Story 24March2022: No Chemo but Tired

The day started with me sleeping almost to 10AM. I am still tired and seem to need extra sleep. I manage to take pills, read emails, read the news, and write a long blog. It was the afternoon before I am done and made myself a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I am finally dressed at about 1:30ish.

I am dizzy when I stand too fast. The fatigue has me holding to something or sitting quickly in a chair. I am for a moment almost too weak to stand, and then the spell passes. I am careful now when moving.

Corwin surprises me by being up early and doing the dishes. He knows that I prefer to see the kitchen with some order when I get up. So he apologizes for not finishing the work the previous night and gets the kitchen in order.

I take Air Volvo to Forest Grove Rehab and Care Center at 3900 Pacific Highway, Room 44A, and travel through the Thursday Spring Break slightly heavy traffic without issue. The folks, staff, and residents, at the facility welcome me with smiles and waves. I have been going there almost every day for months, which gets me some street cred.

Susie is sitting in a wheelchair and at the tables near the nurses’ station. She is delighted to see me, but she can fall asleep in her chair–she needs to take a nap. We call Leta on my iPhone, and they chat about Leta and Barb coming on Saturday to see her.

It is a warm sunny day suggesting we are in California and not Oregon. Our climate, despite denials, has changed with us now getting sunny days in March. Unheard of in my first decade of living in Oregon, where March was just a gray constant rain and mist. We used to say of the first six months of the year that the only difference was the temperature of the rains. Now we can see seasons.

I decided Susie needed to visit our California-like day and headed outside with her. I took her all the way to the Pacific Highway and the 57 bus stop. She used to ride that bus.

I managed to get Susie back to the facility, but I was now dizzy and seeing some stars. I have overdone it. Susie’s eyes are now only half-open. So she heads to a nap, and I head out. I take a few minutes in Air Volvo, waiting for my body to rest a bit.

I managed to drive home without incident and had no dizzy problems.

It is getting towards dinner time, so I make tacos from a box kit. I brown the meat and then add a can of cut tomatoes and the seasoning packet. I bake the tacos filled with cheese and meat. I like them better this way instead of trying to put the stuff in a cooked shell. I am careful to sit between steps and manage it.

I decide that I have overdone it and just read the rest of the night. The Words that Made US has turned into a page-turner for me. I am on page 335 just at the start of the chapter on Hamilton, yes that one. I also found Akhim Reed Amar’s website and listened to 1/2 his lecture on the anniversary of the Contitution (I finished it this morning on Friday). I would recommend the book just on the style, let alone the contents with footnotes and these notes are even further exploded on his web page.

Finally, I am asleep about midnight, putting the book down.

So what have I done in these two months of chemotherapy? I have read about a meter of books, with newly written history and related essays being about 1/2. The rest are brain cookies of SciFi, even re-reading one series. Shows are less interesting to me, but the Marvel-based Hawkeye holiday story and the star wars series so far are the best. I have slipped in a few horror stories too. But, I need no new bad dreams, so that has been very light. Military reading has been magazines and wargames about current times (the wargames show the importance of supply-lines and air superiority–Looks like Putin did not buy a copy even with his picture and name on the cover).

Thanks for reading. I will continue to read and share. Suggestions are welcome for the next book, which I hope will be less than three inches thick!