Sick again

This post was supposed to be about going to California today for my cousin Nancy's 60th birthday party, but, alas, it is about planning to go and then getting sick.

I got no further than Boston. I was supposed to leave from Logan early in the morning; I felt a little under the weather Tuesday but went ahead anyway, hoping that it might pass. This morning my temperature was 101.1, so I canceled everything and went to see Melissa instead.

I have been coughing a lot, but my chest X-ray was clear. Melissa said I didn't look too bad, so I could go back to Diane and David's. Otherwise, they would have admitted me. I now have an antibiotic that is different than the one I had last week.

What is it about me and California? I went a couple of times years ago, but in recent memory, I had planned to go in 2007 and got sick...very sick. For something different, I was going to go to California with my children. Everything was purchased and booked. Then I relapsed. The airline said we could use our tickets within the year, but nobody went, so I lost all the money.

I was planning a trip with the kids and my mother to Cape May in 2003, but couldn't go because I got leukemia. Joe said no planning any summer vacations except to the Cape Cod.

Katie is going to load the car tomorrow with her stuff from college, and then she's going to pick me up and take me back home. We'll have Mother's Day all together. I was going to miss it from being in California, so there is a silver lining in getting to be with my children.

I can't cancel my hotel reservation, but I can change it to another time. I can use the flight within a year, plus a $150 dollar change fee. They get you at every turn. I can't get a refund for the $25 I paid for checking one bag. I didn't want to carry it on because of all the restrictions on liquids. I guess I should have just carried it on. Think of how many cups of coffee I could have bought with $25. Melissa wrote me a doctor's note for the airline, but I'm sure they don't care.

At least I made it to the important things: Ben and Meghan's wedding and my trip to Spain and France with Katie.

Where did all the French people go?

I have been lying on the couch watching The Golden Globes, while it seems like I was walking around Paris just a minute ago.

Actually I'm a little under the weather, so on the couch for most of the day is as good a place to be as any. I have also been reading "The Paris Wife," about Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. When Katie and I were in Paris we stood in front of the apartment building where they lived, and it's so interesting to actually have been right there at a place that I'm reading about.

Katie went back to Brandeis today. I was going to go with her and do the traditional making of the bed, but Joe went instead. I was sorry to miss the trip, but when I have a doctor's appointment in early February I can go check out her new dorm and re-make the bed. (Only kidding about the bed.)

Our two weeks together in Spain and France were the best. What a wonderful opportunity to take a trip like that. I miss her already! But as she pointed out, she's in the same time zone now, and it will  be easy to pick up the phone and call instead of planning to Skype.

Here is a photo that was stuck in my camera when the battery died.

Me and Katie in front of The Louvre

Laments of a pill-popper

One down, 21 to go.

When I learned that my insurance no longer covers magnesium, I thought it was a good time to ask Melissa if I still needed to take it. She said I could stop.

My 21 pills does not include the once-weekly solution of Kayexalate, the grainy stuff I dissolve in water to keep my once-high potassium within normal limits. It's not as nauseating as the Exjade I take to lower my ferritin, but it's pretty gross.

Organizing my meds for my trip to Spain, and making sure I have enough plus extras, is a bit of a task.

If I read all the side effects of all my pills, I would probably freak out.

I take several drugs as preventatives because the prednisone inhibits my immune system.

When I saw the infectious disease specialist Dr. Marty on Monday, I asked him, "When can I stop taking the Valtrex (an anti-viral)"?

Answer: "When you stop taking prednisone."

 I already knew what he would say because I have asked before, yet I couldn't help but ask again. Dr. Marty just smiled.

I suppose I would get the same answer to the question, "When can I stop taking the Bactrim (an anti-bacterial used to prevent pneumonia)"?

And "When will little things stop popping up on my hands and face (and tongue) that sometimes turn into skin cancers?"

OK, so, the big question: "When can I stop taking prednisone?"

Answer: When my liver function returns to normal.

Melissa said on Monday that although my numbers were a little lower (a good direction in this instance), they were not low enough to change my prednisone dose.

It's only five mg. a day, down from a high of 20 when I was all puffed up, but still, you can see the effect it has on everything else, including weakening the muscles in my legs.

I shouldn't complain. I am alive and well and going to Spain on Sunday, toting my pills minus one.

Flight to Spain in the balance

If the customer service at Iberia is any reflection of the management at the troubled Spanish airline, I can see why the carrier has so many problems.

I spent about an hour on the phone with the airline today, getting disconnected three times. I have been calling every day and checking the website to find out if there is an update on my flight Dec. 17 to Spain. The flight is still confirmed although a strike is planned for Dec. 14 and Dec. 17-21 to protest cutbacks at the airline.

You can understand why they can't change flights that aren't canceled, but still, it's frustrating that they have no information on when they would notify passengers. They said they would make other arrangements, but I can just see the chaos of all these people trying to rebook with limited notice. I guess that is the point.

So....I decided to buy some peace of mind by changing my flight to Dec. 16. The cost is pretty wild, and there is always the possibility that they won't strike, but I don't want to take the chance. And there is a lot to say about limiting stress, for anyone, of course, but especially for someone like me operating with a compromised immune system.

In the meantime I'll watch my expenditures to see if I can make up some of the difference. I could start by skipping Starbucks, but I'm not sure how that would work out.

More on my mind

Emily and I outside her house in Pittsburgh.

The rest of my stay in Pittsburgh was wonderful. We went to a lecture, ate out, hung around and walked in a large neighborhood park where Emily and her friend tricked me into walking four miles.

Well, they didn't actually trick me, they just forgot to tell me how far we were going, and by the last uphill I was zigzagging across the path. I guess it was good for getting me in shape for my trip to Spain, coming up fast in two weeks.

When I had to show my license in the airport, it was nice to finally have a new one showing me the way I look now as opposed to the one I had for four years showing me in a scarf. I had the picture taken when I had just finished chemotherapy, and although I could have gotten a new picture taken after my hair grew in, I would have had to pay $25 unless I waited four years, and I wasn't vain enough  for that.

Only one person asked me about my license in all that time, and that was a sales clerk who needed to see it when I opened up an account. "What kind of cancer did you have?" she asked.

Huh?

Moving along, my next thing to worry about is the possibility of a strike at Iberia Airlines Dec. 14 and Dec. 17 through Dec. 21 to protest cutbacks at the struggling Spanish airline.

Guess when I'm flying?

Dec. 17.

I have called the airline and been told that if flights are canceled, they will book alternate flights either two days before or two days after. With Katie waiting at the other end and B&B reservations prepaid, two days after is a pretty bad option.

The person I spoke to today said they might have more information on Friday.

Joe pointed out that worrying won't help since there's nothing I can do about it.

I guess that when you're wired for worry, you need to be reminded of these things.

Geography lesson

I made a whopping $60 Tuesday substituting in a sixth grade social studies class and then spent way too much of it on Chinese food for Joe and me.

One of the eternal questions about Chinese food is why we often buy too much and still not end up feeling full. Joe was watching something, so I ate in the kitchen. I nearly fell off my chair and hardly ate my food as I caught up with the last three episodes of Season 4 of "Breaking Bad." What an incredibly interesting and addictive – and gruesome – show.

But back to reality. The sixth-graders were a well-behaved bunch, in contrast to the rowdy fifth-graders I had last week. We worked on longitude and latitude, taking coordinates and finding the corresponding country on the map.

We had a little fun pronouncing difficult country names such as Papua New Guinea. They found the pronunciation hard to believe.

As a bonus, the teacher left me some Hershey kisses. That made my day

I have been reading about the turmoil in Spain, where Katie is and I am going in a month. Yesterday there were strikes in Spain as part of a coordinated effort in Europe protesting austerity measures. There were also cancellations of flights by the troubled airline Iberia, which I am supposed to take.

Well I just Skyped with Katie and she said all was peaceful. She went to see the demonstration in Seville, where there were throngs of people, many handing out leaflets espousing views of various parties, unlike here where the political landscape is dominated by just the two parties.

She is learning so much, not just in the classroom...and she's having fun!

Katie safely in Seville

Katie left last night for her semester in Spain, where she will study at the university in Seville and stay with a family there.

I can't believe that after about a year of talking about it and planning, the time actually came for her to lug her (overweight) suitcase into Joe's car en route to Logan Airport. (The overage cost $60!) It will be a great experience for her, but I will miss my little sidekick.

I'm going to join her in Seville at the end of her semester and travel with her for about 10 days. I'm looking forward to it.

She e-mailed today that she was safe and sound and that she liked her host, who had set her up nicely.

Meanwhile, I played tennis today and was much better than last week. However, Donna, who knows me very well, looked at me in the middle of the second set and said I looked tired and it was really OK to stop. Chip and Donna's friend Kathleen echoed her.

Rational voice: You should stop because when you get tired is when you injure yourself.

Bad-advice voice: You haven't even played two whole sets, of course you have to finish!

Never mind that the first set was good and filled with long points (Chip and I won 6-4) or that the second set was turning into a long one too (Donna and Kathleen won 6-4). And never mind that the sun was beating down on us.

Chip and I drove to Starbucks after, planning to get a coffee, but I suddenly felt queasy. So we went and got me a Coke, Chip got coffee, and we sat down on the patio outside Starbucks to have our drinks. I felt better pretty quickly and was well enough to eat a frozen a frozen yogurt that Chip offered to buy.

This afternoon I was going to walk Maddie but thought better of it and lay down on the couch to watch a little tennis...and promptly fell asleep. I was happy to be invited, avec dog, to Deb's house for pre-dinner dessert and coffee for us and a big biscuit plus play date for Maddie.