Twelth night book exchange

The holidays are well and truly over now. There are only one or two holdouts in the neighborhood as far as Christmas trees and lights, and what's left just looks...tired. It's back-to-work day for me, although I won't go in until noon because of conflict between the car situation and Gregg's appointment. I was able to sleep in a bit this morning and I still have some time to sip coffee and blog before heading out. A nice gentle way to return after more than two weeks off!

Yesterday afternoon I had my first and only visitor of the holiday season, my friend Martina. We've started a tradition over the past two or three years of exchanging books at Christmas. Normally we get together as close to Christmas Eve as possible (if not on Christmas Eve) but this year we both had a lot going on and couldn't manage it any sooner. 

It was nice to have something to look forward to on my last day off, though. Since any holiday treats were long gone, I went to the store and bought an assortment of cookies and a chocolate babka to serve, along with hot chai tea and iced tea. It was good see my friend and spend some time together, and the dogs were beside themselves with joy. They love Martina and all the attention she gives them. Marco likes her just fine, but since she occasionally helps me trim his nails (which he loathes) he always keeps a slightly wary eye on her! 

I'm really excited about the books I got! We both try to make sure our "want to read" lists on Goodreads are updated about a month prior to Christmas, and I like the two she picked for me this time. 

The first has gorgeous cover art.

And the other is a "slow building neo-Gothic" which sounds

 like something right up my alley.

Things could be worse

This year the district gave us this whole week off for Thanksgiving instead of the usual three days. Everyone was super excited about it, especially folks who travel over the holiday. I imagine people who do lots of cooking/hosting will be grateful for the extra time, too.

 We won't be doing any traveling this year (not that we ever do). We're in the process of preparing to paint the remodeled room, and so the meal I cook for the two of us tomorrow will be small and relatively simple. I picked up three large turkey breasts for the freezer last week--they were such a good price that I couldn't resist--and I'll cook one of them for the holiday, and the other two will be handy to have around later in the winter. 

Gregg had three separate oncology appointments yesterday. He's going to be doing four or five radiation treatments sometime within the next few weeks, probably before Christmas. There's a small and (very) slowly growing mass in his lung and the doctors all agree that it shouldn't be ignored. His PET scan came back clear, thank goodness, although there was a slight bit of heightened activity around the spot. They can't do a biopsy, since that poses some risks when you only have one lung, so they've decided to treat it as if it's malignant and proceed from there. They're all confident that a few radiation treatments will eliminate any potential future problems. I'm really, really grateful that the doctors are being so proactive in taking care of him.

Radiation will be a new experience. The last time, it was surgery and chemotherapy, chemotherapy that he did not tolerate well at all. The first thing he said about this treatment plan was, "At least I don't have to do chemo this time." It should be over relatively quickly, and fatigue and skin irritation are the only major side effects they expect. But then, get this: the radiology oncologist Gregg met with said that occasionally a broken rib is a side effect of lung radiation.

A BROKEN RIB, Y'ALL. 

Hopefully, that won't happen. And the doctor assures him it isn't all that common and they have good pain relief available if it does. But still!

Thank goodness the treatments should be done by January, and we can leave this episode behind as just one more shitty thing that happened in 2024. I'm really hoping for a better 2025.

The C word (both of them)

After three years of testing myself every time I so much as got a sniffle, I was shocked when that second line popped up on the Covid test Friday afternoon. I almost hadn’t bothered taking a test at all, I was so sure it would be negative. I guess I'd gotten the stupid idea that I was immune after avoiding it all this time. I'd even put off getting the latest booster, which in hindsight was a real mistake. 

Puppies hanging out with me in the quarantine room.

I've been incredibly lucky; I've had colds worse than this. Mostly I ran a low-grade fever for a couple of days and felt kind of tired, along with a mild headache that came and went. There have been pretty much no respiratory symptoms, and today I feel mostly back to normal. 

But......last night Gregg started to shiver, and I took his temperature, and sure enough, he had a fever. Damn it! We tried to stay apart and be careful, but chances are I was contagious before my symptoms started. So far this morning he feels okay, and after taking a couple of Tylenol his temperature is normal. To be safe, he's headed to the doctor to confirm whether or not he's positive (we don't have any more home tests) and to get an antiviral if he is. Hopefully his symptoms will be as mild as mine, but we're not taking any chances. 

As grateful as I am that we're not any sicker, I'm sad that Christmas is pretty much going to be canceled. I missed the work Christmas party, as you know.  Then we had to cancel a planned visit from family on Sunday. My sister-in-law, Karen, was planning to come for the day along with our nephew Tyler and his wife Jessica. This was the second time we've had to cancel on them due to illness. Gregg was sick with some random virus over Thanksgiving when they first planned to come. 

Tomorrow I'll also have to miss my book club Christmas party. I had recommended the book we read this month, so I hate that I can't go. (I also missed book club last month when Gregg had the stomach virus thing). Then this coming Saturday Martina had planned to come over for our annual holiday book exchange--obviously that's not going to happen now either. And until Gregg and I both test negative, I can't go see my parents, because my dad's health is so poor that Covid would be very dangerous for him. 

I'd planned to spend a couple of days baking cookies and treats this week, but since we can't do anything or see anyone, and since we're not feeling great, I'm not going to bother. Hopefully I'll be able to mask up and go grocery shopping in another day or two, at least, because all we have to eat here at the moment are cans of soup, Saltine crackers, ginger ale, and Gatorade, all purchased hastily by Gregg over the weekend to keep us going while I was sick. Our empty fridge and pantry don't look very festive, that's for sure. 

I guess there's always next year.

Hey ho. 

One year already

Today it's been exactly one year since my husband came home from seeing the doctor and said, "I have cancer." Without a doubt, it was the worst day of my entire life so far. We didn't have any information at that point beyond the fact that there was a tumor in his lung. I choke up whenever I remember that day, the fear and despair and sense of unreality (like a waking nightmare) of the hours and days that followed. Life changed dramatically, unequivocally, forever. We were so frightened of what the future would hold.

Now here we are, one year later, and the tears keep flowing again...but they're tears of happiness and gratitude this time. Gregg is healthy again. The cancer is gone. He continues to improve each day, and life is almost back to normal....but held so much more dear. What a wonderful Christmas this is going to be for us! All we need is each other.

Hold your loved ones tight during the holidays, and every day. They are your most precious gifts.