Are they finally losing their media savvy?

From Reuters:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured a medical facility at New Orleans' international airport on Sunday. He spoke and shook hands with military and rescue officials but walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped.

Weekend stuff

The poker party was very fun last night. Good grub and good friends, and I only lost 30 cents!

Tonight we're having Tom and Corrine over for dinner. I'm doing the cooking, so there's no guarantee that the food will be good (as there is with Eric), but I know the company will be excellent.

Friday

Drinking coffee and watching the news from Louisiana this morning. It's amazing that 72 hours after the hurricane there was no control center or command.

Luckily, Papa John's sent 10,000 pizzas to the Astrodome.

The news coverage is sliding in the oil direction. The war in Iraq started with oil and hurricane Katrina will end with it. I think about how the people in the midst of it there probably have so much less information than we have. They're just hungry, dirty, grieving... and with no one taking charge, stepping up, or telling them that there's a plan.

I just don't know what to make of it.

We have a busy 3-day weekend planned. Tonight I want to go to a baseball game -- A's vs. Yankees -- but Eric isn't sure he's up for it. Saturday there's a poker party at Janis & Elizabeth's. Sunday Eric and I are hooking up with Tom & Corinne, and on Monday there's a whispered rumor of miniature golf.

Surgeon sez...

The surgeon says that just because my recent ct scan doesn't show cancer somewhere, doesn't mean that there's not cancer there, because ct scan miss LOTS of things.

Now there's a comforting thought!

Anyway... I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude with the swelling at my clavicle. Further testing would be invasive (behind bone), and would tell us if it's cancerous. Since I have known cancer, this really isn't vital information.

If it gets larger, it's worth checking out, because that would mean that I'm failing my current treatment. (Remember... we fail the treatment, not the other way around!)

If it stays the same or gets smaller it means that a) It's cancer and the treatment is successful or b) it's not cancer, it's something else entirely, and it's going away.

There's not enough time in the morning to read my email, drink coffee and write this blog! Oh why must I be hampered by work work work!

Another walk down the hill to Kaiser

On the recommendation of my oncologist I have an appointment with my surgeon today. First, how freaky is it that I have an oncologist and a surgeon?

I would like the surgeon to laugh me out the office, saying, "Are you kidding me? That's NOTHING!" So if you could hold that thought today, I'd appreciate it.

On another note.... I don't want to get all Hallmark or Family Circle or Chicken Soup or anything, but I do have some advice from the wrong side of a cancer screening, and it's this:

If you own any scratchy clothing -- shirts made from itchy linen or prickley wool -- or clothing with tags that cause discomfort and poke you and can't be fixed.... THROW THEM OUT.

Life is too short to engage in clothes masochism. I don't care how cute you look in that woolen tunic and tights, either.

Missing Summer

Today is Eric's first day back with students. Talk about an energy drain!

Eric and I are not old and we're not young. We're somewhere in the middle and the middle has been rough on both of us. I've never wanted to go back in time -- never longed for my youth -- because life has always gotten better and better for me.

I suppose it doesn't matter, anyway, since we can't go back.

At my next set up scans they could find that there's been lot's of progression. I could have, say, 18 months of uncomfortable life ahead of me. Or, over the course of many years I could be progression -free or show little progression, and I could live the next 5 years with a good quality of life.

It's impossible to know which scenario will play out, and that's an interesting place to be. Do I have years or a year? Will like be okay or will be totally hard?

I'm still figuring out how to fit all of these questions into my daily routine of work, sleep, and (always, always) loving Eric.

Easy like Sunday morning

Eric and I went to a party on Friday. It was a birthday party for one of Eric's co-workers -- a young woman who was turning thirty. Eric and I were two of the oldest (if not THE oldest) people there.

There was a young woman there who was very, very, friendly.... like, eager puppy friendly... who asked us lots of personal questions about how we met, what our wedding was like, et cetera. Her husband, who looked like the lanky fella from Scooby Doo, was in charge of music. He looked like he was 16, with semi-beard and baggy clothes.

Turns out that this woman and her husband are physicians, completing their residency in San Francisco. They are cardiologists. Boy, do I feel O - L - D old.

I'm drinking coffee, Eric's reading the paper, and we're waiting for Jane to come over this morning. I can't believe it's Sunday already. Yikes!

It feels so early!

Today is Eric's first official day back at work. Monday is his first day with students. Eric's job requires much more energy and effort than mine. For the first few weeks, in particular, he has to set the tone for the year. It's hard to recover if you start the year in a less authoritative position.

Our calenders fill so quickly. Busy, busy. Everyone knows that times speeds up as we get older. They yap about it all the time at the district office. Each school year accelerates and the days (seasons, years) fly by like so many fiery comets.

I want the giant heel of God to fall out of the celestial go cart and start dragging the universe into a major slow down.

I don't even care when. God could extend the most benign moment, and I'd be thrilled. Three months to tie my shoe laces? Fine. A 20-minute commute turned into something turtle-like and two days? Fine. Just slow it down.

Gots to go to work....

Work day 189 of 190

I miss summer already!

My first official day back was just fine, but I'd rather be on vacation. I've been reviewing immunization compliance at all of the schools. Things look better than I'd anticipated. I was so distracted at the end of last year that I've been concerned that I didn't leave my ducks in a row.

Happily, my ducks are in a row.

NM has been in the office but CN isn't expected until tomorrow. It's disconcerting (to say the least) to have a nurse hovering around you, waiting for you to keel over dead. I hope she's gotten over that.

School Days, School Days

Today's my first official day of work. It seems that I will be late for my first official day of work.

It's a strange thing. The impulse is to bemoan this day, and to think: well, only 190 work days and then I'll be free for another fabulous summer.

This really lends new meaning to "wishing your life away". At the end of this school year I'll have lived for approximately one quarter of the remaining days my onocologist predicted for me. It was an off-the-cuff-prediction. It's all a shot in the dark. Still...

Also: I would like the world to tuck cotton around Eric today. Whatever it is you do -- prayers, white light, good thoughts -- let's pump up the jam for Mr. Price, who's as worried, scared, and sad as I am (and sometimes more).