A thought for the Day indeed.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself. -Emily Bronte, novelist (30 Jul 1818-1848) from A.Word.A.Day Anu Garg

Struck deeply with me as I read it on my cell phone from the comfort of my bed this morning.

I had to laugh, which brought on another bout of coughing, as I obviously am being « a sensible man », perhaps not by choice, but nevertheless sensible.

Having coughed through the nights on both Wednesday and Thursday I chose to not attend a birthday party Friday night as as much as I wanted to, I already didn’t feel 100% in form and there was a newborn present. Thank goodness I listened to intuition. Friday night I sneezed and dripped the whole night.

Saturday I hit the pharmacy and that night took a pill to at least stop the coughing. Slept the night through and

yesterday I spent the day in bed, dozing. With a fever at the end of the day I had to send out a « cancellation of the party » notice, sigh.

Today I called a doctor.

Diagnosis – a viral respiratory infection.

Care – basically what I’ve been doing, ie take it easy, drink fluids, take the odd paraceptomol for systems.

I appreciated this doctor’s take on things and, barring any unforessen developments (pneumonia is always a worry with a respiratory virus), I’ll be back on my feet soon.

The fact that I am starting to feel hungry again was a good sign according to the doctor and lunch (I had turned down about 10 offers of help with food and groceries by saying that it was a good chance to empty cupboards, freezers and refrigerators) was the last slice of turkey from Christmas, on a piece of XLVitality bread. If that doesn’t help what will ?

So for the moment I am following Emily Bronte’s advice to the letter, more to not expose any of my friends to this rather unpleasant experience than from any true desire to be on my own, still am starting to catch up on the reading so every negative has its positive.

They may look tough - I'm tougher!

I’m still here!

Now that could mean many things

• I’m still in the house that we built in 1980 and moved into on May 2, 2018
• I haven’t gone anywhere although expected to
• Or, more importantly that

I’m still alive.

Today, July 28 – twenty years ago I went into the operating room late. I had been scheduled for 9 am but they didn’t take me until nearly noon. Now, those that know me know that I get hungry, that I don’t like to miss meals and that at the best I start getting grouchy so you can only imagine how hungry I was when I awoke in the observing room after my operation. I finally managed to convince the attending nurse that yes, I was hungry, that, no I wasn’t feely queasy or any other aftereffect from the narcosis. She finally gave me a yogurt, which although it tasted lie ambrosia came back up as quickly as it hit my stomach. So much for not feeling the effects of surgery or the anesthesia.

I then proceeded to spend time in the hospital, getting out the 1^st of August 1998 a whole 2 days before my 50^th birthday.

It’s now 20 years since that first cancer.

Meanwhile both of my parents have passed away – my dad whilst I was undergoing chemo; my little sister lost her battle with cancer. My husband died and there have been other challenges as well.

On the plus side: my sister-in-law in the USA just passed her 10 year mark and my German sister-in-law is headed or 85 in spite of hers. Both of my sons have turned into fine young men, interesting, entertaining, they led lives that as their mother make me proud, but that would have also been highly satisfactory to their father.

I have even managed to hit the 5-year mark since the second bout of breast cancer.

My husband called me his pioneer woman – a survivor.

I’m indeed still here and enjoying every moment of life.

I am tired of the pink ribbon, but a pink flower from a favorite spot will do just fine.