Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
Monthly Archives: October 2019
Days of Awe
Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
Here we are, paused between the New Year and the Day of Atonement. The book of life is open, waiting for your next year to be inscribed. This is a new liminal space for me. A holiday(s) in which repentance and forgiveness are the focus, both at the beginning of the new year. It’s location in the early fall (a lunar calendar) makes it a part of the Michaelmas springtime of the year and part of the harvest festivals that end with Samain on the 31st.
Sukkot follows the Days of Awe, coming three days later. Rabbi Jamie says that Sukkot used to be the primary festival at this time of year with the Days of Awe sort of a preparation for it. Sukkot is the big harvest festival in the Jewish liturgical year. It’s fun, ending with Simchat Torah. “Sukkot through Simchat Torah is nine days long. The first two days (Sukkot) and the last two days (Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah) are full-fledged festival days, and the middle five days are Chol Hamoed.” chabad.org
The Jewish month of Tishrei is a holiday filled time for Jews. And, they vibrate between profundity and joy. This feels congruent with the turning of the Great Wheel which has three harvest festivals over the same time period. The middle one, Mabon, on the fall equinox, is a celebratory time followed by Samain, the end of summer when the veil between the worlds thins and the dead can walk among us. (where all the goblins and ghosts and ghouls come from at Halloween)
At least in the temperate latitudes temperatures begin to cool, leaves change on deciduous trees. Farmers and gardeners harvest fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, then prepare gardens and fields for the fallow season. The days grow shorter, frosts and freezes mark, then kill many plants. The bare trees give forests a stark look. A friend was of the opinion that the thinning of the veil came from being suddenly able to see through forests.
Kate and I need all of the spiritual juice available right now and these two holiday traditions, Jewish and pagan, fill that need.
Lupron II
Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
And, yet more medical news. Went in for my second Lupron shot in the morning, at Swedish. Then, drove back in later in the day with Kate to the E.R. (see below)
Talked to Sherry, the nurse practitioner for prostate cancer at Urology Associates. Turns out the protocol for the Lupron works like this. Get two undetectable PSA’s in a row, that is, 0.01, and they stop the Lupron. Mine was 0.03. Low, but not low enough to give me one undetectable. That means I’ll get at least a third Lupron shot in January, January 6th.
New PSA the week before each Lupron shot. This means the earliest I’ll know about the efficacy of the radiation is June, 2020. Possibly not till August or September.
Sherry did say that the hot flashes do tend to tail off. Hope she’s right about that.
A bit disheartened. With some detectable psa, even though low, does it mean the radiation didn’t work? Seems like it to me since the idea was to cure me. If the radiation is over, and successful, shouldn’t there be no detectable psa? Guess I’ll get clarity on this in early November when I visit Anna Willis, Dr. Eigner’s P.A.
Another E.R. Visit
Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
One more trip to the E.R. Well, after a no-good, pretty bad Monday, described below, we got home around 6 pm. Both tired. Both hoping things would just magically get better.
They didn’t. When Kate went to bed, the feeding tube that is her main source of nourishment popped out. The nurse at the E.R. said, “It happens.” Kate, being Kate, inserted a #16 Foley into the ostomy, the hole in her gut, and inflated its small balloon with ten ml of water. The Foley plugged the hole, but didn’t serve well for her nighttime feeding.
Kate said this day sucked. Yes, indeed it did.
She had to have a new feeding tube, right away, because that’s how she gets the bulk of her nutrition and calories. Our primary care folks said, “Call the surgeon.” She did. Ed Smith, a solo practitioner, no spring chicken himself, was out getting a total knee replacement.
The E.R. was the next best place. So down the hill we went. New feeding tube number 1, but following up with them on the shortness of breath, number 2.
Dr. Stader, a helluva nice guy, took over. What is that? A 16? Yes. Kate had handed him the defenestrated feeding tube. The feeding tube and the Foley both have a small balloon attached to the end of the tube. It’s inflated by using a syringe to push water into it. See pic. The yellow capped port is where the water goes in.
Getting the new tube in was easy. They had to inflate it a bit more after the first try, but it worked fine last night. Yes, in a first, our fourth trip to the E.R. did not result in a hospitalization.
Kate also gave Don, Dr. Stader, a cd of her c.t. from Monday late afternoon. It had not been read. Don and the E.R. radiologist reviewed it and found no sign of a pneumothorax. Kate had feared that her shortness of breath was a second one, the first one happened back in May or June.
They did find abnormalities, interstitial lung disease, but no obvious reason for a sudden increase in, as they say in the E.R. notes, SOB. We checked out, went to the car, and drove back up the hill. She’ll followup with both her pulmonologist and Dr. Gidday.
This is getting old we both remarked while she was on the hospital bed in Swedish E.R. room #20. But, so are we.
StarHopper
Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
How cool is this Starhopper trial?
Another Hard Day
Fall and the Rosh Hashanah Moon
Even tougher day for Kate yesterday. Still short of breath. I took her in to see Tabitha, our doc’s P.A. She ordered a chest x-ray to see if another pneumothorax (collapsed lung) had manifested. Kate felt similar to the time before her last hospitalization which found a small one.
Chest x-ray negative. Hmm? So, Tabitha ordered a ct scan, still searching for either a pneumothorax or another cause for her shortness of breath. Got the scan late in the day yesterday. No results yet.
Meanwhile at home something happened to her feeding tube and she had to effect an emergency repair. Still waiting for what to do about that. Whatever it is, it will happen today along with any other followup from yesterday. And, of course, we will have to fit it in around my 9 am Lupron shot.
Kate’s made tangible progress, but having to deal with this lung stuff dispirits her. And, me. So much going here and there, waiting. Waiting. Wondering. More to come today.