My friend Julia – who had her last breast cancer treatment the same day I was diagnosed with breast cancer – will be walking 10km tomorrow, Sunday September 27th, in Breast Cancer Action’s Paint Ottawa Pink event. If you’d like to sponsor her, you can do so here. (On the “Review Your Donations” page, click on Add special instructions to the seller and leave a note to indicate that you’re sponsoring Julia Ringma.)
I myself will not be walking or running anywhere anytime soon. I was at the neurosurgery office on Friday afternoon because of some weirdness with my incision, and was told very nicely by my favourite nurse, Dale, that I must spend a lot more time lying down for the next six weeks. Apparently I’ve been walking too much and sitting WAY too much and the result is much swelling in my lower back which is putting pressure on my incision and keeping it from healing. It’s also putting pressure on my nerves, which may be the cause of my continuing pain.
It’s so weird that for the last six months I’ve had to spend as much time as possible sitting, and now suddenly sitting is the worst thing I can be doing and I must spend as much time as possible lying down.
I’m starting first thing tomorrow. Today I went out for breakfast, followed by the Wakefield Artists’ Tour. Tomorrow I will lie down and not get up for six whole weeks. Got any good book recommendations?
Thanks! A Channel will be there and Annette Goerner is the MC and Jim Watson is also supposed to be there. Things will be said around 9:30 at Mooney’s Bay and the walk starts at 10, rain or shine. I hope no rain but that’s what Goretex is for!
I am glad you are lying down tomorrow! Let me think about the books…
I will bring you books and movies on Tuesday when I take Tammy for dental surgery … she will need a driver because she goes all silly and giggly with anaesthetic. I will either come before or after the dentist. I am glad you have a “good” reason for pain. I did Wakefield as well today … am exhausted so you must be really tired!
What an odd order… you just have to lay there. It would make me insane. I am wishing you a speedy recovery…
What kind of books do you like?
If you’re interested in really wonderful kids books I have lots! We’re reading My Side of the Mountain right now. I read it 3 or 4 times as a child, then to Darkmirror who read it 3 or 4 times, and now on to Nature Girl.
She hates having to slow down and take it a bit easier too.
Having no idea what your usual computer setup is like, I’m envisioning you face down on a borrowed massage table with a laptop positioned under so you can view the screen through the face hole! Oh, no! Flashback to the original Sabrina movie when the brother with glass shards in his rear oozes through the clear plastic hammock’s hole! LOL
Book recommendation – Pompeii scroll down the page to see description and reviews.
I’ll bet you could knit lying down. Small things anyway. Do you have comfort reads:the book you read over and over. Mine is Anne Tyler’s ‘Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant’. Maybe we could all think of a comfort read for Zoom!
Books I can read over and over and over:
Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson
The Diamond Age, same author
His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman – the first book in this trilogy is The Golden Compass
Imajica, by Clive Barker
Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
American Gods, same author
Now, after listing them, I want to go read them all again. Where to start, where to start…
6 weeks – ‘groundhog day’? back issues of the monitor? how about ‘the vrgaarfq transcripts’ – boy gets debriefed in desert facility after wager on space shuttle disaster; you could always write one yourself…glad it’s just from overdoing it, this time you’ll know what to expect!
Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce is excellent (maybe the best book I’ve read all year) and apparently his first book is just as good. I also loved Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s a Somalia-born former Dutch MP who wrote her life story, which reads like fiction. It’s amazing.
I’m a big fan of podcasts for passing the time – This American Life has changed my life, and you can find it by googling the name. They have tonnes and tonnes of archives to go through.