Dodging Bullets

As I am writing this I am having a delightful glass of a Spanish Tempranillo and listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This is the album in which the first clues to the rumour that Paul McCartney was dead appeared. The song Within You Without You figured into the clues where Paul's head blocked the first two words to the song in the printed lyrics (this was the first album to come with printed lyrics), so the title appears as Without You.  While Faina breaking up this family-band was, for a time, a subject of discussion she drew me into, she has chosen a different path, her plan is to survive this disease. God may laugh at "Man's plans" as the Yiddish proverb goes, but women were the improved model of this sixth day creation and somehow I think their plans don't elicit the same mirthful response from the Almighty One.

Three of the verses in Within You Without You begin, "We were talking." We do a lot of that.

We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.

It was a good weekend with Faina strong, enjoying Shabbat guests, David and Donna over for Kabbalat Shabbat, a visit from three of her work colleagues, some short car trips and a walk. On Sunday, we celebrated Jamie's and my father's November birthdays.

Monday morning was round three of chemo. Faina cried for the first time facing that prospect. These cycles has been far more difficult than in the past, usually leaving her sick for over a week. She frequently comments on the feeling of having been poisoned after these infusions. Tomorrow is take down day, she loses the 48 hour 5-FU chemo pump.

Today's highlight was trip to Howard County General's Diagnostic Imaging Department. The home health care nurse was concerned that the PICC line may have been pulled out and the TPN might not be going directly into the Superior Vena Cava; pardon the jargon. The point is that were that the case, she would have had to undergo, again, an uncomfortably painful procedure, and add infection risks and all sorts of other complications. Fortunately, things are ok for now. Our next stop was the pharmacy at our friendly neighborhood Giant. Faina gave the clerks and pharmacist a run for their money, insisting that the oxycodone pills came in a smaller form, something more easily swallowed. Dare I say we were "Saved by Kristin," who had the patience and the listening skill to figure out what Faina needed and was talking about. I would say Faina faces these challenges Stoically, except that insults the dignity of that term. If they knew, the Stoics would say they faced difficulties Fainaically.

Dodging bullets, just missing being struck by the manay calamaties that seem to lurk behind the next tick of the clock, is a relief, but the real highlights of the past days have been family and friends. George Harrison closed out Within You Without You with a verse that speaks to the continuity of the universe that so many people who surround us understand and live:

When you've seen beyond yourself
Then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we're all one
And life flows on within you and without you.