Mukilteo Musings

A Bit of This and That

1. Bird news: A bird hit our window yesterday morning. Luckily. it was simply stunned and sat on our front deck while waiting to fully recover. He was in a spot in full view of Apolo who proceeded to bark at the poor thing. I was worried he would give the bird a heart attack but no, the bird seemed to revive more quickly in order to get away from the giant gold furry monster. What kind of bird you may ask? Well, now that I have my trusty bird book I was able to determine the species. This seems to be appropriate given that the RNC is about to begin. I have not heard of this bird much though according to my book, it is very common here. Yes, it was a BUSHTIT. It is really fun to say. A BUSHTIT!

2. McCain's VP choice: I do not want to be political so I'll just say I had chemo yesterday and this topic was the talk of the infusion floor of SCCA and it was NOT positive. Our wonderful nurse, Pamela, who happens to be a fellow Mukilteo resident, shared some good laughs with us about the whole thing. It is the talk of our city being the gateway to Alaska and that's all I'll say about that.

3. Chemo room news: Since yesterday was a holiday, there were not many of us getting our toxic fixes. I did notice a young African American woman who seemed to be alone. Her youthfulness made me tear up. She still had all of her hair so who knows what type of cancer she has but it is just so unfair. The other patient near me was an Hispanic teen age boy. He was accompanied by his Mom and Dad and several siblings. Again, he was too young to be going through this journey and one look at him all hooked up to chemo bags, was just too much for me. Cancer doesn't care about your age, your ethnicity, or your sex. Why them? Oh God, why them?

4. Why me?: I haven't delved too much into why I have colon cancer. I am the most unlikely person to get it given my healthy lifestyle and being a woman. I am lucky to be married to a person who knows all of the statistics and risks of who gets cancer and why. In fact, he has had a book on this topic floating around in his head for years and my situation may just prompt him to take the sabbatical and write it. Some cancers have clear causes. Mesothelioma lung cancer is caused by asbestos. Other lung cancers are caused by smoking. Breast cancer is linked to estrogen. But most cancers have no rhyme nor reason. Why do some people get hit by lightening or killed by drunk drivers? There are no explanations for some tragedies. What can I say? As a kid out camping, I loved to burn my hot dogs in the fire and then eat them. I also liked my marshmellows black. Couldn't have been good for me! Vitamin D or the lack thereof has recently been linked to colon cancer as well as MS. People living in northern latitudes do not get nearly enough vitamin D. This would include me and I now take a double dosage everyday. The stress of my father's death and the molar pregnancy in combination with a highly stressful job in the early 1980's probably put my health at risk making me vulnerable for a cancer to take root. Who knows? Probably all of the above and we do not know yet whether I have a genetic predisposition. At this point, my thoughts and actions are directed toward recovering from this disease and not dwelling on the "what ifs."

5. Dave's wine: Drink your red wine folks! Take it from this cancer expert, it is full of antioxidants and it is good for you in moderation. Seriously though, Dave's wine group entered some of their wine in the Evergreen State Fair. I was teasing Dave when I saw the winners listed in the Everett Herald and his group was not among them. But I had to eat the newspaper. They did place with a blue ribbon in Best of Show. They were not the top one but they did very well receiving 17.5 points out of a possible 20 for their merlot! We thought our wine was good, now we know it is good!