Hickory Nuts Falling on Metal Roof

There is a Hickory tree overhanging my screen porch, providing the perfect amount of shade and filtered sun all summer. But during the last part of September each year, the nuts begin raining down on the metal roof of my porch. They sound of one nut dropping from high, even from inside the house, is like a gun firing at close range, making me jump, and sending Buddy running to the back bedroom.

Sometimes the squirrels get busy up there, shaking the branches and suddenly there will be a barrage of nuts, more like a machine gun now, then the clatter of lots of little creatures jumping to the roof and running around. They bury some of the nuts in the pots on my deck around the porch, destroying whatever is planted there. I give it over to them now. They can have them for the winter. I don’t have the energy to battle them and do a fall planting.

The weather is lovely these days—warm afternoons, perfect for napping on the futon on the porch. When it’s slightly cooler, I drag a duvet out and cuddle up. I bragged to a friend the other day that when I nap outside in the afternoon, the nuts stop falling just for that period of time, as though the universe (and maybe the squirrels) understand my need for rest, without intermittent ear-shattering crashes.

Favorite place to hang out and nap.

I am on a break from chemo right now, so my energy is pretty good. Our documentary film festival opened last night, so in addition to opening night, I hope to catch a few films. They all look wonderful this year. This is the largest doc festival in the world, second to Amsterdam? I think.

I just had a PET scan last week. The results are mixed. My chest wall looks better (I forgot to mention to the radiologist that some of it was surgically removed), but my back from the spine across toward shoulder is hotter and my esophagus is worse, also. Its thickened walls have pushed the opening off to the side. When I see the report next week, I'll have more understanding of the actual change in metabolic activity. It is all slow growing, and not as much worse as I thought, so I am encouraged, somewhat.

We have agreed that the Adriamycin hasn't really arrested the growth. So as of next Monday, I will start Xeloda by mouth. I was taking it last summer with another drug and found it hard to tolerate. But, now I will try it by itself, at double the strength as before. Four pills, or 2000 mg a day, 7 days on and 7 days off. I will also begin daily hormone therapy, again. There is some idea now that even if the tumor is Estrogen Receptor Negative, as mine has become, the surrounding tissue may have estrogen receptors. So hormone therapy may slow the invasion of new tissue.

So, we just keep moving forward. I've had ten good nights of sleep without nerve spasms, so I'm focusing on strategies to keep the nerve spasms at a minimum. I ice my back every night before bed, which seems to help, and hold my arm in a weird position close to my body. And, of course, avoid using the arm for any weight bearing activity, which is next to impossible around here. I also use a blowup donut pillow behind my back when I sit. It keeps the pressure off the middle of my back (at the herniation), which is terribly sensitive, and off my cervical spine. I can almost not stand to have my back touched at all. I sense that things in my back are changing, so maybe the nerve spasms will stop, which will vastly improve my quality of life My left arm is chronically tingly and achy, but that is totally tolerable, comparatively. If this resolves, then no problem going to Mexico with Mark, Nov 4.

I'm taking the boat in to be stored for the winter, tomorrow, The lake is going to be lowered 9 feet this year, so I have to have the dock moved out so that it will still float. The weather is yummy. Warm in the day, but getting cooler at night. It was mid 80s yesterday.
Missing the boat.

I am grateful that my legs still work and that I can walk a couple of times a day. Buddy is grateful too, and he bugs me constantly to go for a walk. All that is good.
My Buddy

I also got a great wig at the hospital last week, which really lifts my spirits, as my hair has been getting thinner and thinner and looks awful. I debuted my new hair at a Luncheon/Fashion show at Garven Gardens.

New wig

All my kids are coming for Thanksgiving, Andy and company from Missouri, Mark, at the very end of his 6 month sabbatical, Tim and his crew, plus Amy's mom, and my nephew and wife who live in Houston now. Amy and Tim rented a big condo for the 7 of them, with a big kitchen and eating area, so I hope we can keep some of the mess there.

On some of these cool, sunny mornings, I wrap my robe around me and go out to the open deck to watch the colors change on the lake. The blue heron has taken up residence in a tree just down the shore, and squawking to announce his arrival, floats gracefully from dock to dock, looking for breakfast. The first nuthatch has appeared at the feeder, bullying the chickadees. The canada geese fly down the cove in a lazy V formation, more like a check than a V. The pretend they are going to migrate, but I don’t think they are going anywhere. They seem to stay all year round.