Good News

Received good news last night from my doctor: my lymph nodes are benign. No cancer. No nothing.

Rejoice as you see fit.

It's finally sinking in, as I had seriously schooled myself for bad news.

Back to School

And boy, was I tired by the end. It was interesting to see people's reactions to the incision in my neck. An entire group of eighth graders stared and I nearly got them to believe that I had been in a knife fight.

Surgery Recap

So, I had two lymph nodes removed from my neck yesterday. Recovery from anesthesia took a very long time, no big surprise there. My surgery finished at about noon, but I slept with no knowledge of anything for at least two hours after that, and then it took me another almost three to leave the hospital. Everyone at Johns Hopkins was awesomely nice and competent. No one spoke to me like I was an idiot incapable of understanding everything. And, my anesthesiologist was Superman. No, really: his name was Christopher Reeves.

Pathology will hopefully be back in 3-5 days and I'll hopefully feel well enough by this afternoon (i.e. not exhausted still) to want to go back to work tomorrow. It's not like there's a lot to do, what with the freshmen being out and all, but just the same. My incision has been sealed up with tissue glue, which means that there are no stitches, but it sort of looks like I got in a knife fight or was an extra in a slasher film.

I bring the funny.

The Weather & "How You Doing?"

First, let me say that the weather in southern Maryland is completely, absolutely perfect today. It's about 70 degrees, dry, breezy, and sunny without a cloud in the sky. Our internet, TV, and phone got hooked up today, which is excellent for so many reasons.

On the other hand, the question that everyone has been asking me for the past week is "how are you doing?" The reflexive answer to this one is "fine." With friends even, though they are also getting the followup, "No, that's a lie, I'm having a shitty week." Truly, I'm not actually sure if people want to know the answer, most of the time.

4 weeks of school left, thank goodness. Surgery, and hopefully news, on Tuesday.

Countdown to News

Playing the waiting game is difficult at best, no matter what kind: job, personal, health, financial, etc. I am currently waiting for my lymph node removal on May 20. The lymph node needs to be removed so that it can be tested for Hodgkins. What I really need to do for myself in the midst of the waiting is avoid reading anything about cancer and resist the temptation to Google. Articles like this (towards the end) and searches like this can only bring on the freak out. Just one of those cases where avoidance is going to be better than information. If I get diagnosed with such a thing, then I can look up all the information I can handle.

I really hope that the pathology on the lymph node comes back ASAP.