Zoë runs for her

Today,  Zoë ran a 5k to raise funds for ovarian cancer research and awareness, along with her friends Stephanie and Colette and about a thousand other folks.  She came in sixth in her age category and number one in our hearts.

Peg needs a lot of encouragement these days.  It's a tough road emotionally on top of the physical symptoms.  She took a short walk today and said her legs felt alternately like cement and rubber.  What weighs on her more is having endless down time without the capacity to fill it with enjoyable or fulfilling activities.  Too spaced out to read a lot, not enough energy to do much besides eat and rest.

She needs your companionship right now.  When a friend comes by the house and spends an hour or two just keeping her company (talking, reading to her, rubbing her feet) she just seems to soar out of whatever funk she was in. This is her life's blood-- the love and support of her community of dear friends, made all the sweeter by being close by.

The best thing you can do for Peg right now is to write to her, call her and visit her. Several friends have expressed some hesitation around "disturbing" or "bothering" Peg.

Please... proceed to disturb and bother.  And we'll load you up with homegrown tomatoes when you leave.

And now for something completely different

We all have turkeys in our lives... although in our case, they are actual toms and hens.  They roost in the oaks behind the house, root around the garden, then fly onto the roof and into the front yard every afternoon.

Then they play poker and smoke cigars in the neighbor's yard until he calls the cops.  Actually, I don't know what they do after they leave our yard.  All I know is that they scratch up mass quantities of bark onto the pavestones, which Zoë and I then have to sweep back into the yard. This is nature's way of keeping us busy.

Charming of one of the little beasties to leave a souvenir on the deck just prior to launch...don't blink or you'll miss it.

Four down, two to go

Peg feels pretty good tonight... a little hyper from the steroids, a little itchy from the chemo.  Her red cell count was up enough they didn't give her anything to boost it, and her white cell count was good as well.

She was more apprehensive last night than she'd been for the last round.  No specific reason.  I think there's always a question mark around side effects and fatigue-- no way to know until symptoms appear.  Knock on wood, but she's had no nausea and her appetite is good.  She keeps meticulous track of her calorie intake each day to keep it between 2,600 and 3,000.  I was pretty shocked to learn how calorie-packed some common foods are.  Good for Peg--for the rest of us, not so much!

She thought she had enough oomph to attend "back to school night" at Zoë's high school tonight, but wisely decided against it at the last minute.  Huge campus, almost two thousand students, total chaos and (literally) running from class to class for an hour and a half.  

We've found, even before Peg was diagnosed, that a good philosophy is "one less thing."  Many sighs of relief have accompanied not trying to cram in just one more errand/activity/commitment. To quote Nancy Reagan, "Just say no."  Especially since these days we're looking pretty carefully at Peg's energy reserves and how best to expend them.