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Better update

Had those new mammogram pics done this morning–and the long and short of it is, yeah, they think they were looking at scar tissue. I am to come back in six months for another followup just to keep an eye on it, and they also recommend a new baseline, post-reduction MRI just so that they have a new baseline for what it looks like in there.

So, yeah. Good to get that confirmed and I am deeply relieved. Or at least I will be when I get my energy back from being worn out from being nervous and tense!

Again, thanks all for your good wishes. Very much appreciated.

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Update

So, rough sleep last night, lots of trying not to flip out, and obsessively shooting the heads off of zombies. Oh yeah, and making myself actually work on Lament. Last night, not so fun.

Heard back from Dr. McMillan’s office who had no idea what was up with the mammogram stuff, so that told me that whatever was up with that, it wasn’t prompted by them. So I called the breast center people back, and they pointed me at the records nurse, who looked in my actual file to find out WTF. She said Dr. Carlson (who I actually met, I think, during the last round of BFFN) had noted something about a bit of a thing that was visible from one angle and not from another, so they wanted more angles of that. According to what the nurse described, it sounded like it could well just be scarring from my reduction.

So. Still nervous but not quite so paranoid. Keep your fingers crossed, people.

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Oh HELL no

I just got called by Evergreen. They want me to come in for followup pictures for the left mammogram I just had last week. The scheduling desk doesn’t say why; they don’t have that data. So I’ve had to leave messages with Dr. McMillan’s office as well as Dr. Towbin’s to ask them WTF, as they’re the ones who got the actual report and who would presumably have requested the followup pictures.

It is within the realm of reason that this may just be a scenario of scar tissue on my left side making the scan turn out weird. Or hell, just pictures that got fucked up for some technical reason. I will be focusing on this, because really, seriously, I am not up for Round Three of this shit.

Please to be directing any positive thoughts towards the least annoying scenario here, people. Thank you in advance. I’ll be over here trying not to be stressy and irritable and paranoid until Thursday morning, when I go in for the followup scans.

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Quiet weekend

What with userinfosolarbird being out of town this weekend, I’ve taken it upon myself to have some quiet me time, which I really rather needed. Just getting caught up on my sleep is a win. But so is doing various and sundry small chores and errands that needed doing, such as getting the checkbook caught up, buying reflective red tape to go over the broken lens on our right rear taillight*, picking up some more long and therefore work-appropriate shorts to wear to work as well as some badly needed sports bras, and washing clothes and sheets and towels.

Friday night we had all the Bothell crowd as well as userinfojennygriffee come over for more tabletop gaming, and while that was quite hectic, it was also fun. I continue to be full of Win for little Moira and Lillian, and this time around I also got little William’s attention; the boy thought it was great fun to try to help me play my guitar. He’s shyer than the girls and doesn’t talk nearly as much, so it was pretty neat to see him perk up.

Lily and Moira love going up our stairs and peeking in my bedroom because I have a big bed they can bounce on, and also, we have a cache of stuffed animals in there. But they also love making me (as well as any other convenient grownups) chase them in circles around the main floor of the house. Lily in particular commanded me to “be a dinosaur!”, so I apparently need to get right to work on my T-rex impersonation. ;) Meanwhile, Moira wanted to further investigate our DVD collection, and when she spotted the pink boxes that contain our Cardcaptor Sakura anime episodes, I went ahead and let her watch that figuring that it wouldn’t be too scary for her or Lily. userinfokathrynt tells me that Lily in fact is experimenting with being scared, and likes to identify things as “scary”.

This led to one of the cutest things I’ve heard coming out of a two-year-old mouth lately: “scary toilet paper lady” to describe the antagonist character in the movie I showed them. Hee.

And, Moira insisted that I “protect” her while she was watching the movie, and sat in my lap. Aw. <3 It should also be noted that Lily furthermore kept asking me for "Donkey Riding", and when she spotted the background pic of Great Big Sea on my computer, pointed at it and said "that's a picture of Donkey Riding!" She's still a little shaky on which name goes with the band and which name goes with the song, but she clearly now knows the faces of Great Big Sea when she sees them. Mostly. She also thought Eddie Izzard on my T-shirt was Sean, I think. I put her straight! Yesterday morning Q then IMed me to tell me that Lily told her "we put on shoes and go over to my Anna's house!" I am apparently now Lillian's Anna! Who knew? Unrelatedly, last night while working on checkbook balancing, I re-watched TOS's "Doomsday Machine" episode (some awesome mileage of The Kirk), Master and Commander (which I think is now well and solidly my favorite Russell Crowe movie Ever), and another 4th season episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which is still bringing the wacky).

* Why the hell can’t I buy just a replacement lens for that taillight, anyway? The light itself is intact, it’s just the outer lower bit of the lens that’s broken. But according to the guys at Schuck’s the assembly is all they have, and they wanted $130 for it. I bought a $5 roll of reflective red headlight repair tape instead and used that. Which should do me for now and hopefully satisfy the next cop that tries to pull me over for having a broken taillight.

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Things I forgot to mention from over the weekend

I have bought more books:

  • userinfoblackaire‘s Street Magic (which y’all may recall I read earlier this year in ARC form, and which I liked quite a bit)
  • Phaedra Weldon‘s Wraith (which got my attention because of its cover blurb referencing Tanya Huff’s Vicki Nelsons, which is a really good way to get my attention)
  • J.D. Robb’s latest In Death, Salvation in Death, because obligatory
  • Steve Alten’s The Loch, an impulse buy off the grocery rack, and,
  • The first graphic novel volume of the adaptation of Storm Front, because also obligatory

This brings the total number of books purchased this year up to 35. For general reference I am also actually ahead of this count still, with books read–I’m just behind on posting reviews. But more reviews are coming!

(Special side note to userinforaecarson: I just finished userinfoccfinlay‘s The Patriot Witch on my way home tonight and liked it quite a bit! I will be buying book 2.)

Meanwhile it must also be said that userinfospazzkat, userinfosolarbird, and I saw Up this weekend, and it was charming and delightful indeed. Not as epic as Wall-E, to be sure, nor quite as magically enchanting as Ratatouille, but still a masterwork nonetheless. There is a certain sweet emotional maturity to Ed Asner’s cranky old man’s character arc that I really liked. Also? The talking dog totally runs off with the movie. <3 userinfosolarbird is going to Boston tomorrow for a high school reunion, a visit with userinfolyonesse, and a surprise gig at a local farmer’s market! Which is awesome. But I shall have to stay behind as I don’t have enough leave saved up yet to go with her. My first bit of leave-spending gets to come next month when we go to DISNEYLAND!

Also: I have purchased Plants Vs. Zombies, and am on level 3-9, and it is kicking my ass. But it is also bringing me massive amounts of amusement, and I can’t get the damn theme song out of my head. Because there are zombies on my lawn. ZOMBIES, I TELL YOU!

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Everybody tell Kit YEAH!

The redoubtable userinfomizkit‘s had a couple of milestones this week and you should all go tell her congratulations. First of all, she’s had a birthday! (Happy birthday belated, Kit!)

Second, the first three books of her very first series, the Walker Papers, have now been released in mass-market paperback editions! So if you’ve been curious about checking out her novels, you now have a shot at mass-market prices. Go to, enjoy, and tell her I sent you.

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I win at two-year-old!

So Friday night userinfokathrynt IM’d me out of the blue saying that she and userinfoemmacrew were going to dash down to Berkeley for a show they were desperate to see, since they’d scored very cheap roundtrip airfare, and would it be at all possible for me to come over and watch her little girl Lillian since Lily’s daddy userinfollachglin was going to be occupied with an all-day RPG session?

Sure, I said, since I like Q and Erik and I like their kid too. Q obligingly came over to pick me up for my chiro appointment yesterday morning and then bought me tasty food at Caffe Ladro, and then I hung out with Lily for a couple of hours and engaged in various methods of Entertaining a Two-Year-Old. Mostly this involved running around after her in circles in the backyard, giving her a ride on my shoulders, and joining her in throwing balls of various sizes in random directions. We did also have a cogent discussion (well, cogent for a two-year-old) about why the airplane she spotted making a line across the sky would not in fact be able to “come here!”

That was all fun. Then last night several friends came over for pleasant tabletop gaming: userinfojessicac and her little girl Moira (who is good friends with Lily), userinfogargoyd, userinfowrog and his little boy William, and userinfojennygriffee! For extra bonus child amusement, we also had Lily since Jessica had taken over Lilywatching, until Erik could come by our place and pick her up. That was all fun too.

However, I didn’t get in as much of the cardplaying as the other grownups did–because the children decided that I was the best possible play participant. Apparently I won quite a few points by putting on the Great Big DVD and playing “Donkey Riding”, which Lily and Moira both adore. (And I’m telling ya, folks, there are few things cuter than a pair of two-year-olds trying to beat on a big drum and singing “Donkey Riding” as best they can in their not-yet-developed voices, right along with my B’ys.) I got more points by playing the Lift Them Off the Edge of the Couch Game, in which my part was to hoist them up over the edge of the couch every time they went “I CAN’T REACH!” Related to this, there was also the Who Could Possibly Be Behind Me? Game, in which my job was apparently to sit in my usual spot on the couch while small persons got behind me and giggled while I said “I wonder who this is behind me?” and they’d say “ME!”

Moira asked me at one point if I was a mommy, and I told them no, I was their mommy’s friend and that my name was Anna. This apparently stuck. Q IM’d me this afternoon to inform me that her little girl was saying, “I want my Anna. I want to go see my Anna. I want my Anna back. I DO need my Anna!”

I win at making friends and influencing two-year-olds. <3

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Stressy Anna is stressed

And because of this, I’m going to try to post about assorted Things That Don’t Suck.

This past weekend: Street Fair. Got to go with userinfosolarbird, and I got a new hat, and Dara bought several cute things to wear, and Tasty Food was eaten as well. Got to see userinfomamishka as well as assorted other folks I know from online and the local filking crowd, userinfovixyish and userinfogfish and userinfohsifyppah and userinfotereshkova2001.

Also this past weekend: Starting to watch Season 2 of Life on Mars. This show is made entirely of Awesome, and I am sad that there are only two seasons of it, because next time I see the Master on the Doctor he totally will be DI Tyler instead. And that’ll be just plain weird.

Yesterday: Lots of new music purchased, including Carbon Leaf’s shiny brand new album, Nothing Rhymes With Woman. More thoughts on this will be forthcoming. Also, as a special side note to userinfoseimaisin, I must note I’ve also picked up Gaelic Storm’s second and third albums, and lo, there is Awesomeness. I am particularly amused that GS covers a song I was originally introduced to by Heather Alexander: “South Australia”. Seriously, though–GS clearly got their shit together as of album #2, because their vocals are a lot stronger, and I’m finding both the second and third albums actively groovy.

And oh yes: it totally fails to suck that I found an lj user tag parser for WordPress, so even though I’m doing a lot of crossposting out of WordPress these days, I can still do lj style tags. Because it totally messes me up when I can’t!

More later. I need sleep!

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Book buying update!

In addition to going to see Trek this past Friday, I also made a point of picking up more books over the weekend! Including:

The Pretender’s Crown, Book 2 of mizkit‘s Inheritors’ Cycle! Very much looking forward to this.

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels, which is pretty much self-explanatory! Had to pick this up after being a longstanding reader of Smart Bitches Trashy Books.

The Patriot Witch, by C.C. Finlay, which has been heartily endorsed by raecarson!

And picked up separately:

Tribute, by Nora Roberts, just because La Nora is awesome.

Total books purchased for 2009 now: 30!

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Trek trek trekity trek trek trek

So yeah, on Friday night, solarbird and spazzkat and I went to go have tasty sushi and see the new Trek movie. The sushi was undisputably tasty, as was the plum wine I had with it. We had a bit of a difference of opinion as to the tastiness of the movie, though!

Picoreview on my part: Big Stupid Fun. There are bits of science in it that make you go “wait, WHAT?” even by Trek standards. But here’s the thing: at least while I was watching the movie, I didn’t care. All the characters were Right and that’s pretty much what counted as far as I am concerned. Bonus points for Dara and I having fun geeking about the ramifications of events in the movie, and Dara telling me that say what you will about this new film, it’s gotten her Trekgeeking for the first time in twenty years.

Spoilers behind the cut!

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