Summertime 2026 Updates

 

Summer is upon us.

Pat will be down this Sunday for a couple weeks. He's my driver to my multitude of doctor's appointments in the next two weeks. 

Pat is a big help. I'm not that comfortable driving anymore, especially in this Rehoboth Beach/Lewes Delaware summertime traffic, which becomes heavier and more dense each year. It's already started. If I have to go out, I go out early in the morning before the hordes descend upon Route One (Coastal Highway) to their beach destinations Rehoboth Beach and beyond. 

One of my doctor's appointments is to get a PET-SCAN to see how far my returning prostate cancer has spread. I'm pretty sure I'm in the same boat that former president Biden is in, the cancer has spread to my bones. I'm in pain almost every waking hour. Not excruciating pain (yet) but it's just hard for me to move around. Some of that may be my arthritis. I'm good in the morning but as the day progresses the pain becomes so much that I have to lie down, sometimes taking an Advil. I try to avoid getting in the habit though of taking Advil every day though, just if the pain is too much. Thank goodness lying down on my back alleviates the pain. 

These days I'm taking two naps. One in the morning around 10:30 AM and the other in the afternoon around 3:30 PM until 6:00 PM. Yes, my naps are that long. I usually go to bed about 11 PM but I wind down much earlier. I do get up early in the morning though, around 5:30 AM up until 7 AM. I never have been one of those late sleepers. Pat is. He's a late sleeper. I think I got out of that habit when I was a teenager and missed my school bus ride once. I made a vow then to never sleep late although I did miss my class trip to New York City because I over slept. That's something I've regretted my whole life, missing that trip.

Back to my PET-SCAN. Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Beebe (the hospital) to check in early on my computer. I took the half hour or so to check in early including entering all my medications and a lot of other unnecessary information only to get down to the "SUBMIT" button, which when I hit "ENTER" it said my appointment was CANCELLED! What? I just spent all that time on my computer with AI checking in and they cancel my appointment? Sure! So I called, and called, and called. These days they have automated assistants to answer the phones, otherwise know as AI. Well, not to bore you but I spent half my morning trying to get through to the hospital only to find they had changed my appointment to July 2nd! July 2nd? This is the height of the summertime traffic, Fourth of July weekend and to top everything else off, Pat wouldn't be here to take me to my appointment. Also I would have to change my appointment with my urologist because this is when I was going to inform him that I'm not seeking further treatment for my prostate cancer. I had planned all this discussion for when Pat was here. All that was out the window now because obviously someone more important than me has bumped my appointment. By the way, this is the second time my appointment has been changed. 

I plunged in again and tried to call Beebe and explain to them that my husband lives in Canada and he would be down here for two weeks in June and I would like him to be with me when I get my PET-SCAN and discuss my end of life decision with my urologist. I finally got through and of course they said they couldn't change it. I was frustrated and I replied "I'll be glad to get out of this world because of situations like this." That must have had an effect because about an hour later they called back and gave me an option for an earlier appointment. Still not a date when Pat would be here but at least I wouldn't be sitting in the parking lot that is Route One on Fourth of July weekend. 

In the meantime I'm living my best life I can every day. When Pat is down we'll try a few new restaurants but we won't be eating out as much because of the dramatically increased prices in restaurants.  I don't know why those prices are up so much because they certainly don't pay their help $15  an hour like they pay in Royal Farms or other minimum wage service jobs. My last job as a hotel front desk clerk, for which I had over twenty years experience and even won a trip to Disney World as Best Guest Service Award (2000, when I worked at the Hampton Inn in Pennsylvania), I never made more than $12 an hour. Started at $9 and hour and gradually with .25 cent increases worked up to $12 an hour. Yes Virginia, that is a true story. I have specialized in low paying jobs my whole adult career. Even when working for the banks I never made more than $37,500 even though my contemporaries were making $50,000 to $80,000 a year. However I contribute that to the fact I was always an out gay person which is why I never had an officer title like Assistant Vice President. But Bill and I made our lives work even though he took early retirement at 55 years of age and I was the sole breadwinner in our family for the next seven years until he could start collecting his Social Security early. The only way we were able to manage this was my insistence on buying our first home early and get out of the rental trap, which we did. Back then (1980) the real estate industry didn't base prices on two income families which is what we were. Of course now they do. I don't know how young couples can buy homes now unless both of them work. Well, not my problem now in this lifetime. That's for them to work out.

Say, have you noticed? I'm on a ramble here? I haven't been posting too much (and I won't in the future) but every now and then I just feel like talking. That's why I blog. Therapy and maybe, just maybe to help others who read this blog not to make the same mistakes I made in life this lifetime. Yes, I absolutely believe we live many lives. Our purpose in life is to learn and to love. I have accomplished both of those goals and now I am ready to comfortably coast out.

This past week I've been studying the exact details how and when one does the medically assisted suicide thing. Interesting. Also interesting reading the stories of those who have done it. They have all felt the same way I do, they have witnessed prolonged painful and degrading deaths of their loved ones and were thankful they could choose to go out in relative comfort and at a place of their choosing and with their dignity intact. That's my goal folks. And once I get this PET-SCAN complete (I'll believe it when it happens) and have the discussion with my urologist about my plans (I need his permission, I already have my primary care doctor's permission), I can concentrate on living and appreciating each day I have left. Remember folks, all of us are going to die someday. No body gets out of this life alive. But some of us fortunately live in states that choose to treat their human beings as well as they treat their pets when they're dying. I am one of those lucky people.

There, that's my rant for the day.