Easy Breezy

After a terribly busy week last week (mom’s exciting first week of chemo…the little trooper…the Three Poets Reading Thursday evening, Library of Congress truck all day Friday and the Gadsden Reads kickoff Friday evening, which consisted of a Parrothead Parade and Buffet karaoke), I was looking forward to an easy breezy week this week. That was not to be. While sitting in my digestive specialist’s (the gloriously named Dr. Vipul Thakorbhai Amin, who happens to be one of the glorious doctors responsible for saving my dad’s life a year and a half ago) office to see him about some recent even-more-shocking-er digestive issues, I received a call from my tree cutters saying that they had us on the schedule to take out our massive pines Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, when it rains, it pours…literally. We were due for some typical Southern spring weather in the form of tornadoes and straight-line winds that very evening, so I thought, “Great, you can remove the arboreal behemoths tomorrow, AFTER ONE MORE nail-biting night of storms.” Sure, I told Jake Cranford of Cranford Tree Service. I’ve got nothing better to do in the next couple of days except try to get ahead at work, exercise my body of some digestive demons, pack for a trip…you get the picture.

So, we survived severe thunderstorms last night, and today they will begin to remove the trees. Take one more look at them, cause in two days they will be gone. I am sad that I don’t get to watch the guys take them down (I had dreams at one time of being a tree cutter who specialized in climbing…those dreams lasted about five minutes when I thought about being suspended in a tree from a rope while having to wield a chainsaw). They will not be missed.

And on a side note, Dr. Vipul Thakorbhai Amin is treating me for giardia and…and…wait for it…celiac disease. He looked at my life history of digestive issues and listened to what I had been experiencing recently with the removal of gluten from my diet. The jury is still out on the blood work. And I have an endoscopy and colonoscopy scheduled for later this month. Now, if I can only get mom to quit calling the Giardia Ghirardelli. We’re blaming chemo brain (but we all know that she would still call it Ghirardelli, even if she wasn’t taking chemo right now, cause that’s the way she rolls). I WISH I had Ghirardelli…

Mom update: In my last post, I mislabeled mom’s cancer as rectal cancer. It was not rectal cancer, it was anal cancer. There is a difference between the two, and I wanted to make sure that everyone who was following her story had the right information. Mom is doing great. She’s had a little over one full week of radiation, and one full week of chemo. Her radiation guys are two terrific chaps who allowed sister and me to accompany her into the radiation chamber until it was time to zap her. They then allowed us to watch the computer that showed mom’s insides as the radiation was administered. Mom says that they usually play cool music for her when she’s in there. The Beatles. And now Creedance, cause mom brought a disc from home and left it with them. They are good guys who are taking great care of my mom. Chemo took place last week with an hour-long drip of mitomycin, and then a week-long hook-up to her port of 5FU. She was unhooked on Friday. She will get another drip of mitomycin and another week-long hook-up of 5FU the last week of radiation. Right now, she is unhooked. And she’s off the charts in my book ‘cause she’s doing so well. So far, the only side effects have been a daily tiredness and some relatively minor bowel issues. She works a half-day everyday, going in after her morning treatments. Her attitude is as it always has been, one of greeting each new day with thankfulness and humor. Which is why she’ll go in this morning and tell her radiation techs that her daughter has a bad case of Ghirardelli…

Tree update: Just talked with Cranford Tree Service. They couldn't get out today because of the storm damage last night. Too many folks with trees down on their houses. That's okay by me. There are other folks who need tree cutters more than we do right now. And the wait continues...