Entries from May 2008
Because today I am sick I decided to call my mother for coddling and sympathy. Actually as I was limping around the kitchen feeling extremely sorry for myself, even Dave suggested I call Rosie. Then he laughed evilly – knowingly. Tee hee. Why the evil smirk? Because he knows the Rose. And he knows how this conversation will go…
Ring Ring:
Tessa: Hiiiiiii. Cough Cough
Rosie: Tessie.
Tessa: Yes….gargling and sick noises.
Rosie: Is that you? What’s wrong?
Tessa: I’m sick.
Rosie: Were you an het boomele (dutch way of saying partying?) You know you shouldn’t do that at your age. You never could take it. Always looking so yellow.
Tessa: No mom. I’m actually sick. I have a cold.
Rosie: Well what happened?
Tessa: Well it happened yesterday. All of a sudden.
Rosie: Well I’m fine.
Tessa: Yeah I know.
Rosie. Well you know I always have that little cuff. (she demos the cuff (cough). It’s my asthma. So terrible. Your brother has an inhaler. I told him not to smoke. We have weak lungs.
Tessa: Yeah. I know. Anyways. I ache. And my throat is sore.
Rosie: I can’t be near anyone who’s sick. You know that. I could die.
Tessa: Good thing I’m just talking to you on the phone then.
Rosie: I’ve had pneumonia three times. But I was never sick at your age. Make sure you get your blood sugar checked. Diabetes runs in the family.
Tessa: Yeah. Anyways. I’m feeling pretty tired so I’m going to go.
Rosie: Max pees too much. He needs to get his blood sugar tested.
Tessa: Okay mom. Bye. Love you.
Categories: Conversations with My Mother
Tagged: conversations with a mother, conversations with an ornery mother, sympathy from mom when sick
One of the greatest pleasures in my life is getting The Globe and Mail delivered to our door every Saturday morning. A good part of Saturday morning and the early afternoon is spent in bed pouring over the newspaper. One of my favourite sections is the Book Review. Some people in publishing argue that The Globe book section is non-representative of the breadth and depth of Canadian publishing and that it covers only big houses etc..but say what you might, I think it does an okay job. And now that I’m away from the publishing industry I find it a quick way to get a birds eye view of what’s happening in books and it often acts as a guide to what I want to read next.
Two weeks ago I became intrigued by a review on “The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen“. The reviewer Judith Fitzgerald, called MacEwen one of the “greatest poets of her generation”. I don’t pretend to know a lot about Canadian poetry other than that I love Michael Ondaatje and George Elliott Clarke so it didn’t surprise me that I had never heard of her.
So I turned to my facebook friends and put the word out amongst them, most of whom, I might add, are very well read women. None of them had heard of Gwendolyn. So I hunted down a former colleague of mine on Facebook, Lynn Henry, who happens to be a very fine, book editor at House of Anansi Press and I asked her and this is what Lynn had to say, “ Gwen MacEwan was a fabulous poet — one of the greatest female Canadian poets, for sure. Somewhat tragic life, but very interesting. I would definitely recommend her.”
That was enough to convince me that I needed to read some of Gwen’s poetry. A friend of mine had a comp copy and brought it along with her when she visited. I’ve only just started reading the collection which includes her poetry, translations and plays, all beautifully introduced with full colour plate illustrations.
I have only just started and already I have earmarked several poems for re-reading, thinking, re-reading again and again.
This is one of those poems:
The Death and Agony of the Butterfly
a monarch beat its velevet brain
against the light, against
the cold light, I
thought of you.
dance you, dance
you bitch
against the light against
the cold light, that’s
what you said.
always behind me, always
behind me is
your violent music, beat
until the butterfly’s velvet brain
is dead.
dance you, dance
you bitch, I
love you against
the light against
the cold light, always
behind me is
your violent music.
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: Can Lit, Canadian Poetry, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Lynn Henry
Usually around this time of year local news stations do a story on sun exposure and the use of sunscreen. It surprises me the number of people interviewed who think that it’s a) okay to bake in the sun for hours on end with nothing but coconut oil on and b) will do this without any kind of sun protection whatsoever and c) that any issues related to sitting in the sun will at some unspecified time in the future be taken care of with Botox. At this point in the interview they usually laugh, lather on some more oil and continue to bake.
The sooner people disavow themselves of this illusion the better. I can guarantee you that although Botox might be able to help you with the wrinkles you’ll get as a result of sun exposure it definitely won’t help you with the cancer that you are at much higher risk to get. Melanoma is cancer. You get it through exposure to the sun. In early stages it can be removed through surgery but if it has spread to other parts of your body than what you have is full blown cancer that has to be treated through the usual cancer channels ie; radiation, chemotherapy etc…This can happen to anyone at any age.
I was very lucky because I had another issue that my normal GP couldn’t fix so I went to another doctor. My GP did look at my mole, however and said it looked “normal even though I told her this mole had appeared out of nowhere and had grown quite fast. I subsequently went to another doctor for another issue, showed the mole to her as an afterthought and she immediately recommended me to a surgeon to have it removed.
When I went to the surgeon he looked at it and thought there was nothing wrong with the mole. He actually implied that I was wasting his time but since I was there he would go ahead with it anyways. A week later I got a phone call saying that the mole was malignant and that I had melanoma. Thank god I caught it early enough and it was removed surgically. The initial mole was removed and when it proved to be malignant the surgeon went in again to cut a wide margin around the area in order to remove all cancerous cells.
Even though I have a much higher chance of developing further malignancies I thank god for two things: Dave who urged me to get it checked and for a doctor who knew what she was doing. If I had ignored it, or gone with the original diagnosis from my GP I would be in a completely different place in my life right now. I would have a life threatening illness. I used to be a sun worshipper. I thought it was harmless and that it made me look healthy. Nothing is further than the truth.
So. Go out and buy some sunscreen. My dermatologist gives me Ombrelle. Lather it on before you go outside, even if your just going out for a short walk. Lather it on repeatedly during the day. If you need to bake outside in the sun, bring sunscreen, glasses and hat and sit under an umbrella. Save yourself the trouble of giving yourself skin cancer.
Categories: Where's my gonch & other stuff
Tagged: Add new tag, botox and the sun, melanoma, sunscreen and melanoma
