Violent boyfriends

Naomi's classmate Anna just died. Naomi said that they have known for a few days that she was 'brain-dead' but she was kept alive for organ harvasting. She leaves behind a twin brother and an older sister, a soccer star we've watched when Naomi was in the program, her parents and many, many grieving people. At school, in between their finals, they keep announcing the presence of grief cousellors. Again she is dead due to some violent jerky boyfriend who couldn't take 'No' for an answer so he bashed her head in with a hammer and left her to die in a snowbank.
And he isn't the only evil one. A seventeen year old girl recently broke her 17 year old boyfriend's weed bong. In retaliation, he smashed her lip, bit her hand and bashed her pet bunny to death with a baseball bat. The kids don't know the identity of this unhappy couple. It is not clear how these events affect Naomi-she really was sad about the bunny but matter-of-factly reports everyone else's reactions.

In cyberspace, there is this sweet, young woman in Seattle battling TNBC. (http://heathersjourneytohealth.blogspot.com/)This awful monster popped up even before she was ready to start a family so on top of dealing with the diagnosis of TNBC itself, she had to quickly make decisions about whether having a family were in the cards for her. So unfair! She had a similar chemo to mine and actually had finally finished but has had every nasty side effect that chemo has to offer-numerous infections, fingernails falling off, and the worse, fluid filling up her lungs and the area around the heart. She had to be hospitalized for the latter and they had alot of trouble controlling it. She had to accept that that there was a strong possibility she was going to die and wrote this heart-breaking farewell. But finally she is on the mend and will be released soon.

Even though the temp topped out at 18 yesterday, I was able to take a long walk as they cleared more of the bike path near me. Still queasy but less and less. Nausea is not a side effect of Taxol, which I start next Tuesday so this pukiness should be a thing of the past. Hope, hope, hope. Taxol has its own list of side effects but in general, it is much more tolerable than the AC. My hair might even start growing back.

The other night, Josh brought me "Burn After Reading". Very funny. And the Conchords are back! A really funny show about this 2 man New Zealand band trying to make it in New York. The character Jemaine reminds me so much of my former boss and friend Steve, also from New Zealand, who had tragically died in a rip tide off the New Zealand coast 10 years ago trying to save his 7 year old son. The son was saved by his then 11 year old daughter while the other daughter, then 9, who couldn't swim well, looked on and got help.

On tap for today, more battles with the insurance companies, help with Naomi's math final tomorrow, a longer walk once it warms up, and a visit with my friend Anthony this afternoon.