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dcnovice -> DC Update: I'm on "Clearance" (3/25/2015 5:19:42 PM)
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March 25, 2015
I’m on “Clearance”
Dear Ones ---
Today, after much dragging of weary feet, I began the process of collecting “clearances” (a word that always makes me think of Kmart specials) for my still-unscheduled surgery. I started with my primary care doctor.
It was, I’ll be honest, a hard afternoon. There are several specialists she’d like me to see to follow up on loose ends from my earlier adventures. Then she examined my wound site, which she hadn’t seen before—and which I, of course, have never seen despite its being the focus of my life for months now. She wasn’t happy with what she saw.
“It looks pus-y,” she said. “I think there’s some sort of infection going on. I need to call your surgeon now, and I want her to see you as soon as possible.” Turns out my wound specialist/plastic surgeon, is on vacation, so the doc connected with her nurse. Long story short, I have an appointment at Georgetown’s Center for Wound Healing tomorrow morning. The covering doc will see me. Please God, he won’t use the A-word (i.e., “admit”).
With my equatorial region, as Woodrow Wilson called it, getting so much attention, my upper body’s grown jealous. So my chest sprouted some sort of zit-looking bump that the doctor thinks may be a form of, you guessed it, cancer. I believe the ten-dollar name is basal-cell carcinoma. So I’ll be calling a dermatologist too. Fortunately, the spot, whatever it turns out to be, is a lonely island in a fleshy sea. The doctor didn’t seem unduly worried, so I’m not panicking—which I don’t have the energy for anyway.
The second half of tomorrow’s double-header, after the wound clinic, will be seeing a cardio nurse-practitioner to get her blessing for my surgery. Fingers crossed!
On a brighter note, my brother was in town yesterday, and we had a lovely lunch before he went to give a presentation and I headed to work. And the cleaning lady came today, so a gleaming apartment awaited me after my doctor’s appointment. (I now can’t find anything, but that’s another story.) That also meant a freshly made bed on which I could rest, regroup, and read. I’m hugely enjoying Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, a fascinating look at a myriad-faceted man.
Further bulletins as events warrant. As always, thanks for being there!
Cheers,
DC
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