Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

So, the extra shims on the mask helped a bit more. Am down to about 3 hours of grid-patterned face dents, with a bit of lumpiness for a few more hours afterwards. Maybe it's the edema making the marks last so long? Or maybe I need more collagen? Which I thought I had a good amount of, as I have no wrinkles, still, at my age. But I can live with this. It's better than the 6 hours of deep marks from the trial run.

This rain is so glumpyizing!

Had no motivation yesterday, despite these 2 new patterns sitting here just THIS far from being done. Took an afternoon nap and went to bed early, though I rarely fall asleep til hubby comes to bed.

But if I lie on the loveseat instead, I DO fall asleep, which I hate, as ya gotta wake up enough to take pills, brush teeth, close windows, turn off lights, etc., walking around like a zombie, getting the heart rate up, so that when you DO finally climb into bed - and our bed is high, so climb is the operative word - *now* you're awake!

I did laundry, brewed iced tea, did dishes, vacuumed and planted more lettuce seeds - whoopdidoo. I did nothing and the day flew by anyway.

I have higher hopes for today. Which is helped by adding more things to that Institution of Daily Life called the To Do List.

One item which seems to have become a fixture on the TDL is ordering more stuff from Lucky Vitamin.

And since I'm being bombarded by people fussing over my herbal supplementations (out of concern, I know!), hubby included, I ran my latest find past the rad onc today, which she approved - Aloe Vera - to drink for the mucous membrane in my throat/esophagus which will soon be radiated raw and therefore painful to swallow, for weeks.

Aloe Vera helps rebuild the lining, which takes 28 days on its own to renew. It *can* get to the point of painfulness where painkillers are needed, and I *don't* want to go there.

Painkillers constipate bigtime (which for me always means then not being able to eat, from the bloat), besides sending one into La-La land, and I've finally gotten my bod to behave nicely on its own. That particular battle has taken years to set right, what with peri-menopause's hormone shifts, then chemo and sleep deprivation. It's been torture - for me, and for hubby to hear me complain all the time about my pitiful GI probs.

I'm not going there, pushy, know-it-all onc nurse to the contrary, who wanted to give me painkillers for the bashed, hurting rib, as well. Do they *have to* assume patients know nothing? And they wonder why people turn to alternative medicines? All they know how to do is drug you, not help you heal, because that's not what they're taught.

So, I'm thankful the rad onc knows about Aloe Vera, at least, and she hasn't objected to all the other stuff I'm taking. And we're gonna watch and wait on the hurty rib, to see if it gets better or worse after a week, which is fine with me.

It's amazing if anyone gets through Cancer in one healthy piece, not 10 broken-down pieces. But I'll be damned if I end up in the latter group. That's just not good enough for me. Call it stubborn, or what you will! I know I can do no less, no different and live with myself.

Again, that teensie frog got away from us last night, before we could photograph him. It seems to like that back porch railing, so, tonight, I'm gonna be ready for it!