Many thanks! Plus: Bumped by the blizzard

Rosemary

I want to thank all the people who jumped right in and bought copies of the ebooks for The Outskirter’s Secret and The Lost Steersman last week — My royalty check for the month of March is going to look very pretty!   And since my disability payments are only a fraction of my regular wage, the royalties help me a whole lot — so, again, my thanks to you all.

(Yes, Amazon pays out royalties on a monthly basis.  There’s a two-month delay between the month’s final calculation and the actual payment, so I’ll get paid for March at the end of May; but I can see what my sales are, and what my royalties will be, in as close to real-time as makes no difference.  This is VERY different from traditional publishing.)

I’ve emerged from my steroid crash, and am once again awake and alert.   So, The Language of Power ebook will be out before the end of this month.

In other news: I was supposed to get my Herceptin-only infusion on Monday, but to everyone’s surprise, the day dawned with rain, hail, sleet and snow coming down in remarkable amounts at astonishing speeds.   Last day of March!   You know the proverb about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb — but apparently this year “going out like a lamb” refers to some poor lamb being born in a blizzard (which I understand does happen) and then DYING OF EXPOSURE to the cruel elements before the the shepherd manages to find it and carry it to the shepherd hut to warm up (I’m picturing Granny Aching from Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men series, here).

We tried to get out to the hospital, but every route we tried had a spinout, or an accident, or a bus spinning its wheels, unable to make it up an unplowed hill.  We had to turn around.

So, doing it today instead.  The Chemo suite is jammed with people: Tuesday’s regulars, plus those bumped from Monday.

The trend is still generally good — the tumor’s shrinkage means we’ll be doing a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy.   This is excellent.  However, lumpectomies “come with” radiation therapy, as my oncologist puts it.   Previously we’d thought we might be able to do without the radiation.  But this is a trade-off I’m happy to make!  Because: no mastectomy.

One fairly inconvenient thing: a significant percentage of patients being treated with Taxol have a side-effect called peripheral neuropathy, where they develop pins-and-needles sensations and numbness, which starts at the tips of the fingers and toes, and can sometimes creep further and further up.    I’m one of those patients, unfortunately; but fortunately, my symptoms are comparatively mild.

But, a further downside: it can be permanent.   We won’t know if it’s permanent in my case, unless it actually fails to go away — and even the temporary kind can take many months to clear up.   But I count myself lucky that it’s no worse than it is.   Because: Hey, I’m not dead!   I win!

Other good news:  when my pal Brian was here filling in in as caretaker while Sabine caught some sea & sun in Florida, he discovered a good Indian restaurant just down the street from me.  Excellent, another win!

It’s Wins all around, basically.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 at 11:58 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

8 Responses to “Many thanks! Plus: Bumped by the blizzard”

  • Nonesuch Says:
    April 1st, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Delighted to hear of your string of wins! Keep them coming and kick that peripheral neuropathy to the curb as well!

  • bawa Says:
    April 1st, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    So glad chemo is going well. Amazon com not allowing me to buy ebooks from Spain or the UK ad yet, guess it will come.
    My sister had severe peri nuero pains since the first chemotherapy and this time round she is doing a lot of stuff like simple yoga, lying on a Bemer mat etc, which she says has helped her a lot. Just keep at it, t will get better! Hope spring comes soon.

    • Rosemary Says:
      April 1st, 2014 at 9:39 pm

      Hm… I just went over to Amazon Spain (www.amazon.es) and found all three ebooks on sale there. If you’re in Spain, maybe it doesn’t like you trying to use the US site (the .com)?

      re:Spring — today I had lunch on the porch in the sunshine, after yesterday’s blizzard! Go figure.

      Sorry to hear that you sister had to go through chemo, and got stuck with the neuropathy — I hope she continues to improve.

      • bnanno Says:
        April 2nd, 2014 at 8:46 am

        She has ovarian cancer not breast, so many things are very different but thank you. It does mean that I recognise what you talk about in daycare, the chemo medicine process, etc as I was with her for a couple of months and her chemo was weekly.

        Ah, the site might be the problem, usually there isn’t. Will get it today if possible 🙂

      • bnanno Says:
        April 3rd, 2014 at 3:20 pm

        got all 4 now 🙂

  • Tremen Says:
    April 1st, 2014 at 2:10 pm

    I had no problems buying the ebooks from amazon.co.uk – but then I do live in the UK 🙂

  • Lindig Harris Says:
    April 1st, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    I’m so glad you’re doing well! And that the books are doing well, too. If I had a e-reader, I’d be buying them. Best of luck all round.

  • Charlie Says:
    April 2nd, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    I’m glad there’s been a nice bit of sales for them. This has been one of my favourite series, and I’m so glad to have them available in eBook format. We’ve also been talking about them a bit on MobileRead and I suspect that can’t have hurt sales.

    Thanks, and keep working the recovery.