My week has morphed from misery to tolerable to a few leg cramps to fairly normal to energetic!
Yesterday I had a lovely visit with Debbie during which time we ‘covered the waterfront’ of possible topics and enjoyed each other’s company immensely. She really liked Greenspring community, its facilities and greenery.
This morning I picked up Lily and Naomi from their other grandparents so we could spend some time together. It was our lucky day at pickle ball!  Only five people had shown up so Lily got to play and even Naomi got to try it out.  🙂  I hit a few balls and actually played one game and, with Hank’s help, we won! Felt so good to be hitting that wiffleball/pickleball again!  Happiness is….
This afternoon a wonderful friend from the late 80s came by with her signature peace cranes! Anne gifted me with a bouquet of them a number of years ago and today added a refreshment bunch. Not only that, she brought a lovely large bowl of peace cranes for any friends who happened to visit me!  Now there is incentive!! All different patterns and colors. For those of you who don’t know the story of the peace cranes… go to the library and take out the children’s book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by Eleanor Coerr.  Here is the synopsis.  This brief video helps to bring awareness to Sadako’s story.  If you would like to make an origami crane, here are the directions. The story is one that I have used many times in different settings and its message remains one poignant tale of the consequences of war and our universal longing for peace.
My day was marred by my attempt to seek more information on my cancer.  I had not been given an order for a CT scan for my spine, only my lung. In the past several days I found that my right leg was ‘giving way’ just below the knee on the outside. A cramp? A Charley-Horse? Why not have a scan of the affected bone metastasis at the same time? It backfired. 🙁  The oncologist wants me to have an MRI of the lumbar spine AND the brain on Monday prior to seeing him on Tuesday!! Not only do I detest, despise, and resist MRIs but I’ve already in my past gone through too many!  including three of the brain for ocular migraines! My experience is that they put your head in a ‘casket’ (that’s my description) and strap it in except for a narrow rim of vision… and then shove your whole body all the way into the tube. Yes, you’ve got it; I’m claustrophobic. AAGGHH!! Not only that but I had to cancel my cousin Tom’s visit for lunch and I haven’t seen him in many moons!  Not to worry. I manage to get through these, thanks to valium and a driver. Just felt as though I shot myself in the foot! Of course the nurse assured me that I did the wise thing because any weakening in the lower limbs could show the presence of further metastasis to the brain, thus an alteration in the course of treatment. “One must always explore new symptoms.” My super active day turned into one with increased anxiety. I had been cleared of brain mets in early April; now I’m to get checked more thoroughly. And I have five waiting days till I will get the results from my lung, brain and spine! I think I’ll open the Rum Punch that David brought me from Barbados!!!
I’m adding a new creature to my hummingbird tonight.  He portends wisdom and helpfulness and in parts of the world is a good luck omen.  This little owlet guy sent by Shalem Circle friend Leslie is just too cute not to share with you at this time.  She said his mom had just been feeding him.  Life is all around us. Let’s celebrate it!