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.

Hot, hot, hot

Varenna on Lake Como in Northern Italy

Manarola-One of the Cinque Terre towns that we will be visiting in 2 months

Yesterday it was unbelieveably hot here. I woke up at 4 am because of our elderly, fecally incontinent pug was having a breathing episode and panicking because he couldn't get enough air. He was running around panting so I had to calm him down as the running was making things worse. I didn't think he'd survive the night but eventually his breathing slowed down and he was able to sleep. We kept the air conditioning on to keep him cool. With the heat index over 100, running for me was out of the question so to the Y which has good air conditioning. I ran this morning. With the heat index over 80, it wasn't pleasant but it helped that I had fresh legs. Still I was sweating profusely for an hour afterwards.

Shanna et al should be back home. She will have an ultrasound tomorrow to see where the baby is hiding out though it appears he is engaged already. We have to get things ready to take off in case he comes early, which I feel is a strong possibility. Harold is still with us and we have a good time just hanging. We went to Josh's last night. His wife was holding a bachelorette party in Manhattan for her friend but she's flying home tonight.

Tomorrow I go to my first post treatment check-up with the onc. No tests of any kind are scheduled so I am not sure what will be done beyond a node feel and breast lump check. The scar tissue is hard, lumpy and sometimes painful, all 'normal' but if there was something growing there (most likely spot), I am not sure how anyone could tell. From what I have read, with TNBC, the first year is when recurrences (both local and distal) are more likely to occur but after the 3rd year, the incidence drops drastically. Past 5 years, it is less than the estrogen driven kind. Almost one year is over, just have to sweat it out for 2 more years. I am able to not think about this for increasingly longer stretches of time but I am aware of the odds and they are scary.

La mia famiglia

From left to right: Ramy, Shanna, me, Oliver, Steve, Harold, Naomi, Josh

For the past week, we have had visitors. First Shanna and her family then Harold, who is Steve's brother. We are at the $1.99 martini place in this picture. Shanna's new baby has appeared to drop so maybe he will come early. I've been trying to run every day to make up for my sloth and fatigue early in the week but now am dealing with thunderstorms.

One night I spend a good portion trying to console Naomi after a fight with her boyfriend. She of course, thought it was the end of the world and refused to eat or smile for 2 days. As I write, she is negotiating with him. I am trying to convince her the more you cling to a person, the more you drive them away but this is a lesson that one must learn on one's own.

Returning to normal

For the past few days, I have been very tired, which I found worrisome. Why can't I do things I did the week before, is this a sign of something? But today I was able to run 6.5 miles without feeling like I was on a death march so that reassured me.

Shanna and her family have moved to her in-laws so no more waking up to Oliver in the morning. She has to balance visits with many in-laws, made more by divorce, with our small family. Steve and I have been taking Oliver to the park in the mornings so he can burn off some energy and she can sleep. He has to be moving all the time. Hopefully the new baby will be less active. Steve and I will probably go out before the birth. Naomi has agreed to not move out quite yet while we are gone.

My bizarre cosmos are actually coreopsis. I was confused as the leaves are so similar but the seeds must have been in the 'wedding package' of unspecified wild flowers. At least it's a perennial so it will come back.

I went again to our cancer cooking class tonight. The subject being summer salads, which were quite tasty. Hi to Pat if you've found this.

I had a Happy Hour with some of my former colleagues yesterday. Lots of us have lost another set of jobs since our place was closed. Anyway it was fun seeing them again.

Mystery flowers

My bizarre cosmos. Although I planted some yellow and orange cosmos, those flowers look completely different and I haven't seen yellow cosmos with dark centers. Could they be some variety of English daisies?The flowers are only slightly more than an inch across.

At Shanna's wedding, as part of the favor bags, we gave out wild flower seeds-unspecified mix. This pink poppy is from that along with my mystery cosmos.

Oliver at Sugarbush near our house

As Steve and I had Oliver at the local park on the swings, Marilyn , the lady who was diagnosed with the same relatively rare cancer as I in the same week, walked through. She finished treatment 10 days before me but thinks I have more hair. But mine sticks up, even without the gel instead of lying flat as her does. Oliver enjoyed our park while his mom got some much needed rest. Still trying to plan how to handle the new birth. Ideally Ramy and I will be cheering her on in the labor room while Steve watches Oliver. Clairvoyance would be useful. The official date is 9-11 but she went 2 weeks early last time.

I still don't have alot of energy. Maybe I have some low-grade fever. I did run later in the day but it was an effort to keep going and I went to sleep not long after I finished. And tomorrow, summer actually will come with temps near 90. Not good for this runner.

Oliver

My little buddy at 18 months

Oliver interacting with his Uncle Josh with Naomi on the side

Almost 15 hours after they left Boston, Oliver, Shanna and Ramy are finally here. They were delayed an hour alone trying to get into Canada around Niagra Falls. (it is shorter to cut through Canada than to go around the Great Lakes). He is a joy to have around but he is very active.

We had a mother's group Saturday at Brenda's who barbequed salmon on a cedar plank, which was tasty and also made sangria. I had made my quinoa salad that turned out well. I had enough left over for the brunch at my house today. It was a nice night with good friends complete with visits from the hummingbirds and the deer.

It was past midnight once the Bostonians came. I was so tired this morning I really couldn't do anything after brunch but sleep. Hopefully I will be more energetic tomorrow. Oliver is currently with the other grandma now-called Ta-ta (pronounced Tay-tah-Arabic) whereas Naomi spent the day with her friend Tata pronounced as it appears.

Waiting

Shanna and her family are slowly inching across Rte 90 stopping every few hours for her to walk around (week 35 of pregnancy) and to let Oliver blow off some energy. He hates to be confined. This week he learned how to lock himself in the bathroom (fortunately he will press the unlock button when asked), take his diaper off, unravel paper towels, and escape the apartment before his mom can stand up and catch him.

Naomi is at training to become a waitress. They will make some cuts today, hopefully not her as she really needs a job.

Mom's group tonight. I usually make desserts for this but tonight I will make a quinoa salad that I learned about in my cancer survivor cooking class. Unfortunately I lost the recipe but found one that sounds very close.

A shout out to Debbi who created my beautiful top that I purchased at the Art Fair. She put my picture in her latest blog entry (http://artweardesign.blogspot.com/).

My orange cosmos are finally in bloom. I was getting paranoid because none of the plants that I grew from seed actually produced flowers until this week even though the plants look healthy. I thought that there was be some magic ingredient I had to add to actually see flowers. A few days ago, I found that my string of solar lights (little stars that light up my fence) was chewed through. I was able to splice the very tiny wires back together yesterday and now my stars are lit again. Happy days. It was very toasty to run this morning making it an effort to finish. No running records this week and next week with my guests and activities, it will be hard to get many miles in.