Health update and other random items of interest

First and foremost, the pathology came back from the lipoma they removed from my arm, and it was not malignant. This was expected, but it’s always good to see it in writing. For those wondering, it was 6 cm x 2.5 cm x 1 cm. So yeah, it needed to come out, especially since it was in such a weird position on top of my muscle. No wonder my grip had become so painful!

The wound is healing, but my arm is still partially numb from all the local anesthesia they had to inject. Hopefully that will start to return to normal soon. There is a LOT of bruising, so it looks pretty gross. The steristrips covering the suture (it’s one long running stitch, not several small ones) should start coming off in the next couple of days. They told me I could take them off after 10 days if they haven’t come off on their own, but the thought of doing it freaks me out. If that’s the case, I’ll probably go to urgent care and have them do it. I don’t have a follow up scheduled with anyone to make sure it’s healing right, which seems odd, but so far it seems to be okay. For those interested (and even if you weren’t interested, I guess you’re out of luck because I can’t hid the photo - sorry!), here’s what it looks like now (this was a couple of days ago):

Thanks to everyone who has reached out to see how I’m doing. I truly appreciate it!

For those that are the praying kind, please say a prayer for my stepsister Kathleen. She had a small TIA stroke behind her eye yesterday, and went to the ER last night. They ran a CAT scan which was normal, but were embarking on a battery of other tests when my mom talked to her. My other stepsister Patty is going up tomorrow (she’s in Wyoming) to check on her. We will see how she’s doing then may go up later.

In other health news, my mom had her six-month oncology check-in, and everything looks good. She’ll do another mammogram in a few months, then another in April (basically every six months). Thankfully things still look good.

Touring Celestial Seasonings

A couple of days after my surgery my mom and I went to Boulder to tour the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. It was so fun! We learned so much about the tea making process, and saw the various machines putting boxes together, filling the boxes, etc. It was fascinating. We got to sample a number of teas and spent some time in their ginormous gift shop. If you’re ever in the area and want to do this, let me know. I’ll totally go again. It was only $6 per person! So basically free. And don’t we look fetching in our hairnets?

And yes, they really are located on Sleepytime Drive!

Book and Movie Updates

I’ve only finished one book since I last updated you, and am in the middle of another…

I watched one movie and two documentaries at home, but I do plan to visit the theatre next week to see The Odyssey.

And finally, a crazy story for you…

Late Monday night, as I was watching the second season of Avatar on Netflix, I thought I heard a doorbell. I was fairly certain there were no doorbells in the land of Avatar, so I paused the show and heard it again. And then I heard someone pounding on the front door. Mind you, it was a little after midnight. To say I was freaked out would be an understatement. I looked out the window in my upstairs mini den (which overlooks the garage in front of the house) and saw two big trucks with flashing lights. At first I thought they were fire trucks, but then realized they were some sort of utility vehicles.

I called my mom (woke her up, obviously), and asked her to come up and see if she could tell who they were. I told her to make sure she did not disable the house alarm. She yelled through the door to see if she could figure out who they were or what they wanted, but they either didn’t hear her or didn’t feel like responding. I called 9-1-1.

As I was talking to 9-1-1 and relaying what was happening, my mom said, “They’re in the backyard.” This is not interesting at any hour of the day, much less at midnight! The 9-1-1 operator (who was AWESOME, by the way) had already dispatched the police, but when I told her they had come into the yard (through our closed gate, mind you) she said they would arrive with their lights and sirens on. She stayed on the phone with me until they arrived.

The police talked to them, checked their paperwork. and then came to the door. My mom disabled the alarm so we could open the door and talk to the officer, who was also extremely nice and helpful. Turns out, this was Xcel energy, our gas/electric company, and they needed to get to this piece of equipment that is, for some reason known only to them and whomever built this house, in our backyard. They have had to come check it before, but it’s always been during the day.

The workers and the trucks left a few minutes after we spoke to the police, but needless to say, we were wide awake at that point. So we watched some TV for a while then went back to our respective rooms and were somehow able to actually get some sleep.

But like, why didn’t Xcel alert us that people would be showing up at our house in the middle of the night? They have our phone numbers, which they could have called or messaged. I was awake and would have heard/seen it. There was absolutely no reason for this to happen and freak us out like that. My mom called Xcel yesterday and relayed exactly what had happened, and they were baffled. We made it clear that this cannot happen again. We’ve watched way too many crime fiction shows and read too many mysteries to be opening our door to random people at midnight! Honestly.

Music Update

Here’s some new music I’ve been listening to, in addition to a wide variety of other music. I’m still listening to a lot of Ed Sheeran post-concert, and a lot of BTS in preparation for seeing them again later this year. Next up on my concert schedule is Kelly Clarkson, and I’m super excited about that. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen her. After that I’ve got Andy Grammar, BTS, Bruno Mars, Sara Bareilles and Switchfoot. Whew! Seems like old times with all these shows. I love it.

The new Switchfoot album is excellent! Highly recommend. Y’all know they’re a fave, and I can’t wait to see them live later this year. Here are the videos from the first two singles…so good! Happy listening!

Until next time…