Catching up
A lot has happened since I disappeared.
The world has changed. We have a black President. The Republicans have become a bitter, segregationist party of bigots. We are on the brink of war... again. Or did we ever leave?
There have been two more Hobbit movies. I fell in love with Dragon Age, fell out of love with the games and fell back in love again.
I lost a job, found a job, lost a home, found a home, blew up a car, bought a new car. Daughter #1 divorced and fled back home from a Bad Situation. This after having already rescued Daughter #2.
September 2013 I had my mammogram...
It was clean. December 23rd 2013, I did my regular self-check. It,too, was normal.
December 24, one of my breasts was enflamed, double its size, red and with an orange peel like looking skin. I thought it was some kind of infection and made a doctor's appointment for the day after Christmas.
Two mis-diagnoses later by January I find I have inflammatory breast cancer that has now reached stage 3.
Several months of chemo, several weeks of radiation, a mastectomy and a lymphadenectomy later, it looks like I am in remission and things are good to go. I'm still going to be going through a chemo cycle every 3 weeks until February next year... just to make sure... but it looks good.
The surgeon, the oncologist, the radiologist are happy as punch. My family is getting back on an even keel. Me, I feel kind of numb. It took nearly a month before I could look at the scar in the mirror.
My chest feels weird and my arm hurts almost constantly. I'm in physical therapy to recover the use of the arm... I hope.
Oh. And my hair is growing back. Slowly. Finally. It's gone gray. I look like I have a steel wool pad on my skull. Gone is the dark hair with white streaks I had before.
I'm alive. So, I guess that's all that counts.
The world has changed. We have a black President. The Republicans have become a bitter, segregationist party of bigots. We are on the brink of war... again. Or did we ever leave?
There have been two more Hobbit movies. I fell in love with Dragon Age, fell out of love with the games and fell back in love again.
I lost a job, found a job, lost a home, found a home, blew up a car, bought a new car. Daughter #1 divorced and fled back home from a Bad Situation. This after having already rescued Daughter #2.
September 2013 I had my mammogram...
It was clean. December 23rd 2013, I did my regular self-check. It,too, was normal.
December 24, one of my breasts was enflamed, double its size, red and with an orange peel like looking skin. I thought it was some kind of infection and made a doctor's appointment for the day after Christmas.
Two mis-diagnoses later by January I find I have inflammatory breast cancer that has now reached stage 3.
Several months of chemo, several weeks of radiation, a mastectomy and a lymphadenectomy later, it looks like I am in remission and things are good to go. I'm still going to be going through a chemo cycle every 3 weeks until February next year... just to make sure... but it looks good.
The surgeon, the oncologist, the radiologist are happy as punch. My family is getting back on an even keel. Me, I feel kind of numb. It took nearly a month before I could look at the scar in the mirror.
My chest feels weird and my arm hurts almost constantly. I'm in physical therapy to recover the use of the arm... I hope.
Oh. And my hair is growing back. Slowly. Finally. It's gone gray. I look like I have a steel wool pad on my skull. Gone is the dark hair with white streaks I had before.
I'm alive. So, I guess that's all that counts.