Chemo and Kitties (A great band name, I think)

I haven’t posted anything in almost two weeks because things have been so hectic around here. But to keep things on track I’ll complain for few minutes before I’m back to the grind.

J started chemotherapy yesterday. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had surgery last month. The whole thing was terrifying and super stressful. Thankfully for us, testicular cancer is one of the most curable cancers out there. If caught early (which it was in our case) it is over 95% curable. The doctors he has seen have been wonderful, but we had a real problem with some medical secretaries. I’m not sure if they are all as terrible as the ones we’ve dealt with lately or we’ve just been comparing them to our GP’s best-ever secretary. All of the oncology nurses at our nearest major hospital were really great though, which was more important, and a huge relief.

It was incredibly sad to see some of the chemo patients that are receiving high-dose, long-term treatments. On top of the sadness of being there, we were both uneasy since we weren’t sure how it all worked, and how J might be feeling afterwards (he is quite sick today, and I’m sure the intense heat wave we’ve been experiencing isn’t helping. )Thankfully there were volunteers that walked around and chatted and brought refreshments. Joking around with them really broke our tensions. If I ever win the lottery and don’t have to work anymore I will definitely volunteer some of my time to wear a yellow jacket and hand out drinks and cookies. And donate lots of money, of course!

I bought J some new outdoors magazines beforehand and brought some knitting that I haven’t touched in ages to pass the time, but we mostly chatted with an elderly woman who was alone, and constantly sucking on an electronic cigarette. This thing was really neat, and looked about 80% real (100% from a distance) and every time someone walked through the door, she would (in a raspy Irish accent) say, “It’s a fake, it’s a fake, it’s not real, eh? Its okay.” She was a real character and obviously a real hit with the nurses. I couldn’t believe how many patients there were without friends or family with them. Being there is terrible enough, but alone?

When we got home R was grumpy because our cat Russia kept meowing during her nap. My friend had been babysitting for us and couldn’t figure out what her deal was, and tried her best to calm the cat with no success. An hour later she gave birth to a kitten on my bedroom floor. She is six years old, and we never had her spayed since she only went into heat once for about two days when she was a year old, and not since. She’s mostly an indoor cat, and only goes out into the yard with us during the daytime. There was one night in the spring that she accidentally got left outside until morning, but since she was clean, and (very) angry with us when she came inside we figured she had hid under the back porch all night cursing us. This still might have been the case, since I’m rooting for the possibility of Immaculate Conception. Whatever the case, she didn’t look pregnant at all, just like she put on a few pounds… I’m not stupid, and I’ve seen many pregnant cats in my day, with their wide lumpy guts and swollen teats, and she was nothing like that. I can’t remember when the (perhaps magical) night was, so it’s possible that she delivered early. I feel really bad that we will now have to find homes for four kittens in 8-10 weeks.

With this new cancer scare, J’s family being ridiculous, existing dietary issues, unfinished renovations and now unexpected kittens…I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed. It’s hard to fall asleep at night because my mind is running on about things to be done, and things that can’t be done right now. Hoping things settle down over the next few days since T’s 12th birthday is on Sunday and my sister and her daughter are moving home from South Korea on Monday after almost 10 years. I’m going to try my best to get organized over the remainder of the summer and set some real solid goals for the fall.

And selfishly, even though I feel guilty about contributing to the cat population in our region, I’m sort-of-kind-of-maybe looking forward to having some cute kitties roaming the house in a few weeks.