More than Cancer . . . What a Concept ?!?!?!

Sometimes, I forget that my life is more than just dealing with cancer. I know, I know. Not really awesome thinking, but honest. My life moves in 3 week time-tables with the side-effects of each treatment carefully taken into account and the larger chunks of life are planned according to the 3 month spans between scans. That's just the way life goes now. I can't think of any other way to approach life anymore. I'd like to hope it's the antidepressants that make it difficult for me to conceptualize time that knew no boundaries of social convention like I did when planning my 20s . . . ha, there's a concept I've let go of . . . planning.

But, I've digressed . . . what a surprise. The purpose of this post was to say that I need to start posting about the things I've filled my days with. I started with my sewing in the fall, and then I moved to my art therapy group which is an amazing source of comfort and strength, and then my garden which is mostly organic vegetables. My plants . . . most of which I propagated completely by seed. I started them in February, in our sunroom on the radiator. I babied them for months and now they are outside and supposed to flourishing, but, because we are having really, really mild and rainy weather this summer, only in the last couple of days did my 39 cent cherry tomato seeds have their first flower turn fruit action.

I have a week before we leave to go to Israel, so don't expect much. But feel free to email and nag me if I don't produce . . . much like my plants.

Welcome Chubby!

On Wednesday, July 22, my sister-in-law Inbal had an unscheduled C-section and welcomed a baby boy (as of 7/25/09 still unnamed) . . . whom B and I have been calling Chubby, into the world! Congrats to Inbal and Avner!

NYC!

In between treatment #2 and #3 I had a fabulous weekend in New York with the ladies I met in Dallas. Carrie arrived from Colorado on Thursday afternoon so I took the train up to meet her and Steph at Steph's Upper East Side Apartment that day. On Friday, we cruised to Midtown for a Betsey Johnson sample sale, met Cristina downtown at her place near NYU for some cheap dumplings and walked around Chinatown and Canal street before heading back up to Steph's to reunite with Melinda and Jen. Friday night through Saturday at noon we ate and chatted nonstop. Insanity! From then on, we documented the weekend with some photos!



Walking around the Upper East Side

Jen and Pam in Central Park

Saturday Night Dinner (Jen, Me & Melinda, Carrie and Steph)



Sunday -- Walking to the Subway and Brunch in Brooklyn

50 chemo treatments

. . . Treatment #2 of the last cycle was my Golden Chemoversary. Barak was in DC at his Foreign Fighters Round Table, so Bethel, a history prof here at H-ford and the proud, proud owner of Cyan's besty Finnegan, came with me. I brought 50 mini cupcakes for 50 chemos. . . yes, oh, so eventful. On my 51st treatment Barak was back and Devlin was not down at the shore with his family so I bestowed on him our present to him . . . a matching shirt to mine stating "My Patient is My Homegirl." True to Devlin form, he was very touched and now addresses me as "Homegirl" when I enter the office . . . not sure if this was a good idea!