Get those tests, people.
At times I’ve heaved a heavy sigh at my doc’s insisting on another mammogram—like, what could go wrong? Well, that did. After years of clean tests, I got the prize. Small, thanks to my doc’s insistence on me keeping schedule….and probably only a lumpectomy. Genetically unrelated to the colon cancer I beat. So THAT is very good to know. Only the size of a pencil eraser and undetectable by other than the scan.
So I know what *I’m* doing for the holidays. I’m only lacking an MRI (next week) before they set a date for surgery, and there’ll be a (slight ouch) recovery period.
And another PET scan and yet one more MRI for my OTHER doc—I tell you, I get away with nothing. She’ll have that test and me back in her office possibly the week I get surgery for the lump…which I hope will be minor. Modern science—wonderful only if we use it! And I am using it!
Anyway, we are doing ok. My cardiac doc asked me if I had any trouble climbing stairs, because having anaethetic is like climbing two flights of stairs when it comes to stress…nope. I informed him that I CAN actually run—and I can, but its dangerous to do because of the neuropathy (and a tendency to mistake where my feet are)—but I can, all the same. Pretty good for my age.
And it rather well threw me off my writing for a bit, but I’m getting back to it. And Jane, as ever, is my rock. She’s taking good care of me, or will, when we’re in that period when she has to. She’s worked hard getting the house in shape, really in shape, after all that’s happened to make that a hard job.
Snowtires are on the car. The mystery car glitch traced down to a short in the dome light. The weather is turning. The pond is put to bed. The surviving bonsai are all in for the winter, with grow lights. I now know not to trust them to Spokane weather, no matter how I’m told that it’s ok….
Finity is a young cat now, and we’re trying to teach them all the ‘talking buttons,’ —look up cat buttons on the internet, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
CJ – Prague, OK had a 5.1 earthquake Friday night around 11:25. I felt it up in Tulsa and it was felt as far away as Wichita. WX Channel link follows with an interesting radar pattern in OKC.
https://weather.com/news/trending/video/this-was-spotted-on-radar-shortly-after-oklahoma-earthquake
One of my people used to live in OK; I’ll mention the earthquake to her. Are there normal faults in that area, or was it something like fracking?
I think we have to bet on extractive processes, though intriguingly the New Madrid “failed rift zone” fault isn’t all that far away.
And if New Madrid goes, Tulsa will likely not exist.
First one I’ve felt and I’ve been here 50 years. There are occasional smaller ones I believe. I’m not sure if there is any fracking in the area.
Aparently it’s the season for earthquakes, One in Hawaii and one in California today.
Philipines too.
The larger Hawaii one interrupted a staff meeting that morning; just a fast jolt and tremor. We had 2 mountains between the epicenter and us so it wasn’t bad, but it probably alarmed the people on that side of the Big Island. One of my staff felt an even smaller aftershock this morning.
For those of us with astronomical interests, shortly after dark I noticed the crescent moon in the west, glancing out a window. A couple hours later I noticed what must be Jupiter out the same window. In a couple days we should have a nice conjunction of the two, if one is in a location to see it. Likely not here in the rainy corner of the continent’s edge.
DH’s father gave us a huge pair of Celestron binoculars for Christmas (honestly, they wouldn’t have been out of place on the bridge of a WWII destroyer.) After a lot of argument — why don’t they put assembly instructions with the ‘matching’ tripod? — we got the binocs onto the tripod and our first target was the crescent Moon. The mountains on the terminator cast fascinating shadows! Neither the binoculars, being huge and heavy and unwieldy, nor the tripod, which didn’t allow for more than about 45 degrees tilt up from horizontal, are truly made for star watching, though 🙁
Back in the 80s, I was lucky enough to find a place where I could get a pair of Celestron binoculars on sale. 7x50s – not small – with a case, and high–quality optics. I don’t take them birding, because *oof* they’re heavy, but I’ve done astronomy with them.
Well it’s more than a couple days later, but as we said back in the day, “What goes around, comes around.” This evening I saw it happening again, with the moon less than a day past, east of, Jupiter. It finally wasn’t raining.
Hey, CJ! We are planning to go to TX in pursuit of another solar eclipse in April (Yeah, TX wasn’t our first choice, but most of the other options were worse, at least as far as weather goes.) I was re-reading your account of when you and Jane and the cats went to Idaho in 2017 for the last total eclipse. At that time you said you would try to see this one as well. Is that still an option for you and Jane, or is it off the table now?
BCS, at last report, lives in Texas, Houston area. We are going to see if we can track him down, although he has had an ongoing streak of bad luck for the last several years and my contact information is likely out of date.
Anything going on at Facebook? I don’t partake, never will. And I’ll just leave it at that.
Yes, CJ posts a lot on FaceBook, sometimes daily life (she & Jane are back on their weight-loss “Bear” diet of salmon, nuts & berries/some veg); a bit of house building of a nifty-sounding greenhouse/sunroom in the garden. She had been posting a daily reading of the US Constitution… and continues with a fair amount of strong political feelings re. one US presidential candidate. Notably with her health: she is recovering from the radiation (not chemo, I believe) therapy after her brief & caught early/controllable surgery for early stage breast cancer… and is daily regaining her memory & understanding of the novel she & Jane had been working on. She had been complaining how her memory turned to mush during the cancer treatment but exhaulting as she remembers chunks of her plot intentions. She plans to start writing again soon when she regains full comprehension of what she & Jane were doing/intend to do in the book. …And cats are doing fine.
Oh, it’s much easier than THAT to find one’s memory no longer reliable! And you remind me to make an appointment to see Natasha, my oncologist (not Russian, Indian, a good second guess), for an MBL followup for next month.
“Chemo brain” is real – I had it, though not too bad. But I’m still getting back to whatever normal should be, in a lot of ways. At least my brain mostly works…
(Yeah, radiation. It was an experience. They did a foam-in-place pillow to get me in the correct position. Doesn’t take long per shot, but it’s a lot of “shots” – I had 20.)
Anaesthesia brain is also real. It takes about a week for my brain to do a hard reboot and install the OS.
Checking in after a while. Sorry to hear that you’re going thru more health issues. As an 81 year old prostate cancer “survivor” myself I know the dance only too well. In the UK they seem to duck a general anaesthetic whenever they can and use spinal block. Can’t say I enjoyed the sawing and banging noises when they fixed my knees, nor the actual surgeon’s TV screen view when they did my TURP (look it up), but they all worked out OK. I keep losing all-time favourite authors – Doris Lessing and John le Carre the most recent. Down to one now. Stick around for a bit.
I had a different procedure, minimally invasive, “Rezum”, to the same effect. My “provider” was a “young man in a hurry” with a generally incompetent staff and (also) did not provide sufficient anesthesia, so I nearly passed out from the pain, but (eventually) I walked out. And I refused ALL followup treatment from him! It was effective enough though.