Monday Rambles

One day last week, I was getting ready for work in the morning, when I suddenly burst into this song.  Right when I got to the line about putting on make-up, I instantly transitioned to this song.  My only thought at the time was:  "People at work today better watch out!"

I have no idea what brought the songfest on, but I think part of it was the end of my chemo cycle.  I go for my second infusion tomorrow, so I think it's filtered out to the point where I'm on the (brief) upswing until the next round.

It was a pretty perky week overall, although I did end up having to take a couple of rest breaks along the line.

Sales were weak at the beginning, but closed out strong. I ended at Peddlers with my highest since Christmas.  I'm in the range I need to be for the larger space, finally.  I hope that I can maintain it.  I did sell several smaller pieces of furniture that edged things along:  a barstool, an old office chair and a CD/DVD rack.  I need to keep my eyes peeled for more stuff like that.  I also had a bonanza day, where I sold over 80 dollars worth of stuff off the St Attica wall.  Someone went home with a LOT of Madonna figurines, plastic rosaries, and prayer leaflets. Then on the next to the last day of the month, I sold nearly 40 comic books.  I get exhausted just thinking about it, sometimes!

I had the same kind of end of the month spurt at YesterNook too, where I sold nearly everything I had in the rough room in one day.  Sometimes, I don't feel so competent about my ability to handle larger items, so days like that give me a much-needed ego boost.

On Friday, I had to meet with my surgeon to fix a boo-boo on Beátriz, my scar.  She's healing well everywhere, but on one end a little fiber poked up through the skin and started to get irritated.  The doc plucked it right out, and everything was fine!  It was a subcutaneous stitch that kind of went the wrong way when it started to dissolve.  Sometimes it happens.

I also had an appointment with my primary care doc on Friday.  I love my doctor.  He's caring, intelligent, talks openly, and listens well--everything you want in a doctor, in other words.  One thing I hate most about this cancer thing is that he's become just one in a horde of doctors that I have to see.  It's just another appointment in an unending line of appointments.  It makes me a little sad.

There really weren't any sales worth hitting this weekend, and it was still quite foggy at 9:00 am.m, so I stayed in.  If anyone had set up in that dense fog, then the stuff would be all damp.  I just didn't want to mess with it.

I'd been intending for a long time to rescue what I thought were a couple of tubs of stuff from the early days of the booth that got buried in the shed.  I figured that would make up the booth load for the week and I would get some shed space out of it.  What I found were nearly a dozen tubs and boxes that I had completely forgotten about, some of it already priced!

I yanked it all out and brought it in the house.  The priced stuff will go to Peddlers Mall today.  The rest of it, I will price over the month and take in a bit at a time.   This kind of takes the pressure off me to find new stuff, in case I have some chemo reactions this month.  I can sit in bed and price stuff, if need be.

There's an added bonus, too.  If I do feel up to the hunt, I can put more effort into furniture and large items, knowing that I have the small stuff under control for a bit.  Woo hoo!  Since I have no idea what's in these boxes, it's also like shopping twice.  Not that I recommend letting shit sit hidden away forever not making you any money, mind you.  I'm just looking for the upsides in being this disorganized.

This is chemo week.  I get my second infusion on Tuesday, followed by IL2 shots on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  It's also a light work week.  I only go in on Monday and Wednesday, for a few hours each day.  That should give me time to rest, if needed.  I'll try to post an update here, if one is needed.

I am taking the liberty of pre-loading some posts for the week, so keep checking back.  There will be some content here.  I'll get back with you when I can.  I managed to do pretty well with posting in March and am back on track with my goal.  I hope to be able to keep that up this month.

We've still got a ways to go

Health updates time, everyone!

First the really good stuff:

1.  The teats are gone!  One of them did not want to pull out as easily as it was supposed to, but it's the same one that had been bothering me from the get-go.  It may have actually caused me some pain upon exit and a profane word or two may have escaped my lips as well.  But Agnes and the Earth Mother are gone!

2.  The stitches and sutures are out, too.  I wasn't expecting that this early, but they removed them.  The doc says everything looks fine and I am healing nicely.  I can go back to work tomorrow.

3.  The scar (just in time) has a name.  I am calling her Beátriz!  It just seems to fit.  The Spanish word for scar is "cicatriz" which is a bit to o obvious in this case for me.  But Beátriz is close enough to that and it retains the felling I want to go for with a marking I'm going to live with for the rest of me life.  Please note that it is not called "Bee-a-triss."  It's "Bay-AH-trees"!  Who would name a scar "Beatrice"?  Please!

4.  After getting checked out, we stopped by both booths, which do need lots of work, but were serviceable for a couple more days.  We made plans for a shifting of stuff to take place over the weekend.  I also found a very tiny bit of Xmas clearance leftover at Wal-Mart.  Not much selection, but I've made silk purses out of bigger sow's ears.

Now for the not-so-good stuff:

It's not over yet.  Sixtus was indeed a big ole lump of cancerous badness, even though I kept hoping that he might be made out of blueberry muffin or something nice.  The earlier inconclusive biopsy had held out some hope that he might have been just a cyst, but it was not to be.  Two of the lymph nodes they removed were cancerous as well.

What this means is that, for the first time in this long, strange journey with cancer, I am actually getting referred to an oncologist.  I never could do anything any way other than bass-ackward.

I'm being referred to one of the largest cancer centers in the region, one which also has a very strong national reputation.  I'm going to be in good hands there.  They also happen to have a nationally-recognized melanoma specialist on staff.

As to what the next steps are--chemo, radiation--I'll know more once I meet with the oncologist.  For the moment, I am trying to look at this as precautionary (to make sure we got it all) and preventative (to make sure nothing else is going to spread).  It makes sense to me to do this.  That's the perspective that I am trying to keep right now, at least until I get more information.

I'll let you know what happens.