places to be, people to see... part one

Monday afternoon. I'm negotiating a schedule with the treatment centre's isaac. Or, more accurately:

Isaac phones. Says he's with the Cancer Care centre where I will be radiated. He needs to set up various appointments for me... with me. Two phone conversations... and it's done.

Tuesday will be a busy day.

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I'm up till Monday midnight. A couple of email replies to be written -- so that I can forget about them. And then I stuff my face... eat a few hearty snacks. I eat a lot -- because I need to fast from 2am -- I eat  just before the fasting has to begin.

Then I sleep. Downstairs, on the couch. Half sitting up. It's comfortable enough but it's lonely :-(

Deb looks out from upstairs, checks that I'm okay. Wonders why I am staying downstairs.

It's mostly, my blasted cold! Coughing. Snorting. And I know that it will be worse if I lie in bed -- flat. So I half sit. Sleep. Reassure Deb by occasionally coughing loudly enough to be heard from upstairs...

Up with the sun for... not breakfast. We have put little stickers on favourite food items, stickers which say, "No!" Just in case I start browsing without thinking. No food! I'm fasting! A very unusual experience, for me.

Tuesday morning, about 7:30 am. Deb drops me at SJoG for a PET scan. We agree that Deb will pick me up at the same spot at about 5pm. When toddler watching is finished. I'll be in no hurry, I'll sit and read while I wait.

PET scan:

Half an hour waiting. One of my fellow waiters is silent, does not say anything in reply to pointless yet friendly comments. I apologise for being a talker. He nods, smiles just a little, accepts.

Pants (with metal zipper) off, hospital gown on... Despite instructions to, Change into the gown and call me when you're ready... my call is to say, How does this go on?! The hospital gown is not the simple one designed for maximum embarrassment. For one thing... this one has three arm-holes!?

I get instructions on, how to wear. Still fail to put it on so it does not slip off. Not to worry, it won't slip off while I'm sitting or lying on it.

About an hour relaxing, while... something... is pumped into my bloodstream. I sleep through more than half of this. I'm wearing a watch. It's reassuring to be able to easily check how much time has really passed.

The PET scan itself takes perhaps half an hour. I like the way the operator refers to "my" machine :-) Later, I suggest to her that she should refer to "my PET scan machine"... At one stage of the scanning I woke from a light snooze...and would have appreciated a memory of someone confirming what I believed was where I had been sleeping...

Scan finished. I get drink and biscuit :-) Recognise the standard two-biscuit pack from every tea-and-biscuit experience as a SJoG patient.

A... medical imaging specialist(?) comes by. Tells me... something or another. Asks me to wait while the quality of the image is checked. I tell him, no rush, I have well over an hour to walk 400m to my next appointment. The images are fine. I leave the scan place.

There is a queue at the counter. Was I expected to let them know that I was leaving? Pay a bill? Sign something? I just walk on out.

To a light lunch at a hospital cafe. Ah... food... at last :-)

Outside, the weather is fine and mild... A nice day for a stroll. I walk to the cancer care centre. Wait in another waiting room.

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I'm writing all of this later on Tuesday. It's nearly midnight. (btw: I like to blog in the first person singular -- present tense. Mostly, though, I'm writing about the past. Artistic licence :-)

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And here I pause. Almost midnight. I'm only just writing about noon, twelve hours ago. But what is really important:

I -- here & now, as I type -- I am falling asleep! It's been a busy day, with several appointments, plus some non-medical work to be done... life to be lived. I want to blog the bits which are relevant to this blog... which were, today, mostly successful but some less so.

Now -- posting paused, at twelve hours earlier -- I have decided that I shall go to bed. Upstairs. Where I can keep Deb awake with some snorting & snuffling :-) Go to sleep before I just fall asleep at the keyboard...

I hope to finish writing about, yesterday... tomorrow. But first I sleep, today.

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Next morning, briefly:

I should have posted this -- incomplete -- posting!

There are whole memes...? tropes...? cliches... about travel diaries. Either they are telling the entire story -- and this one is unlikely to include the actual, That's all Folks, death scene. Or, the journal is found with an incomplete ending... It then becomes the point of the main story, to find out what really comes next.

So, the essential point: Each diary entry must be made available -- hidden under a convenient rock, perhaps -- with entries which lead right up to, Drums ! They're coming ! We can't escape.... then end.

Okay, this blog is for me, for my own purposes. One of my purposes is, to use the opportunity to practise, to learn, to see what works...

This morning I woke up (aside: after six hours of sound sleep, thanks :-) and found that I have learnt something. I do plan to finish blogging that long Tuesday. Perhaps after a post on a completely different topic. So yes, this entry is incomplete.

Lesson: Stop waffling. Eat breakfast. Accept that the post is incomplete. But Post It ! Now !!!

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Now much more than a clever name for a holiday journal:

 https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/  :-)

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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​"No matter where you go, there you are." ... Confucius ?