Boiling, baking and frying in Britain

I know that my friends in the US will be laughing at me when I say that we have had a heat wave-and by heat wave, I mean that for over a week it has been well over 80F-and into the low 90s. Compared to New York, and Florida, it's probably wintry!! But here, in the land of no (or very little) air conditioning, it is like being fried in Hell. No kidding. I would say that you can find me by following a trail of sweat, but that goes for just about everyone else, too.

You can find me by following a trail of tea and coffee-my balance has gone out the window with the changes in temperature and barometric pressure. Add to that the really strong sunlight, and I have a lot of trouble seeing six inches in front of me. It probably makes for good entertainment when I am trying to walk outside!!

I've been doing the doctor thing all week-and also been doing the cancer centre thing, too. I saw my Macmillan nurse (Fiona) yesterday, and she was just great. These women are so well trained to deal with all kinds of questions-I recommend any cancer patients contacting Macmillan as soon as they are diagnosed. I waited ages after surgery to do that-now I wish I had made the call sooner.

It is eight weeks today since I had the surgery. I wouldn't exactly call that a welcome anniversary-but I'm glad it is today and not eight weeks ago. I wouldn't like to ever have to go through that again. Ever. And, actually, I won't have to!! So there is always a silver lining to every tragedy. Sometimes it takes a lot of looking before you find it.

I looked yesterday. I came back from seeing Fiona, and I made a big mug of coffee (I drink tea everywhere else; English people make coffee that can strip the paint off walls and deep clean your tiled floor. Probably dissolve it, too). Then-I looked.

Most of the swelling and redness has gone, and I am left with some puckering and swelling in the corners, underneath the armpits. There is, obviously, a huge scar from one armpit across my chest, and it stops under the other armpit. When I saw Margaret (my GP, whom I will now call "Doc", since I am meeting a lot of Margarets in the cancer centre), we discussed reconstruction. And it will be risky for me because of the immune deficiency: the possibility of infection is very high. So I have until December to consider my options.

At the moment, I am cleaning. I get depressed, I clean. So my place will be very clear before I go into the hospital for stage 2: my architectural redesign of my knee (in other words, a probable knee replacement). I really prefer the term "architectural redesign"; it sounds better than knee replacement-and I won't know if that is what will be done until I wake in the recovery room. The extent of the damage will not be obvious until Mr. Skinner opens up the leg and takes a look. So-no idea. I just asked him not to remove my leg-and he thought that was funny. Good thing I know him for a long time: he knows when I am joking. Usually.

My friend from up north will have a London holiday from her family-and I will have another hospital holiday. Hospital food: yum. I will probably lose the kilo I've gained (under duress) and then I will be lectured again. Never mind. At least I will have a rest from the neighbor from Hell upstairs. Like I said: silver lining.

That is one of many things that cancer-and the fear of dying from cancer-has taught me: be less critical and judgmental. Cynicism has been part of my personality for as long as I can remember-and old habits die hard. I'm working on it, though. I'm working on it.

I'm going to see a homeopath on Monday. I spoke with my friend Dani, who is an acupuncturist-I see her rarely now, since I haven't been travelling much since 2010. But we spoke about homeopathy and all the various odd ailments I tend to pick up (thanks to CVID). I will happily post after the consultation and give you my take on it all. But I had homeopathy many years ago, and I have to say that it works on many things. And Anil is a fourth generation homeopath: he is very experienced and well trained, not like the people who take a weekend course and call themselves professionals. So-I'll give you the heads up next week.

By September I will have had all the surgery and consultations I can handle! I will only need repairs to my cartilage on my left knee-but that will be done in the spring, and by keyhole surgery. I am not allowed to fall down again after mid-August-so that will be funny, being on crutches and having no balance system to help.

Like I said last time: I may be down, but I am not out. I may be baking, but I am not broken. When I go (hopefully in about 30 or 40+ years), they can put that on my headstone.

I would say I'm like the Energizer bunny-but he turns around in circles, makes a lot of noise-and isn't he really, really annoying!!