6.17.2008

Wardrobe Switch

With limited space in most Japanese homes, ours included, people tend to store out of season clothes in plastic cases in a storage area or the back of their closets. This involves emptying the dressers and wardrobes and refilling them with the upcoming season's apparel from the plastic cases and then refilling the cases with last season's clothes before trucking the cases back to our storage room in the basement of our apartment building. I procrastinated until the last minute (the week when the schools announce that students may wear their summer uniforms and that they'll need their school issue swimsuits for P.E.) so we're still mid-shift and our place looks like a Salvation Army secondhand shop.

On the way to the National Cancer Center today the students who commute to school stood out more than usual in their lighter colored summer uniforms. I took a local train and was amused to see little girls hesitantly lean out of the doors each time the train stopped so their friends boarding at each station could find them. The students are gradually replaced by sleeping company employees. I still don't know how they manage to sleep while standing up in a crowded train though.

The numbers from my blood work looked OK today and the x-ray I had showed that the lung tumors haven't grown in the past month. My feet were a little swollen from a busy weekend of walking to and from the stadium where M's track meet was held and from irritated toenails, remnants of ten months of almost weekly Taxol. As there appears to be no infection, I didn't ask for antibiotics but Dr. F. did tell me not to hesitate to call and get a prescription if I noticed any pain. The yucky parts are growing out quickly now that I'm off of the Taxol at any rate. A little pink nail polish and I'm all set.

I had my usual Herceptin I.V. , paid my bill and went to get my prescription for the next three weeks of Xeloda filled out. I think that I've gotten used to the drug so I shouldn't be so sleepy this time around. I'll have a CT scan at the end of July to get a closer look at what the Xeloda is or isn't doing and revise my strategy is need be.

I picked up a block of sushi egg tamagoyaki in the Tsukiji street market for the lady on the third floor and headed back to Shinjuku to meet my British friend who'd been shopping there and two other foreign wives. They were just finishing lunch when I arrived but still had plenty of chat left in them to last while I tucked in to my plate of Indian curries, naan and salad. I enjoyed seeing them and having company on the train home.

This evening was my turn to join the junior high school neighborhood patrol so I delivered the tamagoyaki and headed off to school to unlock the patrol box and don an international orange mesh vest with reflective strips and walk around the neighborhood with three other PTA moms for forty minutes. When I returned the vests after our uneventful tour of the neighborhood the track coaches came over to thank me for taking some of the team members to the big track meet on Saturday. It had been a Saturday open house at school so they hadn't been able to take the team and they needed a parent to accompany the members scheduled for that day's events.

It made for a busy day on Saturday but I enjoyed watching the kids go through their warming up routines and competing. M ran in the girls' 800 meter event which was broken down into about 18 heats of 20 or 21 runners and she came in about fiftieth over all, not good enough to go to the "all Tokyo" event in July, but better than her personal best so far, so she was quite satisfied. Her best friend came in first over all in the girls 100 meter hurdles and a few of the other team members also qualified for the next stage.

1 comments:

RW said...

Hi Kathy,
I know what you mena about all the clothes. And with the weather so unpredictable these last few weeks I hesitated to put everything away!

Glad to hear you're doing well. I'm sorry I've been so out of touch. Both boys went down with a high fever--Mitsu two weeks ago and Tatsu last week. Everyone's better now so let's get together!
Rachel