Shopping with my fingertips

Until April, my bicycle was the equivalent of the Ford Country Squire my mom used to drive in the 1970s. I ferried kids around on it until they were old enough to ride their own bicycles and I transported tons of groceries home. I even stacked a new set of futons on it and rode home one day to save the $12 delivery fee. I didn't appreciate my vehicle until I found myself suddenly unable to use it in April.

When I started having hallucinations and couldn't ride straight on my may home from shopping in April, I quickly got of the bike and pushed it home through the myriad of telephone poles, sign posts and even buildings which kept jumping out at me from the left. If I hadn't been dealing with cancer in the first place, I might have been terrified; "What is this?!" Instead I just called my oncologist and took care of it right away.

The doctors confirmed that my optic nerve was slightly compressed due to swelling around the tumors they found in my brain and I had medication to decrease the swelling before and after surgery. The most recent MRI I had showed that my brain is clear of cancer (good!)and that the swelling in my brain that was still evident immediately post surgery was gone. This is great, except I still don't feel confident riding my bike.

The neurosurgeon says that it may take some time but I tend to think that I'll end up getting by OK by compensating and looking around more carefully rather than relying on my peripheral vision. In the meantime, I can walk to the store and buy and carry enough food for a meal or two at a time, or I can order groceries from the same store online and have them deliver. A combination of the two has been working well and nobody is going hungry.

Still, I miss jaunts on my Country Squire.