Meandering thoughts

The calendar says autumn has arrived, and there's no question the weather has changed here, and definitely for the better!!
The monsoons are gone, and have taken the killer humidity away too! I do believe this was the humidist (I think I just created that word and I like it!) summer by far since I've been in the desert - almost 20 years.

Because I just have a swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) on my little house, which puts more moisture in the air as it cools, I used a cooler/dehumidifier every day to get rid of some of that moisture - as in about 5 gallons of water a day! That's a lot of water pulled out of the air!!

The days are still hot (projected 101 today), but Arizona is back to her famous 'dry heat', which means it's a tolerable 101. And the mornings are delightfully cool (low 70s) and I have to tell you, walking with my pooch when it's 75 beats the hell out of walking when it's 95!

My body is considerably happier with the humidity back into the teens and twenties. I'm going to whisper this, because I'm afraid to say it out loud, but it appears I'm finally done with the hot flashes that have made me crazy for almost ten years!!!!! As in 30 to 40 of those 'power surges' a day, that nothing at all would help!

I suspect it has something to do with the cancer drug I take every day, the Femara, because its mission in life is to destroy anything resembling estrogen in my body. I've been taking it now for about 7 months, and even though I become drenched in sweat after the slightest exertion, I know it's not hot flash kind of sweating. I think my thermostat has just been demolished by menopause and all the poisons I've taken in, hence the uncontrolled sweating or chills, but it's not hot flashes!!! That is worth celebrating!

The new boob? It's growing, as expected. Last week, Monday, I had another fill-up - another 120cc of saline (about 4 ounces). At that appointment, the doctor said the implant was only about half filled - "It's a big one!" - so I'm hoping that my next fill-up, a week from Monday, will be the last. I'm getting very tired of this whole exercise.

After that, it's back to the hospital to trade out the temporary implant for the permanent one. That one has to 'settle in' for a few weeks, at which point we'll proceed with the reduction of the poor saggy old thing hanging on the other side.

Just had a mammogram on that side (thankfully, they only need to do one now - jeez I hate mammograms!), and it came back healthy. I must admit that the newer technology is more patient friendly than in the past - doesn't squish the poor puppies as painfully as before.

I can sit here and say I don't worry about the cancer coming back, but that's a blatant lie - I was scared of getting the mammy, and hated waiting the week to get the results. But everything is OK.

So now I just have two more surgeries to worry about, and the damned third boob that is still hanging around being offensive. But I am getting a second opinion on the thing in a couple weeks, so I just call it names every day and hope this new doc will have a useful opinion and maybe even a solution. I don't need to carry around a third boob after everything I've been through with the ones I have.

Meanwhile, the sun is shining, the humidity is 15% as we speak, flowers are blooming, and my pup is sleeping contentedly on the back of the sofa, so I'm smiling!