Paint Off An Airliner).  Then I grabbed a scrub brush and dug into that section.  I did this every day, dousing my hands, and ultimately my feet with cleaning solution as I enthusiastically scrubbed and turned my grout white again.  The good news:  My shower looks GREAT!  The bad news:  I have chemical burns on the bottoms of both feet and the palms of both hands.  The pain is just stupid and idiotic, and I can’t believe I did this.  Neither can Mike, as he reads aloud the label warning about sensitive skin (sensitive skin?  After three years of chemo?  Nahhhhh.)  So, hopefully, in a couple of days, I will no longer wince with every step I take and grimace when I close my hand around a bottle top or cooking utensil.  Idiot.  Yes, Me.  I hearby award myself the So Many Idiots, So Little Time award.  yay.

  As the year winds down, it looks like, at least for now, both Mike and I will be employed another year.  This is a good thing, especially if the kids want to eat.  (The “kids” – Spencer, Spanky, and Stormy, are 8, 7 and 6 already!  Where does the time go?)  I’m hoping this will be a good summer up at the trailer – we already made our first trip Easter week, and it was awesome!  I’m very excited about this year!

  SO, that’s about it for the week…As the Stomach Turns…heheheee.  Hey, write back!

  • 9:38 am
  • 6 Comments