A Friday : )

If it's Friday, it's dermatology day!

New spots. New opportunities for removal. New opportunities for Mohs surgery?

Hopefully not.

2019 In Review

Mrs Guy is behind already, but she's been busy. Here's a review of 2019:

Great Stuff

• I got the baby in the King Cake at Mardi Gras
• Our lime tree started producing like crazy
• We had the kickoff meeting for my book
• I had some truly cozy times with the mama
• mrguy and I discovered that we really like Maui (more on that later)
• My sumo friend and I watched at least one match of every basho together this year, while drinking sake and eating snacks.
• My favorite Christmas Cactus bloomed
• I did a presentation at a fan fest
• I got to spend much quality time working in the archives with the founder of the forklift company
• I acquired a taxidermed armadillo that's wearing a cowboy hat and gun holsters
• Rode a mechanical rainbow unicorn and lasted 5 seconds

Bad Health

• A cousin, a workmate and an ex-workmate are all dealing with super nasty cancers
• We lost our sweet boy, Nose. On the other hand we had him for 23 amazing years
• I have reflux and it is super painful
• mrguy has a nickel allergy, of all things, and the diet is bad for him but clears up his skin eruptions

Good Health

• Ears does not have cancer
• Eyes has been given a (relatively) clean bill of health by her cardiologist, in large part due to the tender ministrations of mrguy
• I got invisalign. Is that good health or just maintenance?

Current Obsessions

• Are we related to our family or not?
• Grafting. Ask me about grafting citrus and camellias
• Sewing. I have only gotten as far as mending things, but that is a start

New Faves

• Rust Valley Restorers
• Repair Shop
• The new Mexican restaurant nearby
• My Tahitian uke
• Discovering that even on Maui we can have fun doing genealogy

Things To Look Forward To

• Germany in September
• Maui in October
• Next generation family gathering which hopefully will be a) going on without me or b) will have a different format entirely

We Finished / Are Going To Finish

• Suits (and mrguy just bought a box set of dvds)
• The Good Place

Best White Elephant Gift

• Dvds of Iz and Ferris Bueller, a VHS of H.R. Pufnstuf and an ipu

 Best Christmas Stocking Stuffer of the Season

•  Foldable mini cat-eye magnifying lorgnettes

 Poopy Stuff

• Irish Citizenship Office rejected my application and keeps saying they'll refund my money and they don't.
• All that health stuff above

Undercovah

I've been hiding for a week, doing a preventative treatment to clear up pre-cancerous spots on my face.

The treatment is working. I have a face full of sores and a chin that's recovering. Woo hoo!

A few minutes ago I took off my sweater and it snagged one of the scabs on my face, ripping it off. It reminded me of a story.

I'd planned to spend Easter break during my freshman year in college with my folks at their house. Early on Good Friday I learned of a change of plans: we were headed to my brother's house. My nephew had come down with chicken pox and it made more sense for us to bring Easter to them.

Or did it? I remember thinking "I've never had chicken pox and my parents know this." Turns out they'd forgotten, and fate also played a role in that I had a cold. And it rained, so we stayed in the house that weekend, in close contact with my buggy nephew.

One week later (was it two?), the family was gathering again. I had been feeling yucky all week and just before coming home I went to the Health Center and learned that I had strep throat. No wonder I felt run down! But I'd said I'd come home to visit my sister, so I got in my trusty 1958 Chevy, Thelma D.

She and I headed toward home, past the farms where the farmers burned off their fields, then closer to what I think of as civilization. Why did it still smell like agricultural burning? Oh yes. My car was on fire. I pulled to the side of the freeway and met a nice man who helped me figure out the fire was *inside* the car. I could probably get to the 76 station visible in the distance.

I should mention that this was a recurring problem that my dad had "fixed", and by now I was very unwell and very pissed. You see, a 1958 Chevy has a dual muffler system. In between the two mufflers is a long pipe. The pipe had formed a crack, just about where your feet would be if you were in the back left passenger seat. The hot exhaust was superheating the underside of my car and the 23-year-old carpet was smoldering. I'd discovered this problem a month or so earlier, and Pop had "fixed" it with asbestos tape. Like a lot of his fixes, it wore out, and here we were.

A few hours later Pop arrived with another roll of asbestos tape and I was on my way.

The next day we all gathered in the family room to watch the Kentucky Derby. I had this itchy spot on my neck. I asked my brother to look at it. He started crowing like a rooster and the whole room erupted in laughter (and I in tears). I was so mad. First the botched fix on my car, then my parents infected me with chicken pox. Mom still feels guilty about this.

I had the lesions everywhere. EVERYWHERE! And eventually I had to go back to school covered in spots. I was already a poor cultural fit for my mostly-agricultural college. I couldn't hide, so I went flamboyant. Every day I'd go to class wearing a dog collar, wrap-around sunglasses and...scabs.

One of my finer outfits that spring involved a hibiscus-shaped skirt, a tank top leotard and black patent DeLiso pumps (with the aforementioned dog collar and black wrap-around sunglasses).  A full-on "I'm miserable, don't talk to me" outfit. I recall walking along the quad on my way to class when all of a sudden it felt like someone had stuck a twig into my inner thigh. Gross! My own thigh had ripped one of my chicken pox scabs off the other thigh.

When my uncool but warm South Pole sweater ripped the scab off my forehead, it all came rushing back. I have to go back to work tomorrow.

What outfit coordinates with a red face full of sores?

No I Was Not In A Car Accident

I wish I had a more exciting story to tell about my scars. I forget about them and then see the reaction on peoples' faces and remember. It's the scar over my graft that's the worst. It looks like someone cut a slice out of a cocktail weiner and plopped it next to my nose.

That said, I look 98% less like roadkill than I did a few weeks ago.

I haven't been too good about my scar treatment, mainly because one set of scars is healed but could use it, while the other is still scabby and not ready. Last night I went ahead and used Blaine's silicone scar pads on everything. The height of my graft scar was reduced by half overnight. No kidding. It's not worked that remarkably on anything else, but I am very grateful for what it's doing on my cocktail weenie.

Eddie G.

After a few dense and meaty days back at work, I took two days off to enter into my latest project with my surgical dermatologist.

We both underestimated the extent of the work. In the 4 days since, have slowly been regaining the original shape of my face, but not before morphing into a monkey / Einstein beast, and finally settling into a few days where I resembled a young Edward G. Robinson. Darn!

Not only that, a necessary graft saw him cutting into a frown line to fill in the hole he'd made elsewhere. I have two public engagements this week, so I'm just going to have to smile a lot and hope that people don't notice?