lunabee34: (Default)
lunabee34 ([personal profile] lunabee34) wrote2024-08-24 06:06 am

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1. My Aunt Gail died yesterday.


She was complaining of her stomach hurting the last time I saw her in late June, and now she's dead of ovarian cancer. I feel so terrible for Uncle David, who is still recovering from a stroke, and her son Scott, who lost his wife just a few years ago. The rapidity with which she declined has shaken everyone.

There's no definitive blood test for ovarian cancer; your results on the blood test can be fine, and you can still have it, but I had the blood work done, and it was fine. I also had genetic testing done and am waiting on the results of that. I'm probably going to also have an ultrasound done just to be sure. The reason the mortality rate for ovarian cancer is so poor is that it is often asymptomatic until it's too late. To be clear, I do not think I have ovarian cancer, but it is something I am going to be periodically screened for now that it's part of my family history.

2.

Tropic of CancerTropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Look, I get it. Once upon a time, the idea of going into a bookstore and picking up a volume off the shelf and encountering deliberately, egregiously gross descriptions of sex and women's bodies and the writer's own body and bodily functions in general must have seemed truly revolutionary and novel. Now the sort of writing in Miller's magnus opus just seems utterly juvenile, like a teenage boy trying out all the pee pee and poo poo words he's amassed over the course of his adolescence. I'm not shocked, Henry Miller, nor do I think you are, as Ken Shapiro states in the intro to this volume, the GOAT. I think you are funny at times and crass at all times and boring a lot of the time.

Also bonus racism I'd forgotten about from my first read 20+ years ago.



View all my reviews

3.

How to Keep House While DrowningHow to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a book about self-care and letting go of shame around cleaning and other tasks. It contains a lot of hacks for people who struggle with housework, meal planning, and hygiene tasks because of depression or executive function issues.



View all my reviews
makamu: (Default)

[personal profile] makamu 2024-08-24 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs* My condolences to you and your family. That sounds like a harrowing experience for your uncle and Scott, in particular. Cancer sucks!

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[personal profile] makamu - 2024-08-27 16:09 (UTC) - Expand
author_by_night: (Default)

[personal profile] author_by_night 2024-08-24 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry. *Hugs*
trobadora: (Default)

[personal profile] trobadora 2024-08-24 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)

[personal profile] spikedluv 2024-08-24 11:11 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss. How awful for her husband and son. I didn't realize that this form of cancer is asymptomatic. I'm glad you're going to be screened periodically. *hugs*

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[personal profile] spikedluv - 2024-08-27 11:50 (UTC) - Expand
lyr: (Amazons: annasiconnas)

[personal profile] lyr 2024-08-24 11:39 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry about your Aunt Gail. *hugs*
princessofgeeks: (Default)

[personal profile] princessofgeeks 2024-08-24 11:45 am (UTC)(link)
I am so sorry for you loss. Wow, that family has really been through a lot. Very sad.

HUGS
starandrea: (Default)

[personal profile] starandrea 2024-08-24 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt and her family! My friend had an eerily similar experience five years ago - we traveled cross-country in August, not knowing anything was wrong, and by October she had passed as a result of stomach cancer :( Things change so quickly, though I sure am glad for the time we have. All the love and comfort to you (in this and everything) ♥♥♥

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[personal profile] starandrea - 2024-08-27 17:57 (UTC) - Expand
umadoshi: (tea - mug with heart (iconriot))

[personal profile] umadoshi 2024-08-24 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry about your aunt. *hugs* How sad and scary!
troisoiseaux: (colette)

[personal profile] troisoiseaux 2024-08-24 01:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss. *hugs*
annofowlshire: From https://picrew.me/image_maker/626197/ (Default)

[personal profile] annofowlshire 2024-08-24 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for your loss ♥

(Also, with you on the Henry Miller "zomfg so shocking!" Blatant gratiutousness doesn't shock me, it bores me. This is why I can't watch almost anything put out by HBO now.)
Edited 2024-08-24 14:03 (UTC)
amejisuto: (Default)

[personal profile] amejisuto 2024-08-24 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry about your Aunt, my dear. You have my condolences.

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oracne: turtle (Default)

[personal profile] oracne 2024-08-24 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you got some testing, and I'm sorry for your loss.
chelseagirl: Alice -- Tenniel (Default)

[personal profile] chelseagirl 2024-08-24 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Yup. Pretty much my take on Tropic of Cancer. It was more remarkable in the context of its times; it did nothing for me on any level.

Sorry I didn't jump in on the Ouida stuff. This summer got away from me, as always -- I got a lot done, but not anything close to my ambitious early-summer goals.
gloss: woman in front of birch tree looking to the right (Default)

[personal profile] gloss 2024-08-24 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry about your aunt's death. ❤️

(And UGH Henry Miller.)
musesfool: jar of flower petals, spilling (but there is this)

[personal profile] musesfool 2024-08-24 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss. *hugs* Fuck cancer!
ursula: bear eating salmon (Default)

[personal profile] ursula 2024-08-24 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry about your aunt. That's intensely unnerving.
sheafrotherdon: Two men, seated, leaning in to touch their foreheads together (Default)

[personal profile] sheafrotherdon 2024-08-24 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt. Sending love to you and all who loved her.
kat_lair: (Default)

[personal profile] kat_lair 2024-08-24 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm very sorry to hear about your aunt, that particular strand of cancer is a bastard.
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)

[personal profile] aurumcalendula 2024-08-24 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss.
executrix: (Default)

[personal profile] executrix 2024-08-24 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe President Harris will say "Let's redirect--instead of a Cancer Moonshot, let's have a Women's Health Moonshot."
kore: (Default)

[personal profile] kore 2024-08-25 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
I have to wonder if "by the time it's symptomatic it's too late" is a question of the med establishment not looking for the right symptoms and/or lustrning to patients. I believe there was a paper about people who died of pancreatic cancer complaining about symptoms for a long time before their docs caught it.

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[personal profile] executrix - 2024-08-25 01:16 (UTC) - Expand
musyc: Silver flute resting diagonally across sheet music (Default)

[personal profile] musyc 2024-08-24 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
*hugs offered*

--

Added the Davis book to my eTBR, looks interesting!
minoanmiss: Minoan lady watching the Thera eruption (Lady and Eruption)

[personal profile] minoanmiss 2024-08-24 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)

Oh my goodness augh. hugs you applauds your review of Henry Miller hugs you some more

[personal profile] timespirt 2024-08-24 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for your loss hon.
"HUGS"
scintilla10: close-up of the Greek statue Victoire de Samothrace (Default)

[personal profile] scintilla10 2024-08-24 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. My heart goes out to your whole family. <333
independence1776: Ice field with the words "Until universe's end" (Until Universe's end)

[personal profile] independence1776 2024-08-25 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
My condolences. *HUGS*

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