Madness In My Method

I haven't posted this here, mostly because it's been easier to copy/paste from test results into Facebook and text messages than to actually type out a lot of stuff here. However, I still kind of want to document more concretely my experiences.

( I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. )

So, I'm buying a house, and it's my birthday!

Woot!

My nephews are feeling fine, and the middle one is back at school and passing his classes again, unlike in the fall when he could only be bothered enough to wake up and check in to class and then fall back asleep on his bed.

My dad was sick, and now he's feeling better. The same with my sister and her boyfriend.

My mom is still pretty sick and still had not texted me that she has received her COVID results from her Tues test.

Hell week is mostly over. I have a couple things I need to gather and submit on Monday for the auditors, but otherwise I should be good to start my January processing. This is better than in December when I only had 12/28-30 available for processing due to vacation and holiday time-off I needed to take.

And....I woke up this morning with pain in my leg again, a little further down than before. Last week the pain was directly next to my knee. Now it's a few inches lower, near the top of my calf.

It's most likely the same clot moving down my leg. I'm not planning on another ER trip unless something gets really worse. I left a message to notify my PCP of the change, which they probably won't even hear until Monday, and who knows if they will request me to do anything. I've already scheduled a blood test to narrow down the anemia that showed up on my blood work, but the soonest that will be happening is Jan 29th thanks to so many other people needing tests right now.

Four More Days left on the Special Added Offer to 2020.

Last weekend I went for my regular blood donation, which happened to be at the nearby mall this go-round. I dragged my roommate out as well, as she's recently discovered that she's O- and trying to also get into the habit of donating regularly. Our appointments ended up being an hour apart and they were so fully booked there was no way to get her in sooner along with me, so we both had time to kill in the mall while waiting on the other.

While she was waiting and my blood was being drawn, she sent me a pic of the Brookie (brownie + cookie) from the cookie store in the mall. When I was done, we both went back inside for a minute to visit the Carter BloodCare table they had set up to 1)bring attention to the need for donations to mall-goers, and 2)give a thank you and a free movie pass coupon to those who donated. We both stopped by the table and said hi, and got our warm thank-yous and free movie cards.

It was time for her appointment, so she left and I stayed seated for a while inside. I walked through the clothing store right behind me to see if they might have shorts, but I didn't find any and returned to my chair in the promenade. From there I could see the cookie store and I could hear it calling my name. It was just then lunch time, and I was hungry, and we already had plans to eat after we both donated, but one cookie never hurt lunch, and I was supposed to keep my energy up. I decided to not only buy myself and the roommate a cookie each, but I also decided to buy the donation workers some cookies as well. I bought two dozen, one dozen without any nuts, and the other dozen with nuts, just in case someone had allergies. I took them to the guy at the table, and he was just so absolutely flabbergasted he almost didn't know what to say. I'm thinking, "Dude, it's just cookies. You're welcome."

The roommate took some pictures of the workers in the van when they received the cookies. They were gushing over the gift the whole time she was in there getting her blood drawn. You know, I like to make little gestures like that every so often. Cookies for blood donation workers. Breakfast burritos for my skeleton crew mechanics working on a Saturday. Little things like that. I know how much I appreciate when some vendor brings in food for a company they are trying to woo for business, so I also try to do the same every so often. Pay it forward kind of thing.

This morning I received a wonderful email, reminding me that little notions can have huge effects in some folks' lives:

Good Morning Nicole, this is John Thomas who you met last Saturday at NE Mall at the Blood Drive. I just wanted to say once again how wonderful you were to bring us those Cookies and how much everyone enjoyed them. That was so above what anyone has ever done by showing your appreciation for us as a Company and the people that make up what we go out and do on a daily basis. I just cannot say enough of your kindness that you showed.

Your Roommate was on the Bus when I took their Cookies to them and they were so delighted to receive such a kind jester. You cannot teach people how to be kind, they learn it from their parents or by watching others and they know the feeling of being treated special. You are a very special person and your kindness did not go unnoticed. Blessings to you and thank you once again!

Sincerely,

John Thomas
Consultant
Carter BloodCare

Another blood donation given.

I was supposed to schedule my next blood donation for the first weekend in June to give at Carter BloodCare, but I got lazy and put it off. I'm glad I did. American Red Cross announced this week that for an unspecified limited time they will be testing all blood donations for COVID-19 antibodies and giving results to donors. It takes 7-10 days, but I applaud both the knowledge and the reason to encourage more people to donate. I really wish Carter BloodCare did the same. I would much have preferred going to them with their brick-and-mortar locations and very large numbers of time slots across the board. I really just prefer them in general.

For the first time, the blood donation actually affected me. A couple hours after giving and after having eaten a late lunch and relaxed on the couch, I went into the bathroom and proceeded to do everything in my power to keep from fainting and falling, including beckoning one of the roommates in to watch over me for a moment. I tend to get low blood pressure dizzy spells that cause me to temporarily loose my eyesight in the mornings, usually after picking something off the ground or bending down to put away clean dishes in lower cabinets, but those only last a couple seconds. This went on for a few minutes and was worrisome. Boy, did my face get pale. I blame not having breakfast and then eating lunch too quickly and too soon afterwards. I agree with the roommate that it probably had something to do with all the blood going to my digestive processes and not enough left over for standing-up-straight processes. Overall, it took a couple of hours and lots of water (as recommended after a blood donation) to start feeling normal again.

Right now, bi-monthly blood donations are about the limit of how much I'm tracking time.

That plus at work I go from one month-end crunch time (which in accounting terms is what occurs right AFTER month-end until all the bookkeeping gets closed for the previous month) to the next.

I've been informed that I do still have a job at Six Flags, but despite them reopening tomorrow, I only have a single shift of approximately 5 hours scheduled for July 3rd. Again, so much for trying to earn extra income to jump-start my savings from late fall and winter expenditures.

I should still give thanks for having a job and a meager 2nd job, where some have none.

I am currently having hiccups while typing this up. This is the 3rd time in 24 hours. I typically get hiccups when I'm nervous, so I wonder what I'm nervous about.

This sucks.

I donated blood on Saturday. It's the first time I've done so since I was 18. That's because I've been lazy and thought it would take a while to schedule.

Nope.

At least here in North Texas, Carter BloodCare has many locations open 6 days a week (some are closed Tues and some are closed Sun). I was able to register and schedule online in about 10 minutes the night before, do my questionnaire the next morning in about 10 minutes while eating breakfast, and donate, which took a total of an hour including drive time, prepping, and refreshing, all before my hearty lunch the next day.

I'm type O-positive.

Whatever your type, your blood is in demand. Go donate.

I'm now putting it on my calendar for every two months (the most often I can donate if I give whole blood). I opted for whole blood because it's the best for giving the most amount of overall material when you don't know your type, which I didn't before I walked in, and you donate regularly, which I now plan to do. If I were O-negative, I would probably give double reds (once every 4 months max) to decrease how often I would donate. However, now that I know I'm not O-neg, I think whole blood will do the most good.

In-person interview with better paying job went well. I got the impression that the COO was quite impressed with me just from my previous phone interview and was doing her best to make sure the owner got to meet me. The CEO was pretty forward with his questions and never gave me any indication that I wasn't meeting his expectations with my answers, so I was either hitting the nail on the head, or he's got a great poker face. I'm actually crossing my fingers on this one. It's not in a 40 story building with 3 monitors set up just for me, and I'll most likely have to go back to emptying out my own trash again*, but I think it will be a much better fit for what appeals to my creative brain.

*As a note, this contract job is the first place I've worked where I do not have to empty my own trash bin (or at least be responsible for making sure all trash was emptied by an employee I supervise) since I worked at the Administrative Offices of the YMCA in 1996. It's one of those weird things that I don't typically think about, but it did cross my mind when I was still in the office at 6pm when a cleaning crew came in to empty the trash and sweep and vacuum the floors.

Six Flags closed yesterday due to the all-day heavy rain, and then announced in the afternoon it will follow suit and stay closed through the end of March due to the virus. This means I don't have to spend a second week on this side of sleep deprivation, but I'm also not getting the extra income either.

The current client I'm working with has finally given me a list of tasks to be working on. It only took them two weeks to get there. Despite being a non-employee contractor, I had to sit through a one-hour All-Hands meeting of around 100 people in a cramped meeting room on Monday so that the CEO could officially announce that they acquired another company that will bring their employee count to around 3000 and their expected annual (income or profits, can't recall which) to around $900MM. Given my level of sleep deprivation this week from working at both this job and Six Flags, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and keeping from doing the sleepy-bobble-head thing. That meeting was, of course, before the country went COVID-19 crazy and has started implementing self-quarantine measures even if you are not sick. THAT'S OKAY! If any person at the company was a carrier, we just finished turning ourselves into guinea pig sardines well before Armageddon was announced, so it's all good. Thursday morning, after virus-preventative announcements started going out, my supervisor at the company went Lysol crazy in the office, so much so that I couldn't breathe and the back of my throat stayed raw until about noon on Friday. If a virus doesn't kill me, not being able to breathe will most definitely do the trick.

So now I'm less stressed about sleep dep and interviews, but I'm still on pins and needles waiting to hear back on whether or not I got the job. I hope I get it. It would mean getting a position now that I was hoping to achieve after a couple of years doing consulting work.

At the surgery center, they had me all prepped and ready by 11:20. Surgery was scheduled for 11:30. My surgeon was stuck in another surgery at another hospital, so my surgery didn't start until 2:30. The first two hours were me just feeling awful from the shoulder nerve pain. Then they finally got approval to give me some fentanyl, and all was right with the world. I watched a little I Robot when my doctor showed up. I remember saying "see ya later" to my mom as she was pointed down a different hallway to the waiting room while I was being rolled in the operating room. The next thing I remember was waking up in recovery. I don't even remember if they asked me to count down backwards or anything.

As far as we could tell, I was also the only person having surgery that day. No one else in the waiting room. No one else in the pre-op. No one else in post-op. Mom asked them about it being really quiet and slow, and they said most folks get their surgeries done at the end of the year to use up FSA and other insurance related moneys. This was typical for January, so yeah, it was just me.

All Friday afternoon and evening I looked like a pale ghost and could only eat a bite or two of my food before feeling nauseous. So, it took me a couple hours to eat my tomato soup and grilled cheese while Mom and I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow until the roommates got home. She hadn't seen it. I opened a yogurt for dinner, but we think the cat ate more of it than I did, again because of the nausea. Kevin and Eileen brought me a cream liquor, some cheese, and later some edamame they brought home from their dinner, none of which I could touch. Even I saw myself in the mirror when I went to brush my teeth and wondered if I still had any red blood cells left in my body. I regained my color and felt pretty good the next morning. I made myself some bacon, french toast, and eggs, and later had a pork chop and salad for lunch.

The shoulder actually backed off hurting Saturday evening, so I was able to get a couple projects done. The surgical sight started feeling a little bruised by Saturday evening, but only when I press on it or accidentally try to reach for something far away with my right arm. Otherwise, it doesn't really hurt. Also, the right side of my trachea felt slightly bruised yesterday, which the anesthesiologist said might happen, but that's already feeling better. I'm still glad for the pain pills, because the shoulder issue still came back with a vengeance during my sleep last night.

This morning I finally get to take my shower. I had to keep the stitches dry for 24 hours, and it was just easier to not take a shower at all until now than to try to manipulate it so the right armpit didn't get wet. Oh, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this shower. Yay.

( OMG, There's More! /sarcasm )

So, long story short, I'm feeling a little better with meds for my nerve pinching issue and surgery has been postponed until I hear back from the surgeon's office. It's really good that this isn't an emergency surgery. At least now I won't have to figure out how in the hell I'm supposed to sleep with painful issues regarding both arms.

Hopefully the nerve issue will clear up in time for the surgery. That would be nice of it.