A special final call edition of the Chemo Chronicles today. As always there are spills and chills galore, but why don't we just jump right into the action and you can see for yourself?
This past week was a bit of a rough week for Mom. As you know, chemo tends to build-up in the system and unfortunately, Mom experienced a good deal of nauseousness this past week. Mom takes a medication called Emend for nauseousness Tuesday -Thursday. However, she can only take that medication 3 days a week. Mom has 2 other drugs that help with the nausea, Zofran and Decadron but they are not as powerful as the Emend. It's pretty difficult to see Mom not feeling well. Still, she's a trooper and Mom rarely lets on that she's not at her best.
Well, as you know today is chemo day (and Chemo Chronicle day too, but you knew that already) and it was a one medicine (Gemzar) kind of day. We followed the usual ritual: pick a seat (preferably one where Mom can't see too many people that really look sick), get blood drawn and then wait for the results. Well I won't keep you...the results were good, Mom passed. So Mom had her chemo and it went very smoothly. We spent much of the time looking at a cookbook that I brought ( How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, highly recommended by YFC), but more on that later. The time flew by and we were in and out in about an hour and a half.
Post-chemo we picked-up Bubby and took her to a bridge game at the Drake (tres chic Bubby...Your Faithful Correspondent considers himself lucky when he gets invited to play checkers at the "Y") and then Me and Mum were off to lunch at the Niu Japanese Fusion Lounge. Yes, the name is a bit pretentious, but the food was good and after a quick trip to Walgreens, Mom was happy to settle in for a nice nap.
And speaking of food...YFC was lucky enough to host Mom and my little sis Melvin (err...Michelle...she'd hate it if I let everyone know that I call her Melvin, so let this be our little secret, k?) for dinner. We were lucky enough to be joined by a surprise guest, Russell. When I say it was a surprise guest, I don't just mean that it was a surprise for you. I mean it was a surprise to me, Mom and Melvin too. So I understand it (YFC always aims to be understanding...perhaps a new acronym is needed -- YSC: Your Sympathetic Correspondent. You're right, we'll continue to work on it) Russell offered to drive the girls here and decided to pay YFC a visit (he wanted to talk about publishing rights or some such nonsense). Well, luckily YFC's Momma taught him well. Her first rule of cooking: Serve stew if you must, but never scrimp on the salad. No wait...I think that was the rule of Bernstein's dressings. Mom's first rule of cooking: always make 50% more food than could be reasonably devoured by the invited guests. Anyhow, it was a lovely affair. Your Faithful Correspondent made braised short ribs (aggressively seasoned with fresh rosemary and fennel) with a side of butternut squash orzo. All in all good food, good company, quite a success!
Fair disclosure: my little sis was actually a big help wen it came to clean-up time. She's gotten a fair bit of stick in these e-mails (though not nearly as much as she deserves) and sometimes ya gotta give credit where credit is due...thanks Melv!
Anyhow, in a roundabout way, this takes us back to today's chemo session, where me and Mum were reading our cookbook. Your Faithful Correspondent has decided that for the forseeable future, every Sunday will be family dinner night at Chez YFC. YFC was thinking about prime rib for next Sunday's feast, but Mom seems to be leaning to rack of lamb. I suppose we all know who's likely to win that gastronomical battle (just to be clear, it's Mom...Mom is going to win).
And why will Mom win? Well, because she's got one of these:
Ah yes, the ol' Get out of Jail Free Card (and just to be clear, she really does have the card).
And that brings us to the close of our e-mail. But before sign-off Your Faithful Correspondent has an announcement of sorts. It's kind of scary (for yours truly) but I figure that by putting it out there YFC will be forced to have some level of accountability (for those of you doing the math at home -- that'd probably include the Dad -- accountability = scary). Here goes: for many years now, Mom has been telling YFC that he/I/me ought to write. Needless to say, Your Faithful Correspondent has pooh-poohed this idea in the past but the time has come to embrace change and YFC heed Mom's words. Just to be clear, the fact that Mom has threatened to beat YFC with a wire hanger had absolutely no bearing on the decision-making process.
[Yes, that last line was a joke too. It was only 2 weeks ago.]
[Yes, that last line, also a joke.]
[By the way, does anybody know what these nifty little things on the end of these sentences are called?]
Ok, that's all for now.
Faithfully,
Corey
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