Updates and Poodle Attacks

My Dad and Millie. A deep and abiding love. More of my videos here.

Tamoxifen update: I'm getting used to it. The hot flashes are subsiding, my muscles aren't so knotted up, I sleep okay most nights, and I'm not feeling emotionally underwater anymore. I'm about 9 months in. Four year, three months to go.

Triathlon update: I signed up for an Olympic distance event, holding off on the Half-Ironman until I'm really sure it's something I want to do. In the meantime, I'm training almost as if I'm still planning on it, biking, swimming, running, each three times a week.

Stepmotherhood update: The boy I met at eleven and whom I've shared a home with for most of his life ever since is now eighteen. Come fall, he'll be off to college and planting the seeds of his own adult and independent life. I know it's the biggest cliche in the book, but how quickly they grow up. In the meantime, he's a true teenager. On the couch. Sick with mono.

Poodle update: Millie is keeping an eye on him.

Lymphedema update: Still there, still mild. I wear the compression sleeve occasionally, and think about it less.

Life Goes On

The photos in this video are on display at the Newport Art Museum until May 20th. More about the show here. More of my videos here.

It struck me the other day that it's still well under a year since I finished my treatment for cancer. It struck me not long before that that it was just a month or so after my last miscarriage that I was diagnosed with cancer in the first place. The whole cancer thing put the babies or not question to rest. I haven't menstruated since my first dose of chemotherapy, probably never will again.

Which reminds me of a time a few years back when I found myself longing for the day when I could be finally off the fence, finally done wondering if I'd ever bear children. Even if the answer turned out to be no, it seemed like it would be a relief.

And the truth is, though it wasn't easy getting here, I am very relieved to be out of that limbo. And amazed that just eight months after finishing radiation, I'm feeling fit and healthy and, though I've backed off a bit from the half-ironman plan, I haven't exactly decided against it yet either.

Pet Oppression, Among Other Injustices

For today's installment: begging poodle, determined cat, neat brother, good friend, a funeral, Tamoxifen, refrigerator drama, and a haircut. All of those words apply. More of my videos here.