I guess it's that time of year again :(

Last night the Chief had to take me back to Urgent Care because my asthma was getting bad again.  It started with Wednesday's rain, and not being able to get the vials for my nebulizer until Saturday.  They had to give me a triple neb dose and 120 mg of prednisone.  Needless to say, I wasn't good for much today.

I gotta get this under control soonest, so I can start practicing in earnest for my Messiah gig; listening to recordings & following along in the score can only take me so far.

New "shoes"

I have new "shoes" as of last week

I've been dealing w/ plantar's fasciitis since at least December, but a coupla weeks ago it was getting worse.  (Dancing a cachucha barefoot in Gondoliers' Act II probably didn't help.)  My GP sent me to a podiatrist, who told me that, in addition to the plantar's fasciitis, I have 3 inflamed metatarsals.  Who knew bones could become inflamed?!?  Anyway, left untreated, the periostitis could become a stress fracture!  He sent me home in the boot on the left. and told me to get the night splint on the right in the pic.  I have to wear the night splint to bed, to keep my foot flexed and stretch the plantar's fascia.  Yes,  it's as uncomfortable as it looks.  I've been wearing it since Friday night, but only last night did I finally get the straps adjusted so they're tight enough to keep the thing on but not so tight they dig into my foot.  Next goal - sleeping through the night.  Wish me luck!

Cancer, the serial killer, is at it again

Not only is the Chief undergoing treatment for cancer, but a friend's MIL has a stage-4 diagnosis, and another friend at church was recently diagnosed and will soon start chemo.  One of her daughters, also a church friend, lost her husband to cancer just a few years ago, so she's having a particularly difficult time of it.

Last week, a couple we know who for the past decade or more have done fund-raiser bike rides for cancer research came to the show I was teching.  (She's a cancer survivor.)  I shared about how VERY many people the Chief & I know who have had cancer, and how many we've lost to it.  "Kill it with fire!  Bury it with a mouthful of garlic and several stakes through its heart!"

This is the first January in 3 or 4 years when we haven't attended a funeral.  When I start to think of all the people I've known who've dealt with cancer, I keep thinking of more - there are SO MANY.  😢

Wow, it's been a while!

Let's see, what's been keeping me busy?

1. overlapping shows since October
2. the news that the Chief's cancer is back
3. dealing with all his pre-treatment tests and assessments
4. a relatively last-minute decision to host another Christmas open house, once we knew the Chief's medical schedule
5. a quick trip to visit my family over the weekend between Christmas and New Year's
6. a show that loaded in the first weekend in January
7. rehearsal and design work for my late-February show
8. TONS of pre-class homework for my musical theater workshop

Yep, been busy lately.

2017 continues to pile on

Let's see -

• neighbor & friend lost to cancer about 4 days apart in January
• Chief's brother, sister and her husband all dealing with various cancers
• Chief diagnosed w/ cancer at end of March, surgery at end of May
• two friends widowed very suddenly, about a month apart
• cousin diagnosed w/ cancer, died 3 weeks later!
• SIL and her husband both having to keep going after their cancers, which don't want to stay treated.

I think we could be forgiven for feeling like the universe is sorta piling on lately, and wondering "Who's next?"

More bad news

Just learned of someone's inoperable, stage-4 cancer diagnosis.  What IS it with this year?!?

Happy anniversary?

We started our anniversary (Happy Sweet 16, Chief!) with a trip to the 2nd surgeon.  The Chief had fun cracking wise with the nurses who took his vitals and his health history, and we finally got a date for his surgery, at a hospital 20 miles closer than where the first surgeon works.  The wonder woman at the front desk got all the Chief's pre-op testing scheduled back to back on a single day.  She also corrected the referral record, which was written for Radiology, for some inexplicable reason.

I had a noon acupuncture appointment and snoozed a bit on the table.  My juggling coaching got cancelled because my classmate had to cancel, which was fine with me.  As early as we got up to get to that 8 am doctor's appointment, I probably would have been dropping balls right, left, and center.

Shortly before we were going to leave for dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant, it started pouring like crazy, with nickel-sized hail into the bargain!  The Chief glanced outside and noticed someone huddled under a tree out front, so he urged him inside to wait out the storm.  He'd been playing soccer at the park down the street and was heading home when the heavens opened.  We ended up giving him a ride home once the hail stopped and the rain backed off to a more reasonable rate.  (He only lives 2 blocks away.)

Dinner was delicious - eggplant dip with plenty of garlic, and the Chief got what he always gets - lamb.  We even indulged in a dessert each instead of splitting one.  Decadent, but I expect to work it off tomorrow in the garden.

Bad news can do that to you.

Sunday morning, just days after we got the Chief's diagnosis, a friend posted on Facebook that her husband had died suddenly during the night.  Needless to say, Sunday was a write-off.  Getting picked apart at that audition felt that much worse because of it, my continuing "juggle struggle" the same - it seems the tears are just plain closer to the surface while I digest all this bad news.  I haven't been sleeping as well, either, which makes me a bit crabby; poor Chief!

We'll get past it, of course - we've both survived worse - but oh, it's exhausting in the meantime.  Pray for our sanity as the Chief & I weather this latest storm.

Doctor, roofers, utilities, oh my...

What a day!  It started out w/ an 8 a.m. appointment with the Chief's urologist to discuss his diagnosis.  They caught it early, thank God!  Doc gave us a sheaf of paperwork with the clinical details and a lengthy list of links and citations for research and support groups.  Lots of "homework" to do before we meet with the surgeon in a couple of weeks.  I treated the Chief to coffee and scones afterward, then he dropped me off for class.

Got to my grad-student voice lesson to find she was fighting off a nasty migraine.  She soldiered through it; we just made do with natural light, and she leaned on the piano a lot.  Fortunately for her, the meds were kicking in by the time we finished.

We've got roofers overhead and in the yard, making noise and a big mess.  I'd forgotten (or blocked out) what a nuisance it is to get a new roof.  Every so often they drop something heavy, making a huge THUMP.  Makes it challenging to concentrate on homework.

And then there's the utility work.  The power company has our street blocked off while they replace a few utility poles.  There's nothing quite like pulling onto your one-way street (they moved a couple of cones to let us in) to see two enormous utility trucks on either side of the road, both facing the wrong way.  The power went out for about 10 minutes while they transferred the connection from the old pole to the new one.  Fortunately, the only clocks that need to be reset are those on the oven and microwave.

On the plus side, I got mostly positive feedback on my first lighting plot, my voice lesson went pretty well despite my teacher's migraine, and I was able to find a practice room beforehand so I could warm up before my lesson, which always makes for a better lesson.

Trying to get the blasted audition video done is even harder than I'd expected.

A few weeks ago I started having problems when singing.  Despite bringing all my best technical skills to bear (breathing? check; posture? yep; placement? good), I would have to stop after half an hour or less.  Even when being careful to sing correctly and not push or anything, my throat would ache as if I'd been blasting away for an all-day sing.  As a result, I put myself on a singing moratorium while I tried to get an appointment with my primary doc so I could get an ENT referral.  this meant cancelling my Oct. 10th appointment to make my music school audition video. :(

Had the ENT appointment today.  I'm OK to start singing again, but I have a lotta ground to make up after not singing at all for 3 weeks!  Now I'm trying to match schedules w/ my accompanist and my friend who offered to do the video, but the accompanist seems to be teaching whenever I'm available to record.

The school of music application deadline is a week from Sunday, so I don't have a lotta leeway here.  I don't have time to find another accompanist - it took weeks to find this one!  If I miss the deadline, I gotta wait another year (they only accept for fall, not spring, semester).  I could have this behind me if only my throat hadn't decided to be uncooperative.  After working for months and months on this audition, I'd really hate to be unable to do it just because we can't get schedules lined up.  Waaahhh!

Voice is better, but definitely still feeling the pollen

Church this morning wasn't quite as bad as last week.  I had another chance at the responsorial I was supposed to lead last week.  Then, I could tell by the 2nd note that my voice was too far gone; today I got all the way to the verse before I realized I'd have to have someone else take it.  Still no power, and my lower register is unpredictable.  The passaggio notes are mostly still shot, and there's a band of notes on either side that are "cats", not "dogs" - in other words, they come and go as they please, instead of doing what I tell them to do.  And it doesn't take much talking for me to feel my voice going hoarse and my throat getting achey.

My voice teacher told me to let her know tomorrow evening how I'm doing; that would determine whether I have to cancel this week's lesson.

And there goes the voice...

My annual pollen-induced laryngitis started today.  I was fine until I walked out the front door this morning and made the mistake of breathing.  Warming up in the shower was no worse than it ever is first thing in the morning, but on the way to church I could tell I was in trouble.  We went over a couple of things that are usually fun but today were a lot of work, and my passagio was a mess.  I was supposed to lead the responsorial, but just one measure into it I could tell that wasn't gonna happen, so someone else had to take it.  Good thing we're blessed with so many good singers, across all voice parts; we all have at least one person who can cover for us in a pinch, even if not in the same octave.

My poor vocal cords are so swollen I broke down and took some ibuprofen for them.  Which helped, but I still sound like I have a lower respiratory infection.  (Which I suppose I do, in a way.) I've already canceled this week's voice lesson, since tree pollen season lasts rather longer than a day.  I just hope it ends SOON - I hate having to cancel a voice lesson with a theater audition coming up in a couple of weeks and School of Music audition pieces to learn and work up.  I'm also supposed to be the national anthem soloist at a retirement ceremony at work in about 10 days - I really need to be able to sing by then!

Change of New Year's Day brunch menu

The Chief's stomach started rumbling a bit last night night and he woke up this morning with a stomach bug, poor thing.  We had planned to have a nice, hot brunch to start the new year.  Instead, he's "feasting" on tea and plain bread.  (Turns out the grocery store had a "take and bake" loaf that's actually pretty good.)

Oh well; if he starts the year sick, it's gotta get better, right?

Prepping for the Chief's surgery

To get ready on the home front for the Chief's surgery, I'm making him a couple of pairs of elastic-waist lounge pants so he can pull them on and off one-handed.  I also laid in a supply of velcro "buttons" to be sewn onto several shirts so he doesn't have to try to deal with buttonholes or pull shirts on and off over his head.  I may also sew a casing and run elastic on one or two other pairs of lounge pants, just so he'll have more than 2 pairs in summerweight fabrics.  (Flannel he's got, though one pair is "seasoned" enough that it's about ready for new elastic.)

I still think they should tell us.

When Southwest announced that people could start flying with their small pets, the Chief asked how someone would know ahead of time whether any of one's fellow passengers were 4-footed.  The answer boiled down to "you won't."  Not a good answer when you're allergic to cats, dogs or both.  

Finding out only at the gate that you'll be spending however many hours in a tin can with one or more allergens means you can't prepare medically or try to get a different flight.  They're potentially putting people's health at risk.  They need to do better.

Please don't send us home too early...

We're under a winter weather warning for tomorrow.  Snow's supposed to start sometime tomorrow morning (after I'm at work, at any rate), with a forecast total of 4-8 inches.  All the signs are there for work to send us home early.  I'm just hoping they don't send us home too early, as I want to be able to get to the lunchtime pilates class at the gym in my building.  If they send us home early, the gym will close early too. :(

I've only had one class with this teacher so far, but I definitely want more.  It's way beyond me right now, but nothing that isn't achievable if I keep at it.  Please don't make me skip a week - my core needs the work-out!

I thought I was over this cold; not quite yet...

I've been lucky in that this cold has been merely annoying, for the most part, instead of making me utterly miserable.  (Thank you, healthier eating habits!)  However, I'm apparently not out of the woods yet.  Today the chorus at work sang the national anthem at a ceremony this afternoon.  Because of the numbers, I ended up singing melody instead of alto.  Usually that's no big deal, but today the top notes were a real effort; I may even have been a touch flat on the Fs. :(  Fortunately, the other soprano is good and solid (operatic training, thank you very much!), so I just backed off and let her take it. :)

Tomorrow's rehearsal shouldn't be as bad; Dame Carruthers' music sits pretty low, and I think most of what we're working is ensemble stuff anyway.  That's one of the scarier things about having a principal role - no fellow ensemble members to cover you if you're not feeling up to par.

Tried to dodge it, but no such luck

TW came home from Christmas with a cold, spent New Year's coughing and blowing his nose.  Good thing our friends only planned to stay the one night; I hope they managed to escape the contagion.  I was doing pretty well - made a pot of chicken soup, taking preemptive Zicam, making sure we had plenty of oranges on hand.  By Saturday evening, though, I could tell I was not going to escape the germs, and by last night I could feel it blocking my sinuses.  This morning I got the sore throat and the cold started moving into my chest.  The symptoms aren't too bad so far, so maybe the full-court anti-bug press wasn't a complete waste of time and effort.  If I can continue to keep the worst of it at bay, I'll declare victory and be glad it wasn't as bad as it could've been.  I went ahead and postponed this week's voice lesson to next week, and was relieved when my director called to say tonight's principal rehearsal was cancelled because the principal who's in everything we were going to run tonight had to leave town for a funeral.

As my director said, better I have the cold now than during tech week or, worse, during the run of the show! =:o

Observations on my very first 5K

Walked in my first 5K today.  It was a beautiful day for it - a bit chilly when I checked in shortly after 8, but quite comfortable by the end, and sunny with just the tiniest breeze.

• I was surprised by how many people showed up with their dogs - big dogs, little ones, puppies and adults. The organizers were ready, though - they had bandannas for them in the same day-glow green as the race T-shirts.
• This was a fundraiser for cancer research and prevention, so there were several teams with matching shirts.
• Part of the route ran along a river, where I spotted a few common loons.  I didn't realize we had them around here!  I also saw some egrets or herons; they were too far away for me to tell for sure.  (can you tell I'm no birder?)
• Lots of people participated with their children; the youngest one I spotted was only 8 or 10 months old.  Several of the kids were having a great time racing with their parents, playing with the dogs or each other, throwing sticks into the water - the usual kid stuff.
• Starting at a ballpark meant real restrooms, not the portapotties I'd expected.  That's a good thing!
• I was disappointed that one hip decided to start bothering me as soon as we left the starting point.  Fortunately, it didn't hurt constantly, so while I did limp rather a lot, I still managed to finish in under an hour.
• I was surprised by how hungry I've been since I got home!  Yes, that was a lot more walking than I usually do, but I was walking, not running, and I didn't feel I was pushing myself all that hard.
• Being new to this 5K business, I had no idea what to do with my stuff (keys, wallet, etc.) during the race so I wore cargo pants and loaded up the pockets.  I had wanted to take a book to read on the subway but it would have been too uncomfortable so I left it at home.  Instead, I snoozed on the train and people-watched once I got checked in.  That was certainly entertaining.
• They played an instrumental recording of the national anthem shortly before the starting horn.  Yes, of course I sang along. :)  I don't know what key it was in, but it was a little higher than I would have picked, especially at 8:45 a.m.  I still managed to sing it all, and the highest note actually felt pretty good, so that was a nice little surprise.

I'm already signed up for another 5K.  This one's at work, the day after Halloween, so they call it a "monster dash", complete with costume contest.  Now to decide how to dress up for the occasion.  It needs to be comfortable for walking and not too bulky, since I'll be bringing it to work in a gym bag along with towel and toiletries so I can shower afterwards.  Any ideas? :)

Held together with, well, not tinfoil & baling wire...

Dad gave us a bit of a scare the other day - fell and hit his head, needed to be patched up.  They closed the scalp gash with staples and the cut behind his ear with glue.  We had to tease him about his hardheadedness and being held together with staples and glue. :)