How to get a bachelor's degree in one week

First, you go to college right out of high school. Five years later, and after dabbling in other areas besides your major, you get burned out and go home and work in a grocery store frying donuts then at the checkout and video rental until you get sick of that and find a job at the mom-and-pop radio station who's wiling to give a chance to someone with no experience but lots of enthusiasm and you have fun at what you call your "slacker job" for a few years until you get bored with that and up and quit one day and move back to the college town with all intentions of finishing your degree but that darn foreign language requirement keeps tripping you up because you just can't seem to conjugate anything more complex than "me gusta ..." and then a full-time job opens up in your field right there in town and so you get it and they don't seem too concerned that you don't actually have a degree so you just kind of drift through the next eight years until you realize that in that business, the only way things are going to change is because the bosses get stupider and stupider and care only about the bottom line, not what the mission of the business should be, so one day you check with the college and find out if you change your major to general studies you need only two credit hours -- and no foreign language -- to finish and there just happens to be two one-hour geology field trip classes in the summer that will fit the bill and 21 years after you started, you'll have a bachelor's degree with two days' worth of effort on a Sunday and the following Saturday.

Springing

Things are just springing up all over. I was out on the hill cleaning up flower beds this afternoon, and discovered the lamb's ears are sprouting. Hope they get along well before the grass does! My mini-irises are real pretty, there's daffodils with flower buds, hyacinths are sprouting ...

I've gotten a lot done today:
• made a batch of biscuits (I just wanted a drop biscuit or two for breakfast, but since I was too sleepy to read the ingredients list properly, I ended up with more than a dozen);
• cleaned up the kitchen, and got the dishes that need hand-washing done;
• took the recycling to the recycling center;
• cleaned up the garage and threw out a bunch of junk;
• put some other junk by my car so I can load it up Monday and take a trip to the county e-recycling center and the household hazardous waste site;
• painted an old popcorn tin to use as a container for all Buster's toys (that one's for you, Mom!);
• started a project to recycle my old cassette holder into something to help organize my computer desk area (more on that in a future post);
• cleaned up the aforementioned flower bed;
• put some chicken in the slow-cooker for shredding later this evening (and maybe some nachos tonight!).

That's it for the time being. Just taking a break before I take Buster for a walk and some playtime. I think he's liked being outside all day, but he's not happy he's not getting all my attention. When I sat down to start cleaning up the flower bed, he planted himself right in my lap for some affection!

Buster has been using his dog door when I'm not home, by the way. I found that out for sure this week when I came home on Tuesday. After I changed my clothes, I was about to sit on the bed to put my shoes on when I noticed the bed was covered with dead, dried up grass! "I wonder how that got here," I said, looking at Buster. He kind of ducked his head for a moment. And then I noticed that there was grass not only on the bed but at the foot of the bed ... across the bedroom floor out into the living room ... through the kitchen and dining area ... all the way to the dog door! I just had to laugh, really.

The MRI

So the MRI biopsy turned out great. The process was not that much fun. And since I started this blog in part to maybe give an idea of what cancer and its treatment are like, I thought I'd give it a description. Hope it helps someone.

The facility I went to, Cypress Medical Center, was great. The people were really nice and put me at ease. They weren't great at placing the IV, however. Three days later, and both my forearms are still bruised from where they poked me three or four times.

I went to the same room and MRI machine I'd been in the week before. I had to lie face down on the bench, and there were, for lack of a better description, cupholders. I had to put my arms up over my head. Then they made sure I was positioned correctly and squeezed the cup closed a bit (not as bad as a mammogram, though). Then they slid me into the machine. They ran an MRI on the breast again, and they'd told me if they didn't see anything this time, they wouldn't do the biopsy. That actually gave me a lot of hope. If there was something, they said, the computer would give them coordinates for the needle. The MRI took just a few minutes, and then the techs came back in the room and prepared me for the biopsy. That was a letdown, because obviously that meant they had seen something again.

I got a local anesthetic, so I didn't really feel anything. I mean, I could feel something, but it wasn't painful. Just kind of like being prodded. They inserted the needle, then it was back in the MRI so they could check the position of the needle. That took just a couple minutes. Then they came back in and went to work. There was just some whirring noise -- the needle getting tissue samples -- and that was it. This whole time, I was laying there with my arms streched above my head. It was making me stiff, so I brought my arms down and started to get up, but they stopped me -- I was still "pinned down" with the needle! So I had to wait a bit longer. As I finally did get up, I saw some blood in the "cupholder" and that kind of shook me. Not feeling or seeing anything, it was hard picture what was actually going on (even though deep down I did know). I guess it was just hat visual cue that reminded me what was going on.

Before I could leave, they had to patch me up. I had to lie on my back this time, and they cleaned the blood off me and then put a little "glue" to close the hole, then put one of those plastic "second skin" bandages on. I could shower the next day, they said, but no baths, and after taking the bandage off, I wasn't to scrub at the site for 10 days. When I did take the bandage off, I took a look, and was a little shocked. There's quite a hole there! Maybe it's mostly scab and the glue, but it looks almost a quarter-inch wide. So obviously, I'm not looking at it too much.

All in all, it wasn't horrible for me. But one woman in my support group last night said she wouldn't do an MRI again unless it was absolutely necessary -- with her arthritis, being in the MRI with her arms over her head was too painful. And I could certainly see how that could be. I'm not in too bad a shape, and the 15 or 20 minutes I was in there, it kind of hurt by the time I was done. I'll probably do it again, as the doctors recommend, but I don't know if I'd drive three hours for it again, unless the biopsy were necessary.

Everything's good

That's the news from the doc! After getting more and more anxious throughout the morning at work, I called my surgeon's office after the paper went to press, partly to see if the news was in, but mostly to make sure they had my cell phone number. Michelle, the office manager, took my number and said they hadn't gotten the report yet, so she would call and see if it was ready. About five minutes later, as I was talking to some friends about how anxious I was, my phone rang. It was Michelle -- Dr. K was in surgery for most of the day, but she was able to tell me the biopsy showed no cancer! Whoo-hoo!

I called my parents right away, then e-mailed my brother (I don't have his work number, and he usually just uses his cell phone for trips), and e-mailed a bunch of friends and ran around the building telling co-workers. More than a few tears were shed. My friend at work, Kim, and I went to lunch, and a bunch of us are going out for ice cream tomorrow. Hey, a girl's gotta celebrate!

My surgeon called later in the day (and she sounded a bit choked up, too). It's normal tissue. For some reason, and I guess there's not really anything to explain it, that particular area showed up as abnormal. But it's not, and that's great news. It's been kind of a stressful week, and I'm glad it's over!

Success!

We have a dog door! Dad and I got the door put in today. It's probably not as good a job as a pro would have done, but we got it done. One thing I found out: Don't assume your door is a solid-wood door just because it looks that way on the edge. Yep, my door is solid ... foam. Obviously, it made the job a lot easier than I thought it would be. And I definately couldn't have done it without Dad's help (BIG thanks, Dad!).

Now the task is getting Buster used to the idea he can go out whenever he wants. He was a bit scared of it at first, it seemed. He would only go through it if I held the flap out of the way (and some treats helped). But when I got home from the hotline tonight, he came out to greet me! He needed a bit of encouragement to come out through the door, but he did it without me holding the flap out of his way. I made him come in using the door, and he needed a bit more encouragement to do that. But he did, he got lots of loving and playing with his favorite squeaky toy! And as I've been sitting here at the computer, he keeps going to the door and sticking his head out, as if he's just checking what's going on in the yard. I'm sure he'll get the idea eventually. But life's going to be easier now, not having to run home on my long work days to let him out.

In other news

Spring is in sight. When I got home Tuesday, I took Buster out for a romp, and on the hill near the fence I spotted a few green sprigs of crocus leaves poking through the grass-clipping mulch. Ducks have been visiting my part of the creek the last few days. I've been seeing flocks of cranes heading north for about a week now, and of course the skunks are spreading their idea of perfume to attract a mate. Not to mention their carcasses on the highways, since they're too preoccupied to look both ways.

Today, it's supposed to be in the lower 70s, so I am going to attempt to put in a dog door so Buster can let himself out when I'm away at work. Actually, I guess there's no "attempt." Either I will put in a dog door or I'll need a new back door! Buster just will not go out when Dad comes over to let him out. I know he's somewhat fearful of men, but I would have thought he'd been around Dad enough to trust him when he opens the door and calls him to come out. But Dad says he always just hides in my bedroom. So yesterday, I closed both bedroom doors before I left for work. All Buster did was stand in the doorway, Dad said. He was really happy when I got home from the hotline at about 10:30! He went out about three times to do his business before we went to bed.

I'm pretty sure he'll catch on to the dog door quickly. A couple weeks ago, I used a big piece of cardboard with a dog-door sized hole to see how low I need to place the door that he can get in and out of OK. A few treats for enticement, and he was going through the cardboard with no problem. So maybe he's already got the idea in his head.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and cloudy maybe with some rain. I hope the rain misses us. I have the whole day off and I'd love to get out and start cleaning up the gardens a bit.