| 
15 September ~2009
The last couple of weeks have not exactly been comfortable. I
took the dogs for walks the best I could, but the catheter
sometimes made it painful. Ben has acted troubled, watching
me close, understanding that I am not right.
That all changed yesterday, when I went to the Doctor for my scheduled
appointment and I was released from that horrible thing, after eleven
days. Within a couple of hours I felt amazingly better, and
started to return to what is more of a normal life for me.
When I got home I was able to go out and take some pleasure
in my seedlings coming up in my fall garden. I had dug the
garden and planted leaf lettuce, kale, and swiss chard two days before
my surgery. Five days later they were coming up, in three
rows the length of the garden. Last year I ate chard well
into November, and then in early May from a few plants that
overwintered. Organic leafy crops like I grow are essentially
a tonic, providing me with plenty of trace vitamins that boost my
energy level. Lately I have been steaming them along with
peppers, celery, and other vegetables, which has been my main meal of
the day.
While in the hospital I started and finished a book my daughter brought
me - Born to Run by Chris McDougall,
which I highly recommend. It is a book about running, and
centers on the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's incredible stamina for
running long distances. They live on a low fat, vegetable
and grain diet, and have no cancer. In the book Chris
explains that according to a 2007 report by the Journal of the American Medical Association, "when cancerous tumours are removed by surgery, they are 300 percent more likely to grow back in patients with a "traditional Western diet", (meat and processed foods), than they are in patients who eat lots of fruit and veggies." (p. 209).
In the afternoon I took the dogs down to walk through Confluence park.
It is one of Ben's favorite places, because he
likes to swim
in big rivers. Just over a month ago he was
retrieving sticks
in the Yellowstone a few miles downstream from Gardiner, Montana.
Mollie and Maggie
assist him, barking when he leaps into the
river, and trying to grab his stick when he comes out. It is
great fun and makes them very happy.
 |
 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
|||||
 |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|