To read my Colon Cancer Story, Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE. What specifically made you seek medical attention? The pain. I shrugged off the blood in my stool — both the red, fresh blood and the dark, old blood. I know better, but honestly? With Covid-19 and sheltering-at-home, I wasn’t willing to go to the doctor for just a little blood and some pain. But once Brian realized the pain was too much for me, and forced me to the ER, I realized it was bad. Especially since he didn’t think it could wait another 14 hours until a doctor’s office opened. (side note: Covid be…
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The Longest Two Months: A Colon Cancer Story, Part 2
To read Part 1, click HERE. I was playing a waiting game. Waiting for the pain to be gone and thinking that there’s some murderous tumor with a cute name like Dumplin in me, and that I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen over the next weeks and months. My amazing friend, Amy, came to Atlanta to take family photos for me. We hadn’t done them since our wedding, and thinking I might be losing all my hair or worse prompted me to take her up on an offer to “do whatever you need me to do.” While we were doing the photos, all my girls from home…
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The Longest Two Months: A Colon Cancer Story, Part 1
June 28, 2020. Northside Hospital Emergency Room (written June 29) The doctor comes in and sits by my bed. He can’t touch me because of the rules put in place for the Covid-19 pandemic, but I can tell he wants to. The doctor who was joking with me thirty minutes earlier looks at me and says, “I’m really sorry to have to tell you this, especially since you’re alone – stupid Covid – but we found a large mass on your colon when we did the CT scan. There were a few lesions on your liver, and well, you need to have your colonoscopy as soon as possible and contact…
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2015: The Gloriously Weird Year of Finding Myself, Divorcing, and Turning 40
What a weird year this has been. I mean, I knew it was weird, but then looking back through my photos and calendar… wow. It’s been a doozy. I’ve been rather quiet here over the course of 2015, my words few and far between. Much has gone on that hasn’t been for public consumption. My (now) ex-husband and I have never made our private matters public, especially in this space, so starting now would have been odd. When we decided very early this year to separate, that things weren’t ok, my words left me. My mind was on overdrive and well, elsewhere. The year started very restlessly. I was restless and…
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Goals. And Reaching Them.
It’s not a secret, if you’ve been around here for a bit, that I have a love/hate relationship with running. I had never been a runner until one random morning in June 2012 when I decided, “Hey, I should run.” Yes, just like Forrest Gump. Short version of the story: I started Couch to 5k and a few days later was talked into signing up for the Princess Half Marathon, which would be run a short 8 months after I got my ass off my couch. It was with the team from the Ronald McDonald House in Macon. I’ve been a part of the RMHC in Macon since before it…
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Randomness
Oh, old school blogging, how I’ve missed you! Remember the days of lists and tagging your friends to answer questions about themselves? That, to me, was true blogging. That’s where I first dug into learning about other people, soaking up their answers and commenting and nodding in agreement to crazy things they had to say. Anyway, I got tagged to share five random things about myself. Here goes. ONE I was bald until I was two. Then I had red hair. And then it turned mousy brown. I’ve never naturally had black or blonde hair, though. TWO I am ambidextrous. I am not an amphibian like I once told someone…
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Running Contentment
This week I wrote down the word “Contentment.” Contentment is always a goal of mine. Sometimes I feel content with life and other times I feel like I’m flailing around like a fish out of water. I long for the times where I can just be. I’m one of those people who is silently competitive. I like to raise more money than everybody else for my TeamRMHC races (yes, see sidebar for the link to donate). I like to be part of things that are just starting out (see twitter, ello, instagram). In high school I wanted to always win all the awards I could at dance team camp. I’m pretty good…
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This Week In Numbers: The Medical Mystery Tour
5 – number of days this week Henry or I have seen a doctor 6 – number of waiting rooms I’ve waited in since Monday morning. Add the one on Friday and you get 7. 13 – number of days I’ve now been dealing with a rash of unknown origin or diagnosis. 5 – number of different diagnoses for the rash on my body. It’s been shingles, staph, a bug bite, a fungus, contact dermatitis… 7 – number of shots Henry had to drain what looked like aliens out of an infected boil 365,397 – times I wanted to die on Wednesday 28,967 – times I wet my pants while…
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A Collector of People
“She was a collector of people.” This phrase has come up more than once in the last few weeks, strangely. The first and most moving time was at my friend Julia’s mom’s memorial service. In her eulogy, Julia mentioned her mother was a people collector and quickly it was clear she was one of the most loved and admired women I’ve ever (once) come in contact with. She held her collection close to her and they very obviously lifted her up as she lifted them up. I’ve known people like this. For example, my Grannie was like this. She liked to have people around. Family, friends new and old, children of her friends, grandchildren of her friends, nieces,…
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Change.
A few weeks ago, my energy got gunky. I’m not sure how or why or what it was about. But I know that it felt like change was brewing. You know that feeling when you know something has to change, but you aren’t sure what it is? That’s how it felt. Long story short, thoughts were put out there that if change needed to happen in my life (whatever part of my life needed it), then change was free to happen. So it did. As of Friday the 13th (next Friday), I will no longer be selling plants. I’ll no longer be making a 45 minute drive, one way, to…