Car accident leads to week-long headache

I was in the back seat of the first car

I haven't complained lately about the drivers to Dana-Farber, because actually they've been fine. I have to complain about my ride, however, last week, when another driver on the rainy and windy day, swerving to avoid a car that had hydroplaned, hit the car I was in instead. I was amused by the idea of getting my blood sucked out on Halloween but it wasn't to be.

We were on the ramp at Exit 14 – almost there – so at least we were not going fast. (Most everyone goes further to avoid Route 9 but this driver, Michael, says they are the same.) In any case I was sitting in the back, on the passenger's side (that was another stroke of good luck) and minding my own business eating an apple when I felt an impact from the left side of the car, and my head banged against the window. The car got pushed off onto the side of the road. I got out, as did the girls in both cars. I called 911. Michael called his dispatcher, angrily talking up a blue streak in Russian. (I hope the hit on the head hasn't made me spew out cliches because I realized I just used two of them.) I wish I knew what he was saying. The one behind us said she had just called her mother. I thought maybe she should have called 911 but I did it. She said it was her first accident. I told her nobody died and just breathe. I remember being in an accident and it being my fault and being screamed at and it not being helpful, years ago. You don't cause an accident on purpose so I wasn't really angry but I'm pretty sure I was in shock. 

A paramedic arrived and asked me if I knew my name and then asked if I needed an ambulance. He said he had to get out of there as quickly as possible because it wasn't his jurisdiction. (Sorry for the inconvenience!) The police officer who came said the paramedic could leave. He got everyone's information and said everyone should get off the road. 

Nice setting for rainy day run

I called the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center, where I was scheduled to receive ECP, the light therapy on my blood, and Ellen, the PA, said they couldn't possibly do it because they use a blood  thinner, heparin. Michael said he would take me to the Brigham and Women's emergency room. He got all discombobulated and said he didn't know where it was. I said I could get it on my phone. Then he said he knew where it was, but instead he took me to the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital ER. Then he turned around and headed towards the Brigham when I said that wasn't it. I could see it on the left but we were stuck in traffic so I said I would just get out and walk the block. (Probably not a good idea.) At check-in, the guard had me stand on line. (Still a New Yorker.) I said I thought I was in a little bit of shock and had been in a car accident and maybe someone could take my information. The next person saw me and got me into triage. My blood pressure was 200 over 83 or 84. I started crying. The nurse took me to a bed in a line of beds in a corridor.

A couple of doctors checked me out and didn't see the need for CAT scans or anything invasive. A doctor gave me some Ativan and two Tylenols and an ibuprofen and said to check in with my primary. The docs said I would need to wait a week to go back for the procedure. I was out of there on time for the frazzled Michael to pick me up. His car was damaged on the drivers' side but it was drivable. I'm lucky that I wasn't sitting behind him because then the impact would have been worse.

Healthy car lunch

I've had a headache on and off all week. My efforts to write have not been fruitful; I get a headache when looking at the screen. I did have to do interviews for the story I'm writing for Chicago Health Magazine, on Parkinson's Disease. There is no real evidence to support a causality between head injuries and Parkinson's, although there is some speculation, but that didn't stop me from going partway over the cliff. Back at the newspaper, we un-woke-ily said we had the disease of the week when we wrote about various horrible things that happened to people. So...here comes another cliche, it is par for the course for me to think I'm going to get Parkinson's. I have had worse head injuries though and so far so good.

I called my internist's office on Monday. I used to see Dr. Berger, now retired, who showed up on the tennis court at the Enfield Tennis Club's Friday mixer last week. He is the doctor who diagnosed me with leukemia. It was definitely interesting to see him the tennis court. I didn't end up playing with him or against him but I might some time. In any case I talked to the secretary for the doctor who replaced him and told her I was considering going to my chiropractor. She said she didn't know about the ER visit and said it was a good idea to go to the chiropractor. Then I got a call from another woman, at the same office, (first Lisa, then Meg) who said she knew of the ER visit and wanted to know if they could help me. Insert eye roll. 

On Monday, Keith McCormick, my chiropractor, did some tests and adjusted my neck. My blood pressure was still high but not crazy like it was. He said the high BP made sense since I've been in pain. He said I probably had a slight concussion and a case of whiplash. I have called the internist's office and left a message for Meg, to see if they want to see me. As it stands, I was scheduled for acupuncture today so I went ahead and did it. I'm going back to see Keith on Friday and going to ECP tomorrow.

I got two calls from Pilgrim Insurance Company, representing the driver of the car I was in. First Greg, then Joanne. I talked to Joanne. She wanted to know what happened. I asked what she knew. She said she didn't know I had gone to the ER and she wanted to know how I got there. PEOPLE. Wasn't there a report? Just talking to her increased my headache, which I thought acupuncture had ameliorated this morning. I told her that my chiropractor said I had a concussion. She said, "JUST a chiropractor? They have different training." I sensed she was getting at something, like, maybe the exam didn't count. I said I have also checked in with my primary. She asked about loss of work. I said I'm a freelance writer who needs to look at a screen and it has been hard to work. She gave me the claim number and said to send the company all my bills.

Today I have a dental checkup. I love Dr. Debian, of Holyoke Dental Associates, and I'll be interested in hearing what he has to say. 

The car accident day had started out well. I figured I should do a little running in preparation for The Hot Chocolate Run. I went 3.5 miles in the drizzle and got a taste of the good feeling of running in the rain. The leaves made a carpet. I was pleased that I had done it and that I hadn't tripped. I made a healthy lunch and sent a photo of it to my friends. I said I had forgotten to put in a fork but was making do. Then I texted that on a more serious note I had been in an accident.

Silver lining: At least the pain in my head has distracted me from my neuropathy.

That infiltrated feeling isn't a good one

Infiltrate

in-fil-treyt, in-fil-treyt

verb (used with object), in·fil·trat·ed, in·fil·trat·ing.
to filter into or through; permeate.
to cause to pass in by filtering.
to move into (an organization, country, territory, or the like) surreptitiously and gradually, especially with hostile intent.

In nursing, it has a specific meaning.

Infiltration occurs when I.V. fluid or medications leak into the surrounding tissue. Infiltration can be caused by improper placement or dislodgment of the catheter. Patient movement can cause the catheter to slip out or through the blood vessel lumen.

I present these definitions because on Wednesday at ECP, the light therapy on my blood, the needle in my right hand infiltrated. This has happened before. It is not the end of the world. But when it happens, it is painful. I usually know it the minute the needle goes in. It doesn't feel right.

Surveying the damage

Nancy, my nurse, put the large needle in my left arm, for the draw. (Drawing out my blood so that the white blood cells can be separated and treated with UVA light.) Rosalie, a nurse who had a different patient, came over to help with the return needle, the smaller one. She patted my arm and my hand vigorously to get a good vein. Actually it felt kind of like slapping. She put the needle in and went back to her patient.

I told my nurse that it hurt. She took one look and said it was infiltrated. She pulled it out. There was some extra blood. She had to bandage it up before she put the needle in a different spot. My right arm was unhappy.

Meanwhile, my left arm wasn't doing so great either. My hand had a bad case of pins and needles. You can't move your arm, so you can't shake it out. The needle in the crook of my created a dull ache.

For a while I was taking a little oxycodone before, because I had had a few bad instances of severe pain when the needle felt like it hit a nerve. I haven't even been bringing it for a while. But with both arms hurting, I said maybe I would in the future. (Tylenol doesn't do it. I can get oxycodone at ECP, but it's a major production, and Melissa had said to bring my own.)

A nice resident, new on the rotation, came over to talk. I gave him a brief history of my two-plus years at ECP, going back to when I asked my doctor why my abdomen felt like it had a bowling ball in it, and why there were ripples in my thighs, and he said it was graft vs. host disease of the skin.

He thanked me for the info. I should get a teaching fee! Then I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was almost time to leave. I wasn't sure how I slept through being that uncomfortable, but maybe it was a defense mechanism or something.

Three cheers for fake teeth and longterm friendship

Hiding behind chocolate mold

News flash: For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am able to chew on both sides of my mouth.

It was a big day when Dr. Badri Debian, of Holyoke Dental Associates, gave me my newest bridge a couple of weeks ago. For a while he had said I didn't need it because I still had enough teeth on my upper right to be able to chew on that side. It didn't seem so to me. I chewed so much on my left side that I wore down the bottom teeth and needed a bridge. But when I lost my thirteenth tooth last month on my right upper, he decided it was time.

I never knew that I would be spending so much time thinking about teeth, or lack thereof.

Friends asked how the bridge was glued in. I have a tooth in front, but not in back. For some reason this sounded funny, and we started cracking up.

So it turns out that I don't have a traditional bridge, which would be a fake tooth connected to two existing teeth.

A bridge supported by a tooth on one side is a Cantilever bridge, and that is what I have.

Here is another word that is new to me: a pontic. That is the technical term, or euphemism, for a fake tooth.  

I keep forgetting that I can use my right side now, so I still favor my left. It's not perfect, because I'm missing a bottom molar, so I don't have a great connection. 

Dr. Debian has my back. He gives me a good discount and is in my opinion, a mensch. But since I don't have dental insurance because dental insurance stinks for people in my situation, it might be good for the bite in my mouth but it takes a bite out of my bank account.

Anne with cacao pod

I'm behind on other news. My Vassar classmate Anne Outwater and I had an interesting visit to Taza Chocolate Factory, in Somerville. It was a busy couple of days. 

I crammed a lot in on that Wednesday, but when a friend (Anne) who lives in Tanzania says she is going to be in Boston and would like to visit a chocolate factory run by a fellow Vassar graduate, and it is the same day that you need to be at Dana-Farber at 4, and you have already promised to sub in a tennis group at 9 in the morning, what are you going to do except try to do it all?

Somehow it worked out. Getting there was crazy, though. As I neared my destination, I was thwarted by blocked-off streets. 

I later learned that it was because of the large public transit expansion affecting Union Square in Somerville. An employee from the chocolate factory talked me in. I almost gave up. But I got there on time for a little introduction and tour that included tasting a lot of stone ground dark chocolate of various textures and tastes. We learned that the higher the cacao levels, the more health benefits there are. Unfortunately I like milk chocolate better. But I'm learning to like dark chocolate.

I took a selfie with Anne but erased it because I had a big red mark on my nose, resulting from a zapping, or cryosurgery, on a precancerous spot. I conveniently displayed a mold by holding it over my nose. 

Afterwards we got in my car and went to Dana-Farber so she could sit with me while I got my blood treated. It was the only other time we would have together. Quite the difference from when we rode bikes around Prince Edward Island together and she placed a blue shield around us so that the dogs would not get us. 

Anne does not drive in Tanzania. I think I should have told her to close her eyes on the drive through Boston traffic. 

Anne has a Ph.D. in nursing and has an impressive job and title: Head of Department of Community Health Nursing at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Before that, she was a medical officer in the peace corps. The nurses were impressed with her! She was also impressed by the nurses and interested in what they were doing. She got a quick lesson in ECP, or extracorporeal photopheresis for graft vs. host of the skin.

My compadres Larry and Lisa were also there. The three of us always come at 4 p.m. every other Wednesday. I don't know the name of the other man who is always there. Sometimes he is behind a screen. Due to traffic, we got there last, but I finished before Larry and Lisa, because they each use just one arm. I told Anne how it came about that I use two arms, one for drawing and the other for simultaneously returning. It was because one day Mark, my nurse for the day, came up and asked if I wanted to use two arms, and before I had a chance to balk, he put the second needle in.

Depending on where the nurse places the needle, I can sometimes use my right arm. But it was at an awkward place, so I couldn't. It was good that Anne was there to talk to. She was impressed with the nurses. When the procedure was finished, Mark walked Anne out to show her where to get the T. 

It was also a good thing I was going to Margaret and Nick's, because I was too tired to drive home.

My construction obstacles persisted, though. I have been to their house many times but got confused when getting off at the exit that I usually take off Route 128/95.  It looked different. I ended up where I didn't want to be and then had to circle around.

Margaret said the changes were due to something called the Add a Lane project. I was glad to hear I wasn't making it up and there was a reason for my confusion.

I had hoped that one of the doctors at ECP could remove the stitches from the Mohs surgery on a squamous cell cancer on my right temple. A doctor came over prepared to do it, but when he saw that it was running stitches, he said he couldn't; you need finer scissors and a better light. He asked Melissa to call ahead to the Faulkner Hospital Mohs Surgery Center to see if they could take me the next morning. He called it the Pregame. He said, in the meantime, to just go in the morning and assume they would see me. She texted me to ask if I could get there at 10:45. I was already on my way. Yay team!

The next day I drove home in the pouring rain. I went straight to a hair appointment that I had in Northampton. I don't have any construction-related explanations for getting there at the wrong time, 3 instead of 2. Getting out of my car, I couldn't open my umbrella. Getting soaked, I fumbled for my credit card to use in the meter. I dropped the card in the rain. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I thought maybe it was in my car. But I canceled the card anyway. This is a pain because a lot of things are attached to it.

The next day, I got a call from a man who said he found my card. He said he looked me up and found me via my website. He said he wanted me to know that he was a veteran and he wouldn't have tried to use the card. I thanked him profusely and said I had already canceled it. But it was nice to know that such a person existed.

Meanwhile, someone had gotten a hold of the number for my LL Bean card and put more than $2,000 in fake charges on it. The credit card company didn't catch it. I believe they should have. After I called, they removed all but one small charge. I told them it was also a fake charge. They said no problem, they would not charge me interest while they looked into it. They charged me interest and a late fee. I called and said to take it off. They said they would take it off and look into why there was a stray $58 charge on it...with interest. I said OK.

When I tried to use the card, it was rejected. I called to try to find out why. Of course as most people know, it is bad for your health to try to get through to a real person at a credit card company. You cannot just press zero. I yelled into the phone, agent, agent, agent. When I finally got a person, they said it was locked because I hadn't paid them the $58 even though it was in dispute.

They don't care, but I said that as soon it is resolved and I use my coupons, I'm going to cancel the card.

Sorry for the rant.

When dreams come true, it's kind of freaky

On Sunday night I dreamt three things.

1.     I was playing tennis, and my forehand would not go over the net. Someone said I had to get under it more. I tried, and got some, but not all, over.

2.     I bumped into a friend with whom I had had a fallout. He was walking towards the parking lot of The Republican. “Happy New Year!” I said. He looked back and said, “Same to you.”

3.     I had parked my car in the gated lot at work. When I went in to get it, I realized that I needed a key card to get out. I was afraid I would be stuck inside. But I waited a while until a car went out and I followed that driver, and the gate opened and I got out.

On Monday, these things happened.

1.     I was playing tennis, and my forehand kept going into the net. I told my doubles partner that this had happened in my dream, that I got under the ball, and it went over. I tried it. It got a little better.

2.     I went into Starbucks and bumped into the friend I had dreamt about. I told him I dreamt about him. He asked if it was bad. I said that no, I had just wished him Happy New Year. So in real life, I wished him Happy New Year. He wished the same to me.

3.      I parked in the garage in Northampton later that day and went to do some errands. When I got back to my car, I realized that I had lost the ticket. I went to the pay station and pressed the Lost Ticket button. I would have to pay $20.

I canceled the request and wandered around the garage, retracing my steps to try to figure out where the ticket had fallen out of my pocket. No luck. I walked out to see if I could get a new ticket, but it needed the weight of a car. By this time it was pretty late.

A young couple walked into the garage after paying for their “get out of the garage” ticket at the pay station. I asked what they thought would happen if I drove my car out after them. He said that probably the bar would come crashing down on my car. I got an idea. I asked if, for a few bucks, they would drive out and then drive back around to get a ticket and then back out and hand it to me. The guy said, sure. (I hope Dave Molnar isn’t reading this.)

They put their ticket receipt into the machine, drove out and around, got a new ticket and handed it to me. Success! We all smiled. I went to give him the dollar bills I had pulled out of my purse. He said that he wouldn’t take it for a favor. I thanked him and said that it would come back around, and someone would do a favor for him. We went our separate ways, smiles all around.

So….Last night I dreamt that I needed to go on a diet to lose five pounds. Does that mean I need to do it?

I am not overweight but I know the wishful thinking behind the dream. I am not happy with the way that mygraft vs. host disease of the skin has caused my stomach to stick out. It is more than being of a certain age. It has made some of my clothes unwearable and some just plain uncomfortable.  I know it’s a small price to pay, but that doesn’t make me like it any more. It has been described as feeling like there is a band around your stomach. It has to do with the fascia, the layer beneath the skin. Losing weight, alas, isn’t going to do anything for it. That is why I keep getting the ECP, or extracorporeal photopheresis, aka light therapy, aka sunburn of my blood, which has helped soften my skin and keep it from hardening more but alas has not done anything for the popping out thing.

It's dangerous out there (on the tennis court)

I especially enjoy the round robins at The Enfield Tennis Club on Wednesdays like today before the light therapy (or ECP) at Dana-Farber. I had actually planned on going to pilates, knowing that it's good to work into your routine in general and hoping that specifically it might help my abdomen to protrude less (a result of the Graft. vs. Host of Skin.)

But when I got a call from Rebecca at the club saying they needed an eighth, I jumped at the chance.

Tennis is always more fun, but it didn't start out great. The player across from me hit me hard on my thigh. It was a stinger, probably because my skin is so sensitive. A few minutes later, she hit me on the calf. I bent over to rub it as tears welled up in my eyes.

At our level, we don't do these things on purpose, despite our old coach Rich Bray standing on the other side and saying, "Hit me, hit me," to improve our net game. But it is a shocker, especially twice in a row at the same speed. I said the understatement of the year – I have a problem with my skin – or something like that, maybe to explain my apparent lack of toughness.

The other three said maybe I should go sit out and call Marie from the front desk. But no way was I doing that, although my better instincts said I should ice.

Instead I said to myself, "There's no crying in tennis," and went back to my spot.

My serve, which had been pretty bad earlier, suddenly got better. I thanked the other player for knocking the bad serve out of me.

During the change in teams (we do three combinations), another player and I stood at the net talking about the times we have been hit. I mentioned an incident from the week before, saying a different player whaled the ball at me on purpose.

Last week I wasn't technically supposed to play because I still had a day to go before my friend nurse Jo took the stitch out of the biopsy on my right thumb. But it was so small that I put a bandaid on it and figured it would be OK.

Three of us were warming up before the fourth arrived. The woman on the other side kept hitting it only to the person next to me. I jumped up and down and said, hit it to me, hit it to me. I was just fooling around, but she backed up, took a big swing, and hit it straight at me.

After a few minutes she apologized and said she doesn't like it when she acts like that. I accepted the apology, but the after effects ruined that set. Most of all it affected my serve. I double faulted more times than I ever have done, and although I was just trying to forget it and get over it, I saw how your emotions can affect your game.

In the other rounds, my mood and playing picked up. People complicated me on my net game, an inheritance from my father, the result of George's lessons, and my height and long arms.

Afterwards she apologized again and we chatted a little about, of all things, our respective dental problems. I wanted to hang around a little so the air could naturally clear because I wasn't upset anymore and didn't want her to be either. She joked that if her ball had made contact and I had lost another tooth (making it 13 gone) it would be something to write about on my blog.

So that's what I did.

 I can think of quite a few when tempers flared. I don't know how men on teams react to stress. Maybe better, maybe worse.

Many of us are our own worst enemy, which in turn makes us worse. It's then that we need to focus on the ball and maybe even reread (or read for the first time) The Inner Game of Tennis.

Sometimes, especially in league play, we forget that we're only playing for the brownies at the end. But the competitiveness is also what keeps us coming back.

Hot time under the blue light

Under the blue light before PDT

While I was waiting for the blue light to become available on Thursday (another dermatology patient was using it for PDT), I talked to Dr. Lin (Jennifer) while she biopsied what she calls "little guys." Three of them.

I asked why she doesn't call them little girls.

No particular reason, though when it comes to little girls I enjoyed seeing the video of her eight-month-old little girl laughing her head off about something.

I popped an oxy because I had them in my purse; Melissa said I should take one before ECP (which I had the day before) so that I won't have to deal with pain if the needle slips. I might not have to do that anymore because the new angio needle is working nicely.

I figured if I was going to get three needles in sensitive areas and have pain afterwards, it was a reasonable thing to do.

Note to anyone who thinks this is strange: Oxycodone is actually preferable for me than Tylenol (bad for liver) and ibuprofen and the rest (bad for kidney).

One biopsy on my right calf – a raised and irritated area that she already said was probably a squamous cell after a sent her a photo. And which will probably need another Mohs.

One on the top of my head.

The other on the knuckle of my thumb. Same as happened before with the spot on my ankle (which turned out to be a big deal needing a graft) I had shown this spot that didn't heal to a couple of people who said it was nothing. Note: A spot that doesn't heal is always something.

After all the trouble I had with my last one, it has finally healed. On time to get another. They're getting to know me well at the Mohs Surgery Center at Faulkner Hospital.

My first question when it was done was how long I would need to sit out of tennis. The one on my calf isn't that big but because I have stitches on my thumb, she said about a week.

Although these are a pain, they are not serious except to my mind.

I found out about someone who died from a melanoma that had appeared on the person's neck.

Suddenly the spot on my scalp was a melanoma too...which in my PTSD-y way I followed quickly to my demise. I reasoned out loud to Katie that since I didn't have melanoma in the morning, I probably didn't have it at night after hearing about the other person. Wise child reminded me that just because someone else gets something, doesn't mean I (or anyone other than the person) will get the same thing. Wise friend who had a melanoma and had it successfully removed reminded me that since I'm watched so carefully, they would catch it early before it spread.

I find out in about the week.

The lovely photo of me (wearing my Bev Bloomberg watch) is under the blue light machine at the Brigham Dermatology Center for the photodynamic therapy (PDT) that burns off a layer of skin. I get this done every year. Dr. Lin did it more on my neck because more "little guys" are trying to come up there than on my face, which she said looks pretty good. (All things considered...my addition.) The 16 minutes doesn't sting as much on the neck as on the face.

I had estimated that the driver should come at 4. When he called to check in, I said it was an estimate. When I realized it would be later due to the waiting line for the blue light machine, I called and said it would likely be another 15 minutes.

"Don't leave without me!" I said, remembering a couple of times when that had happened.
He assured me that he wouldn't.

I turned off the sound on my phone during the procedure. When I went to look at around 4:20, I saw that he had called five times and texted once. I called back and said I was coming. He groused, "You said it would be 15 minutes."

When I got in the car he complained some more.

"I never should have taken this job," he said.

He said he is 60 and too old to have to take the trip at the end of the day because he wouldn't get home to Worcester until 9 and was up at 4:30 and they shoulda put the younger person on the earlier shift.

I started to put on my headphones to listen to All Things Considered, but he kept talking.

The phone rang and he had a conversation (while driving). He said it was his son. Then he apologized and said his life is hard because his wife left him after 30 years because she couldn't handle their son, who has Asperger's. Knowing a little bit about this, I asked a question about the spectrum, and, apparently thinking this was a place, he said his son can't get treatment there or anywhere.

On the first leg of the trip the day before, I had a nice polite driver from Kenya. He told me he wants to start his own transportation company because the others are poorly run.

At first I thought this would be another doozy because when we started driving and I asked him to close his window because it was blowing on my face, he complained.

They had given him a bad car where the heat is not regulated and if he didn't open the window he would overheat. Please open the window, I said. We made a compromise and went on to have some political chitchat.

He said he is a liberal but didn't vote for either presidential candidate because both were corrupt, especially Hillary Clinton, who shared classified information on a personal server and put the country at risk.

Not a good conversation to have before getting your blood pressure taken. I pointed out that it wasn't classified, but I didn't want to get into a debate about the FAKE news and FALSE equivalency that got us into this mess.

He asked if I wanted him to lower the headrest on the passenger seat so I could look out at the view. I said that was OK, I had seen enough of the Mass Pike.

At least I had some material to tell my nurse friends at the Kraft Blood Donor Center at Dana-Farber, where I would be for the next three hours for the light therapy.

Thin skinned, literally and figuratively

I suspect I overreacted to something that a new participant said at our Wednesday clinic with George at the Holyoke Canoe Club.

When we were doing a drill where you slice the ball back and forth so that it stays inside the service box, she kept giving it the kind of slice more befitting a lob, sending it over my head. I let them go and by about the fourth time I said we're supposed to be keeping them in the box. Then she did it again. I said I can't jump for those and she stopped and asked, "Why?"

It would have been at the very least puzzling to the other people at our level in a fun clinic like that, and the next step up would be annoying. I reacted a step beyond that, getting defensive and mumbling to the person next to me hitting with a different person, "She should try having ......." Well you can fill in the rest.

He said I was doing great and to let it go, which I did, as soon as I looked at the sun sparkling on the river and switched to another hitting partner.

It obviously didn't fall unto the "stupid things people say to you when you have or have had cancer" category because she didn't know anything about me; rather it was just plain old "silly things people say" that don't deserve attention. But sometimes I go there without even realizing it.

I actually am running around well and had a good 6-3, 6-3 win my doubles partner Monday at Crosier Park in our Paper Dolls summer league game. We also won 4-0 when we played "for fun" after the match was over. (A team sweep!)

Since I'm getting a little tired of covering up with long sleeves plus pants under my skirt plus my sun-protection gloves, yesterday I took a break and wore a tank top instead of the long sleeves and ditched the long stretchy pants.

Afterwards I met some of the players for lunch at the Bueno Y Sano food truck in Holyoke. There was no shade, and so we sat at a picnic table under the hot midday sun. I didn't have anything long-sleeved with me, so I grabbed a striped beach towel still in the car from our Wellfleet trip. I'm sure I looked odd looking like that on Race Street where there was no beach, but nobody looked at me.

The light therapy makes my skin supersensitive, and my arms got sunburned.Today I was back in my long sleeves, hot but protected. It's a good thing I didn't go to Dana-Farber today because Ellen (the PA) would have something to say about it. She wants me to play indoors, but since everyone is outside and tennis is part of my self-prescribed health-care protocol, I'm just going to keep covering up, lathering on the sunscreen, and playing.