Being boring

5 minute read time.

Here's a mystery. I'm never hungry when I wake up in the morning - that whole "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" thing is quite wasted on me. So why am I always starving when I wake up in the middle of the night?

Luckily it turns out that night starvation can be cured by eating a dream burrito. Don't ask. (I suppose it was a burrito. I've never actually eaten a real one. I believe they include ground beef, and even Mr Crab doesn't fancy that.)

So. Last week. The weather, just for one thing. Weeks and weeks and weeks of nothing but torrential rain until I wanted to scream, then, from nowhere, sun. Hurrah! And more sun. Not so hurrah. Even more and hotter sun. *woe* and scuttle indoors to hide in the shade. Some form of moderation. Is that so much to ask?

Monday morning heralded the first visit of the district nurse, who arrived at 10.00 and caught me in my nightie. Still, I daresay she's seen people in their nighties before, and mine is fairly respectable, as nighties go. She changed my PICC dressing and took bloods for chemo, and all went swimmingly. Of course, it then all promptly fell apart, because we had to be at the Churchill on the following two Mondays, and, no matter how I explained what needed to be done, nobody was able to grasp it, or to give us the equipment we'd need. So now, in theory, district nurse is coming tomorrow for the next dressing change, and I'm getting pre-consultant bloods taken at my GP's on Wednesday; and next week, when we'll be at the hospital anyway, I'll ask the DTU to do the dressing change and pre-chemo bloods. And we shall see if all goes according to plan. But, really: it wasn't that complicated!

My brother came to visit later on Monday morning. Judy had gone to have lunch with a friend, so he and I sat out in the garden to talk, and admire the gliders (of which there were about six zooming around). Tuesday was chemo, the third cycle of the third round, and that went unusually smoothly - I actually got seen almost at once, and we were only there for three hours or so. As usual, I was asleep for most of it - I got a bed this week, which is always nice - so I don't know if anything exciting happened. Probably not. If it did, I've forgotten it.

Judy was away again on Wednesday, on an overnight trip to Leicester this time. A thrill a minute, it is. I managed not to get sick this time, so hurrah for me! Macmillan was doing a web chat on benefits, so I joined in that. It wasn't much use (no use at all, to be brutally truthful), but it gave me something to do, and gave me the illusion of company. And the rest of last week ...? Um ... I dunno. I don't think we did anything. And it is entirely possible that that is quite literally true.

Oh, what a world, what a world.

No, I lie. Tsk, I'll be going to hell, then. I suppose that's news to exactly nobody. We both went out Friday lunchtime, to have lunch with our friends Sabine and Nigel and their daughter Karen, and say 'happy birthday' to Sabine. It was still too bloody hot, but otherwise generally pleasant, and almost like having a real social life. I felt awful afterwards, though, probably due to unwisely having a (one; 1) cider. I never do know what to drink in a pub if you can't drink. Fizzy water is the sensible option, I suppose, but I do rather resent paying over the odds for water just because it's in a bottle.

Did I mention that Sabine ran the Race for Life the other week, with my name on her card? I thought perhaps I hadn't. Well, she did. ♥ is all I can say.

Speaking of all things sporty, we sat down and watched the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday night, all prepared to be jaded and cynical. It took about five seconds to win us over, and would have been even faster than that if we'd tuned in in time to see Mr Cumberbunny's intro (it's okay, I found it on YouTube later). Bless Danny Boyle: anyone who wants to celebrate children's literature, and the NHS, and Britrock, and - what was it that mad Tory Tweeted? "Leftie multiculturism"? - is all right by me.

Yes, I expect the money could have been better spent elsewhere. But it wouldn't have been, you know. It never is.

Weekend? I don't believe anything happened then, either, except that when we went shopping in Brackley we drove out of the sun into the rain both ways, which seems a trifle unfair.

This morning we had what I think of as a hideously early start, although actually it's no earlier than most people - including me, when I'm working - start for work, so as to get to the Churchill for 8.30 for a CT scan. We actually got there just after 7.30, because there wasn't any traffic, but such is the way of the world. It didn't mean I got seen any earlier, that would be too much to hope for. There were no problems with the scan, but it's a long way back to Bicester after you've had to drink five cups of water ... And I feel a bit crummy now, either from a bad night last night and a six o'clock wake-up call, or from the resolution dye, or from both. Who knows? I expect it will pass. The water already did ... oh, sorry. Too much information?

Two more earlyish starts tomorrow and Wednesday, for the district nurse and the GP respectively; then nothing until next Monday, when I see the consultant and find out how Mr Crab is coming along. I would like to think he's shrinking and fading away, but he has been a bit bitey of late. Which is always something of a worry.

Also bitey: something in my bedroom. The cats have been Frontlined - not without incident and injury - but I suspect a flying thing rather than a hoppy thing. Maybe the Frontline will work on everything, regardless. I hope so. Life's tough enough without having to go through it itchy.

I am so bored. Does it show? My mother always told me that only boring people were bored. I fear the old bat was perfectly correct. Luckily she's dead, so I don't have to tell her so.

Okay, now I'm going to hell.

Anonymous
  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    I'll see you in Hell Hilary. :)

    Sorry you are bored and being bitten by bitey things. They should know you are giving enough blood away already and should leave you alone.

    The district nurse kept telling me to stay in bed in my nightie and not to worry about getitng up just for her, so I guess they have seen it all. Mind you, mine rarely came that early that I would still be in a nightie.

    Life revolves around hospitals and boredom with cancer it seems. Everyone goes on about 'battles' and 'fighting' and the like where the sad reality of treatment is lying staring at the wall bored out of your brain and feeling like shit.

    The dye makes me feel ill so could be that. Drink lots of water they say to flush it out, but of course that then leads to more of getting up to the loo.

    I hope Mr Crab is shrinking and the bites are him screaming his way away....

    Oh and I too sat down to mock and jeer and was also won over very quickly. I was hoping for ratty and Moley and Winnie the Pooh rather than Voldebloodymort but you can't have anything and playing the Jam and Sex Pistols and showing a bit of trainspotting was great. Lefty hahaaa

    Wish I could relieve your boredom, but I tried everything when I was on treatment and nothing worked. except reading Moomin stories as my brain couldn't cope with grown up big words!

    I will send you a hug. A big one.

    And boring people are boring NOT bored. They don't get bored cos they are too boring and happy to do nothing. So ner to your mum and see you in hell.

    All the hugs

    Little My x

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    I think there was a glimpsette of Ratty and Moley at the very beginning, when the camera was zooooming down the Thames. Winnie-the-Pooh was conspicuous by his absence, though, as was Tolkien - other than in spirit - and I suspect that may be due to their respective estates or, more probably, Disney and whatever the film studio is that has the rights to LOTR.

    Funny how the Sex Pistols have become part of the mainstream now. I'm sure there's a moral to be found there. Also amusing: how people keep using 'London Calling' as a cheerful singalong anthem. It really isn't, but, as we found out when Bruce used it to open his Hyde Park concert a few years back, nobody knows any of the words except "And I - LIVE BY THE RIVER!", which explains it.

    Oh, I forgot the cycling doves. They kind of scared the shit out of me, but it's better than releasing live ones and having them fly straight into the Olympic flames, as actually happened in Seoul. Ick.

    SO BORED. There is a limit to how much even I can sleep, and to how many stupid Facebook games I can play.

    *hugs*

    xxx

     

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Hilary, you are not boring at all ..... there is nothing boring in your writing and bores can't string a few words together never mind put their thoughts down as eloquent as you do ( yes, I did check that in the dictionary to make sure ) So I'm afraid your mater was wrong there .......

    As LM said, it's all the appointments, hospitals and horrid treatments bringing you down - four walls and the ceiling all day long is enough for anyone to bear. So let's hope for some warm ( not stifling ) sunshine to cheer us up again ...... just enough to enjoy sitting in a comfy chair in the garden, not a lot to ask.

    Wishing you luck for the early start tomorrow ( stay in your nightie too if you want ) and take care with the bitey things.

    Love and hugs, Joycee xxx

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    I missed the cycling birds. And the beginning but P told me that Ratty and Mole were there.

    I have been laughing too at the Clash's song being used. I wonder if Joe Strummer is turning in his grave? Can't imagine them giving permission for it. That was what i liked about the music bit as so many of them were anti establishiment bands and songs apart from Mud of course !

    Its funny how many songs people don't get the meanings of or only know a couple of lines. I suspect BA didn't actually listen to the song beyond London's calling or they might not have used it.

    So sorry about the boredom. You know I don't manage it well either. I kicked and screamed a lot in the room after this op I seem to remember. Didn't solve anything. I also wish you lived nearer so I could de-bored you. But of course you don't and that doesn't help wishing eh?

    I have ds games I could send you, but I suspect they won't help being more of the same as fb games.

    Do you want to do my marking for me?

    oh here's something you can do... I've just been given a book called the Night Circus. Tell me if its worth bothering to take to Sweden with me to read or not...

    More hugs from the infinite hug hotel...

    Little Myx

     

     

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Thank you, Joycee, and *hugs*. I suppose I should be glad that I'm not iller, but I'm in this sort of limbo - well enough to be bored, and to feel guilty about how little I'm doing, too ill to do very much at all. And when I do try to do stuff, of course, I end up all shaky and shattered.

    LM - I could do with more people to come and entertain me, that's for sure. Maybe we should form a commune. A crabby commune.

    'The Night Circus'? Oh, shit, no. Here's what I said about it: http://www.librarything.com/work/12049600/reviews/78983776 Although, to be truthful, very few of the reviews I've written of late have been positive. I might be more forgiving if I weren't in such a bad temper all the time.

     

    xx