Pining for the Fjords

What about Part 2 ? In the last post, I finally saw my stitches for the first time and documented the start of the healing process (I had a Mohs procedure to remove a basal cell carcinoma on my face at the Phoenix Skin clinic).  It's been super duper fun (not really)! Sunday, October 29 As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday was a busy day.  Chris and I walked the doggos over to nearby Phoenix College (it's a slightly longer walk than normal, so we save it for Sundays, and Zoe starts to look forward to it about halfway through the week) and then made chilaquiles for breakfast.  I did a few things around the house (mostly laundry - there's always laundry) before cleaning up and getting ready for book club.  Post book club, it was back home to relax for the afternoon; after dinner, we headed to the nearby Japanese Friendship Garden for their Otsukimi Moonviewing Event.  An otsukimi is a festival dedicated to viewing the autumn moon, and like at our garden, it often inclu

Did you read Part 1 ?  Things will make a lot more sense if you do. Welcome to Part 2 of the Skin Cancer Diaries!  I'm glad you're back!  (Have you scheduled your annual skin check yet?  I told you I was going to be a nutter about this now.) Thursday, October 26 While I slept a bit longer than on surgery day, I was still wide awake by 3:30am; as is my normal procedure in situations like this, I headed to Chris' office to sit in his comfy chair, surf my phone, and read a book.  My night wasn't too bad; although my neck was a little stiff from sleeping in an elevated position (helps reduce swelling, according to the Phoenix Skin clinic, where I had my Mohs surgery ) and I was stuffed up from not being able to blow my nose very well (thank you, pressure bandage - I am counting the minutes until I can take you off my face), I got a decent amount of sleep overall.  Even with the bandage on, I can see that my cheek is starting to swell and/or bruise, which should make viewin

As a person who considers herself relatively responsible in the area of maintaining her health, I've always had a small stack of business cards from doctors riding around in whatever purse/wallet I was using at the time.  There's traditionally been one from a general practitioner, and midway through college, that also came to include one from an OB/GYN (emphasis on the GYN part more than the OB for me).  As the years drew on and various injuries and maladies cropped up, the pile gained cards from assorted physical therapists, gastroenterologists, cardiologists , and most notably for the purposes of these blog posts, dermatologists. On this Very Special Episode of the blog, sh*t gets real I've lived my entire life in the Sun Belt, growing up and going to college in Florida (central, then northeastern), and moving straight across the 10 freeway to Phoenix; Chris and I stayed there for 12ish years, did three in Long Beach, CA, then moved back to the Valley of the Sun, where we