Time to Make the Lemonade

My nativity set that I keep adding to every year

There are just those times in your life when it feels like everything wants to suck the joy out of every breath you breathe.

The unimportant parts – sewer problems, and the estimate on a relining that really needs to be done sooner rather than later before the roots collapse a part of the old clay pipes – 15k.  We may be able to break this up into two chunks, but 8-10k really has to be done soon.

Dentist visit.  I was the 7th pregnancy and 6th baby born from my mom in 7 years.  I had teensy amounts calcium and crap teeth prone to problem.  Like you replace rooms in your house (at about that cost), I have put what is about the price of two medium-priced cars in my mouth, and now the dentist says for the last bit, he wants another car paid for, but something small and economical, between 10k and 20k.

Let’s see.  My mom is coming down for Christmas, but we have to watch the two potential COVID exposures from family members. I have not seen her since June, and I desperately need to hug her, but won’t risk her health.  I know she’s had Covid, but no one seems certain how long you get immunity for!

Me and my n ephew when he was a baby and I was 17.

Then last week my oldest and wisest nephew got the news that he has lung cancer.   He is one of the happiest, most charming people I know.  He got all the goodness and warmth of his mother and the sense of humor and delivery of his dad (my brother who died a few years ago). He draws people to  him, he is easy to talk to, easy to laugh with, and he’s a really wonderful human being.

With everything else, I was prepared for the worst news when I talked to him this morning, and it was – stage 4. He is 45.  But then!  This shining ray of hope.  It turns out that the cancer he has CAN be treated with this ridiculously expensive drug that has a 85% effective rate, but only 2% of the population have the genetic markers that it works on, and those people tend to be women of Asian descent.  My nephew is not even remotely a woman or have any Asian blood in him. But lo and behold, his oncologist was shocked, he has the right genetic markers.

He also has no health insurance, but the drug company has been really generous with giving the drug to people without health insurance, so the doctor told him once again, he was lucky.

So that one thing is a brightly burning hope that he will live a longer life, maybe a lot longer or long enough for some other treatment to come along that will give him back all of his life.

And that’s the dollop of sugar that landed in my little serving of bitter, sewers, teeth and dirt.

Perfume-wise, that pushes my nose right into all of my new favorite snuggly scents.  Blessedly a new BDK sample pack came with an order, so I have plenty of Rouge Smoking now – well, plenty is another 2 ml spray, which might get me through this week! My MFK BR 540 is getting burned through, and I’m rotating in some other old favorites that bring me peace, like Hermessence Vetiver Tonka.