Above the equator

January 20, 2013

Ah, computer chaos. I’m sorry if any of you recently received an annoying email directing you to a post that didn’t exist, or was just an image… Technology is not always my friend, it seems…

Anyway, it’s been a while, and in this case, no news has been good news! My excuse is that I suddenly realised some time around New Year’s that it was summer (I know… right?) and that the weather was fine, and I was fine too!

For the last six months I’ve been taking what the nurses sweetly call bird baths. Basically, I sit in the bathtub with the water up to my equator (I figure that my equator is around about my belly button) and I sort of splash around awkwardly trying to get clean while keeping the dressings on my chest dry. And there have been so many dressings on my chest.

Dressings after dressings after dressings. Dressings that not only are not waterproof, but that actually tell on me when I get them wet, so that I am guaranteed a talking to by my community nurse on her next visit. Naughty naughty.

I can definitively state that I am one of those people who wants whatever they can’t have. And what I’ve been wanting more than anything these past few months (other than hair!) is to get fully submerged in water. Getting wet above the equator. Yep, that’s been the dream!

And the weather has been simply lovely (45 degree days aside), and so I’ve been taking Saskia to the beach to teach her to swim every few days and just kind of sadly dunking my feet in, and trying to keep the bag holding the IV drugs dry while half drowning the pup (who seems to be getting the hang of it).

So you can imagine my surprise and delight when I was released from both 24/7 IV drugs and dressings on my wound all on the same day!!!

The very next morning I raced for the beach and got as submerged as I could possibly get, and stayed submerged for as long as I could before I was in danger of being rewarded with a melanoma to keep my breast cancer company.

Oh, it was bliss.

If you really want to appreciate how wonderful life is, get cancer. Think hard about the possibility of dying young. Feel like hell through three months of chemo. Lose your breasts and your self esteem. Get bald and sad and housebound. Feel ugly, washed up, useless, and then quietly mend a little. Step in to the sunshine with your fake boobs on, and a little bit of fuzz atop your head, and BAM. Feel the happiest you’ve ever felt.

Amazeballs. Truly.

I am enjoying everything right now. I’m drinking coffee again! Coffee!!! LOVE coffee!!!

I’m drinking wine again! (Yep, LOVE wine!).

Food tastes amazing, too amazing. Dangerously amazing.

People tell me the fine fuzz on my head looks A-OK too. And it feels lovely, like a baby bird.

So that’s why I haven’t been blogging. Because I’ve been out there making up for the six months that wasn’t.

I’ve walked a lot. Read a lot. Started cooking again. I even stitched some cushions.

Boring… says Saskia. I guess I’ll dig up your garden while you’re waxing lyrical about how great everything is.

It’s been grand, really it has.

I guess that now I need to think about getting back to work. Real life beckons.

But maybe one or two sneaky beach trips first, hey?

Happy summer to you, all you good people below the equator. Enjoy every minute of it. And for those of you above the equator, make a snowman for me?

Fuzzy headed love to you all…

x

Written by Niccola Posted in Chemo, Recovery, Saskia Tagged with alopecia, Breast cancer, chemo, recovery, summer