Fem dagar av strålbehandling, sju dagar av kemoterapi

Hej till alla. Freetranslation - my new buddy - tells me that this means "hello to everyone" in Swedish. Completely random choice of language tonight. I experimented with Bulgarian (too many funky symbols), Portuguese (some other night - it wasn't talking to me), Czech (maybe tomorrow) ... in any event, I landed on Swedish as I haven't been to Ikea in a while, so, please consider this my small tribute to the Swedes.

Today was a momentous day (what a proclamation!): Day Five of Melon Nuke Fest, Day Seven of Big-Ass-Chemo-Pill. In other words, This Progressively Woozy/Tired/Loopy Gal is One-Sixth of the Way There. Woo HOO! Then, I thought, well ... that's rather self-centered. I imagine all kinds of other significant things happened on this auspicious day, so I looked it up. For your reading pleasure, here are some highlights of some other momentous events that occurred on this day in history (your use-ful/less bits of trivia for the day. Are you ready?):

• After the Dutch pulled out of the colony of New Amsterdam in 1665, the English moved in and renamed it New York City, after the Duke of York. Cool right? One of THE best cities on the planet! 
• In 1792, George Vancouver discovers the Uber cool town of Vancouver, BC - another awesome place to visit/live!
• And ... in 1903, Niagara Falls, Ontario incorporated as a city (the best Falls are on the Canadian side - apologies if I am offending my American friends, but it's true). 
• And for my dear brother, the Baseball Hall of Fame opened on this day in 1939 in Cooperstown, NY. A true tribute to the wonderful sport of baseball.

In addition to sharing my celebrated (!) events with the above historic events, another notable event that happened today was that I went into the office (I have been working from home since Day One of Treatment Festival i.e. last Thursday). I needed to meet with some folks, and candidly, a large part of it was to test myself. I have been telling myself: "I can do this; I can do this; I can do this." Well, dear friends, family and readers-in-general, I must confess that it took an inordinate amount of energy to be around so many people, and this after less than one week of treatments. I was completely and utterly wiped out, spent, shattered as the Brits say, and hubby picked me up at 2:30 to take me to my Melon Fest and it was all I could do to not stumble, fall down, bounce off the walls from complete and utter fatigue. Oy. Sigh. Heavy sigh.

So .... there you have it. I am officially going out on leave, starting next week. This girl - i.e. me, i.e. Cancerella - cannot get my brain zapped every day, take big pills that seriously leave me feeling like I never want to eat again, stumble around in a fog (shit, that's after only one week! I AM going to be a drooling zombie soon ... GULP!) - I can't do that AND work at the same time. It's just not within the realm of This Gal's possibility. And that's OK. I need to rest. I need to sleep and rejuvenate and just ride out the next five weeks of this new temporary reality. And that will have to be OK. Mercifully, thankfully, I have the ability to take the time off ... thank you Jesus/Buddha/God/Allah ... I am so so tired this evening (I fell asleep on the radiation table today - how messed up is THAT?) and so, I am finally relenting and I am going to listen to my body, and to my hubby and my friends and family and the dear folks at work who are helping make this happen for me (thank you) and I am going to rest up and just ... rest ... so that I can continue to fight this bitch (cancer). Or as the Swedes say: "I helsike cancer" (hmmm ... freetranslation may be letting me down on this one....). Google translate says: "Knulla cancer". I like that better.

F**K cancer!

As always, tack. (Swedish for "thank you". Wow, the Swedes are very efficient and low-maintenance in every way). Wishing you all a wonderful evening, sending love, hugs and thanks, as always. And tonight's sign-off, courtesy of Racherella. :-)

god kväll från Judy's Jubilee

Cancerella, Bud och två katter
xoxoxoxo