Quick Wellness Update

Day 3 following chemo!

Still have GI tract uneasiness, but it's not interefering with my appetite. Stomach cramps wake me up in the middle of the night as the drugs for that wear off, and so I've been losing sleep. I think this is why I'm a bit on the tired side. Not sure if there's more fatigue coming, but I'm feeling about 85% of strength.

No adverse reaction a la the glucose chemical binder that got me last time. This is very good news that I hadn't even thought of until one of sisters asked about it.

Mayfield called yesterday to hear how the first Chemo day had gone. He and his wife had prayed for me and this was just a follow-up. What a doctor!

Most of all, there's been a serious mood shift. I don't know whether it's related to the chemicals or if this is just a natural course of adjustment, but I've been very sad and weepy. Not with anxiety or fear. Just. . .sadness.

Finally, there's been some extended discussion about the person I refer to as She Who Shall Not Be Named, and what I really should be calling her. I take these comments to be the strong moral support they are intended to be. :) What loyalty is in these ranks!

But at the risk of coming off sanctimonious, I really don't have a mean name for her. She's a woman who messed up several times, and those mis-steps happened to have directly affected me. But she didn't do it--or not do it--with any malice.

I'm reminded of a time from Forestry where we pulled up to the curb and started to work according to the order that was in front of me. The job was to restore 4 blocks of parkway that had been damaged by snowplows. When I got to one house, I noticed that the owner had already started his own little resto' project but that a) he probably hadn't planted the salt-resistent seed he should have and b) what he had done was going to sink because he hadn't done that right, either.

So we re-did it for him.

Came back the next day to the next house over, and he was outside in a jiffy, in his bathrobe, wanting to know why I'd dumped all over the grass he'd started. We had what I thought was a helpful, professional discussion.

The next week, my boss showed me a letter written by this resident about that restoration project and our little talk about it. According to this guy's description, I hadn't handled things well at all. That is, he had his version, and I had mine.

My boss took my side in this and nothing came of it.

What I remember about the letter is that the resident was very careful to avoid identifying as female the worker he'd talked with. Figuring, rightly, that doing so would be directly fingering me. How many women were doing this job, after all? (The answer for that summer: 1.)

And as annoyed as he was with me, this was still very gracious of him to be that cautious about fingering. There was a sense of relief in knowing that he didn't hold anything against me personally.

This is kind of how I feel about She Who Shall Not Be Named. Who knows why she dropped so many balls? Or whether she had been perfect in all other things, but all her imperfections happened to line up in my case?

And, most importantly, I don't think I'll have too much to do with her again, now that I'm already down the road.

So. It's all good. :)