Saturday, August 30

Allie and I have made plans to go driving this morning, but she doesn't wake up and I find her mom at my door at seven o'clock, the time Allie and I had agreed to go.  Lisa takes me to Stop and Shop and picks up cold items for me.  She brings me home and helps me unload.

Allie texts me just as Lisa and I get to my house, and apologizes for not getting up.  We make plans to go out at nine thirty, to go to Providence Place Mall.  We had agreed that she needed to learn how to get to places she would be driving to, that is why we have such interesting destinations this morning.  I still need a few pieces for my Cancergirl costume, and she needs to return some things at the mall,  justifying this trip.

We don't get much driving in, since the mall is ten minutes from my house, but we do have a great shopping trip.  I find the last few things I need for my costume, and this fluffy, pink, jackety, sweater kind of thing.  Definitely a chemo induced impulse buy.  It is soft and warm though, so I will wear it often, even though I really don't need it. Allie returns some things and finds some new clothes for school before we need to leave.

I need to get home, because Alex has the day off, and we have decided we would go looking for some art installations near Wickenden Street.  We start with lunch though, going to Federal Hill to find a restaurant called North that was highly recommended to me.  We park near Pastiche, where we will end up, and walk using the GPS on Steve's phone.  North turns out to be further away than we think, and then it is closed for the day for a private party.  What luck!  We go back to Atwells Ave and find a Mexican restaurant which is good, and not very expensive.  We stop by Pastiche to visit Ayla, because Alex hasn't been there yet.  Now we are all fueled up, and ready for our art exploration.

We find the Bird House and the Wire Arch which are located near Adler's Hardware on Wickenden, and then drive to Clifford St to find three more.  We are stumped by the last installation since the address is wrong, but find it as we are leaving on the corner of Point Street and Franklin.  It was well worth the search, as it turns out to be everyone's favorite.

We drop Steve to go and make dinner, while Alex and I go to visit my Dad at the hospital.  They have moved his room closer to the nurses station because he got out of bed without calling for help. His bed is alarmed so the nurses know when he gets up, but he wiggles so much it often goes off for no reason.  He really dislikes the alarm, and it aggravates him.

This room is on the front side of the hospital, and overlooks the parking lot and the highway.  Not much to look at there.  He seems okay, talkitive, but his speech is off, he is hard to understand. They don't think he has had a stroke.  Sometimes the dialysis at the hospital is harder on him for some reason.  Maybe this is the cause?  We are waiting to hear what they plan on doing for him.  The fall seems to have been caused from an heart arrhythmia, something they can't do anything for because of his other problems.  They think his finger has another infection in it, and we are waiting to hear when they can operate on it to take out the infected bone.

This is very anxiety inducing, since this is what launched us into a difficult episode the last time he was here.

After visiting Dad, we head home for dinner.  Steve has made some fish chowder and salad, and Dan and Walter are coming over to join us.  When Steve leaves to hang out with the guys, Alex and I go to the mall to buy jeans.  I stay focused on the jeans, and don't allow myself to look at anything else.  Oh wait, I need a cape for my Cancergirl outfit.  We end up getting a pretty turquoise towel that I can wrap around my neck kid style.

When we get home, I am done for the day!  Time for bed.

Side effects today:  Stiff thumbs that lock into a weird position, weepy, twitchy eyes with dark circles underneath, dopey and chatty.