Joan on the Road...of Life

We've sure enjoyed this week off from daily doctor trips but today the respite ends. We'll be heading out in a bit for Jim's hopefully last chemo session. In the next week or so he'll have another CAT scan and next steps will be decided. We are both feeling fine...nice and relaxed.

Yesterday we put up a hummingbird feeder and I'm enjoying the flittering wings by my window. This feeder has a nice perch so the little guys sit still while they drink and I have a "birds eye" view of them. I'd forgotton how nice it is to have this little connection to nature. We've decided against having a pet so these little critters, the birds and bunnies, will have to do.

We bought a new crockpot because the old one had a bad seal between the lid and crock. Never could get it seated quite right. And God forbid Jim should open it to check out the meal...he never got it back in place. Our first meal in the new pot was a 7-bone pot roast with carrots and onions. Oh My!!! We ate most of the roast. Just enough left for a soup-like meal for Jim's lunch. It was delicious.

I'm on hiatus from morning bike rides because my knees were hurting so much. The problem is that I don't know if the hurt is from just old-age achiness or from the new meds I'm taking. I don't think I ever wrote about the pill I'm supposed to take for 5 years, post cancer treatments. My type of cancer is treated with radiation, chemo and then hormone therapy in the form of aromatase inhibitors. This is a pill taken daily for 5 years that blocks the production of estrogen which in my case promoted the growth of cancer.

I've tried three versions of the pill and have experienced the achiness side effect. Last week I put the doctor under the third degree...do I really have to take this pill. I hate taking daily medications! She showed me statistics and charts that convinced my I should do this. It's all very iffy and scary but I choose to think, every day, that I HAD cancer. Been there, done that.

Now my challenge is to do the few things that prevent recurrence. Hormone therapy, lose weight, limit alcohol, and exercise. Whew! That's a challenge. No more Ding Dongs for me :)

My current book (when not on Facebook and Farmtown) is Roads to Quoz by William Least-Heat Moon. He writes about his travels (Blue Roads) in very miniscule detail. This is one of the rare books that has a word I don't know on just about every page. Yikes! It's a slow read because his sentences are complex and the words are all 4 syllable (did I spell that right?). But for an RVer it's an interesting read. Makes me think about how to approach our travels. Shall we follow a river? Look for towns with strange names? Stop at every BBQ joint? Food for thought.

As I sit here writing I'm watching the bird feeder. It's only been up for 12 hours and I already have a dominant bird sitting on a little tree scaring off all the other hummingbirds! He's funny! Gets all puffed up and attacks any approaching hummingbird, then sits on the perch and has a drink!