We had a wonderful weekend. The weather was as lovely as
promised. We had a quiet Friday evening in our apartment and the ten of us had Sabbath
lunch at Simmie and Ronen’s house. Barry and I brought food from New York and,
for dessert, Simmie baked chocolate chip bar cookies and a peach pie with beautiful
peaches from Ward’s Berry Farm, a wonderful place right in Sharon. We sat
outside for a while and the children played in the yard.
Eliana and Maya both had birthdays last week, so we had celebrations for them this weekend. By Sunday evening, everyone had to turn in early because
Monday was the first day of school. We spoke with Simmie on Monday evening and both
she and the girls had a very good first day. Yesterday was Ronen’s birthday.
Unfortunately, this gets lost in the shuffle of their wedding anniversary and
both girls’ birthdays (on the 18th, 19th, and 21st
of August), so I wanted to be sure to mention it here!
Barry and I took advantage of our free Sunday evening in
Sharon to go see the new film called “The Butler” on the Lux Level at the
nearby Legacy Place Theater. This is based on the true story of a man who worked
as a butler in the White House for over fifty years, serving eight presidents
through a period of much change for African Americans in the United States,
from President Eisenhower in the 1950s through the election of President Obama
in 2008. It was a very engaging, if somewhat a bit over-dramatized, story of a
family who suffered much personal loss and upheaval.
Toward the end of the film, the main character and his wife
are in their 80s. Based on all of the scenes from their younger years, his wife
(played by Oprah Winfrey) had been a heavy smoker, and towards the end was on full-time supplemental
oxygen, presumably for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She is shown
using the O2 for just one brief scene and then she dies. As someone
who has been on full-time supplemental oxygen for a number of years, I find
these portrayals rather disturbing. First, they perpetuate the assumption made
by people who don’t know me that I am on supplemental O2 because I was
a heavy smoker (a sort of “blame the victim” mentality; just for the record I
have never smoked a cigarette in my life). Second, a nasal cannula is used as a
code in films for a character being near death, which hopefully I am not. I
have to admit that this portrayal has taken on an almost comic turn over this
past year and a half, when my pulmonary problems were pushed to the back of
priorities, relevant only to how they would impact my ability to tolerate the
chemotherapy regimen. Still, my pulmonologist worries that one nasty infection
could do significant damage, so I continue to try to be careful.
This got me to thinking about how seeing a person using
supplemental oxygen in public is still relatively rare, and then the comedic
side stepped in. I should start an organization called UFO: Users of Full-time Oxygen. If
people think we look like space aliens with our nasal cannulas and weird
equipment, we might as well have a catchy name, right? Our logo could be
spelled using latex tubing; the nasal piece would form the F. Perhaps we could
persuade Oprah Winfrey to be a celebrity spokesperson for our organization, since
her first initial is an O, the chemical abbreviation for oxygen. I think I may
just be on to something big here.
While I am amusing myself, and perhaps some of you, with
these ideas, in all seriousness, after the fall holidays I have an appointment
set up to begin an exercise regimen to start trying to rebuild some of the strength
I have lost during these many relatively sedentary months. I am hoping this may
also help make me a bit steadier when walking, although I suspect this problem
is not so much a matter of weakness but due to a combination of an impact of
the tumor on my balance and the neuropathy (“pins and needles”) in my feet caused
by the vincristine I received during the first few cycles of chemotherapy,
which has never abated.
We have a quiet few days now, but on Thursday evening we are
heading up to Tanglewood to see a live taping of the National Public Radio
show, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” A few months ago we went to a live simulcast
in New York City that was shown in various locations around the country. But a
few years ago we went to an actual taping in New York and it was great fun. Mayor
Bloomberg was the guest that evening; we do not yet know who will be on this
week, but it is guaranteed to be a fun evening. We will be at home in New York
for Labor Day because we are headed up to Sharon for Rosh Hashana (Jewish New
Year) after Barry teaches his class next Wednesday morning, and we try not to
drive back and forth more than once in the same week!
Have a nice week, all.
Love,
Rebecca
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