I have SO many things to be thankful for – here are three:
I am thankful that the bump on my nose turned out to be completely benign. It’s NOT skin cancer. It’s something called a hidrocystoma – like a cyst but not a cyst – mimics skin cancer but is NOT skin cancer. I just wanted to say that part twice ;-D
I am thankful for the wonderful time I just had at a crank-in in Central Illinois. Lots ‘o socks got cranked!
And I am thankful that I’m still blogging after all this time. I started on my former Blogger site in 2007. It has been a constant for me – my internal compass. A true north, if you will. I often process on the page, as well as verbally, so sitting down in front of my computer is always something I look forward to.
I am also thankful for all of you who read and comment here. Because WordPress has been wonky with comments lately, if you are commenting anonymously I don’t know who you are. If you want me to know who you are, please put your first name at the end of your comment :-)
Here’s a look at the socks and wine bottle cozies I cranked! The Christmas socks up top have been frogged and re-cranked (different size calves are what happens when you are running your mouth and chatting because you’re seeing friends you haven’t seen – in some cases – for a year; i.e., you aren’t paying attention . . . ). The five pairs on the bottom were all cranked on Saturday, and I’m busily Kitchenering toes now.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. I am thankful for all of you :-)
Ben Rector wrote this tune in 2020 – the first year of the pandemic. It makes me cry every time I listen to it, it’s such an awesome song – the best Thanksgiving song there is. :-) I’ll encourage you to watch this one and not just listen to it :-)
So fill your plate and fill your drink And fill this house with family The kind of love a thousand miles can’t wash away Cause the older that I get I see that life is short and bittersweet Thank God for this Thanksgiving Day
Before I go any further – to all who serve in our Armed Forces, and to all who have served – I think of you on this Veteran’s Day, and I thank you very much for your service.
Today I managed to get my hanging mums and their former home – my hanging stand – squared away for the winter. I always wish the mums I get would be hardy mums, but they never are. They were well done blooming and have gone to their Great Reward, which, in this case, is the ravine behind my yard . . . .
The hoses are drained and put back into the garage, and the porch swept of leaves. Again. The Sycamore leaves are gigantic and they seem to be never-ending this year. The top storm window for the security door has been switched in and the screen is back in the garage (I left the glass on the bottom this spring). I threw the oven racks in the dishwasher – probably not the smartest thing, but I desperately needed to run the self-cleaning cycle on the oven I use all the time. That’s still in process. I managed to get up on the ladder and replace a burned out bulb in the bathroom ceiling, and I figured out how to remove the cover of the fan/light in there and got it cleaned out, too. Laundry is about to get going. It’s been a productive day, chez A.
In addition to prepping for the tree guys to come this week, and for winter, I’m also prepping to attend a crank-in soon. I’ll be winding some cones of yarn, and getting my Tru-Knit, its travel table, and all the flotsam and jetsam one needs to be able to easily crank away from home ready to go. I have some things I’ve made to donate for door prizes, although this year we’re doing something called Dirty Santa, which is like White Elephant. I just realized that I put my name on the little cards I did for each the gifts – I guess I’m going to hold on to those and give them to whoever gets the gifts.
I got a great walk in this morning. It was in the 30s when I went out. It was sunny, but cool enough that I layered up and grabbed my winter coat so I could enjoy the walk. And yes, I broke out my holiday headbands today :-)
I’ve wrapped all my advent presents that need to go out in the mail. All the houseplants in the sunroom have been watered, and I’m about to water the violets. Time really does slip away very quickly. I need to do some cleanup and vacuuming in the house in general, and there are a couple of spots in the house that require my attention with regard to being decluttered.
This week I went to the knitting group at the cancer center again. I plan to continue there because the people are really nice. I also went to an art class there – it was to make a Gratitude Jar. Surprisingly, I was the only one who showed up – but you never know how someone might feel on any given day. Timing is important. I’m not in active treatment, but many who come to the center are. Here is what I started with:
And here is what I ended up with!
It was pretty much Mod Podge, some paper cocktail napkins, and a piece of ribbon. I put a leaf on my lid, and the Mod Podge added some moisture back to it – it really looks luminous!
The cool thing about these jars is that if you didn’t want to put written gratitudes inside, you could put a battery-operated tea light in it and use it as a luminaria!
I really like mine :-)
Many of the leaves are gone now here. This is the view at the end of my block.
Blue Spruce are very popular here. They are not native to Illinois, however, and they are very susceptible to a fungal disease called cytospora canker. That’s how I lost the entire stand of probably 50-year-old Blue Spruce I used to have in my backyard. I didn’t know they were sick and by the time I did, it was too late. Hard to believe that was a decade ago. I hope these down at the end of the block never get it. I like this photo very much.
Time to get the laundry going – the next few days are busy ones for me, but they start with a massage tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Yahoo!!
Still no word on my biopsy results. I finally called on Friday afternoon, but – or course – my doctor was long gone, and, apparently, so was his nurse/assistant. I guess someone will call me on Monday. I sure hope so. I confess that the scab from the biopsy was driving me wild. I did my best not to scratch at it and I did pretty well for more than a week . . . but I couldn’t help myself today and now it’s gone and my nose feels a lot better without it. I just want to know if it’s basal cell or not, because if it’s the former I need to get a surgery scheduled.
This tune came on the radio yesterday on my way to club. I forgot how much I loved Stevie Wonder back in the day. I hadn’t heard it in forever. It’s from his Innervisions album, one of my favorites.
I’ve decided to retire the photos I used for Three on Thursday.
Why is it harder to go down the stairs than up?
Why do pathology results take so long?
And yeah, once again, I’m waiting on pathology results to determine if I have yet another type of cancer. This time, it’s a possible basal cell carcinoma. On my nose. It could also be nothing. Time will tell.
I’m hopeful that the bump on my nose is not cancerous, but I have to say that my dermatologist does NOT have a good poker face. When he wants something biopsied, his entire demeanor changes and he usually already knows what’s what. But, he did say there was a chance that this was some sort of cyst-like thing with a really long name that I didn’t write down. If the news is not good, I’ll have another MOHs surgery (I think). I’m not keen to be having a scar on my face, but it is what it is. Better a scar than a cancer. And if it is basal cell, well, I’ll get another ribbon to add to my collection. The one for basal cell is orange. It will go nicely with my peach ribbon. :-D (You gotta keep your sense of humor, I’m telling you!)
But there’s a chance it’s nothing . . .
If it’s not one thing it’s another, isn’t it?
How about a little jump back to the 60s today? Autumn leaves must fall . . .
Before we start – just giving you a wound photo alert in case you don’t want to see it. It will be down at the end of the post.
May is turning out to be a very busy month for me. I’m getting used to going to the health club three mornings a week to work out. It’s at 7 on Mondays, and 7:30 on Wednesday and Friday. Monday I just did not want to go – I wasn’t feeling like myself and my workout showed it. By Tuesday, I was convinced that my knees were shot – that this was it and I was going to have to break down and talk to my doctor and probably an orthopedic surgeon about them.
I got out for a walk Tuesday morning, and then I was racing around the house getting some last-minute stuff done because my storytelling friends were coming over that evening. You know how that goes, a quick vacuum, replaced a ceiling light bulb that had given up the ghost, wet-Swiffer’d the kitchen (never have a white tile floor. I’m serious.), and got the bags for the Second Chance Shop out into my car so they weren’t sitting in the living room. :-D
By three o’clock I was in absolute agony. I was walking like a cripple, and the pain, in my wonky knee in particular, was awful. I decided I would have to take a second diclofenac along with a couple of Tylenol and ice my knees. Diclofenac is the anti-inflammatory I have had to take since I had plantar fasciitis that started in 2009. By 2010 I was up to 16 Advil a day and my doctor said I could not continue to do that. So I’ve had diclofenac since then – first twice a day, but for many years now only once a day at bedtime. Anyway – I took all the pills and iced, and after about 25 minutes or so I began to feel much more human. Then I put my Oofos on and they helped a lot. My friends were here and we had a great evening of practicing our stories for the next public storytelling event that we’re doing.
I was getting ready for bed and was really looking forward to taking my usual bedtime diclofenac. Imagine my surprise when I realized I hadn’t put any diclofenac in my pill caddy. I remember filling my caddy on Saturday evening for the coming week and looking at it thinking it didn’t look quite right. I wondered had I missed a pill, but decided I must have everything in there. Well, I did miss one of the pill bottles. It was Tuesday night, and I hadn’t had any diclofenac since Saturday. Three days without it . . .
No wonder I felt rotten on Monday.
No wonder I had been in agony on Tuesday.
Clearly I take a pretty low dose of this med – it doesn’t stay in the system very long, and since I generally only take half the dose I was prescribed (once a day instead of twice), not taking it has relatively immediate consequences.
I felt like an idiot. How on earth had I missed putting my diclofenac in the caddy??? I have absolutely no idea. But I’m feeling a lot better now that it’s back to a therapeutic dose in my body.
Crisis averted!
No need to get any doctors or surgeons involved after all. Whew!!!
Something else that’s making me feel better in my body is a new duvet cover! It’s very girly and I just love it! I’ve had solid duvet covers for a very long time because they are not easy to find here. I sleep with German-style linens. That means I have a fitted bottom sheet on the bed, and no top sheet; rather, I have a duvet with a cover that gets washed just like you wash your sheets. In Germany, each person has a duvet. That means that in a double bed, usually you would have two of what we call twin size duvets. Mine are down-filled, but they are lightweight so I can use one all year and then pop the other one on when it gets cold in the winter. The flowers on both sides are making me all happy :-)
This is the result of my labors last night. I’ve had this book for awhile but just never dug into it. I found a LOT of recipes that I am looking forward to trying. When you’re one person and most recipes are for 4 or more people, it’s very challenging. I don’t enjoy eating the same thing four meals or four days in a row.
Next up, I have Cooking for Two, also from America’s Test Kitchen, as well as a cooking for two book that’s all about Mediterranean recipes! It’s my time to refocus on more and healthier cooking :-)
And now . . .
Get Ready . . .
I hope this is down far enough on the page . . .
I am so amazed at the human body – and at my human body in particular. I’m 8 weeks out from my MOHs surgery. I would really like my wound to be healing faster than it is, but there is no doubt but that it is healing. It is a wound below the knee, and those take longer to heal because the circulation is not as good that far away from the heart. And I have been a bit lax in wearing my compression sock this past week. I don’t wear it when I walk or go to the club anymore because it rubs and gives me a hot spot when I have my regular sock on over it. So I could be a little more vigilant about that piece. My guess early on was that it would take at least 3 months to heal, and I think I’m going to be right on the money.
There is clearly definite healing progress shown in my photos, though. Oh, and I know that parts of it look green. They are green, and I think I said this before – that’s how new granulating tissue looks. It’s not infected, It’s just doing its healing thing. :-)
So, onward with the healing. I’m still following the directions I was given post-op: Washing it once a day with soap and water, and two dressing changes morning and night with the two different types of antibiotic goo. I will be glad when it makes enough new skin to heal over all the way.
I really liked Vertical Horizon. They had one huge album at the end of 1999, Send it Up, and they haven’t hit that big again since. They are still around, however, and still making music. This tune was one of the hottest tunes of 2000. It will take you right back . . .
As I look back at the December 2022 Field Report. It’s timely to share that, as I type, I have a little chicken in my air fryer rotisserie! Whenever I can find a whole chicken under four pounds, I snag it and roast it on the rotisserie!
For the first time in probably 4-5 years, I have African violets on the pre-show schedule. I’m planning on attending the national convention and entering the national show. It will be in Atlanta this year.
Overall, this quarter, things are going pretty well – with the exception of getting a second cancer diagnosis in March.
Life in the Time of COVID
I’ve heard tell that there might be another booster for those of us who are high-risk. I will be first in line at my local Walgreen’s to get it when it arrives. I continue to mask up in indoor public spaces. I did meet a friend for lunch yesterday, and was unmasked while we were eating. It still makes me a little nervous to do that, but I’m getting out and doing some fun things. My cousin and I regularly attend a monthly story telling event. I actually took a class with the producer, and had a wonderful time. It was a small group of us who worked through all four weeks together. Three of us are on the roster to share stories in April and May! Mine will be in May. This section is markedly shorter than in previous Field Reports. I think that’s a good thing :-) I’m embracing my new normal as best I can.
Health
I have not yet been back to my primary care doc to have more blood work done to check on my cholesterol. I’ve held off for a couple of reasons. Even though I am down on the scale – YAY ME! – I’d like to be a little further down before I go back for more tests, and then, I got this stupid skin cancer diagnosis and have been dealing with it.
Throughout the pandemic I got all my medical appointments in except for the dermatologist. I let three years go by, and, you guys, that’s way too long. If you’ve been following along, you know I was diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma in situ in February. On Ash Wednesday, actually (it’s the day before Easter as I draft this Field Report). I had a MOHs surgery on March 15th. It went very well and I will head into my fifth week of healing on Monday.
Speaking of Monday, I’ll be headed into the city for a dental appointment in the morning and a kidney CT around lunch time. I participated in the kidney stone study in January, and my 24-hour urine collection happened a few weeks later. All was well and it’s clear that I’m finally on the correct dose of potassium citrate. Yay!.
I continue to get stronger – I just hit a set of 12 at 125 pounds on Friday! I haven’t checked my single rep max, so it remains at 150 pounds.
At the end of March I created a list for myself of opportunities to show up for myself and keep the commitments I make to myself. I’ll cover that more in the second quarter Field Report, but for now, I had a great conversation with my therapist about this last week, I was able to shift my mindset, the scale is moving in the direction I prefer, and I am doing well.
Creativity
Some cross stitch was accomplished, and my friend, P, was over again for an afternoon of spinning. After she left, I decided I really had to finish spinning this superwash Merino from Carpool that I got – probably in 2016 at YarnCon. I’m just not a fast spinner, and I get bored and have to stop and come back to it later. I have plenty of bumps and braids of fiber still awaiting my attention, as well as two prepped fleeces . . .
It is done now and I wet-finished it earlier today! Photos soon :-) I’m working on finished the first Labyrinth sock, which was a lot of colorwork. I left the foot plain, and will do the same with the mate. Again, photos soon. Not much else happened in the first quarter, but I have a plan to finish up all my remaining WIPs and then move forward with some other projects.
Embracing Hope and Self-Care
Embracing hope continues to be an area for growth in my own life, and I’ve added Self-Care to this section because it is my work for the year. I introduced Self-Care Bingo in January and I’m really enjoying it. I managed Bingos in January and February!
Recently there was a great live Q&A on one of the Balance365 Facebook groups that really, really resonated for me. There’s also a short podcast episode about it. It’s about showing up and doing the work. I have doubled down on this in April and will recap at the end of the second quarter for you. It’s still about showing up, about placing myself in situations where I can find success, and where success can find me. And it remains all about self-care.
We had a very mild winter here in Chicagoland, and it was in the 60s today. I got a great walk in this morning – here are some shots from it. The first White Heron (Egret) I’ve seen this year!
The willows are always among the first to leaf out. This one’s just getting started!
And under that willow, the first Canada Goose nesting pair. That one in the water gave me the side-eye the entire time I walked past. And I wasn’t this close – I used the zoom on my phone.
This is a crappy picture, but a huge thrill for me. These are Wood Ducks!!! Not only have I never seen them at the pond, they went on my life list because I have never seen them ever!
That’s the First Quarter 2023 Field Report!!
Today’s tune is from Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. It just seems like the perfect song for spring. The Beatles actually recorded it in 1963. I like this version.
I’ve got some photos to share today! This charming shot is of the four bags of yew clippings that I managed last week. The village doesn’t start to pick up yard waste until April, so they’ve been hanging out in the garage. They’ll go down to the curb on Thursday.
I was reminded last month that I have a Hamama tray and plenty of seed quilts, and that I could be growing my own microgreens. So I got cracking. I first tried this system back in October 2021. That means that my seed quilts have been sitting for a very long time. I wasn’t sure how they’d do, but the first one was pretty successful :-) I harvested this lot yesterday and started a new seed quilt at the same time. I already had some today on a vegetable sandwich and they were very good.
The first square I pulled for April Self-Care Bingo was Declutter Something. I decided that this basket was my target. I started last night and managed to get it all sorted out into piles of To Keep, To File, To Recycle, To Toss,,, and To Read.
This morning, I tossed and/or recycled what I could, put at least one thing in the current bag for the Second Chance Shop, read what I could (and then put that paper in the recycle), and added stuff to the To File pile in my office (that will be for another day). This empty basket is really making me all happy. :-)
Self-Care Bingo Update
Well, I didn’t have any Bingos in March. I pulled plenty of squares, but my focus was pretty much entirely on skin cancer. That’s OK – this exercise is not about punishing myself, it’s about finding little ways of caring for myself throughout the month.
Pretty sure I’ll get at least one Bingo in April, and I’ve changed up a few squares again for good measure. Some new items include Listen to a Podcast, Get Your Skincare Routine On, and Eat Dinner at the Dining Room Table, as well as Find Something for Your Box. My bestie suggested I make a new box for myself to replace the one I lost so many years ago. I love that idea and I’m working on it now.
I feel like April will be an interesting month :-)
Today just seems to be a B.B. King day. He’s one of my favorite artists – in fact, I saw him in concert more times than any other musician – I think three times. So, some B.B. King is never a bad choice. I love this album – it was released in 1991. It’s one of my favorites. And I love the gospel feel of this particular tune. Seems appropriate for this Sunday evening. I hope you will enjoy it.
I am now into my third week of post-operative healing from my MOHS procedure. My wound continues to heal well. Yesterday, I realized that all my post-op wound care instructions end after three weeks. I’ve been reasonably sure that I would need to keep doing something, I just didn’t know what, so today I messaged through the portal to the surgeon’s office. I discovered that I could attach a photo to my message (I never noticed this before!), so I sent them the comparison photo that I shared with you yesterday, and asked what I should do after the first three weeks.
The answer from the surgeon’s nurse came back pretty quickly: You are doing a great job! Your wound looks great! Keep on doing exactly what you have been doing, except you won’t need a pressure bandage any longer! (I still have to wear the compression sock, though.)
I assured her that I would continue with the same twice-a-day regimen that I have been doing. She said if I ran out of antibiotic goo to use Vaseline or Aquaphor. Since I pretty much have a 29-year supply of both types of antibiotic goo, I’m not in any real danger of running out, and Nurse Chelsea actually gave me a small tube of Vaseline when she gave me my bag of supplies on surgery day. I’m set!
I recently read that wounds heal better in a moist environment. This is completely different that what I learned growing up, where we always wanted to “get it out in the air” as soon as possible so it would scab over. Well, it turns out that keeping a wound moist (i.e., the goo) creates a much better healing environment! Since this was so different than what I had learned, I asked the nurse one more question: “will my wound scab over in a moist environment?” She quickly responded and said, “we’re trying to avoid you having any scab at all.”
Wow!!!
So, I know what to do going forward, and as the wound fills in and gets smaller I can probably shift to a bandaid. For now, however, it’s still Telfa and coban tape in an assortment of (hideous) fashion colors :-D – today’s is mushroom. Seriously. Tomorrow starts three days of Bright Tangerine (not to be confused with the Traffic Cone Orange that I used early on).
You can’t see it. It’s covered under my compression sock, and I’m not wearing any dresses at the moment, so I don’t really care what color it is, as long as it holds everything together :-D
Onward :-)
In looking for a tune to share today, I spent a little time searching. I landed on some Luther. I know I’ve shared this one before, but it’s such a great, smooth, sexy tune. Enjoy . . .
It’s springtime here in Chicagoland. I have been keeping my eye out for a lamb cake at my local grocer – they tell me they will have them the Wednesday before Easter. I think that’s kinda late, but, whatever. That’s an annual treat for me – one that we always had when I was a kid growing up.
My surgery wound is healing really well. I’m going to include a photo in this post, but I’m going to put it well down on the page so those who might not want to see it can avoid it.
Today was the day I went out and tackled the yews. It’s that time of year. They don’t look great, but they look better than they did. Here are some photos!
Well, the one down front isn’t straight, but I simply ran out of energy. I can ask my lawn guys to straighten it out if I find that it bothers me. I’d also like to have the back shrub be just under the window sill, but that’s probably another 6-8″ off the top.
And here are the two on the side front. They look pretty good now that I have cleaned them up.
This is a combined before shot of the front.
Here’s a look now that I got my little edging back in place. And from this angle you can’t really see that that one shrub near the house is crooked! Yay! I still need to get some bags of dirt and some grass seed to fix that area around the main line cleanout. It’s always been there, but the previous owner put the cleanout in, and then she got tired of waiting for the hill of dirt to sink back down and she got rid of the dirt. That was forever ago, but you can see how it sank. If she had left it, I wouldn’t be having this issue now.
This is my backyard after all the rain we’ve had in the past week. The yard work I tackled today would have been a LOT easier if my back yard wasn’t a pond. I walked back to the edge of my property once to empty the yard waste bag over into the ravine, but it was so wet back there, that there wasn’t even a dry path on the edges. I only had one yard waste bag left, so I zipped over to the grocery store to pick up some more.
After a few hours of work things are looking a little better out in front of my house. There is more to do – the stretch of yews across the front of the garage, and one larger one on the north corner, but those – and the two small ones in the back yard – will have to wait for another day, because I am seriously wiped out. It’s been a very long time since I’ve done serious yard work.
Crazy Knitting Fool, a blog that I really like, participates in Three on Thursday. I always enjoy those posts, so I decided that I would like to try doing them, too (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Kristyn!). This is the photo you will see on Thursdays. It’s some hyacinth blossoms that my cousin forced in her kitchen – always a welcome scent to early spring :-) I put the text on there and I like how it turned out. I might also use it on Instagram. I’m not sure yet. I think there used to be a formal Three on Thursday group or place to connect a million years ago when blogs were a novel idea, but I don’t think anything like that exists any longer. So, I’m behind the power curve, but I don’t care. I hope to enjoy sharing 3 things each week!
Alrighty then. I think I’m far enough down the page to share this now, but just to be sure, I’ll put my usual tune in here, and drop the wound photo down below that. :-)
I was on my way to the health club last week, and the oldies station was just on fire – playing tune after tune after tune that I loved. And then, as I was on my way home from my storytelling class, this tune started just as I pulled into my driveway. I pulled into the garage, and I stayed in the car to listen to it. Staying in the car until a song was over was something we used to do back in the day, because unless you had the record, the radio was pretty much the only place to hear something you liked. The sound has been replaced on this one by the actual recording. If you want to hear it live, here is a link. :-) I know I’ve shared it before, but I just never tire of hearing it.
This is Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra – Love’s Theme
Here is the photo of my wound. It’s a comparison, L to R, of 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks post-op from my surgery. I have no idea why the middle shot came out with such an altered color :-D
It’s funny – when I first saw the wound on the day of surgery, I was like, it’s huge! It’s the size of a quarter!! And the nurse said, no, it’s not. And I said, it’s deep! And she said, no, it’s not. Well, I got the surgery notes, and guess what? The wound was 2.5 centimeters, which is the size of a quarter. And yes, I actually measured a quarter. :-D The surgery notes also said that they had to go deep into subcutaneous tissue. In the grand scheme of things, though, I know I was lucky and that it really wasn’t a huge or very deep wound. It was just nice to have my initial thoughts validated :-D
In any case, the wound is now just under 2 centimeters. I know it looks greenish – but I’ve learned that that is how granulating tissue looks. It’s not infected, and it’s making new tissue and skin to fill in the hole that was left after the MOHS procedure. Another thing I learned reading the surgery notes, is that my wound is healing by “secondary intention.” That just means that I didn’t have stitches and that the wound is healing on its own. It builds new tissue from the bottom up, and then closes in from the sides. As mentioned in a previous post, this type of healing can take longer than if I had had stitches. It can take anywhere from 6 – 12 weeks (in some instances longer), with the average being 6 – 8. So, I know I’m not even halfway through the process. And if it takes 12 weeks, then that will be what it takes. I’ll just keep on following my post-op directions for wound care :-)
I have another week of using the two types of antibiotic goo with dressing changes twice a day. I’m sending a message through the portal to see how they want me to proceed after the first three weeks. My guess is that it will be to continue washing it daily and keeping it covered until it has formed a strong scab, but I’ll see what they say.
Monday morning was surgery day. I got up, showered, had breakfast, and caught the 7:08 train into the city. I hopped on the #3 King Drive bus (always fewer people on it than on the #151 bus), got off at Huron, and walked the block over to the surgeon’s office. I was a little early, but that’s OK.
Nurse Chelsea called me back, asked all the questions, and told me how the MOHS procedure goes. I would be in the room for about 15 minutes, then she would take me to the waiting room where I would wait for about 45 minutes while the pathologist would prep and stain the sample and then examine it. The pathologist is the person who tells the surgeon if he got all the cancer. If he didn’t, the cycle would repeat until the surgeon got all the cancer and had clear margins. Chelsea said I could just roll up my pant leg, and roll down my sock. No gown needed. Of course it was the crappiest weather day of the week (again! third time!), so I had my hiking boots on when I would have much rather had my gym shoes on. Anyway, she left and said she’d be back with Dr. Yoo. It seemed like a long time, but it wasn’t. She eventually came back and had me get up on the table.
Dr. Yoo arrived shortly thereafter, numbed my leg up, made small talk with me, made the cut, and zipped out of the room. Chelsea said, “that’s it for the first round.” I was like really?! It was quick! Nurse Chelsea took me to the waiting area. I was the first one there.
It was nice. With recliners. And snacks! I got myself a glass of water, and some pretzels. I love pretzels!. Then, I plugged my phone in to charge.
Northwestern has these stations throughout the hospital. My phone didn’t charge up quickly, but it said it was charging, so better a little than none at all. Another woman came in and she sat next to me. We struck up a conversation and it turned out that she was a distant cousin of one of my friends! ♫ Small world, isn’t it? ♫
Here’s how it looked while I was waiting.
I was just about to open my pretzels when Nurse Chelsea came and brought me back to the exam room. We got back in there, and she said, “he got it all on the first round!” I was like, Wow!! That’s great! She had me get back up on the table and said that the surgeon would be in to close me up. He arrived, looked at it again, and said, “this will heal on it’s own if you don’t want stitches.” Then, Nurse Chelsea said that if I didn’t have stitches, I wouldn’t have any restrictions, and like I said before, this thing was right on my shin and I didn’t see how they would be able to stitch it up at all. I snuck a quick peak at it – and immediately laid right back down. It looked gigantic to me! Like a deep hole the size of a quarter and it was bleeding. I really didn’t see how they could ever stitch up a big roundy circle, and then Chelsea said that although it would take a lot longer to heal without stitches, she reminded me that I wouldn’t have any restrictions. In other words, I could shower, go to the health club, work out, lift weights, and walk. No restrictions at all!
So that’s what I went for. No restrictions sounded best to me, and I already know that my body is a good healer. That choice meant that surgeon zipped out again and a resident (or intern?) did the “finish work” on my shin. She gave me another dose of lidocaine, which I didn’t feel, and then she cauterized the wound. Nurse Chelsea said it was like giving the wound a head start to scab. The intern showed me how to make a pressure bandage on my own, Nurse Chelsea taped me up and put some coban tape around it all. She also spent a lot of time with me making sure I understood what I needed to do to take the best care of my wound. She really was great – and very, very patient. She also reassured me that my wound was not the size of a quarter – it was substantially smaller than that, and that it wasn’t deep at all. Remember, my cancer was in situ, that means that it was confined to my epidermis – the upper layer of my skin.
Nurse Chelsea came back with my instructions, and I got my boots back on and was ready to head back to the train. It was like 10:30!
I walked over to the Walgreens to get a compression sock, and then went and got back on the #3 King Drive bus back to the train. I was walking into the station as they were calling my train for the second time. I walked down the stairs, got on the 11:20 train and was home by 12:30!
I went to Walgreens to get my prescriptions, and took the socks back and got a larger pair on the advice of my friend, C, who is a retired ICU nurse. I got them home and discovered that someone else had purchased them before me and returned them. It wouldn’t have been a horrible thing had there not been two completely different socks in the box. I ended up going back to Walgreens for a third trip to get a matching pair. What a day! This was me, in my chair and very tired.
One of the other reasons that I opted for no stitches, is that besides having no restrictions, I’m also a dab hand at wound washing and dressing changes because I’ve had to do them before on my arm and on my knee. Both of those wounds were substantially bigger than this one, and they both took months to heal, so I’m figuring I’m going to have close to three months of healing on my shin, mainly because it’s below the knee and sometimes things don’t heal as quickly down there. But because I don’t have stitches, I feel like I can get some walking in as the days warm up and I think that will likely help my circulation. Also, I’m wearing this compression stocking – which I don’t like, but it is apparently helping me heal. :-) I think it helps with circulation, too.
This was my surgery day experience. I’ll share more about my healing process as I go along. Here’s a shorty for you today :-)
This is Ethel Mermen from the original cast of Gypsy, with Small World.
Seriously – I know the time change doesn’t happen for a few more days, but everything starts moving very quickly once the word “cancer” shows up.
Yesterday morning, I rang Dr. Yoo’s office to get an appointment with him. He’s the surgeon that my dermatologist wants for me.
I asked my usual barrage of questions. Here’s what I learned:
This time it’s not like when I met with the surgeon who did my endometrial cancer surgery.
For this skin cancer, you just show up and have surgery.
There are no restrictions on eating or drinking (other than to not drink any alcohol the day before or of surgery).
I will have stitches in my leg from 1-3 weeks (and I can not submerge them in a pool or the tub).
Someone there will tell me how I’m supposed to take a shower, so I’m guessing I’ll get that info in my post-op instructions.
I will not be able to participate in any cardio exercise while my stitches are still in. No word on if I can still do upper body work – I’ll ask about it when I’m there.
I don’t have to have anyone with me this time because this is all done under local anesthesia.
The woman on the line said that the surgeon and/or his team would answer any other questions I might have when I’m there. Then, when I asked about a time for my appointment, she said that usually Dr. Yoo isn’t in the city on Mondays, but that he would be in the city this next Monday and had some openings and did I want to come in at 9 a.m.?
Uh, yes, please!
So, on Monday I’ll be taking the train into the city and when it’s all over, I’ll be cancer-free again :-) Apparently it can take quite a while – as mentioned before, when you have MOHS surgery, the pathologist checks every slice in real time and the surgeon doesn’t stop cutting until the pathologist says there are clear margins all the way around. The woman on the line said to plan to be there for 4-6 hours. I can take a cab back to the train, and I believe I will be allowed to walk the block home. If I’m not, I’ll arrange for someone to pick me up at the station. But after that walk, I think I’m restricted from my usual walking until after my recovery period.
I’m having all the feels and it’s interesting. First of all, I never expected to hear the word cancer applied to me again in this lifetime. Second, while it wasn’t as startling this time, it still doesn’t feel good to hear it. As mentioned in my previous post, the first time, it came out of nowhere. This time, I figured it must be a skin cancer, just didn’t know what type. And while my anxiety ratcheted down pretty much immediately once I knew what was what, I realized that this diagnosis has brought up a lot of stuff that I thought I worked through the first time around. Cancer is cancer, you guys, and it brings a crap-ton of baggage with it when it shows up (uninvited!).
In my head, I know there’s no correlation to the endometrial cancer I had.
In my head, I know I’m going to be fine (just like I knew the first time).
In my head, this one calls for a relatively minor procedure (the first one entailed major abdominal surgery).
But in my heart, there’s this miniature me with her hair standing on end, waving her arms and yelling WTF?! Why are we here again?? Why are these feelings here again?? I was done with them. This one is not as serious as the other one had the potential to be, and we caught it early, why am I processing “cancer” all over again?!?!
When I figure out the answer to that question, I will let you know. It will be a major topic of discussion with my therapist tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in other news of the day. I hit up Walgreens on Senior Day.
There’s a woman at the dermatologist’s office and all she does is consult on skin care, so I asked about good products that are reasonably priced. She recommended La Roche-Posay. It’s half the cost of Clinique, so I got a few things. And I made sure to go on the first Tuesday of the month because that’s Senior Day at Walgreens and I got 20% off on all of it! Of course, I got the wrong cleanser (my skin isn’t oily), but it also says for normal skin, so I’m either going to exchange it, or use it up. I’ve been a Clinique girl for pretty much ever, but their SuperDefense daytime moisturizer that I’ve used for decades now only has 25 SPF in it, and, frankly, that’s not enough for anyone. I’ve always taken good care of my face as far as the sun is concerned, with sunscreen and a hat, but the rest of my body – particularly my arms and legs – are going to require much more care than I was giving them previously, so I got an assortment to see what I might like best.
Thought I might share a little true country today. Country isn’t usually my thing, but I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him live and he’s really good. No autotune, just a man with a story to sing. He’s really good, you guys. Give it a listen.