Maintaining Altitude/Attitude

Another day at the oncologist! Huzzah!

My friends call me New Normal.

What to report? Eh, not all that much. Karen has lost three pounds since our last appointment which isn't great but not a cause for concern just yet. While she's on one level happy to be shedding some weight, basically we want her weight to stay the same as when she was diagnosed. As Kathy, our NP, put it, this is her "fighting weight." I of course related to that all too well.

Karen's fatigue is slightly better but there are good days and bad days. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she can get back to something closer to full speed and resume working, even if just from home. We explained this to Dr. Sherman and he told us if that's our goal, then he's going to do whatever he can to make that happen. That said, he added, we may want to consider that we have (and I shudder as I type this suddenly terribly overused term) a "new normal" and should adjust our expectations and lifestyle accordingly. If we want to go live in Hawaii, he said, now's the time. Do the things we want to do. So we kind of are, although that doesn't include a move to an island paradise where I'm likely to go all Travis Bickle in a week.

What we are doing is slightly altering our general approach. While we're still going ahead with super-exciting happy fun things like finally writing a fucking will, we are trying to focus more on the day to day and less on the end. We know the end is coming but we don't know when. Some people have gone two years on the meds Karen is taking. We should be just as prepared to enjoy that potential two years as we are prepared to deal with the unpleasantness that will eventually and certainly come. We are shoving the death watch mentality into the back of our brainmeat for the time and focusing on living our life the way we have until know. With a few adjustments. And more care and kindness than this pack of dingoes generally manages.

We're Arrogant New York Prick and we've come to rock!

Oh, during our visit with Dr. Sherman he kind of let slip his general contempt for Dr. Sirott and some of the other medical personnel we've dealt with (he and I concurred that the pathologist Dr. Poor was all too aptly named). I can see why Sirott is not a big fan of Sherman. He's kind of an arrogant New York prick but, you know what, he's our arrogant New York prick and we couldn't be happier. In marginally related news, Arrogant New York Prick is the name of my new band.

Karen's energy was good enough today to make it to the mid-year parent potluck at Dash's school. And of course I ruled the Potluck Thunderdome, wowing the crowd with a lemon buttermilk chess pie and my S'mores pie with homemade marshmallow. I'm 6 for 6 in potluck victories. I intend to go for the full four year sweep when Dash becomes a senior next year.

I will be a legend.