It has been a few days since I have been here but that has been due to a lack of access rather than a lack of anything about which I would like to bellyache and complain in public. Today is different, however, and I am at the house of Sheila, Nick, Genny and Cole. Sheila is Mary's youngest daughter and therefore my step-daughter. She was kind enough to bring grandpa out for a field trip today. I need to be back at the home by 12:30 in order to catch my ride to my three times weekly dressing change. But meanwhile, I get to drink real coffee ands not the decaffeinated stuff the home gives us.

An argument could be made against my use of caffeine due to the tremors that are a constant source of embarrassment to me. Most of the time I look like an alcoholic who has not been able to get his morning pint and am unable to hold a glass or cup of anything without spilling it. Both hands are needed and sometimes that does not work. I need to get used to sippy cups. Do they make sippy cups for grownups? I would like at least one with Munch's "The Scream" on it. Typing is a difficult enough chore. For every character you see typed here you can add several more that are hit by accident due to tremors. But on the caffeine front, my motto is you just can't have enough.

The cause of the tremors is not yet certain. It could be the result of having a bunch of lymph nodes removed back in January, 2009. But that would not explain the left side being just as shaky as the right. It could be the chemo. It also could be an early sign of Parkinson's according to the doctor who is not going to commit one way or another just yet. Of course my theory that it is an unjust fate cast upon me by one of my four humors being out of balance due to the ill will of the gods has been rejected out of hand by the medical community. But they never saw the value in phrenology, either, shortsighted fools that they are.

Thursday will bring another admission to the hospital for a 96-hour infusion. That should put me out of the hospital on Monday if all goes well. The last infusion of this type kept me in the hospital for three weeks. While it was a nice change from the home, it really is not how I want to spend my time. I arrived back in Connecticut on October 31 and have spent a total of 10 1/2 weeks in the hospital since then. Not a stellar record unless looked upon through the lens of Munchausen.

One final note: The intrepid Sheila advertised for a free laptop on Craigslist and after getting a snarky note from someone who told her she was crazy for even thinking about it, she got one for me. It is a Toshiba Portege 7100 series with Windows 2000 Professional. The drawbacks are that it has no mouse which makes me rely on this little button set in the midst of the keys and there is no word processing program. All that is remedied easily enough, however, and will be in short order. It even has a wireless card. Wahoo. Here I am in at least the late 20th Century if not crawling in to the 21st.