taste buds, chemo burns & health insurance changes

I'm eating an apple and I can taste it -- for the first time in a month or two! I've been making applesauce in order to eat apples up til now.... but the kind I like to make involves cranberries, and apparently when one lives this far from where they are grown they are not in stores after Christmas! (That is quite an adjustment for me..... in MA I swear I bought cranberries any time I wanted. Like cucumbers and tomatoes. ANytime. I had no idea I had to live in MA to do it!)

ANyway about the taste thing -- this particular apple I'm eating tonight is not the kind I usually favor, and I wonder.... I prefer tart apples -- gold rush and stamens have been favorites lately -- except that they haven't, since this round of chemo. So I've been buying whatever's in the 2nds bin at my favorite stand at Farmer's Market, since I'm just going to sauce them anyway. And I think I grabbed a non favorite this evening..... I wonder if it's only tart apples I can't taste enough that they are ruined for me. Hmmm.

Oranges are still bad -- though I had a day a couple of days ago when they were good! I thought it was over (Sat I think it was) but I haven't been able to taste an orange since. (What a waste!) Guavas are still good though. They're expensive, but I'm going to buy some anyway because I taste them really well, much better than all the other fruit.

My chemo burn (the Africa one) is fading nicely -- though it will be awhile still -- and I have a new one of course, on the other side of my arm and lower down, easier to hide. It's red and angry but still underneath. the good news is, it's much smaller than the last one. Like the top of my pinky, from the last joint to the tip. Sideways it's almost the shape of Puerto Rico, but a bit elongated. I'm glad I asked for that last bag of saline -- might have something to do with how much smaller this one is. (I almost skipped it because it was NYEve and I was the last patient there.....) Where will the last one be, I wonder? ONe more week and a few days.....

The other bit of news is, we're going to have to change health insurances. Not carriers; it's still Blue Cross -- but the plan is as different from the present one as night and day. Alan started a new job last week (did I mention that before?) and that's great -- though I can see he's still missing his old one; this is really a change of field, and he liked the prior one. He was good at it, too, but the funding disappeared --so what can you do? The big surprise is that the health insurance at his old job, which was a small non government organization without secure funding sources, was fabulous. It was JUST the insurance to have when you get diagnosed with cancer. They covered everything. (Well almost everything.) NOW suddenly we are going to have to deal with percentages and deductibles and any out of state care is going to cost lots more. (Thank goodness I've had my mastectomy already! This is just one more reason to never get a metastasis....... because I will want to go back to the Mayo if I do!) Moreover, we have to get the "standard" rather than the "basic" plan (which costs more for everything) in order to get my oncologists covered..... Now we have to figure out if it's worth it to cobra for radiation. At the moment we are on cobra for this month while he's getting his bearings and chosing the insurance......

HOwever -- I have once again defeated winter and gone out on a nice 37 mile bike ride despite the cold -- or maybe I should say because of the relative warmth. It's the only day this week that is going to get over 40. Turns out I can bike 40miles in 40° -- good to remember. I should write down what I wore, since it worked. ONly catch is, the dog still wants a walk even though I got my wiggles out -- so off I go to help her with hers!