Two weeks ago today...

I had surgery to remove all my female reproductive organs. See previous posts. Oh look, it's still Thursday (but less than an hour to go until Friday). I meant to write this post earlier today, but it's my first day this week online and I got distracted with emails and of course the Facebork.

Yesterday (Wednesday 18 Feb) I saw the gynecologic oncologist for my post surgery checkup. All is well, more or less. There was indeed cancer in the endometrium, as he suspected there might be. It was stage 2 (of 3), so that's a little bit more frightening than had it only been stage 1. However, there was no cancer in the muscle of the uterus or in any of the lymph nodes he removed. He couldn't get to the lymph nodes on my left side because I have some wicked scarring in there. I have no idea how the scar tissue developed. Weird. Anyway, he saw no more cancer besides what was involved in the endometrium. Good news.

However, the cancer might return. Where? I ask, because I have no more uterus or ovaries or fallopian tubes to get the cancer. Ah, but there's still the vagina, he says. Oh. That would be very bad. I have no further need of the uterus, ovaries, or fallopian tubes. The vagina, on the other hand, still plays an important role in my life. And in Superman's life. The doctor says the greatest chance of developing cancer is in the next two years, so he wants to see me every three months for the next two years to continue monitoring the situation.

I thought once I lost the cervix (it's part of the uterus, so it is gone) I'd be done with PAP smears. No such luck, because now they'll PAP the vagina. Oh well. Probably not as uncomfortable as the cervical PAP. I hope.

I'm frankly a bit scared about recurrence. For years I figured I'd probably end up with some kind of cancer. The odds being what they are. Now I have had cancer, it's been surgically removed, and there appears to be no more of it in my body. Also, no further treatment is necessary. But now that I have had cancer, I'm afraid it might return. I really don't want any more cancer, thankyouverymuch. Haven't I paid my dues, Life? Eh, Life doesn't work that way. Life works thusly: Shit Happens. Sometimes it's good shit, sometimes it's bad shit, but shit continues to happen.

Speaking of shit happening; COLD. Today's high temp didn't quite reach freezing. That's very rare for our part of South Carolina. Tonight's low forecast is 11F. I know many of my blog buddies north of here are experiencing much colder temps, but by gosh, this is pretty cold for us. Dearest Daughter Light in western Pennsylvania hasn't seen anything close to above freezing in I don't know how long. It's amazing. Below zero Fahrenheit. Wicked whipping winds blowing snow horizontally. As of yesterday she was still alive. Haven't heard from her today, and I assume no news is good news. Surely she'd let me know if she froze to death, right? She fell on the ice last week, but didn't do any more harm than a couple of scrapes and bruises. Poor Ron, retired in Delaware, messed up his knee falling on the ice.

With this cold weather we got a bit of precipitation Monday. Freezing rain, which is the curse of the south. It rarely snows, but we get our share of freezing rain. Thankfully the roadways were warm enough to not ice over in most of this area. Just a bit north, in Greenville and Spartanburg counties, they had road ice. Anyway, the power lines iced up as did trees. We lost power for about four hours Tuesday morning, from 7:20 to 11:20, and that was a lot less time than some folks did. The houses across the street evidently are on a different trunk line or something, because the neighbor lost power at midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning. The power outage wasn't such a big deal, but the cable outage was. We get our internet through the cable company. No TV, no big deal. No internet, BIG deal! The internet came back yesterday late morning, but I had a doctor's appointment in the early afternoon and after that I was reading, so didn't hit the internet until this afternoon.

The recovery time for my surgery (I changed topics again) is from two to six weeks. The doctor has increased my maximum weight lifting limit. It was 10 lbs, is now 15 lbs. Also, I can drive again. In celebration (or something) I went to the grocery today. I had Superman bring home the two gallons of milk we needed when he came home for lunch, because milk is heavy. I got a few things this afternoon. It was my first time out by myself since before the surgery. Yesterday going to the doctor was my first time out of the house since I got home from the hospital two weeks ago Friday. As I may have mentioned here before, I have a touch of agoraphobia. I feel more comfortable at home. Don't like to go out, especially to large crowded spaces. Some days Wal-Mart freaks me the hell out. Today I went to Aldi, which is much smaller, and I went between 2 and 3 o'clock when the store was sparsely populated. Even then, by the time I got to the check out line the anxiety was ratcheting up. I managed to get home OK, though, and didn't take any anxiety meds. So good for me.

Per Herr Doctor's orders, I still need to "take it easy." Not lift more than 15 lbs for the next four weeks, so no going back to the gym for weight machines. I can walk the treadmills, though, and that would be a good idea. They had told me before surgery that I couldn't resume sexual intercourse for six weeks, so I said something to the doc yesterday about only four more weeks for that. Nope, now I have to wait six weeks from yesterday to have sex. Shit. This is turning into a depressingly celibate winter. At least we can still snuggle.

A Haiku, dedicated to my friends and relatives suffering in the winter weather up north:

Wicked whipping wind
Blows snow horizontally.
Damn, it's cold out there! 

stuff on Saturday

• Our temperatures have returned to seasonally appropriate levels. We've got rain at 41F (5C) all day today, tonight, and most of tomorrow. I waited outside the campus library yesterday afternoon for Superman to get me. It was overcast, though still dry, with a steady brisk breeze. I'm not exactly sure what the wind chill was at the time, but I was uncomfortably cool in jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt. 
• Manny came home from the repair shop yesterday! My mechanic, Ron, who loves me, talked to me earlier in the week to tell me my rear end had come in, but wasn't yet installed. (This is so fun.) They got it installed Thursday and he drove it around some. My rear end has been upgraded! I now have a limited-slip differential with a better gear ratio than the old one had. That means it has more power!!! It does, too. I can feel it in the way it drives and the way the gears shift. Ron says if I use 5th gear when I need to, the mileage should improve a little bit over what I was getting before. 
• I think I mentioned that the old differential was really torn up. Yes, I posted a picture taken with my cell phone camera of the ripped up differential case cover. I asked Ron if he still had the differential, but he'd already sold it for scrap to the salvage yard. He did still have the cover, however. I have it. I'm going to mount it on a plaque. If I weren't so lazy I'd go out to the garage and take a picture of it now, but I'll do that later. You need to see this thing. James, the other fella in the shop, says he's never seen a differential do that. And he's been working on cars for a long time. 
• My English class is studying Oedipus Rex now. Class met in the library yesterday to learn how to use the library's databases to research literature and literary stuff. I ended up staying there for 3 hours just looking up things that interest me. I'm curious about the role of the chorus in Greek drama. I found some interesting things. I hope to have time this weekend to write a brief paper on what I discovered, because the prof doesn't know this stuff either. We discussed it while reading over the play on Wednesday. The chorus has a chorus or choir leader, who in the translation we're reading is called the Choragos. He actually has a speaking part in which he interacts with Oedipus, though he is not listed in the dramatis personae. This had us confused. But I learned that he isn't a character within the play, therefore he's not listed with the other characters. Neither is the chorus itself. Evidently the Greeks just knew all this stuff. 
• I am debating about telling my English prof about this blog. On the one hand I'd like to. On the other hand, I may not want her to know some of the things I write about. Like stuff about her! Actually, if I can figure out how to do a protected post on Blogger I'd like to say some not-for-general-readership stuff about her. It's not anything negative, either, so don't go assuming things. 
• Superman and I got our taxes finished today. Well, actually our tax preparer got our taxes finished. We signed the papers. This is the nice lady, long-time friend of ours, with whom I had an interesting discussion about homosexuality last year at tax time. The topic did not come up today. Our tax refund is lookin' pretty sweet, though. Superman wants to buy a small used car with that money. 
• Back to Ron the Mechanic. Did I ever tell you that he is kinda sexy? He's short, probably a little shorter than I am, though not quite hobbit short. ;) He has put on a little bit of weight over the last couple of years, though he's not really heavy by any means. His most distinguishing characteristic is his eyes. He has the most gorgeous light blue eyes. OMG gorgeous! He often has the scruffy hasn't-shaved-in-a-few-days beard, too. That, to me, is getting sexier as I get older. Perhaps, though, that's been influenced by you. I've seen a lot of eye candy on other blogs; guys with that scruffy not-quite-a-beard. I don't really like that look so much on Superman, though, maybe because his whiskers are very coarse and uncomfortable to get too close to. 
• Twitch!! Let me tell you about how proud I am of that boy! He had his final Boy Scout council meeting this week and has now been promoted to the rank of Eagle Scout! This is a big deal, y'all. He has worked hard for many years for this. It's quite an accomplishment, and I'm very proud of him. I think I said that already. He needs to have his Eagle Scout ceremony now, when the rank will officially be awarded. We don't know yet how, when, or where that will be. I think he has to plan it, though. A lot of boys have the ceremony in their churches, but since we aren't exactly regulars at any church now, that probably won't be the case with him. Whatever, it'll happen sometime soon-ish. 
• My oral report for sociology on some aspect of homosexuality is due Tuesday. I have the article I will use. It's from the NY Times, December 10th edition, on the wave of new activists that came out of the Proposition 8 vote in California. The article begins with a reference to the Stonewall demonstrations in 1969. There are a few things I want to include in my presentation that aren't mentioned in the article, like the fact that homosexuality is not a choice. I corrected the prof in class on that point on Thursday. Yep, out loud, in class, right after he said it. I also explained that most recent studies (of which I am aware, anyway) indicate that the genetic factors come from a complex variety of gene markers. He had said something about scientists not finding "the gay gene." I said that the hormonal environment in the womb seems to have an impact on sexual orientation, and that as a woman has boys, the later boys born to her are more likely to be gay. I know I've read this stuff various places. I should probably write a paper with references for him. It would take a while to find all this stuff. Whatever. I'm not going to write that paper this weekend. I have the oral report to do, plus study for Thursday's exam in that class. Plus lots of other stuff...

That's about all I know now. I've got lots of studying to do, so I'm going to pretend to do that now. Have a lovely weekend, all and sundry. 

Winter comes to South Carolina

No winter-type precipitation at all, but we've got some nice cold temperatures. Currently, at approximately 8:45 a.m. the temperature is 15 F, -9 C. That's some decent cold for this area. We get temps like this maybe 5 to 10 days a year in a good year. It rarely gets much colder, just those extreme times that old folks remember. "Back in the winter of '08 we had us some bitter cold. My water pipes froze up and I couldn't take a shower for a week!" (for example) I know this seems mild to many of you from other colder places. But this is winter for us. It has been a long time coming this year. I hope we get plenty of this.