kvetching up

  Entry 1 Driving home from spending time with Jenny's family, we repeatedly had a conversation about how devalued Jenny felt when no one asked her about her work that she wasn't important and that her worth was devalued. In their eyes, she would say, I am just a teacher. I would reassure her that her work was the most important work any of us did, and that teachers have historically been paid less because the workplace is so gendered. She looked for insult at each successive visit at any family event, and took greater umbrage.  It is absolutely true that other people's work would be discussed, and that it was rare that we would discuss Jenny's work. I don't know why that is, but it was a thing. I can say that when she was a new teacher she would regale all of us with stories, like when one of her students in her special ed class, would routinely pull his pants down and eat his flaking penis skin and how she dealt with it. As time went on, and maybe because she beca...

Chemotherapy Day VM Chemo Rooms Jenny has been dreading this day, after the awfulness of the last chemotherapy three weeks ago.  Who can blame her? I roused Jenny at 8:50, for a 9:15 departure. Her appt at Short Stay, where she gets her blood drawn first thing, before the appointment with the doctor and before chemotherapy.   I made Jenny her favorite cheesy eggs l, cleaned up afterward, loaded and ran the dishwasher. We seem to have the routine down to a science at this point.  The only variable is the time of the three appointments, which are invariably variable. We left at 9:15, and made the first appt at 9:40. on the nose, after checking in at the oncology front desk and getting necessary paperwork which contains your assigned Short Stay treatment room number on top. Short Stay is interesting.  Unlike other places in the hospital, you don't check in with anyone. Instead, when walking into the clinic, you drop off paperwork and enter the treatment room, and w...