Sort of an everything update
Hey, folks,
It’s been kind of a zoo around here lately, and the only reason I’m finding the time to actually update this newsletter is because I hurt my shoulder yesterday and slept badly last night, so I cancelled plans to exercise horses this morning. Which meant that the other work I needed to get done got done earlier than expected.
(The shoulder’s fine, I just aggravated my bursitis doing some cleanup work at the barn. My shoulder will no longer tolerate anything that smacks of shoveling, no matter how slow and carefully I go. Also off the menu: any work that involves lifting my hands over my head for any length of time. Guess Scott gets to paint the tops of the walls from now on. One exciting thing about middle age is how your body rediscovers all the “healed” injuries from your twenties and thirties and reboots them.)
I answered a bunch of work emails, some of which had been languishing for (checks watch) and transcribed some stuff from last winter I want to turn into an essay or a poem about the cancer treatment.
Tuesday I had a cancer scan, which went very well, all things considered—no evidence of disease, see you next year—and tomorrow I have a six-month check-in with my medical oncologist, and then I see my GYN in October.
I also saw my new eye doctor on Monday and whew, that was not cheap. (I have terrible eyesight and my glasses cost the EARTH and my insurance has decided they will only pay for an eye exam every two years, which when you are at -9.5 diopters with an astigmatism and presbyopia, no.)
I got fitted for contact lenses for the first time in ages because glasses and masks as a combination suck donkey balls. I’m trying out the “slightly undercorrect one eye for reading” thing and folks, it is HORRIBLE. I nearly died trying to drive home from the eye doctor and it’s two blocks from my house. Gonna give it a few more days and see if my brain sorts it out, but not on days when I have to go anywhere. I managed to wear the contacts for about six or seven hours today and got a headache and half-paced work for my trouble.
Somehow I suspect there will be reading glasses in my future, for when I have the contacts in.
I have also had Adventures With The SSA and RMV trying to get my driver’s license updated to the new security theatre ID. I have it mostly accomplished, just need to go back to the RMV when I get back from Worldcon. (I will be home for exactly one full day and then we leave for a writing retreat in Ireland for two weeks, where I really hope to do massive damage to the remaining work on The Folded Sky.)
Ormr’s blood work came back positive for chronic Lyme disease and equivocal for EPM (most horses around here are seropositive for EPM, which is a microscopic parasite transmitted by possum poop, but most of them don’t *have* it.) so he’s getting a course of doxycycline for the Lyme and then we’re going to do a neuro workup when that’s done and see if we need to also treat for EPM.
Which costs the earth, so thank you loyal supporters for helping pay my horse’s medical bills. Not to mention my medical bills, because once you’ve had breast cancer you get to have the expensive mammograms, and insurance doesn’t cover those without a fairly significant copay. :P
The cancer tax is real. Yours for universal healthcare.
We checked out the petsitter on what the cats need while we’re gone. It’s so weird having travel plans again. Honestly I’m looking forward to getting these two trips and Viable Paradise handled so I can crawl back into my hole for six months or so. :D
I’ve also been having a terrible time with my autoimmune stuff, which is boring but I have an appointment with a new rheumatologist in October. So maybe… progress? Exercise has been spotty at best because of systemic pain.
I’m still working on my barre chords, though.
Anyway, the vet says light work is good for the Worm while he’s being treated for Lyme, so we’ve been taking little walks up the hill near the new barn, which he kind of loves because it’s a hayfield and there’s alfalfa and clover stubble to nibble on. He seems happy and already more energetic, and I’m sorry I missed getting to ride today but… well. This shoulder really hurts. We’ll go tomorrow.
:D
How are you all doing out there in radioland?