CYCLE 3 DAY 9
I woke this morning after a reasonable nights sleep but was aware my lips were feeling dry and a bit sore. They have been like that for a while now, in fact since the start of chemo, and I have been keeping it at bay the use of rosy lips Vaseline. I have just slipped into the habit of applying it now and again during the day. Its no big deal but it just irritates me from time to time. So I woke with this thought in my head and tentatively touched my lip to see if it was sore to the touch, it was a bit and then my mind wandered to think about kissing. Tricky if your lip is sore, but it took me off to all the art work that was associated with it, and I spent time think of all the ones I could remember. Of course once up and busy I googled the ones I had remembered;
My favourite lip balm
I am pretty sure there is a famous photo of an American sailor kissing a girl in the street that would belong with the above pictures. I say all this because it never ceases to amaze me how tiny things related to cancer chemotherapy impinge upon all sorts of areas of ordinary life. Today would turn out be an example of this.
Having got up and had breakfast curtesy of my partner who was working from home today I settled down to deal with e-mails and to begin to write a brief paper for Enabling Environments about Champions. It is something I had intended to do for a while and I now have a deadline. In the middle of the morning my partner went of to the dentist to start the work for a crown. On her return she was suffering the normal numb mouth for such work but also the anaesthetic had affected her eye and she was not seeing as well as she might. This is one of those unexpected moments when something unusual affects a wider real world. She was due to visit her mother but was not now feeling able to drive. Only one sensible answer in this, I will drive and we will go together. This is what we did. So our afternoon was spent taking a bright and independent 90+ woman shopping and indulging in chips. Its one of the very rare occasions when I get to use a blue badge and park in the disabled spaces as close to the door as possible. I get a strange sense of satisfaction cruising into a space and knowing that this time its genuine. I have been know, when in a hurry, to use a bay briefly but illicitly. What started out as a short shopping list of a couple of carrots turned in to three bags of stuff but it means a good supply of food has been laid in. By the time we returned home to order our takeaway curry my partners eye and mouth were returning to normal. I think as the evening has gone by things are getting better. I guess we will find out in the morning if all has returned to normal. So not an exciting day but one where we all ended up doing things we did not expect or at least in the way we had expected to.
During the day I received a link to a TED talk from a friend about surviving cancer. (I’m not sure I know what a TED talk is, I need to ask my daughter who I know watches them).This one by Suleika Jaouad, a leukaemia survivor, took me aback a bit, but made me think. I share the link with you so that that you can see what you think. https://www.facebook.com/29092950651/posts/10162519737310652/?sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e
