CRAZY TOWN WAITING ROOM - TESTS coming up? All Stages Welcome.
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Still in Connecticut, sale fell through on our house so we couldn’t get the house we had put an offer on. So instead of trying to buy a house, we bought a piece of land near my hometown. We are putting the house back on the market next year and plan on building a modular next year on the land we bought
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Still here in Connecticut. Can’t build until next year as the winter out in Wisconsin was brutal and people have lots of repairs on their houses to do. Started classes to finish my Bachelor’s degree earlier this year. Majoring in English. So it’s keeping me occupied for the time being.
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I majored in English, but not gonna tell you how long ago…just too depressing!
I like CT—every time I go there (en route to or from MA or NY) I'm amazed at how lovely it can be.
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Just checking in. In Sept. I was dx'ed with osteoporosis, but couldn't get an endocrinologist appt. till Jan. and then first available Prolia appt. was Feb. (Next shot is Aug. 1—and I will be on it 2x/yr for at least 10 yrs or the rest of my life). Then in Apr. routine CBC showed an "MGUS" (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance), which slightly compromises my immunity and raises my risk of multiple myeloma by 1%/yr for the next decade (again, at my age—72, with a highly vascularized ocular melanoma—assuming I last that long). Then a few days ago, because my gait was occasionally sort of "shuffle-y" instead of heel-to-toe and I was wearing rubber-soled shoes with a tread pattern that acts like a suction cup, my shoe stuck to the highly-polished marble floor inside Bloomingdale's and I pitched forward. Down I went, breaking my R elbow, bruising the heel of my hand and causing ulnar nerve entrapment (numb pinky & ring finger), lacerating my palm on the glass charms of my faux-Pandora medical ID bracelet, and bruising (but not breaking, thanks to ample "padding") my R hip. Spent 5 hrs. in the ER (4.5 of them post-triage). R arm is in a sling, pending followup ortho appt. Tues. I see lots of PT and gait re-training in my near future. (Bob, my DH who's a doctor, says this was definitely not an osteoporotic "fragility fracture," but rather "major trauma" which would have cracked even a strong bone). Still, no schlepping instruments to gigs, at least not till the folk festival I'll be doing Labor Day. I can drive but very carefully, and no carrying shopping bags with that arm.
None of the falls I've taken since 2018 were due to slipping or impaired balance, but rather to "shoe malfunctions:" either rubber sole sticking to a floor or a fleece-lined clog falling off my foot as I climbed a carpeted staircase. And in 2010, my Croc stuck to the floor as I walked a linoleum hallway—I pitched forward & didn't fall, but stress-fractured a metatarsal before I righted myself and stood up straight to continue on my way. (I wasn't even osteopenic back then).
Then, because my ocular oncologist was attending and presenting at the ASCO conference, he had to postpone my every-3-month followup scans/exam appt. an extra month from last week to July 11. Hope the tumor remains "stable" (if it does, I can go to twice a year). The next day I have my twice-yearly abdominal MRR/chest X-ray scheduled, followed by bloodwork, for my regular melanoma-oncologist appt. the following Mon. I always sweat that MRI, because ocular melanoma goes to the liver first should it metastasize—which it has a 50% chance of doing, with few if any treatments available should it do so.
Lost my almost-16-yr-old boy kitty in Feb. to a 3-yr battle with IBD that turned into lymphoma and then kidney failure. My one remaining kitty is 18-1/2, requiring extra care.because she's hyperthyroid, deaf, increasingly demented and half-blind. But she still has a healthy appetite and enjoys her life (and lots of snuggles & cuddles).
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
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Doing well in classes. The latest estimate on when I should be done with everything is so far around Christmas next year. I’m almost done with my 3rd term of 8 weeks at a time.
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Saw the followup ortho who said the fracture was "minimally displaced" and that I was free to ditch the sling; and to resume activity "as tolerated." Decided to check in with my own hand/arm surgeon (who treated me in 2018)—he said it's "non-displaced" and suggested PT for any residual shoulder discomfort/reduced ROM. Dawdled on setting that up because yet another Crazy-Town-eligible problem cropped up a few weeks ago:
After my son Gordy came home from a trip to the Seattle area with a third case of COVID, I began feeling scratchy-throated & tired too (even though I didn't even see him, just talked via texts). Two home tests were negative, but I cancelled my regular dental cleaning because I didn't want to give the hygienist my cold (or so I thought it was). I did notice that the gum just below an "exostosis" (a bone spur on the outer side of the gum over my upper R premolar & molar) had gotten a little "flabby."
The day after what would have gone to the dentist, I went out to dinner, shared a "wedge" salad with large hard sharp chunks of bacon—and one of those impaled itself on that patch of gum. Hurt like hell—and when I pulled it out I bled a bit. Panicked, I texted my dentist, saying I was afraid this could be early ONJ (having resumed Prolia in Feb. and due for the next shot 8/1). He said to postpone the shot and referred me to the oral surgeon he uses. I got an appt. for tomorrow, 8/3.
A few days later—too long for my usual cold, I still hadn't felt better, so I decided not to home-test because I feared it'd just be another false-negative. I went to urgent care for a PCR test for COVID & flu. While I was there the NP looked at my throat and asked if I minded her swabbing that too. I said "go ahead." The test results? Negative for COVID & flu…but positive for strep! The PA said the NP was clued in because my "tonsils looked swollen and had a white patch." Say WHAT? My tonsils were removed when I was 6 years old! Turns out that, being essentially lymph glands, they can grow back! The PA said Chicago is seeing 10x as much strep these days as COVID, despite the season usually ending in mid-spring.
I haven't had any dental procedures that involved bone (extractions, implants, deep root planing) since long before breast cancer (root planing was >20 yrs ago). My dentist cleared me to resume Prolia. But I'm freaking out because that patch of gum tissue feels sunken and looks slightly translucent—not sure that what may be slightly visible through it is bone or just tooth roots. I've had that bone spur for decades—and none of my dentists (dentist, endodontist, periodontist, orthodontist) said it was anything to worry about.
If it is ONJ, I'm hoping it's Stage 0 (bone not yet poking through), treatable with mouthwashes & surveillance. If it's not ONJ, I will re-start Prolia—I'm at an age now (72) when a broken hip could kill me w/in a year, which happened to a friend a couple of years younger than me.
But on the bright side, my liver MRI and bloodwork were normal. I then saw my ocular onc and had my eye scans—the tumor has shrunk about a tenth of a mm. And he doesn't want to see me till January 2024!
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Completion of my degree is now around Halloween next year.
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Well since the last time I was on this thread, my degree completion date has moved up drastically. In my final term so I should be done and have my degree by early August! Yippee!
Still in Connecticut! May not get out of here until early Fall and still can’t build the modular until next year, boo! But at least I might be able to have my first Turkey Day and Christmas with my family back home if all goes well this year, even if we are in a short term rental out there! Praying we will be out of here by early Fall!
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Congrats, m0mmy!
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Just an update (besides all the non-medical "adventures" since I last posted here): on May 28 I saw my derm for a small pimple on my arm that had begun to form a central hard "horn." A shave biopsy showed it was a squamous cell carcinoma with "verrucous (wart-y) "features." Had excision planned for June 11, but said "adventures" (which required a lot of heavy lifting that is contraindicated) made that impossible. Was able to reschedule for July 9—which my derm assures me is not too late to be safe. Stay tuned.
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I see my gyn on Monday in prep for ovary removal near the end of the month.
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