it Pours. :: Heavy Sigh :: Yesterday, just as I'm beginning to recover physically from surgery, I log on to my patient portal account and see the report of my lymph node biopsy from the procedure. I had been waiting for it, but felt pretty confident that my prognosis...
I'm a richly blessed old chick. The summer of 2023 started with my first ever colonoscopy on June 13. The gastroenterologist who did the procedure was a real jerk. It's bad to be a jerk, but I think it's a lot worse to be a doctor and a jerk. This particular ass in...
This is the toughest part of the cancer thing. The waiting. Waiting for surgery. Waiting for another scan (a PET scan, the one after which I'll be radioactive) in two days, waiting to know about treatment. I'd like to say I'm waiting patiently, but that would be a...
Oh, here we go. Now I'm overwhelmed. Things are moving pretty quickly. Today I saw the oncologist and my head started spinning. He's a very nice man, and is from Ecuador, so he probably speaks much better Spanish than I do. My sister Sara says oncologists are always...
If the title of this post offends you, sorry. Cancer offends me. I hope you're more bothered by cancer than by the word damn. I'm a 25-year breast cancer survivor as of this writing, and I thought I was finished with cancer. My tumor was very small when diagnosed and...
I grew up in a house that was built in 1902, on a tree-lined block in an older neighborhood in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Curmudgeon alert: I hate Halloween. I always have. No, I was never traumatized by a goblin on Halloween, I just don't like scary things. I don't like scary movies, books, or TV shows. I don't like the dark. I don't like rides that make me feel as if I could be risking...
Yesterday was happy/sad. Happy/sad because we closed on the sale of the house we lived in for 28 years. Where we raised our two girls and a few dogs along the way. The kitchen in which I made approximately 2160 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for school lunches....
We’re empty nesters and we use the Paprika app on Mac and iOS to plan our weekly meals and keep track of recipes we like and want to repeat.
They are pretty darned, cute, no? You know how sometimes you are in the middle of something stressful and you focus on one little, tiny thing? Yeah, that. So I splurged on new shower curtains and those cute little rings that hold them up. You can get some really cool...
Jim, my husband of 32 years and I are about to start an adventure. Along with our two dogs, and about half of 28 years' worth of accumulated crap, we're moving to Jonesboro, Arkansas at the end of July. We've rented a small house — and when I say small, it's half the...
And I Did Not Cry Last night I spoke to Art Garfunkel. Now, this was not a private conversation. In fact, about 500 people (by Jim's estimation) bore witness. We were given a generous and special gift from my sister and brother-in-law, which included tickets to an...
Musings of a Bad First Grader I attended a Catholic school in first and second grade, a perfectly fine school. However, in Jonesboro, Arkansas at that time it was the only private school, and 99 percent of all of the children went to the public schools in town. They...
My mother is an incredible woman (This is not her arm). She's a registered nurse, and was one of the first nursing instructors at Arkansas State University when the program was new. After she left nursing, she was a stay-at-home mother for many years, though active in...
It's weird when my birthday is on Thanksgiving Day. My birthday is the one day each year when I give myself permission to be a little selfish and indulgent. I get control of the remote, choice of meals, and I don't do dishes, laundry, or any other housework. I love...
I'm at a World Series game. No, really. Game 4 at Busch Stadium. Cardinal baseball isn't just my obsession, it's a family tradition. And to baseball-obsessed folk, the World Series is pretty much the ultimate dream. When I found out I was going, thanks entirely to the...
I'm blessed with amazing friends, who are black white Christian Jewish atheist Muslim gay straight bi transsexual empty nesters parents of small children parents of teenagers childless geeks technophobes luddites conservative liberal young middle-aged old reserved...
My brother-in-law is an incredible cook. If he weren't an excellent physician, he'd own a restaurant and be a highly-regarded chef, I'm sure. So when he has tips for how to do something in the kitchen, I always listen. Here, he's demonstrating how he dices an onion....
Funk has at least three meanings: it is defined as a genre of music, a foul smell, or a dejected mood. I'm kind of familiar with the first definition, all-too acquainted with the second (we have dogs, remember?) and am currently experiencing the third. I've thought...