Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - Dreamgirls

Dear Journal,

I must admit, I'm a little perplexed as to why it takes me quite some time to get going in the mornings. I realize that I'm not starting the morning off with the Oxycodone anymore, so it seems that it takes that much longer to physically get up to scruff.

But, I had to get the morning tasks done because I was going in to see Dr. Fay this morning. I have an appointment with him for Monday, with the idea being he will remove the rest of the staples in my incision. But Monday was still 5 days away and I figured he should take a look at the incision. There are still about 4 inches of the incision that is still taking it's time healing... and since I am so paranoid of infection, I just wanted him to look at it and assure me that I'm just being paranoid. He agreed that it was certainly taking it's time, but also felt more of the staples could come out, so he took out about 10 of them. That leaves 8 of them to come out on Monday :) He also took a culture sample to send to the lab to check if there is any indication of infection or bacteria.

Hehe... I also warned him that next appt. I would be bringing him some more forms that he has to fill out. I swear, I'm getting so sick of filling out forms! And some of them are soooo stupid! Like CPP wants to see my birth certificate and if I don't want to send the original by registered mail to them with the forms, then I can get a photocopy and have it certified. HELLO?? The whole reason I'm filling out these forms in the first place is because I'm sick... why are they making a sick person run around getting forms filled out? If there was nothing wrong with me, then I'd be going to work and wouldn't need to be filling out forms proving who I was and why I was applying for benefits because the insurance company insists I do. Grrrrr! And some of the questions on these forms are totally ridiculous. One of them.. in pertaining to your illness... "How is your breathing?" HELLO??? If I couldn't breathe then I wouldn't be sitting here filling out the forms, now would I???

Anywho... as you can probably tell, I have not finished filling out the forms because they frustrate me (grin). I'll look at them again in a couple of days.

Oh.. one thing that did sort of make me wonder... I had asked my doctor if he knew what stage the cancer was in the tumour. He said that he didn't but not to worry, the oncologists would go over all of that in detail when I have my consultation meeting with them next week. I told him that I was just wondering because I want to be prepared and not have any surprises when I go there. He suggested I just wait because one could speculate over and over and not know what the oncologists are going to say or explain, so it's best to just relax and let them do the explaining. I agree and he is right.. but it does make me a little anxious that maybe I don't know the whole story. I'm going into that meeting assuming that as far as we know, the cancer has all been caught and the chemo treatments are going to be a preventative followup treatment to catch any potential cells. If they say they think there is still cancer inside somewhere, then I may go into shock again and I don't want to go there. Then again, I may just be overreacting and that's what he meant.. to not start putting eggs in a basket I don't have yet. To just wait and see what the oncologists have to say and what their plan is.

To distract me from this way of thinking, I decided to treat myself to a movie since the Paramount Cinemaplex is just down the street from my doctor's. I went to see a matinee of Dreamgirls, even though I've heard some really mixed reviews about it. Steve O. and Jo went to it when it first opened. I couldn't go because I was in the hospital, even though (grin) the theatre was just down the street from the hospital. Both Steve and Jo were not impressed with it and recommended I wait until it came out on DVD. But, I was in the mood to distract myself and I really do love musicals... and I particularly like the soundtrack to the Broadway cast of Dreamgirls (Jennifer Holliday who played Effie White on Broadway is one of my all time heroes).

Well, I totally enjoyed the movie!! It was right down my alley. I LOVED Jennifer Hudson's portrayal of Effie White and can that newcomer sing or what?? I recommend anyone to go see the show, if only to see Jennifer Hudson. She is fabulous and deserves to win the Oscar (she's already won the Golden Globe and SAG awards). I think Eddie Murphy did a good job, but I really don't like him... and I don't think he deserves to win the Oscar. I think it is interesting that the role he played or a womanizer star is very much what he's like in real life, so it wasn't much of a stretch for him. I also liked the other characters. I know a lot of people thought Beyonce was very lame in this movie and can't act... but I didn't mind her at all. Her part was not the biggest... and maybe that's part of the problem. They cast a big name in a part that didn't have a lot of meat to it. She definitely looked the part, could sing the part and really didn't have a lot of dialogue. What dialogue she did have was certainly not deep. In a way, there were no leads in the show... it was more about how the business can really cause more problems and heartbreak for those who started out as innocents... and of course, there's the whole era back in Motown where it was hard for these extremely talented singers to break into the mainstream music industry. Anywho... I really did enjoy the movie and wouldn't mind seeing it again. Mind you, there are a lot of other movies I'd like to see before the Oscars on Feb 25th, so I may not get to it again :)

So, after the movie I came home and this evening I'm just taking it easy. The doctor did say he didn't see any problem with me driving again... with the understanding that if I'm tired, then don't drive. Makes sense to me :)

Cheryl