Thursday 8.14.2008

What a lovely day! I got up and got ready for work, then headed south. Looked at the gas gauge--shoot! I forgot to refuel yesterday. So, I stopped at Kipp Road Meijer and gassed up. Of course, the price had jumped 9 cents since yesterday, too. Oh well.

I got to Jackson, found a space in the lot 2 blocks away, and the shuttle was there. I hopped aboard and was driven over to the building. Clocked in, report, day under way.

Good patients, good staff. Good administration--the powers that be had a 90th anniversary party for the facility (Foote) and had put together a very nice "bbq party" for the staff. There was a huge tent, 3-piece jazzy blues band, and catered food! A very nice change--chicken, ribs, beautiful fresh fruit, yeast rolls, corn, baked beans, assorted high fat/high sugar/high calorie cookies, punch, and we were handed a large black tote bag with a lanyard inside of it. (with the new logo on them, of course) None-the-less, it was nice to have something other than hospital food. And it was free. (You have to understand that the freebies have all but vanished...)

So, after a good lunch, we discharged a lot of the patients, and the rest of the day was, well, swell. Other than the hot flashes which are overpowering me sometimes. The intensity seem to be increasing. I can feel them coming on, and before long, now I'm perspiring across the top of my forehead, the sides of my neck, and sometimes even drip down my back. EWWWW!!!!

This is just not good. I've not done anything different as far as meds go, and of course I can't take hormones, or even the "natural" products like soy or black cohosh, because my tumor was hormone receptor positive. So, it's me and the hots. I do my best to breathe and not let it bother me, but geesh. Many times a day, like maybe twice an hour, and I've not noticed any triggers. Even being "dry", sometimes I'm so cold I'm shivering, sometimes for 20 or 30 minutes. Then I usually have a pretty long episode of being hot. And not always perspiring. Just hot. Today I had an episode of being queasy hot. Yuck. These temperature fluctuations are really something.

The shift finally ended, and I changed my shoes and walked the two blocks over to my car. An uneventful drive home Thank You God where Daniel was waiting for me.

He had a good day, too, practicing golf stuff. Tomorrow he's playing in some qualifier for something.

We visited a bit, we looked at some of the Olympic events, he drifted off to bed, and I wrote here. I've gotten tired in the last hour or so, and it was a trick to write tonight.

Thank you for reading, Hugs.