SPRING CLEANING

In honor of autumn, I’m doing a little spring cleaning chez Deirdre.

I figured I should wash away my current radiation/chemo hangover and freshen up for my next ten-month cocktail of choice – infusions of Cisplatin washed down with oral Lomustine.

Chemo anyone?

Yes, please, don’t mind if I do!

So Monday, I visited one of my all-time favorite places in the whole wide world (not even kidding) and hit Olympus Spa in Lynwood with Heidi, Abby and Claudia. If you haven’t been to Olympus, it’s a Korean day spa with soaking baths, treatment rooms, heated rooms, relaxation spaces and a great café. It’s a humble naked fest starring women of every shape, color, age and levels of health (saw a breast cancer survivor and wanted to approach her, but then I thought, Hmmm, maybe she doesn’t want me to assume she’s had breast cancer just because she’s missing a breast – and anyway – how rude that I was checking her out, because we’re all pretending that we’re not checking each other out). The whole experience is an uber-relaxing way to connect with the tapestry of feminity in all its raw natural beauty.

But I digress.

After boiling lightly at 104 degrees for 50 minutes, Lee scrubbed me down (literally sloughing what looked like swamp sludge off my body) before slathering me in warm milk, honey and olive oil. I then stuffed myself with rice noodles and Korean banchan (side dishes such as kimchi and fermented beans), and baked in the hot coal room for 20 minutes.

When the timer went off, I was a veritable four-star meal.

But knowing cleanliness is only skin deep, I visited our old friend Marie Manuchehri, the Reiki practitioner who months ago worked on my Chaka Khans (chakras if you’re new to Candyland). Marie informed me that she banished the stagnant energy from my Crown Chaka Khan (that’s my the thinker, which apparently houses my spirituality) and I was good to go.

BAM! Clean inside and out!

Pictured above: The baths at Olympus.