cicada time of year

 It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, not too hot, but nice enough to dip into the pool a few times. We put up the shade so that I could relax outside while waiting for the zucchini to sweat before being made into scarpaccia. There is a surplus of zucchini and cucumbers this week so they've been featuring heavily in our diet! The tomatoes have started to ripen. The jalapeno peppers are getting close to harvest.

Pat is coming for supper tonight so I have to plan some actual food - I've been living off produce for weeks now - I think we will have pasta with tomato sauce which is slightly better than a plate of zucchini, cucumber, tomato, and peppers!

Last Sunday we tortured Lupa with the clippers - she's shorn for another 2 months. Wednesday I took myself to the barbers for my own haircut - I might have slightly miscommunicated with the stylist so my hair is pretty short! I look like a boy from the back 😱 

Monday afternoon I had an appointment in the hospital for radiation setup. They got me laid out on the slab, did a test run, then jabbed me with needles to make 5 little dot tattoos to help them realign me for the actual treatment. It was easy, and as has been my experience so far, the people were great. (note to self, remember to practice holding my breath!). Carm was able to come into the room while they did the fitting - now he knows the helpless feeling of seeing your loved one laid out. 

My first treatment is this coming Tuesday afternoon - hurrah!

Tuesday we got busy first thing in the morning (hum… I think I walked first though), getting the house clean for afternoon guests, but first we had to harvest the garlic. It wasn't a day too soon… all the wet weather we've been having was starting to rot them… there were at least 20 that we pulled aside for special treatment. The majority looks great though and we got some nice big bulbs with giant cloves. It's curing in the garage for the next 3 weeks.

Carm's old work friend, Ken, and his wife Francine, came in the afternoon for a bit of a swim and visit. The weather cooperated!

Wednesday was rainy with thunderstorms - it seems that Kirsten's place got side-swiped by a tornado, or at least a concentrated area of wind - they have a few trees down and were out of power for over a day. The trailer was spared again, and the fridge maintained its cold for the duration - so we know that the battery is good for at least 24 hours of running the fridge on propane :-)

Thursday we got Adia into the vet to look at her limpy leg… it looks like there is inflammation in her elbow area. We'll treat it with an anti-inflammatory for a few weeks to see if it heals on its own. Meanwhile we are trying to keep her from 🏃‍♂️ running.

Yesterday (Friday already), I went into town to visit Graham and to meet up with Kirsten and Nissa for a quick visit, then dashed home to get ready to head into the city for burgers with Jo Ellen & Don. Oh yum… it was several steps above the A&W versions that we normally get. I plan to be strictly plant-based for the next few weeks through treatment so it was a final splurge… 

I have a plan to fast and eat a calorie restricted diet through my days of radiation, which is perhaps poorly thought out and definately without a known protocol, and is only based on reading countless studies online. Some studies suggest that fasting and calorie restriction helps the healthy cells in your body protect themselves from the radiation, and also leaves the cancer cells vulnerable to the radiation. 

So, even though I’d like to treat myself to ice cream and cake everyday, I'll fast from tomorrow night to Tuesday noon when I'll have my healthy lunch salad pre-treatment. I'll have some veggies for supper, and then intermittent fast again until the next day at lunch. I'll do that until Thursday when I'll start to eat normally. I'll do the same the following week. I'll have no way to know if it's actually helping which sucks but I want to give myself the best chance and so if there's even a 10% chance that this increases effectiveness, I'll suffer through!

I'm not sure how it's going to affect exercise though - I will walk the best I can, but may have to forego some of the extras. Speaking of which - I started doing these plank ‘hip dips’ months ago - when I started I could barely do 5 at a time, and by barely, I would be huffing and puffing so hard that I could see my heart beating in my eyeballs… today I did 20 15 10 for a total of 45!

Hopefully I don't lose too much muscle mass… we bought a new scale that measures fat & muscle so I should have a bit of an idea… but even so, I'll work extra hard when it's all done to get back to where I am and then I can continue to increase reps. I need to get fit to take on all those flights of stairs to the buffet on the ship!

Sadly, we are missing this years family reunion in Alberta :-( The last one was 11 years ago (already!) - we made the epic journey to Medicine Hat that summer with the villetta in tow. It was an incredible trip but alas, not to be repeated this year. And the timing didn't work out well to just fly out…

Awesome!

“birthday hamburger with Jo Ellen and Don”

“country roads take me home”

“chilling on the deck”

“my kale”