Yesterday was…interesting. I had a very strict diet to follow for the PET scan this morning (they changed the appointment from late afternoon to early morning at the last minute. Yay! I don’t have to starve for long.

There was a rush of phone calls. My sister, Elle James, is coming down to Hot Springs to sit with me while I’m getting my insides all sparkly with radiation. That’ll be nice. Everything so far has been on my daughter. I feel for her.

Then, last night, the 15-year-old came to us, pulled off her shoe, and said, “I think I got stung by something.” She was bitten while she was doing my usual job of cleaning out the pool filters. From the look of the bite, with its tiny twin punctures and purplish swelling, we thought it was a tiny snake bite. Off the emergency room, she goes. She was bitten by a brown recluse. So, she was sent home without treatment to wait to see whether necrosis sets in.  She’s the most chill person in this house, so she shrugs and says, “I can live without a toe.”

Anyway, I’m up early to get my last tiny sip of water before the procedure. While I’m there for all those hours today, I’ll be thinking of this—me in the pool with the other “water baby” of the family.