More Chemo Plus Cardinals and Forsythias

It’s been a while, but not much has been going on in these parts. One round of chemo follows another. Right now, it is May 1, a Saturday, and I am here at St. Vincent’s chained to the IV tree for my tri-weekly 96-hour chemo. I’ve been here 48 hours and should be out of here in another 48, although it never seems to work out that way. I usually don’t get out of here until late Monday or even Tuesday. Then it is back here every Thursday for a short chemo treatment. No end in sight so far.

A chest and neck scan was done on Thursday when I came in and the neck came back perfectly normal, but there is no word yet on the chest. This is most likely a clerical error, i.e., someone sent one part of the report and failed to send the second part. My chest and neck have been violently separated and have been apart for two days as of this writing. Leaving neck and chest to find one another, let’s visit my house or, more accurately, the house where I rent a room.

In the mornings I like to take my coffee out to the patio in back where the sun shines. It is a nice, warm spot and the birds chirp, tweet, twitter, caw and whatever else it is that birds do vocally. Mostly these are wrens, sparrows, crows, and some unseen species whose calls I cannot identify. There are bushes and trees and some of the birds feed on the ground under the bushes. There is one bird in particular that comes every morning. He is a cardinal who feeds on the bushes and trees. I first saw him my first morning out in back and then it was a few days before I saw him again since I was in the hospital. When I came out of the hospital, though, he was there the very next morning. The cardinal was my Dad’s favorite bird, so I call him, “Buford.” He doesn’t seem to mind.

Forsythias were one of Mary’s favorite signs of spring. Among the bushes out back at my place is a forsythia. One morning, while the wind was blowing particularly hard, the forsythia blossoms were being blown everywhere, but mostly toward the neighbor’s yard. It was pleasant surprise, then, when a single forsythia blossom landed on the table next to my coffee cup. It was a nice reminder but I did not see it blow away. It went while I was having a sip of coffee. I don’t even know what direction it went. It was just gone.