Roma Therapy

The temperature dropped 10 degrees (C) between yesterday and today, so it just could be that summer's over. The hottest summer since the weather bureau was established, says the weather bureau. We were able to make it through, however, without using any air conditioning--except for the one day that we got back from Colorado (the switch in humidity was impossible to handle). M said the days got hot, and the blinds came down to hide the sun and the view. But the evening and night breezes coming off the sea were just enough to sleep comfortably, so it was amazingly suffer-free. Not so some of the garden, and the vegetation in the hills around us has also had a hard time and is less green than usual. We did do well with cucumbers, goya, peppers and shishito; not so well with zucchini and eggplant.We did very well with tomatoes, a blessing since we do love our tomato sauce. For a while there, we'd get one of these harvests (above) every day or so, and we were able to freeze a lot. More than anything, our first-year garden taught us a lot about what not to do and that should go into lessons for next year. (Failing at zucchini, according to some, is like not being able to tie your shoelaces.) But damn, these Roma tomatoes are good!

M's slowly increasing her aromatherapy massage clients. So far, once they come to the salon at the house, they seem to want to come back, so that's a good sign, isn't it? She also goes out on call to various places, hotels, spas, etc.  I'm sure she thinks it's slow going, but I'm surprised at how quickly she's established herself. It's been a lot of hard work, but the results are good. As I'm writing, she has a client in the salon now.

Ever since seeing those glowing isotopes floating in my right lung on the image of the doctor's computer, I'm very conscious of what's going on inside me, though there's little I can do about it at the moment. Cut the alcohol intake. Walk more. Get in shape. Sleep well. Learn patience. Eat tomatoes.
I'm not sure about the last one, but it's the easiest one to do.

This really sucks

Last Friday I was told I've got lung cancer. On Saturday, I got nailed by a jellyfish. Both things really sucked, but the weekend got much better after that. We even managed to see the emperor and empress do their peculiar stiff wave from their motorcade a few meters away.

First things first. Everybody told me that jellyfish season was over. It is September, after all, so I put away the anti-jellyfish cream and put on my swim suit, stepped thigh deep into the ocean and dove forward . . . right into strands of jellyfish strings. Luckily, though, it was just those thin detached strings that hit my face arms and legs. (I guess the jellyfish are hanging out a bit longer with the warm water of this very hot year.) That ended my swim, as I had to go pour on some vinegar to try to control the rash. It still itches a bit, but it's manageable and disappearing fast.

Which is how I hope the lung cancer turns out. It hasn't been fun waiting for the final diagnosis. They told me the day of my annual check in August up that there was a spot on my right lung--both in the x-ray and the CT scan, but then I had to go back a week later to get a broncoscopy--which was inconclusive--and then wait another week to get a PET CT scan and then another week for the final conclusion. It was almost a relief to get to this point, since I was unable to control my imagination from envisioning everything under the sun.

Right now, it's stage 1, about 3 centimeters in diameter. I'm undergoing more tests to see if it has spread. Had a CT scan of my innards, and it looks like those are clean. Will have an MRI on my head next week to see if there's any movement up there before meeting the surgeon and planning the next step.