Mohs #6

This week brought about Mohs appointment #6, of what we originally thought was 6 out of 8.  The appointment went very well and it ended up being my first one pass appointment, and I'd dare say that it was the most uneventful and comfortable pain-wise appointment to date.

Of course, there had to be some bad news thrown in there as well.  In working on spot #6, my doctor said, "Oh...um, you appear to have two new spots right next to this one."   Ugh.  I can't say that I'm completely shocked by this but I think I already have two new spots growing in the front of my head so that would actually mean I potentially have four new spots.  Double ugh.  Even worse, my doctor said in a worrying voice, "...I wonder why you're growing these new ones..."  Yeah, that's really not what I wanted to hear.

I then made the mistake of looking up Mohs procedures online once I got home.  There's such a thing as "failed Mohs procedures" which this particular doctor who wrote the article talked about how it's then necessary to use more aggressive forms of control if Mohs is "failing".  Great.  Now, I don't know if this is true or not but it certainly got my paranoia in a tizzy and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Also, during the appointment this week, I asked what my ear would end up looking like once it's fully grown back.  My doctor promptly said, "Oh, that's it.  It's fully grown back."  Um, what?!  Yes, apparently I'm going to be left with not much for the top area of my right ear.  Awesome.  She then went on to say that she could cut it open again, take some cartilage out of my other ear, place it in this ear, and so on, and then maybe I'd have a bit more curve at the top.  My head immediately thought, hell, if I do all that, I'll probably get another skin cancer spot on said ear and have to do the whole thing all over again.  And so, I guess for now I'm going to live with no definite top to my ear.

A bit to my surprise, my doctor said, "Well, you have a bit of a curve to the top of your ear.  I actually expected less."  Well, I just wish I had been a bit more informed of that, really.  I like my doctor and all but she's not always the greatest at explaining what I should be expecting as a result of these procedures.

In the meantime, I'm once again suffering from what I call "tight head", where the skin on your head is a bit tighter than normal due to the stitches and you're not really able to do your full range of motion.  It's an odd feeling, to say the least.

Other than that, I'm still trying to get myself motivated all over again in life in general.  I actually played a bit of guitar today, and I'm supposed to be recording in just a week from now, but trying to muster any real motivation is going to be a real trick.  I guess I'll just do the best I can.

Also, the hurricane last week pretty much ended up being nothing more than a steady drizzle.  I'm not really complaining but now I have 12 sand bags to dispose of.  Anybody need sand?!  Drop me a line if you do.

The Storm called "Life"

I can almost hear it from here:  "...no sooner does he branch out his blogs, but he can't be bothered to write in any of them.  I knew this blog branching was a mistake!!"

It's funny how things happen in this manner.  I had zero intention of not making any blog entries for nearly a month but, well, sometimes life just happens, and it really has been happening.  In fact, it just seems to keep coming, from every corner imaginable.

For example, as I type this, I'm sitting here waiting for Hurricane Hillary to hit at any moment.  I pretty much blew the entire weekend trying to find sand bags, putting them around one side of the house that tends to have the water come up too high and close, and then moved everything that could be a projectile into the garage.  In doing this, it meant I had to leave my car outside to weather the storm.  Now, this might seem a bit odd but there's so little storage space here, and based on what the news was saying, I felt the odds of the various odds and ends of items in the backyard flying around was much greater than, well, my car.  Of course, a tree could fall on the car...but there really isn't a tree in the front yard.  If there's any chance for a tree down the street to somehow come flying or walking down the road and landing square on my car, though, I'm fairly certain it'll find a way because that's just my luck in life.

So far, the weather has been positively nothing over here except for a mild lagging drizzle.  Now, I'm not complaining but it has been a bit unexpected.  Weather in this area, though, can be very strange where 2 streets over can have a massive downpour but your particular house gets nothing.  It's just hard to tell.  If the news is correct, LA was getting some nasty flooding.  But then, about an hour ago my phone lit up with an alert about an earthquake north of LA, and to be prepared for after shocks.  I mean, seriously?  A hurricane AND earthquake?!  Where's the tsunami when you need it??  And, with the Weather Channel on right now, it says there's also a big tornado warning.  Geeez.

Anyhow, back to the long bit of nothingness...  The silence is mainly due to the fact that I've got little to report except for various tidbits of bad news.  In fact, I've barely done anything at all music related since the end of May and I just can't seem to find the motivation for much of anything at the moment.  My head and ear did finally heal enough so that I could once again wear headphones but by that point I seemed to have little interest in putting them on.  I'm currently seeking a way to get out of this slump, or funk, but I'm actually going back in for Moh's surgery #6 this Wednesday so now doesn't seem like the proper time to get remotivated.

One thing that did occur over the past 2 months was seeing Oumou Sangare down in La Jolla.  That was a real joy and treat, and I just haven't gotten around yet to writing about it.  That happened in June, I think, so, um, yeah, I'm a bit behind.  By the time I write about it, I probably won't remember what happened.

And yet, still, I'm hanging in there, trying to be positive, doing various business related tasks around the house, etc., and I guess I can't really complain too terribly.  There is the issue of the cats, though, who were acquired earlier this year.  They both have unexpected gingivitis with one of them progressing into something much worse and more serious, and apparently dental surgery is needed and will most likely be around 10k (and no, not the race 10k either).  Oh joy.  And, I was worried about coming up with the 10k to record the EP with Marty.  Looks like that's definitely getting pushed to next year...

Yes, this is all the big storm that we simply call "life".  We all deal with it, we all have to go through it, and somehow find a way to pull through and carry onward.  I'll hopefully do the same.  In the meantime, I'm working on my motivation, and if nothing else just finishing this blog entry is a bit of a start.  See?  There's the positive.