Taking my time

I spent 3 days up at Mike’s for Thanksgiving.  He has some friends from Alaska visiting.  We had a good feast and a nice hike the next day.  I headed home yesterday as he needed to pack to be working out of state again for a couple of weeks, and he planned to leave very early this morning.  I was wearing pretty much all my layers of sweatshirt/sweater/jacket while up there, and begging for a fire in the woodstove even during the day.  I made one the first morning I was there, and after that the guys jumped up to make the fire whenever I started for the wood stove.  I’m out of practice.  A house can be expected to smell like smoke some when using a wood stove.  Right?

I’ve just been hanging out with the cats other than that.  And also healing.  I go in Tuesday to start the meetings and simulation for the radiation.  I don’t know if that is when they figure out the settings, or when they decide if I’ll need drugs to (mentally) get through this.  Actually, most of this has been much easier than I could have expected.  I almost feel like an imposter when I mention I’m a cancer survivor.  So, I will report here after the appointments on Tuesday.  I do believe I am in a radiation study where I will receive fewer but stronger treatments. 

Driving back down to Mesa from Williams I started out in several heavy layers of clothes.  First order of business when I got out of the car here was to peel out of most of them as it was 70* here.  The cats were happy to see me.  Tomorrow I plan to drive out to where I’m moving the RV in a couple of weeks and make sure all is still ok on that end.  Then more sorting and moving and getting rid of stuff in the storage units.  Plans only go out to December 15 at this point, the date I’m planning to move.  After that, I’ll start again attempting to figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life.

Back Home

I was a bit disappointed in my stop at Arcosanti because it was not at all what I was expecting.  I was thinking Art Colony and I saw a place that looked more like a setting for a dystopia themed science fiction story.  The concrete buildings did not seem to go together well, and the metal looked more rusted than aged.  This bothers me as I am very much into architecture that has form following function and siting that takes the sun and other features of the area into consideration.  I enjoy reading about Buckminster Fuller and Frank Lloyd Wright and studying each of them in more depth is on my list of things to do.  Solving problems in new ways is a short version of what interests me.  Since I was having such a negative response to the site I declined to take the tour this time.  I am doing more reading on Paolo Soleri and his ideas and I’ll stop and take the tour next time I head up.  I may be too proletariat to appreciate all this, but I wonder how the issues of food, clothing and water are handled in this urban living experiment.  To me, selling over priced bells and ceramic tiles as the main industry lacks a certain sustainability.  Then again, it is near Scottsdale.

As an aside, one time I was staying at a hiker hostel in north Georgia prior to taking a hike on the AT.  At breakfast we were sitting around a table talking with one of the women who was new to the area.  She mentioned that she really liked the small town there as it looked like real people lived there.  “It looks like a place you can get real items you need, you know, like bullets, whiskey, tampons…”  The lone male at the table pondered the comment for a minute and suggested that sounded like a dangerous combination.  However, I tend to look at settings now to see how basic needs for commodities are handled, and that seems to indicate how long that setting can survive.

Everything else is going well.  I’m waiting to hear when I start the radiation treatments.  I’m feeling really good, and am walking a lot to get my overall health to where I want it to be.  Mike and I took a walk to some pictographs while I was up there this past weekend, and I was able to enjoy the walk.  This shows I’m getting into better shape.  Here are a couple of pictures of Mike taking a picture of the pictographs.  Say that one fast 3 times.

First Stop

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Everything is going great

I just realized I have not posted in awhile. My checkups went really well. Next week I should be called into a meeting with all involved to discuss my follow-up care. There are a few options on the radiation treatments. I met the oncologist who will oversee my cancer care from here on out. I like him. That helps a lot. He has a longish grey ponytail, a calm manner, a soft voice, and looks me in the eye when he talks to me. What's not to like?

I've made a couple of trips up to see Mom since the surgery. She is enjoying her new apartment. She is also having a difficult time finding room for everything she kept. A lot has found new homes.

I am off to see Mike today. I hope to take time on the way up to stop at places I usually drive by thinking I really want to see that 'sometime'. I'm declaring now as the 'sometime'. A few weeks ago Mike and I went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and I renewed my membership. More trips out there are on the agenda as well.

Time to get going. On many levels.

All clear

I just got the pathology report from the surgery. No cancer in the lymph nodes, all clear around the tumor site. So, now to get through radiation. I'll know more about that after Tuesday.

I am back in regular clothes and I haven't taken any pain pills since yesterday morning. Tonight I can take a shower. It is the little things. Mostly pain free at this point, just some soreness sometimes.

I sent Mike home for now. He left me plenty of food. I could drive now, but I'm mostly just sleeping. I'm in no real hurry to get back into my normal routine, whatever that is.

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Home safe

Things went well, but it was a long day. I have good drugs and Mike is taking good care of me. I have not looked at the site yet. I can tell already I'm in a better mood. That could be the drugs... :-)

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Good news

The results for the second biopsy, that time on the left breast, came back clear, no cancer.  Back to Plan A.  Simple lumpectomy on the right breast on Monday, followed in a few weeks by radiation.

I have clean teeth now after the trip to Algodones yesterday with Geodudec a local friend from an online message board.  We went to Dr. Eva Urena.  I like the practice there better than the first place I went, but it is all personal preference.  She is very nice and professional.  She did the cleaning herself.  Geodude opted not to have his extractions done as she couldn’t do all 4 that day.  He wants to only have to sit through the procedure once.  He will make some decisions while I’m healing.  I’ve offered to run down there again with him in January.  I’m usually up for a trip to Mexico.

I won’t get my things moved out of the smaller storage unit this weekend, so I’ll give the 30 day notice when I stop by there today.  I’ll run up to see Mom and take a couple more of her boxes of stuff, and maybe even move some of my smaller things into the larger storage unit while I’m there.  I need to clean out the car a bit as it is looking a bit too lived in.

I decided to just meander through the next 2 days.  Monday will get here soon enough.

A needed laugh

I’m lifting this link from a post on a message board.  It had me laughing on a day when a laugh is appreciated.  Monks try tumbling:

https://www.facebook.com/jampa.monlam.58/videos/1057753890988445/

Day to Breathe

Today is my day to get the little things done so I don’t have to think about them while going through the surgery.  I canceled an appointment the day after the surgery as I’m pretty sure I won’t feel up to going to another doctor that day.  I am going through some things here at the RV to take to storage and get them out of the way.  I’m doing a lot of nothing as well. 

Public service announcement part of the entry:

I seem to always have lumps in my breast, the right one.  It was always a cyst, a liquid filled bump I could feel.  When I was in my 40’s I had a doctor that insisted on a second mammogram when the first would find the lump, then the ultrasound that confirmed it as ‘just’ a cyst.  Then she would make me go have it drained.  Twice.  Even the doctor who drained it with a needle and syringe would be asking why I was there, as the cyst was not big deal. After doing that twice I never felt the cysts again.  I got lazy about breast exams, figuring that it was just a cyst if I had felt something.

The lump that is cancerous I cannot feel.  Even though I know it is there, and it is .9x.9x.6 cm, I cannot feel it.

The radiologist last year said she saw ‘calcifications’.  I figured, hey, I’m getting older, no surprise there would be something called calcifications in my breast.  I put off getting the second mammogram until this year.  When I told my Internist this year about what was found last year, he ordered a 3D mammogram.  Once the lump in the right breast was discovered to be cancer, I brushed off the calcifications in the other breast as trivial.  A radiologist looking at my scans from last year did not.

Turns out that calcifications are debris that is thrown off when ‘something’ is going on.  I have not had ‘something’ defined for me yet.  The biopsy yesterday was to determine what that something is.  I was put into a type of mammogram x-ray machine with a window in the plastic for them to access the area of interest.  It was automated far more than the other ultrasound guided biopsy.  It seemed more extensive.  I did not have any real pain with either biopsy, nor has there been any lingering pain afterwards.  I was given small ice packs to use on the area, and that was all that seemed to be needed.  No pain after the numbing used during the biopsies wore off.  Sort of like getting dental work, a bit of pain while the numbing stuff goes in, then nothing.

I get the results of the second biopsy tomorrow.  I believe the only difference in the Monday surgery a finding of cancer there would be is that I’d have ‘lumpectomy’ on both breasts.  That is as much as I know now.

Public service section off.

Cheap Date

I’m on the 10 year plan for colonoscopies.  No polyps.  The person who came up with MoviPrep should be drawn and quartered for the low life scoundrel he/she is.  Other than that it was a nice nap.  In recovery the nurse looked at my chart and declared me a cheap date.  Apparently it did not take much to put me totally out. 

After sleeping most of the afternoon, Mike was restless so we took his truck, which he drove down this time, and took a load of Mom’s stuff up to her.  I just walked over to the U-Haul place and picked up a box truck.  We will hopefully get the rest of the stuff of Mom’s that is in the storage unit moved up to her today.

On Wednesday I have the biopsy on the other breast.  On Thursday I hopefully get the stuff in my small storage unit moved over to the big one where Mom’s stuff will (hopefully) no longer be taking up the room.  Then I can let the small one go.

On Friday I take a friend down to Algodones, MX where we both have dentist appointments.  On Saturday and Sunday I tie up any other loose ends, get groceries, and such.  On Monday is the surgery, barring anything from the second biopsy that changes anything.

That’s how it is supposed to happen, anyway.