Appointments and Errands and Work Emails

I had three appointments today and then lunch with a friend and colleague.

The wound care nurse said that, under the circumstances, the wound and the growth are doing okay. The growth actually shrunk to about 17 x 13cm. She also said that, in her experience (and she hasn't had many patients with cancer), growths/wounds like this have very compromised tissue and it tends to bleed easily. It was bleeding awhile ago, but the powder seemed to keep it from bleeding. Lately, I've been using turmeric and she thinks that it is keeping it from getting infected and from bleeding. In other words, the wound/growth could be worse.

I also saw my acupuncturist and she treated me for the fatigue and anemia and pain in my armpit/shoulder mostly, but since I am also working to remove my ego from many sources of frustration and stress, she put in a couple of needles at "constitutional" (basic DNA level, which is pretty deep) points. What was interesting is that after she left so I can just sit there, one point, my third knuckle on my left hand, just started throbbing. That's the San Gao 4 point, which has to do with my essential self. The funny thing is that there was no needle there. She thought the fact that point was reacting was a good sign that energy was moving to that area to help my body remember my basic DNA (I think), which cancer has hi-jacked. The idea, I think, is for my body to remember my essential constitution (i.e., pre-cancer) and recreate that. So, I had a reaction that she considered a positive step toward my healing.

Lunch with my colleague and friend, K., was fun. I think we're going to put in a pre-proposal with another colleague to continue some work in Alaska. There's some good positive energy there, which was really cool. My issue is that the pre-proposal is a quick turn-around. We have to submit a 4-pager by April 6 and my surgery is April 1. So, I need to work on as much as I can before my surgery. And, that's on top of edits to an article, my syllabus, figuring out Dropbox, etc. K. and I also had to do a little debriefing from our Hawaii workshop.

Then, it was off to my teeth cleaning. I hate getting my teeth cleaned. But Monday evening, one of my crowns started aching a little. But she didn't see anything of concern. It just might be bruised from chewing a lot of gum or something. And, amazingly, the teeth cleaning was fairly easy and gentle. Usually, I feel like she's poking my gums something awful.

Eddie and I also ran a couple of errands. He started rereading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, so we got the last two in the series. He's going through one of those books a day.

Now, I'm just trying to get caught up with work emails. Man, they keep piling up.

Tonight, I'm just gonna watch reruns on TV. And, work a little on my syllabus.

I am enjoying watching things bloom and bud. But it feels like an awfully cool spring to date.

Countdown: 8.5 days and 17 dressings changes to go.