More cancer

Sunday:

There's been some bad health news in the family recently - and at work too. My father-in-law Des has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it has spread too much to operate on. They are going to treat him with hormones - which worries him a great deal, he jokes about getting breasts and turning gay but is obviously trying to cover how scared he is that he will be changed by it. The survival rate for prostate cancer is very good, 95% five years after diagnosis, but survival isn't the only factor in a happy life. And his wife (married this January) has lung cancer, also inoperable, she responded well to treatment but overall it's a big worry. They really need to move out of where they are living, which is on a very steep block and not at all friendly to people with old knees and arthritis and cancer.

We found out about Des a couple of weeks ago, Tim contacted me at work. I was staffing the front desk but had to leave for a while to get myself under control.

Although Jo isn't strictly my children's grandmother (step-grandmother?), as Jasmine said now all four of her grandparents have/had cancer. Both my parents died of it five years ago. Now Tim's dad and step-mother. His own mother died of complications from multiple sclerosis.

My workmate Linh has asthma and has been really wheezy for the past week, possibly due to a lot of smoke in the air as the city is doing controlled burns of bushland (forest) to protect from bushfires. My boss contacted me today to let me know that Linh had collapsed on the weekend and was in hospital - she wanted to tell us in person but had to let me know because it affected Monday morning - I'll be staffing the little library on Linh's days as well as my own until she is better. Poor Linh, she sounded so breathless last time I spoke to her on the phone on Thursday.

Appreciate the health you have while you have it!

Career

Tuesday:

I received another rejection email about my book, from the second literary agent. It was a thoughtful email suggesting the book needed a bit more work and a look from a professional editor. I had considered that already but since I'm an editor myself and I had some experienced readers look at it, I skipped that step. Fresh eyes are valuable and I am reconsidering that decision. My brain will be lying fallow the next couple of weeks then I'll have to decide whether to have the book professionally edited, keep trying to find an agent, or send it directly to publishers.

Another thing I am reconsidering is the full-time-ness of my writing. I haven't done any paid work for a couple of years now. Partly to work on my book, partly because I knew we'd be moving to another state soon (which we did at the end of last year), a large part due to my RSI. I have chronic pain in my shoulders, arms and hands which was caused by and still exacerbated by typing. I can only use the computer for two or three hours a day, spread out with breaks, before the pain gets bad. (Hand writing is worse, and I've tried voice-activated software but found it clumsy and slow.) A couple of years ago I tried going back to work part-time five hours a day and it was too much, I was in a lot of pain after a month and left after six weeks. I can write at my own pace at home. Freelance editing was also flexible, but if I spend my three hours a day editing then I can't write at all. And I like to spend a bit of that time on this blog and playing computer game World of Warcraft too. I'd love to spend more time on all these things, but can't. I often write these blog posts in instalments over the day.

So if did look for part time work, and still want to be able to write novels, I can't do anything involving a computer. Problematic, because otherwise I am ideally suited to deskwork! I love deskwork. After ten years at Centrelink (government department dealing with Pensions and Unemployment Benefits) I want to avoid dealing with angry customers, I'm too shy to teach, not sure what I would do. I considered landscape gardening for a while, and did some study there. I also dabbled in training as a nutritionist. Most jobs that involve brains also require frequent use of a computer, these days (not all, but most). And probably several years of training, which would also involve lots of typing and writing during study. I have always liked the idea of being a librarian. But yeah, study and deskwork again. Hmm. Requires more thought. When my brain gets back from vacation.

A workman wandered in this morning and took away some of the temporary wooden scaffolding around the pool that they used to shape the concrete. Then he wandered away again.

I took Jasmine to the doctor this morning, she's been complaining of breathlessness for a while now. The doctor couldn't find anything but gave her a Ventolin to try for a while to see if it helps. She had eczema as a baby which is linked to asthma, and both Tim and my mother had asthma so she is at risk. We'll see if the Ventolin puffer helps.