Basal Bonanza

Goodbye Old Friends - Vaya Con Dios

As I wrote yesterday, I had yet another doctor’s appointment, fruit of my annual physical.  This one was for a persistent cut on my ear that kept bleeding and destroying my pillow (hence my wife’s concerns – blood is tough to get out of pillow cases).  I was in the chair less than thirty seconds with the eye, ear, and nose doctor when he bluntly stated – “Oh that’s cancer.”  He said it was another basal cell carcinoma, it just looked different than the one on my neck. I'm starting to buy into my wife's life long drive to have me wear more sun block.

He had to do what he called a “scrape biopsy” which was just about as much fun as it sounded.  He stuck a needle in my ear and then used a scalpel to scrape a hunk of the ear out.  I think he underestimated how much it was going to bleed because he got a little nervous and asked me if I was taking blood thinners.  After the application of what looked like a tube of super glue he was able to staunch the flow. 

The next step is waiting for the biopsy results but he sounded fairly confident in the diagnosis.  After that it will have to be removed which he said would be fairly routine unless it has gotten into the cartilage of the ear which would require some “reconstruction”.  I asked him if the doctor I am scheduled with for the neck site removal in December could knock this one out too and he said as long as it wasn’t into the cartilage.  Fun all around but at least I’ve got time with the kids and family this week to cheer me up.

Speaking of cheering up, I received a very nice surprise when I got home last night.  My wife’s friend up in Maine is a cake adept; she did the cake for my daughter’s wedding.  She knows I love her chocolate cake so she sent one to me in the mail for my birthday.  It suffered a little in the US postal system despite it’s fragile marking but was still extremely edible.  My wife immediately went into “calorie Nazi” mode but even she was observed nibbling at the fringes.

My wife has been working in the basement the last few days as we try to sort out the mess that has developed down there.  We’ve been in this house longer than any other place we’ve ever lived and the accumulation was beginning to tell.  I faced the task of sorting through the books I’ve acquired over the last forty years that numbered in the thousands.  I’m a voracious reader and it was time to say goodbye to some of the books I hadn’t opened since my teenage years.  It was tougher than I thought – like saying goodbye to old friends. 

I promised my wife that I would be extremely selective and only keep books that I had a true emotional connection with.  It was so hard, the connections run deep. 

I saw a little microcosm of my life as I sorted through beloved books and long cherished characters.  I said goodbye to the worlds of Midekemia, Kelewan, Aloria, Westland, Melnibone, Hyboria, Xanth, Darkover, Pern, and too many others to mention – all places I escaped to for all too short a time.  I said goodbye to the characters – my guides to all these mystical places, people I thought of almost as friends:  Jack Reacher, Polgara, Belgarath, Milo Morai, Lucas Davenport, Harry Bosch, Richard Cypher, Thomas Covenant, Arutha, Pug, Virgil Flowers, John Corey, Aloysius Pendergast, and again too many others to chronicle.  I know this must seem maudlin to many but I always knew these adventures were down in the basement awaiting my return and I had to consign them last night to a future with some other reader.  That is as it should be – it was still tougher than I anticipated.

Semi-Intact But Incredibly Delicious Birthday Cake

Ear Carnage

Neck Site