Synecdoche

I love this word even if I can barely pronounce it. It's an approximate homophone of Schenectady (only the 'd' and 'k' sounds are transposed). The word, derived from the Greek for 'simultaneous understanding', itself has several meanings, including of course, to have several meanings. Its main use is that of a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole as in 'she had too many mouths to feed' and 'he purchased 100 head of cattle'. Or how some clueless Phd chemists referrred to non-Phd chemists as 'hands'. (Just loved those guys but I bet they can't define synecdoche)) Obviously there were bodies attached to these mouths, hands and heads but the part represents the whole. In my case, the breast went for a check-up today. There was a body attached to this breast but you wouldn't know it for all the attention the breast received today. The breast is doing fine, thank you very much. Its hard, painful components are apparently scar tissue, not more cancer. Also since the body attached to this breast is capable of running without stopping for an hour in this awful heat, it can be assumed that the body isn't teeming with mets, at least not big ones. One can never be sure. Signs of doom: more than temporary nausea, dry cough, unexplained weight loss, painful bones, headaches, visual disturbances. But in the case that the worst occurs, they are starting a clinical trial at UM for PARP inhibitors-the potential cure of triple negative metastatic breast cancer: it will be the first treatment specifically for TNBC. I do like Dr. Henry-very friendly and knowledgeable. I did whine about the lack o'eyelashes but she said the record for losing them is 4 times. Hope I don't beat this one.

As I was checking out, I noticed the scheduler had pictures of pretty flowers, one of which looked like mine. She was broken hearted. She had thousands of flowers but all are dead now due to a storm Sunday night that pelted them then covered them with a foot of ice balls. They all froze on a day that the temp reached 95! No hailstorm here 15 miles to her south but I could see the lightning in the north.

As for the word of the day, we watched Synecdoche, New York yesterday, which takes part, at least in the beginning, in Schenectady, NY. My chemobrain didn't make the connection between the words for a while. This movie did not come out in Ann Arbor as I suppose we aren't sophisticated enough to enjoy it. Indeed my son, who gave it to me, did not enjoy it one bit but he is not a fan of words. He also is not appreciative of the surreal settings like repeated conversations between two characters oblivious to themselves being in a burning building.The movie features many synecdoches: different meanings for the same word, like all the meanings of the word 'right'. But it threw in some homophones for fun such as psychosis and sycosis-both pronounced the same and both medical conditions but one refers to pustules of the face due to irritation of the hair follicles. The main character, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, suffered from one of these conditions if not both.

We made a field trip to the burbs to have some stellar pho in Ferndale and then to pick up good corned beef from the Star Deli in Southfield. My parents house remains unsold. I closed on the house 5 years ago this month to flippers. But the market plummeted drastically by the time they had fixed the house up.

And don't hire me to be your OB. My new grandson- to- be has NOT dropped nor is his head engaged. He is continuing his brother's backwards tradition and is clearly breech on the ultrasound taken today. Shanna's friend whose wedding she came out to attend is an OB also (I am not an OB but Rae is a friend and an OB-I am too influenced by this movie full of such misunderstandings)thought he was in the 'right' position so either she was wrong or he turned in the last few days to the 'worse'. True he has a month to turn around but they also were able to calculate his weight, 6 Lbs 11 oz, so either he is a big boy or he is almost done cooking.