Although there is much less pain, I'm reminded by its unannounced intensity that there's still a large tumor in my breast. I think I'm doing just fine for a little while and then suddenly it will feel like I've just been stabbed with a needle or sharp hot knife. It doesn't last long, just a few seconds. But it's always enough to make me  gasp, and to take my breath away. Frack.

I still haven't gotten used to this new routine of being home so much of the time. I'm catching up on my reading and even reading a manuscript for a friend, a fellow writer. I'm hoping that the muse, my own use, will return soon so that I can continue to work on two books that I had started some time ago. I think it will be difficult to get my head back into that place where it was when I left off on each of them. One is a novel that I had started but with no idea where I was going with it. Not a smart move.

The other was autobiography in the form of fiction. Very revealing. I'm not sure that I ever want to finish that one, lol. I would have to change all of the names to protect all of the guilty parties involved. My own included. And because the events happened so many decades ago, I'll have to fictionalize much because I've forgotten so much and I'll need to fill in the blanks with whatever works.

So, the latest news is that the oncologist called yesterday to postpone my appointment, which would have been today. On Friday, March 30, I'll finally see her and I hope to learn some things then and maybe get this damn show on the road. It just sucks big time to not know any more than that I have cancer. As serious as cancer is, I think I haven't been hit with the full impact of this knowledge, mainly because I don't know how serious it is. How large is the tumor? How quickly will it grow? Is it possible to remove the tumor by itself? I have a dozen other questions at least.

Maybe I'm nuts, maybe I'm really wrong about this but if there's any way to deal with this without surgery, I really want to explore those possibilities. Surgery is not a good idea for me. My body is weak and I'm not sure I would survive it.

Enough for today, right? We are promised a couple of days of warm sunshine. I think I'll take advantage of that by soaking up some rays and working on my tan. Yeah, yeah, I know. Ask me if I care. LOL.

Holiday Greetings

Betsy is doing so much better. She's still pretty uncoordinated, but she can walk and almost run. She's the one in the back. Molly, her mom, is in the foreground. The Christmas decorations are faux, applied to the photo at pikipimp.com. I don't dress up my dogs in clothes. But CGI is okay for Christmas.

I promised myself I'd finish the latest short story by Christmas. I got close, but then I thought it might work to extend it quite a bit more. I like the characters and I think I can continue with their adventures. Something to think about.

Happy Holidays!

Doggie news

On Halloween morning, it was a Tuesday, our two dogs got out of our fenced yard by digging under it. One of them got hit by a car. It was bad. At first she was paralyzed from the neck down.

No broken bones, but swelling around the spinal cord and possible nerve damage. She was in the hospital two and a half weeks (quite a vet bill!) and is now recuperating at home.

She's on Prednisone, a corticosteroid. She's improving but it's slow going. She has a lot of spirit though, and we hope for a full recovery at some point, although we know it could be months and months.

Needless to say (funny how we say that before we feel the need to say something anyway) I haven't done a hell of a lot of writing. I did some work on that short story that I've been stuck on since forever. And I started my autobiography. Actually, not the full story of my life, and it'll be published under a pen name with names changed so that I can tell the juicy details. I'm having fun with that one.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, folks.

And a Happy New Year!