April 16: good news, good news....really bad news

The foot doesn't seem to be a whole lot better. Maybe a little less swollen? I gimped around on it just in the house today, probably should have put the boot on. I spent some time sitting on the swing with my legs in the sun, trying to get some of that bone-strengthening vitamin D conversion going!

Good news: I've been terrifically productive and have gotten a lot of writing done. And I feel very creative, in the literary sense. Obviously I've talked about (and have been urged to) write a book, and I'm starting to get more things on paper. I haven't felt particularly social, so this has been a good outlet. And also keeps me from putting too much strain on the foot.

Good news: The gluten issue had been solved!!!! My friend Bidge's daughter, Julie, who I used to babysit (of course, she's about 40 now and I'm, ahem, older so....) is a specialist in herbs. As I think I've mentioned, the gluten allergy is actually an enzyme deficiency, probably genetic. Apparently those of us from the British Isles didn't have to process gluten--not a lot of waving fields of grain in such a small geographic area, which is why it was potatoes. Anyway, she's put me on an enzyme and I'm eating gluten! I started off slow (donut holes) and then advanced to a cheese steak and onion rings (God, how I missed those!) and yesterday upgraded all the way to pasta--YEAH!!! So, I swallow two capsules before eating anything and, presto, a wheat eating I go. Life just got so much easier.

Bad news: Cousin John's wife, Martha, the ones who live in NY. If you look back around the cardiac surgeries she posted. She came up for a few days to keep Mom company for the thoracotomy. Martha called me last week from her hospital bed. She didn't want to worry me before the trip, but she'd been getting treated for several weeks for an atypical pneumonia. 50 years old, non-smoker; I was pretty sure it was a fungal infection. I spent over an hour on the phone convincing her it was time to transfer to a NYC hospital. It didn't take as long to convince John. We co-ordinated the next morning, exchanged collected info. Then the biopsy results came back: lung cancer. Totally floored me. Really, really didn't see that coming. Martha lives the healthiest lifestyle of anyone I know: exercises, yoga, cooks from scratch, buys most stuff at the farmer's market (which she ran for a few years as well), no family history. Work-up is still in progress, but it's a big tumor: almost 3" x 3" x 2.5". I'm going up tomorrow (well, today now) and will come back Sunday. We'll see from there.

See, when I was still a paramedic, God could throw all the crap at me in horrific calls. Now, it has to be closer to home. Although, honestly, I don't believe that. I don't think that God is up there like a master puppeteer jerking us all around. I think bad things just happen. And how you chose to deal with them is up to you. And that will be the subject of my next philosophical posting, which I'm already working on in my head and my diary.

Please keep Martha in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks for checking, Laurie