Today, Tuesday, my client dropped off Bert to have a doggie day care day with me. He was so excited to see me and barked with happiness. When Jean left though, he realized that she was gone, and he whimpered, and then did a very odd howling that sounded terribly sad like he was crying. I told him that she will be back later today and that he wasn’t staying the night. He got over it quickly and walked around the house to sniff everything, then went outside and was finally back to the moment. He was a happy camper the rest of the day.

A friend came over at lunch time and brought some food from New Frontiers, one of my favorite eating places. She had her dog with her, so Bert and Rudy did the doggie sniff thing they all do, and then carried on. Bert went in the back room to nap, but Rudy stayed with us while we ate hoping for a snack. The cute little beggar. He was hopeful anyway. We had a lovely visit and both the dogs got to chase a cat that was hanging out in the front yard, so everyone had fun. Except the cat of course. The cat was sleeping on the shelf of my potting table. When he saw me, he jumped out onto the lawn, not realizing that there were two dogs in the yard, and the cat and Bert sniffed noses before they realized who was what. It was so funny and the action was started in a split second. Wish it was on tape since you had to see it to appreciate it. I am not sure that the cat will return. I will find out tomorrow morning.

This late afternoon, after everyone went home, I had a friend pick me up to go to my general practitioner for a follow up visit for all the symptoms I was having last week. My edema has improved a lot, but my blood pressure was really high. It was probably because I was hurting after such a long day. I did take some Ibuprofen before I left, but I think I may have needed my stronger medication by then. He started me on yet another temporary medication because I told him that the pattern with my blood pressure has been spiking in the afternoon regardless of what my activity is. It is always good in the morning, but consistently high in the afternoon. Hopefully, this will correct itself and I won’t need the medication for too long. I am tired of so many medications. They all have so many side effects, but most of what I am taking is temporary which is a good thing.

Well, I am very tired now. I had a very busy day today, and I have another doctor’s appointment in the morning. I haven’t seen my surgeon for a follow up visit yet. I did see the plastic surgeon, but not my oncology surgeon. She is down in Santa Maria, so Pete is going to go down with me. Then he will return to work after we get back. It isn’t quite an hour drive, but pretty close, so we will need to leave early.

Everything feels so weird and not normal, so I can discuss that with her tomorrow. I am sure she will tell me it is normal for such a surgery as this. I have places that hurt, other places that are numb completely, and other places with sensations that I can not compare it to. Just weird and not normal. I guess once you are diagnosed with cancer, life just isn’t going to be normal. These sensations are probably preferable to the what the outcome would be without treatments or surgery when you really think about it.