I have acquired 5 hats and bonnets in lieu of a wig.  Thus I am wearing a different hat each day. I opted for hats rather than a wig. Firstly it has been hot. Second, I don’t want a sunburned head.  Thirdly- I had a friend lend me a wig for my driver’s license picture. I am told that I had better carry my passport as the Texas Dept. of Public Safety had me take off my glasses, and I look like a recent immigrant from a developing country. The comment from a law enforcement friend is “Now let’s see your real id card.” Fourthly- I knew that my hair would grow back. And it has.  I have a “marine recruit” hair style with no bald spots.

I had been warned that there would be a sunburn reaction starting in the second week.  The sunburn didn’t come until last Thursday- which was just one week from the end.  That long delay was just fine with me.  A little itching is not hard to live with. The staff says I have a poster bosum, but you won’t see it on the internet. I have used 100% aloe gel from Fruit of the Earth. It is inexpensive and sold where sun burn lotions are located.  It is NOT a sun blocker.  I have an aloe plant in the yard, which was my back-up plan for treatment.  It’s a good thing I found the gel, because it hasn’t rained enough for the aloe to grow very large.

Back to wardrobe.  Tuesday I wore a “Lady Executive” shirt from the 1960′s. Yesterday and today, I wore my Crazy Spurts “Life Saver Candy” shirt and my Crazy Spurts “Heintz 57″ Pickle shirts.  They are classics vintage shirts from the 1980′s and given to me by the former owner of “Soap Creek Saloon” in Austin. Those of you who are familiar with the Austin music scene, will recognize the Soap Creek Saloon name.  Ed has stacks of original play bills from the early Austin music bars.

The last day, tomorrow, I will end up with a multi-colored, almost psychedelic “Peter Max design” shirt from 1973. That shirt is older than anyone in the oncology clinic including the doctors.  The staff looks forward to seeing just what I am wearing.

It has been tedious time, but not all that onerous. I am glad it is over.

The best thing- is the letters and comments from people on the periodic Newsletter and reading the blog on lydiafrenzel.com.  There is a lot more to be said on the novels that we have been publishing and just getting ready to publish.

Today, as we were walking we noticed clouds in the sky when the sun came up.  We walk  at 6:15-7:00 am when it is relatively dark and we can think it is cool.  The forecast had no rain.  At breakfast, the cardinal, ground dove, house finch, and young Blue Jay competed with the sparrows and White Winged Dove for the bird seed.  We were working outside in the morning and had just a mist as a thunderhead came over.  I looked up to see if the birds were spitting on me.

In the early afternoon, it actually sprinkled enough to get the ground wet, if you were in the right place.  My sister, only two blocks over,  said she said drops on the grass, but the sidewalks didn’t get wet.

Strangers stopped to chat with us in the parking lot of the “do-it-yourself” hardware store.  At the doctor’s office, I and the staff talked about going out to the lot naked and having a rain dance, if that would make it rain harder.

All in all, a good day.  It stayed in the low 90′s.

 Good nutrition plays a key role not only in the prevention of cancer, but also in the lives of those diagnosed with the disease. Healthy eating and other kinds of nutritional aids can ease recovery from surgery, mitigate the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and support long-term health for cancer survivors. Guidelines from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health offer suggestions for optimal nutrition at various stages of the cancer treatment and recovery process.

Surgery for cancer and other reasons stresses the body, and it needs extra nutritional support for recovery. Poor eating habits before and after surgery can contribute to slower healing and the likelihood of complications. Healthy, minimally processed foods that are calorie-dense and high in protein encourage wound healing and weight gain. Post-surgery fatigue and pain can affect the appetite, so eating numerous small meals, and adding nutritional drinks and vitamin supplements to the diet will help.

The side effects of chemotherapy include loss of appetite, fatigue and nausea, so good nutrition helps the body cope with treatment and improves emotional as well as physical well-being. Small, vitamin-rich meals of natural foods, as well as nutritional supplements, can help patients cope with the discomforts of treatment and lay the groundwork for long-term health. In some cases, enteric, or tube feedings can also add essential nutrition if eating is difficult or uncomfortable.

Depending on the location of the cancer radiation treatment can also make eating and digestion very difficult. Treatment of the throat and chest for cancers such as lung cancersor a rare cancer called mesothelioma can cause pain when swallowing, acid reflux and infections of the esophagus; so healthy eating may be compromised. Adding nutritional supplements and protein drinks, as well as choosing nutritionally dense foods, can offer support during therapy. Likewise, good nutrition is essential for stem cell transplant patients, who face a high risk of infection and may need the advice of a dietitian to create a supportive diet that avoids raw foods that may carry bacteria.

After treatment, cancer patients in remission can benefit from a healthy, nutritionally dense diet, which offers the body maximum support not just for recovery, but also for long-term health. One’s life expectancycan be improved tremendously by following solid nutritional guidelines. Beneficial dietary habits, including avoiding foods high in saturated fat and sugar, reduce stress and improve physical and emotional well being, not just for cancer survival but for a positive outlook on life in general.

Submitted By: David Haas 

David Haas is a young cancer advocate who wants to continue researching ways to better peoples lives whom have been touched by this awful disease. One of the ways Haas has learned is to pay better attention to nutrition. Haas believes this is a very important part to treatments and even when in remission. The right food can help keep the body healthy to combat this deadly disease.

Charles and I made a pole with cross piece, similar to a blue bird lookout.  We put a nail in the top and place tomatoes on the nail when they get overly heated and develop a blight.  I wish I had taken a video of a woodpecker and the mockingbird perched on either side, pecking at the tomato. First one, and then the other.  I don’t think that they were cooperating, just both wanting the fruit more than taking time to quarrel.

 Oh yes, we have two water sources for the birds.  They don’t need more food, but they do need water supplies.

When I heard the doorbell and opened the front door yesterday, I knew that I knew the caller, but the name, out of context, didn’t come. Only strangers, or first time visitors, use the front door and the door bell.  This person I knew.  

She was a member of my first Census crew last year. It had been a while since we saw each other.  She came bearing a ceramic flowered basket with fruit, and baked goodies in it.

I supervised or work on a number of census crews last year. I run into my former Census Crew members at post office, grocery store, and library, all around town.  We had a lot of fun, as well as seriousness, in 2010 as we polled the town and parts of the county making the head count.  There are lots of stories, but we are all sworn to secrecy.

The basket had orange, mango, peach, apple, along with little sand tarts or Mexican wedding cookies and cute Teddy Bear banana bread.  Just the right thing as my appetite has so far not seem to be affected much.

We, that is myself, husband, and across-the-street neighbor, had the peach and orange along with wonderful wedding cookies with jello last night.

This morning I appreciated the Teddy Bear banana bread and had part with coffee.

Tonight we will grill the pear along with fish.

In other words, we savor each flavor and item. The ceramic basket is perfect for cut flowers which we have blooming, or dinner breads that my husband bakes.

Thank you again and again for this unexpected gift.

Celebration Supper: Eating Healthy

This is a group effort.  Charles and Jack and Danna and Grace have been seeing that I have been eating right.  I’ve managed to avoid significant weight loss. I became a little anemic, so a lot of liver was put in the diet and vitals popped back up much to the delight of the doctors. Added lots of gelatin with fruits and vegetables along with frequent avocados salads, cold fresh garden tomato and cucumber gazpacho with lots of garlic.

Jack, Danna, and Charles prepared a elegant meal at the end of the last cocktail. The idea- lots of taste with little bulk.

The Starter was grilled asparagus with toasted almonds, and slices of cold Texas A&M Maroon Tomato from my sister’s garden. The Main course was a cold shrimp cocktail with avocado, cherry tomato, red bell pepper marinated in lemon and tequila- a ceviche.

The piece de resistance was Jack’s concoction of fresh blueberries and strawberries with light cream intermingled with pound cake crumbles soaked in liquor.

SUNFLOWER!

At 100 F (37 C) temperatures and no rain, one of the challenges is to get a few spots of concentrated color and a few vegetables with minimal watering (we are in Stage 2 drought conditions).

This year we have a spectacular  sunflower that came in  a Burpee seed package called “Fun ‘n Sun Hybrid” mix.  Thirty out of thirty-five plants got eaten by voracious snails before we realized what was happening.

We have one 7 foot (2+ meter) “Cappuccino Hybrid”.  Cappuccino has very deep orange, almost dark brown, petals around a central center defined by a halo of yellow (diameter ca 6” or 12 cm).  The close up was taken standing on an a six foot ladder. The top of the plant had 5 flowers; then every branch had another flower. The other 4 sunflowers that survived was a different variety and are ordinary by comparison.

On the vegetable front, we have dill (the plant came complete with butterfly larva), sage, cucumbers, and tomatoes- Heat Wave, Sweet 100 Cherry, Gardner’s Delight Cherry, Brandywine, Green Zebra (hasn’t set yet), and a hybrid 9881 from Texas A&M that we are evaluating for the farm extension service. So far that one works best as tomato juice since the skin is a good candidate for high-wear shoe soles.

All of this has helped keep my mind off other things.

The WJTA- IMCA WaterJet Technology Association-Industrial & Municipal  Cleaning Association is holding their biannual conference and Expo of  September 19-21, 2011 at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston  TX. go to www.wjta.org to register.

Plan to attend if you are cleaning anything from sewage, to parking lots, to bridges, or cutting with water- at all pressures, or if you use vaccuum trucks in your business.

There are workshops, boot camps, and live demonstrations as well as the largest global exhibition for waterjet and water blast equipment.

If you are using waterblasters, pressure washers, or waterjetting equipment, you should have on site
1. Recommended Practices for the US of High Pressure Waterjetting Equipment
-available in English and Spanish.
2. Video or cd- Waterjetting Equipment- 30 minutes
3. Medical alert cards for each person on site.
4. Recommended Practices for the Use of Industrial Vacuum Equipment
5. Video or cd- Vacuum Equipment.

Contact the Advisory Council if you would like a general Operations Module. It contains the WJTA Video and “Recommended Practices,” some suggested personnel safety policies that are specific to waterjetting and not covered in current OSHA regulations, five laminated cards for individual workers, and some suggested topics for in-house training courses for your workers.

This Advisory Council module does not contain a self-help, self-testing text. It is not a certification procedure. Pressure Washing and Waterjetting are used in so many different applications that the general training course would need to be customized for site specific projects.

My second session of chemotherapy. This one only ran five hours.  My personal entourage consisting of Charles and friend Danna accompanied me like flies tracking potato salad. The Doc had to face questions from all three of us, but he took it good naturedly. The blood result was very good, actually improved over the baseline; I wondered if they made a mistake the first time.  Danna says it’s my improved diet. Other than a summer-thinning of hair that the birds can use in nest building, I am still feeling pretty good.

Danna, having had a husband go through lots of cancer treatment, and being a many-year advanced placement biology teacher, got with the nurse and the medical dictionary to go over the blood work. We also spent some time plotting out our next Callie Houston novel.  Friend Kathy brought over sandwiches for lunch and stayed to chat. The time went quickly as we solved several world  problems and forwarded the solutions to Congress addressed, to whom it may concern.  We don’t suppose it will be delivered. I didn’t have a chance to work on the ever-so-interesting-not ISO standards.

All the patients in chemotherapy are in close proximity. We try not to wake the people who go to sleep. Nevertheless, I suppose we wind up being somewhat more boisterous than most. Comic, if not cosmic relief. The nurses find themselves coming in to chat us up. We observe couples who are drowning in fear; I wish I could somehow  encourage them to stop sacrificing their now out of fear for their future. I’ve learned that I might as well enjoy these experiences while I can, even though saying this seems a bit weird.

Thursday:

Summer heat was here, and the city is in drought-stage 1. Then we had a change of weather and Thursday dawned cool.   I didn’t feel any different but both Charles and Danna commented at morning coffee that I had bright rosy cheeks, very much like a sunburn. At least they could have talked about my youthful appearance.  I wear my Oz hat that I picked up from Trim’s not far from Victoria Square in Adelaide, South Australia, for the shade.  Charles says that my cowlick is gone. It’s in the back so I didn’t notice when it fell out.

The Run Up:

Thursday night: our across-the-street neighbor, the tennis coach, dropped by for a beer.  Next door to him, our historic-district hippies have chickens and a Billie goat.  Coach had spent an hour wrangling the goat in the garden, calling for help, and hoping that he would not get ripped by the horns.  Finally coach caught a fellow walking along the street who could help find a rope and go over to the GOAT house. Of course, no one was at the goat home, and there didn’t seem to be a gate for their back yard. One of the boys finally came home, picked up the goat by the feet, all the while saying Billie doesn’t like being handled by the horns.  This is the middle of town, so goats and chickens are not so welcomed.  Luckily the tennis coach didn’t hurt himself.  Did I say that Billie has sharp horns and likes to butt?

Friday:  The tennis booster club has a huge rummage/trunk/jumbo sale  going on Saturday.  We had donated a truckload of bits and pieces of antique furniture all needing repair. I went to photograph and inventory the items so the appropriate “thank you for your donation” letter can be sent from the Advisory Council.

Friday is Rotary Day.  As I was leaving for Rotary at noon, I stepped into the side yard and there was BILLIE GOAT, nibbling on the low branches of an oak tree.  As soon as BILLIE saw me, he abandoned the tree and ran over to get scratched and butt me.

I had never been in the same yard as BILLIE. I had a computer and camera in my hands, and really, really didn’t want to be butted or ripped, and really, really was backing up fast. I got Charles on the cell phone and over to the yard. I took a trash can to fend off Billie after depositing the camera on top of a recycle bin and getting the computer in-doors.  We had a rope, but it was way too small.  Besides, it had been a long time since we had to tie off such a frisky critter.

Charles headed off the goat who seemed fixated on my backside by grabbing his horns and wrestling him away from the back door. We managed to get enough gates closed so we thought that Billie was secured and wouldn’t run out into the streets, but he still wanted to play. That goat came very close to becoming an immediate candidate for Hawaiian roasted goat.

I left Charles to tend to the goat and went to Rotary, where I kept my phone on against all the rules.  I smelled like goat.  I noticed one lady got up and moved away.  The two old codgers on either side  looked at me funny and waited for an explanation. Shur ‘nough, the neighbor called to say he was out-of-town, but one of the owners was on his way to escort the goat back home.  Billie has a pen, but I guess the owners can’t remember to put BILLIE in the pen.

We aren’t mad at the goat. We think that the owners are a little simple, a lot careless, and certainly irresponsible. BILLIE has figured out a way to get over or through the fence and into the water, shade, and garden.  Why not? The goat’s not stupid. BILLIE even polished off an old straw hat that was decorating a tree stump.

If there is a next time, Billie may wind up at the meat processors.  It will be turned into smoked goat, Hawaiian style wrapped in banana leaves, if I can get Charles to dig the hole in the back yard.

I am not sure what GOATS have to do with Cocktails with Lydia, other than to say that my life continues to take interesting twists every day.