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.
They did CT and PET scan for me – no MRI. But it was already a visible lump. (Golf-ball sized, in fact.)
I’ve been treating the whole thing as an adventure in medicine, including the echocardiogram (watching your own heart beating is wild), the EKG and chest X-ray – in bed! – before surgery, and the various other things. Including ongoing blood tests, and a third PET scan early next year. But it’s now 5 years of remission.
Oh, no! Don’t blame you for wanting to get that “lump” out and see what it is. And good on you for keeping on your mammogram schedule. Me flunking my mammogram (as I usually do because fibrocystic disease) and having to have a sonogram was how they discovered I had lymphoma. We will hope that everything comes out OK (!). A clean bill of health would make a great Christmas present. Hope that’s what you get.
Lost my mom on 5 November. We think it was a stroke. She was her usual bright interactive self until suddenly she wasn’t. She was 99. Having all your affairs in order is the kindest thing someone can do for the loved ones they leave behind. Mom was a legal secretary for umpty zillion years and you better believe all her ducks were in a row. It has been a blessing for me at a very hard time.
I get to have an MRI of my head Monday. Be interesting to see if there’s anything in there.
If preverbal babies can learn to sign, why not cats learning to press appropriate buttons? I’ll be interested to learn how that turns out.
I had a neurologist tell me there was nothing in there. Didn’t help any with the migraines to know that!!
WOL, condolences to you on the loss of your Mom. I glad she was bright and chipper until suddenly she wasn’t. Hugs to you as you negotiate your re-arranged world.
I had my 5 year colonoscopy last week and got a clean bill of health for that part of me, but my annual mammogram had a spot that they decided to do a needle biopsy on which I had done on Tuesday. Because of the holiday today, I don’t expect results until Monday or Tuesday. Keeping my fingers crossed, since it’s been six years since I went through this on the left side; this time it’s the right side.
CJ, lumpectomy was an outpatient surgery and the recovery from that was a breeze. The proteins in the tumor required me to have chemo & Herceptin in addition to the radiation, and as you know chemo is no cake walk. Hoping for good results from your testing.
WOL, I’m so sorry your mom is no longer with us.
My surgery was same-day: show up early (and fasting) and they did the surgery in early afternoon. Outside of the usual aftermath of general anesthesia (and the blue dye they use to find the lymph nodes) causing a *very* unhappy stomach, it was no biggy.
And the chemo people want me to have a PET scan (third one) in mid-Feb. Still have to schedule it, but that shouldn’t be a problem. The scan itself shouldn’t be, either, outside of the sugar solution I have to chug.
P J, I remember the blue dye from last time!
Turns out this time it’s a much less aggressive cancer, and they won’t do a sentinel lymph node this time. Don’t have a surgery date yet; hoping it will be before the end of the year.
Still, helluva way to celebrate the holidays. Good luck.
Way to go, staying up on the medical, er, “stuff”, CJ! I’m eagerly waiting for the next Alliance book, and have kept up with the Foreigner books as well.
I’m having an adventure in science/technology of my own–on the 30th, a radical prostatectomy. Not unexpected; my g’dad, dad, and his brother all had prostate cancer. It tests as unaggressive, but the MRI says it has emerged from the capsule, so hi-ho, off we go. Robotic surgery, really amazing stuff. I’ve watched several videos of the surgery, all in ultra-HD.
Sending you light, love, and healing thoughts, CJ, and all you others as well. This gettin’ old business ain’t for the faint of heart, is it?
Good luck to you on that robotic prostatectomy!
It’s good you’ve been getting regular testing of various things so stuff was caught so soon. Hopefully the rest of the steps goes as routine as possible. There is something to getting swept up in the process especially when it’s working well and you aren’t doing it all on your own.
I had my health insurance get the old switcheroo by my job and forced to find a new doctor. In a different town since no doctor in mine took my new insurance. It was annoying, but the new doctor actually listened to me, is super into preventative care, and added a few extra things to my bloodwork after I shared my worries. It turned out my vitamin D was alarmingly low despite living in Texas. (sad yeehaw)
I’m now on a massive dose once a week for the next six months. I’m hoping the half dozen health things that have been bothering me the last year or so get cleared up with that. Couldn’t have been helping. I won’t mind driving to a different town for all that if it’s a doctor that listens.
In time for Christmas, on Tumblr this morning:
“just-late-roman-republic-things
Nov 29
*sidles out of the shadows*
*opens jacket, hands you PDFs of every Loeb classical library text in the public domain*
[ https://github.com/ryanfb/loebolus-data/archive/gh-pages.zip ]
*also hands you links to Gutenberg.org for searchable EPUB books, LibriVox for free audiobooks, the Internet Archive library and the Perseus Digital Library*
[ https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collections ]
*also, if you’re under 22 and in the US, you can get a free eCard for the Brooklyn Public Library, and access their entire digital catalogue*
*slides back into shadows*”
The large zip download fails, but there is a link at github to the page with individual files.
We are coming down now to that last short time before the holidays truly take us by the throat. I’ve been fighting our administration to try hiring a new youth librarian for our library, only to encounter incredible amounts of bureaucratic red tape and general obtuseness (look, you gave me a stale hiring list, and when I _was_ able to find someone, you argued with me because she was fresh out of school and raw. OF COURSE she won’t have the same chops as an experienced librarian, and probably shouldn’t for an entry level job!) My idea of a Christmas present would be getting though this and actually filling the vacant position.
Speaking of bureaucratic obtuseness, BCS is in trouble, mainly from learned helplessness. Since before COVID, he’s been stuck in an apartment that’s passed through at least 3 management companies, each with less interest than before in keeping the place in any type of working order. A ‘friend’ apparently scammed him and took most of his savings, so he’s been living hand to mouth for months. Some of the Wavy Navy have been trying to keep him afloat, but we may have reached the end of that road; last we heard, the latest new owners wanted to evict everyone so they could renovate. He’s lost power and internet and phone service and mainly communicates these days by handwritten letter. The local social services are, as an old country acquaintance of mine used to say, ‘as useful as tits on a boar hog.’ My next Christmas wish would be for BCS to find a permanent place to stay that isn’t disintegrating out from under him, at a price point he could afford.
IMO, somehow or other he needs to get out of Texas. I don’t know where he could go, who’d take him in, or how he’d be able to get there, but Colorado comes to mind. I do know, aside from financial aspects, that can be hard emotionally, as I experiemced when I left LA, where I was born and raised (a rare bird), and moved to the PNW. But Texas is notorious for its bias for the Libertarian “self-made man” as if there are no others. Just about the worst place for him to be.
I got another paper letter from BlueCatShip (Ben) yesterday—I’m the US Postal end of BCS’s tenuous communication link. As Chondrite said, the Texas social services network is indeed piss-poor. BCS being legally blind and no longer having phone or internet service intersects really badly with the uncoordinated nature of Texas’ minimal social services.
I’m very experienced with the quite decent Massachusetts service network and advocating for people to get services (my job for the past 25+ years), but neither Chondrite or I have been able to connect BCS with a Houston/Texas agency or org that is willing to connect the dots, which is what he needs as he doesn’t have the ability to do that on his own.
It indeed may take him being in a homeless shelter (which would mean he would have to give up his beloved cat and his possessions) to do so.
Anyone active on this blog of CJ’s who is familiar with Houston and its social service organizations?
…And apologies if this is a run-on or typo-filled post. When our power finally came back on last night after a major wind & rain storm, the house internet did not. I’m on my cellphone typing now.
My spouse sleuthed out the problem today which is archaic Verizon internet hardware/router/set-up. They had told us quite a while ago we should upgrade but offered no way possible to actually order the upgrade box (the instructions were all blind rabbit holes of “press this if that” options). A repair person comes Thursday morning, but if that fails then we wait until January 8 for the now-ordered years-later by other means upgrade box.
I’m not certain my phone or forefinger can take that much poking at a tiny screen —so much dependency on handy WiFi access!
And for everyone out there in Radio Land, Mele Kalikimaka e Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Many things are being defrosted in the refrigerator for holiday feasting, and we’re going out tonight for the last of our weekly gaming sessions this year. If I’m not back online much the rest of the year, peace on Earth and goodwill towards all. I got permission to hire (finally!) the librarian candidate I’ve been pursuing, and hope she sees the job offer as her version of a Christmas present; I sent out the notice to her Thursday and don’t expect to have a reply before Christmas but am hopeful.
Merry Christmas all.
May everyone here have a lovely set of holidays!
May 2024 be a safe, happy, healthy and fruitful year for us all.
One indeed hopes 2024 will be felicitous; 2023, was not so much :/
Hoped for, indeed! One fervently hopes we do not become terrified of 2025 by the end this year!
While poking around Amazon I noticed Merovingen Nights: Festival Moon was in ebook format as of fall 2023. I have most them in musty used dead tree book format and enjoyed hunting for them several years ago. I’m not sure how accessible they’ve been for fans outside of used book stores so this is nice. Right now I’m only seeing book 1, but that might be user error…
ReadyGuy and I hope everyone is managing to stay safe and warm throughout these winter storms.
Well, we had a series of fronts coming in from the W – SW (these type are called ‘kona storms’ because they come up from Kona on the Big Island) We needed the rain, but boy howdy was it feast or famine! After the first round caused some flooding, the ground was saturated, then another front came through about 3 days later. The main road below our house was more under water than not! The local news showed a lady and child getting hoisted by helicopter out of their car in a ponded area on that main road with the water up to their door handles (I have no idea how they got that far into the flood zone!)
‘Best’ part was that the rain and wind discovered not one, but two leaks in our roof. I climbed up into the attic to see if I could find the source; I think I’ve found one, but still haven’t located the other, which appears to begin under the solar panels on the roof. Next I have to figure out how to patch the leaks, which may require waiting for the next hard rain to make them flow again :/ I’ll stick some of our leftover puppy pee pads under the obvious locations so at least the ceiling won’t rot.
Leaky roof, oh my—and two leaks to boot!
While it’s pleasantly snowing now just outside Boston, we’ve also had a rapid-fire series of torrential snow/rain storms this past week. Our basement sump hole filled but the pump we have in it kicked in fine, and lucky for us no roof leaks that I’ve noticed.
On a separate topic, no (snail-mail) letters from BCS for a few weeks and I’m beginning to get worried again that he has been evicted.
I found that the most recent Amazon subscription (cat supplies) supposedly was delivered to him, but have no idea if BCS actually received it; ditto for the box of clothes etc. I sent around Christmas. There were stamps in that box as well. If he’s no longer in his apartment, then I don’t want to continue sending things there to be collected by who knows. I might try e-mailing Ron, his neighbor, to see what’s happening around there.
I need a new book by CJ and Jane to take my mind off of worries.
It’s been a terrible week here. We have a leak that we can hear but can’t localize within a wall. We’ve turned off the water to the house until we can get a plumber in (Tuesday at the earliest). No water, no heat from the boiler. Brrrr. The Veteran’s Administration now says ReadyGuy is 100% disabled due to his exposure to burn pits in Iraq. Our 13.5 yo dog was just diagnosed with cancer and we’re waiting on lab results to determine whether to treat aggressively or not. I’d thought we left cancer back in 2023 but it’s stalking us. In the mean time my arthritis is attacking my lower back and I cannot get in and out of chairs, bed, our cars, or stand still for long. This was not the way I wanted to start 2024. Don’t get me started on politics either. The only bright light has been the birth of our granddaughter Wren who has the biggest, brightest smile. There is still hope for the year. We just need to search really hard.
Commiserations on the water leak. My Oct-Nov water bill was breathtaking! Usage was 4X last year’s period. Determined it wasn’t in the house, as suggested by the water company, leaving the line from the meter, which comes around a neighbor’s property, quite near old, large, black walnut, Persian/English walnut, & Esopus Spitzenberg apple trees. This run is ~150′, then a 45 degree right turn and another clear ~100′ run under lawn to the house; all PVC. Gambled culprit was a root of the black walnut. Plumber had a “subsurface drill” punch holes (not having 150′ of pipe to do it in one) and pull PEX/Wirsbo pipe through the first run (WITH a tracer wire this time) and connect to the existing PVC at the corner (nearly). Gamble paid off, though it still didn’t come cheap, especially for a retired old man! $10,400!!! But what am I going to do?
I think there is something infelicitous going on with water for various associates, particularly going where it isn’t supposed to go, or not going where it is! Early last year, we had 2 runins with bad drains that drained (yes, deliberate pun) our savings uncomfortably. One hopes all our water troubles will be repaired soon.
Oh my word. I thought a leaky roof was bad, but leaks inside a wall is even less fun. And all the other tribulations as well. *hugs* Glad you can at least take joy in your grandchild.
Freezing our buns off here in NE Oklahoma. I live in a retirement complex and the sprinkler system froze in one building. It was on the 1st floor, rather than the 3rd, thank heavens, but 2 apartments ruined and two people who use wheel chairs to get around were moved. (Not my building however).
Fun with home ownership, part the whatever: The guys just showed up to install the second half of our solar array, under threatening skies. I hope the heavens don’t open up while they’re twinking around with electrical and roof stuff. Meanwhile, although I’m not sure of the origins of my roof leaks, I’m fairly certain about where they end up. I climbed up into our crawlspace-cum-attic and using my not so good contortionist skills, stuffed the pee pads under the eaves where the leak was dripping onto our ceiling drywall. I now have copious bruises from snaking through the rafters, but hopefully have a stopgap until I can find the sources and cause them to be fixed. I scavenged my spare lumber to lay down supports over the bare joists, so I wouldn’t go through the ceiling myself. Ow.
Ordered paint-on roof repair goo from Lowe’s to cover the area I suspect of being the source of one leak. Went to pick it up, and found that a. they had sold out of the goo in the size I ordered, and b. the one remaining can was dented and leaking. I declined the damaged can and am now on the lookout for an unmangled can from a different supplier. Le sigh.
Be care of that back of yours, Chondrite! Bruises are one thing; re-injuring your back another!
The back is *touch wood* okay for the moment. This morning’s activity was getting 3 1/2 plywood panels out of the way so our new breakers and battery unit for the solar panels could be installed. After I got the first one moved to where I wanted it, DH heard the banging and rassling and cursing and asked if I would like help. Yes please dear, bless your heart >:) A certain amount of micromanaging then ensued; if you want debris swept up, kindly do that yourself, as I need to leave for work soon. Of course none of that was spoken aloud.
ReadyDog had his two tumors removed. Both were cancers, but not aggressive and both came out with clean margins. The plumber found the source of the leak between the walls and we will soon have replacement pipe installed, so that once again, I can have a shower in the en-suite bath. Repair will only require going through the wall behind the hall vanity plus the small hole the plumber had to open to track down the leak in the first place. No taking up floors, no tearing out walls or water manifolds, and no boiler damage found. We lucked out.
Chondrite – we hope your solar panels work well for you. We love ours.
Oh yes, this is just adding on to our current array. We are waiting for the panels to arrive and be installed, then run the conduits and breakers and batteries and etc. There were high-level negotiations with the local electric company so we could expand without being bumped down to the worst exchange plan.
Glad to hear that you got the plumbing repaired without too much ado, and ReadyDog is on the mend!
All the rain made the grass go berserk, so today’s activity was mowing.
@Ready: this is good news, esp. that of ReadyDog’s.
Thinking of you and ReadyGuy, glad to here he’s done with that business. Showers… ours had a gap between the shower pan and the goesoutta pipe and leaked to the outside of the house when I showered :/ Thankfully all fixed.
Help! Not a surgery, no, but I have been suffering for a year or two with periodic, terrible cramps in my calves, 7 on a scale of 10. Does this sound familiar to anybody? I haven’t been able to find any manipulation that will “release” it. Has anyone discovered that magic trick?
The radiologists say I’ve lots of arthritis, wear and tear, around my lower back. I am/was 6’2″, so there’s so much spine! The “dermatomes”, q.v., suggest L3 might be responsible. I hoped it’d resolve itself. I’m persuing an appointment with my nice Indian doctor lady that has been giving me steroid lumbar injections for many years. I’m hopeful that will help for the intermediate future.
My spouse swears by pickle juice to handle muscle cramps. She used to drink it when getting cramps while training/playing roller derby.
Thank you.
In our house it’s bananas and potassium pills. If I sweat a lot (usually during my fits of home improvement) I can get cramps in my hands, feet and legs; occasionally I wake up from a dead sleep with a leg cramp. I can get them in my calf and shin at the same time 🙁 No fun, and I feel for you!
That sounds like the same thing. Doesn’t seem metabolic though. Do you have chronic back pains?
Not exactly chronic; for the past decade or so I infrequently get muscles that spasm in my back (again, often after I’ve been overdoing home improvement!) For those, it’s Flexoril and megadoses of Tylenol. If I catch it shortly after it starts, I can disrupt the cycle and prevent it from lingering; early treatment = 3 days, but if it gets settled in, 2 weeks. I hadn’t really made the connection, so maybe I’ll add bananas and potassium tabs to the mix, and wash it all down with pickle juice!
I can see the acetic acid in the pickle juice possibly having a metabolic effect. I’ve quite a history of “pinched nerves” and sciatica. I’ll be seeing my “pain” doctor in a week, and get her diagnosis. (I’m suspecting steroid injections at L3.) Strangely, yesterday morning the residual pain in the “medial gastrocnemius” was gone, inexplicably.
One of the things it does in spasm is rotate the foot longitudinally, i.e. pulling up on the instep. We’ve all learned to stretch a spasming muscle to “release” it, but though I can hardly stand at the time, weight on the outer edge of the foot doesn’t work. I had a faint hope someone knew a magic trick to release it.
In any event, thank you all. My family got quite dispersed over the past couple generations of westward expansion, and then three of my grandparents died before my parents were out of their teens, so I grew up without a multigenerational extended family anywhere nearby i could learn these things from. Nor relevant medical history!
Magnesium works for me for cramps. Either a liquid called Remag from Amazon, or just otc capsules.
I also have IBS, and find a 250mg MgOH tablet works well when it swings into a constipation phase. It’s unlikely a magnesium deficiency in my case. Scans and X-rays have shown lumbar arthritis.
I saw my favorite Indian doctor lady that has been giving me steroid epidurals for years yesterday afternoon. I’ve an appointment for the end of the month. I’ll try to deliberately cause it to cramp just before. She loads the syringe with lidocaine as well as steroid, so post injection we’ll know immediately she got the right nerve roots if the pain disappears. (The steroid will take a week or two to fix things.) If I can’t MAKE it cramp we’ll have to reschedule. Bleah!
My doctor recommended the bananas and/or pickle juice for long muscle/leg cramps if started as soon as you start cramping. I’ve always just needed one banana and a short rest followed by increased potassium intake in my meals for 5-7 days. This does not help arthritic pain or sciatica.
I just went to the store for my weekly grocery run and bought pickles 😀
Yay! My spouse will be thrilled to know that practice is being passed along.
I remember reading an article in the New York Times that some football or other sport coach swore by pickle juice too for cramps.