The Utter Joy of Life in Limbo

Well that was nice.

I just finished a three day stint, a hiatus in hell if you will, that unfortunately didn't involve any enjoyable extracurricular activities--just the opposite. You see when a currently-drug-dependent individual (Hey, what're you looking at me for? This is a hypothetical case.) tries to quit a drug cold turkey, basically his/her body responds by shouting (in a New York accent, of course), "Hey buddy, whachya doin' ta me 'ere?" The drug-deprived body can respond in any number of ways: sweats, chills, fevers, hot/cold flashes, pain, nausea, profuse vomiting (that's all I can think of at the moment). But mine responded with abundant swelling (every place on my body that was injured in some way swelled just enough to make me uncomfortable; really intense pain is a better descriptor). It was everywhere, too. Yesterday, I talked to one of my docs, Raven (named after the Baltimore Ravens?) on the phone. She suggested that I revert to a previous point on my drug taper schedule. Apparently, it may not just be the withdrawal; it could also be the timing. Many times, there simply hasn't been enough time for the swelling affected by the drug to reduce in size. Ooh, maybe it's both!

So now I have to wait until next Monday (March 23rd) to find out the status of Goliath. The doctor responsible for identifying the status of my tumor had to send a sample of it out for genetic testing (I wonder if I can get some of that in a jar of formaldehyde. Would that be gross?). I know it sounds scary and complicated (not to mention super hi-tech), but Raven allayed my fears as it's apparently very normal for such a rare and multi-faceted tumor (Yay! I may just make it into the history books yet). They just want to be sure of it's status before they risk their reputations on a concrete diagnosis. Sigh, I guess I can continue to wait and wait and wait...


In the mean time, my extended family came to visit me a couple of days ago (that's my grammie and me up top). Unfortunately, it was during the last few days. It was good though to see everyone after all I've been through the last few months. As we can see in example 2-A, all the kids had a good ol' time running around, break dancing, screaming, and sitting calmly on the bench (Gwen's gonna do something cool, she's just waiting for the right moment). Somehow I still have both sets of grandparents. I'm about to turn 28 years old, and I still have both sets of grandparents. I'm really super lucky; I don't know anyone else my age that still has both sets of grandparents.