bedroom galilee clive barker bathroom amy and isabelle elizabeth strout car/walk evening susan minot
office look sharp! joe jackson lilith fair 2, 3 various car more tales from the city [book-on-tape] armistead maupin living room the sci fi channel
brand x the message came from out of the blue: Brand X welcomes you into its clutches.
1999 june 07
the state of the brain
i am so proud of myself.
i've been suffering from the dreadful cough from hell for two weeks now and i have managed to not fill each day's page with more of my whining. good girl! cough, cough.
s's therapy for her brain cancer is going much better than anyone expected. her physical therapy is going fantastically as well; she has almost complete control over her right side again and her speech barely shows signs of slurring. her hair is already growing back from where they shaved it [although she will most likely lose it again with the radiation and chemo] and most importantly of all, her disposition has improved to the point she can laugh and joke about things.
i know all this second hand because i haven't visited her in the hospital. the damned cough, you know; it really is a nasty one and the last thing she needs is some new germ in her world. but i check in on the phone daily to get the latest news, and jerry and joy gave me a full report after they visited on friday. i was hoping to get in there some time this week but now it looks as though i won't. for a good reason, though -- s is going home.
i also heard the latest news on doctor d, who has yet to make an appearance. he is finally back in the states and is expecting to be up here in a week or two. a week or two? i could strangle the boy! i realize he must be swimming in denial but still, if my mother were diagnosed with brain cancer and they were having to do emergency surgery, i would have tried a little harder to get a flight home immediately. instead, when the airline told him it might be difficult to change his existing plans, he said okey-doke, and went on his merry way, without calling any of us to let us know.
i can tell it hurt s that he didn't make the effort, though she is putting on the understanding mother face about the whole thing. it is going to be pretty damn hard for me to wear the understanding friend face.
i had horrible dreams early this morning.
i watched 60 minutes, as usual for a sunday night, and they featured a story on the chemical poisoning of a huge segment of the bangladeshi population. these people are drinking well water that is contaminated with arsenic and hundreds of thousands of them are under threat of cancers and death because of it.
i had vision after vision of beautiful bangladeshi girls with blackened tongues and black spots on the palms of their hands, yellow cracked feet and beautiful smiles, walking into the river and floating away.
it sounds terribly naive but i want to be a millionaire so i can buy planeloads of evian to send over there.
trying to use her brain to save the world, claire
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