Happy birthday, JZ! I hope it's been fantabulous!

sj, I had to speak up. If you want me to delete, I will.

sj, I had to speak up. If you want me to delete, I will.

No, please. I was counting on my friends to speak up. I said what I had to say and she didn't respond, so I myself am done for now. She's my bff's mother, and I have known her for over 30 years but haven't spoken to her much since they moved from here 8 or so years ago. I'm quite surprised she feels that way, to be honest.

Bah! An evil comment from someone on my facebook rainbow post. Not from someone I expected and not from someone I can unfriend easily.

A friend of mine was dealing with someone posting a nasty 'gay marriage leads to bestiality' meme on her FB page yesterday. Complete with pictures of people kissing animals. And then having it supported by several of her Christian friends who liked the 'slippery slope' ridiculousness. And telling Friend to come to church and then she'd understand. Friend asked for my help, as she knows I'm a gay sort-of-Christian, so I jumped in and attempted to talk about different interpretations of the Bible and so on. It's unlikely to stop the silliness on the feed, but at least it might make Friend feel better.

I am editing a book chapter I have to submit on 1st July. I'm so bored with it. Trying to scare myself with 'publish or perish'...!

Good luck with the scaring yourself bit, Seska.

Ah well skippage happened because I was overwhelmed by life. My sister got her finger caught in my car window, which led to us being awake well in excess of 24 hours with going to multiple hospitals. It happened at her office which is an hour from the closest hospital. We called the local volunteer EMTs and they wrapped her up and told us to go to the hospital. After being at the hospital 9 hours in the ER they told us it was too complex and she needed to be transported another hour away to Syracuse. I was being responsible knowing I shouldn't drive after so many hours awake and drove the shorter distance (45 miles) to get my son to drive me to SYR to see what they were going to do. They said it was no biggee and the broken bone was sitting where it should be. The skin was too damaged to stitch, but would heal in place so they just wrapped her up good and immobilized it. So many hours of concern and sleeplessness over the closer hospital being idiots. Grrrr. We have caught up with our sleep now and Mona's finger is hopefully mending away.

Sending strength, love, and all kinds of positive vibes to the Tickybox family.

Ugh Laura, I'm sorry that has been such an ordeal!

I'm glad she's okay but sorry for the ordeal.

things I learned about my self - while the "big" grocery store may have more options it's more stress inducing and going to the grocery store on Sunday is a bad idea. I think Friday mornings are going to be the only day that will work.

I need to brush up on different breathing techniques but I did that and the grounding thing of naming five things. 5 things for each sense is really popular but the store was so overwhelming I just went to categories. there's an app that has stuff like name 5 colorful birds, name 5 spicy foods, name 5 thing the color yellow and you press a star for each one you name.

Personally I'd love to make a geeky version of that. Name 5 races from Star Trek universe. Name 5 characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Name five types of weapons used in D&D. Or whatever. And you could pick your theme - comic books, movies, tv shows, musicals. Whatever y our geek is.

When I cut off the tip of my finger, I asked my neighbor to take me to the emergency room because it was bleeding so much. I kept putting pressure on it, and the bleeding finally stopped. Four hours later, a doctor took off my bandage, causing it to start bleeding again, wrapped it up exactly the way I had and sent me home. I'm not sure what would drive me to an emergency room again.

I'm so sorry y'all had the same experience multiplied by a bazillion.

Fingers do bleed scary amounts. They made a big deal about the broken bone, but like toes all they really do is tape it to the next digit to immobilize it.

Personally I'd love to make a geeky version of that.

And you should! That sounds fun.

I am contemplating the question of 50 ways to leave your oncologist. I have nothing in particular against him as an oncologist, but he is no longer working at the office closest to me, which is 14 easy interstate miles away. He's at offices that are at 27 and 36 more difficult miles away. That wouldn't be a deal breaker, but he's been increasingly hard to get answers from. He used to respond quickly to e-mail, but he's the department head and seems to be stretched too thin these days.

The kicker is that he send an e-mail May 30 saying my petscan showed some progression, so we needed to look at new treatment options. This is a scary information for a person with advanced cancer. The e-mail said we'd talk that week. After I hadn't heard from him for two weeks, I e-mailed him. Nothing. Finally, I e-mailed his nurse practitioner who forwarded my e-mail to him. I heard from him today.

In the meantime, the nurse I see every week for a shot suggested I might want to change, since my doctor was going to be so much further away. I looked at the doctors available there and made an appointment with a woman who has a decent resume and three board certifications.

I'm trying to compose an e-mail back to my oncologist that says, "Yes, I'd like to start the new treatment ASAP and BTW, I've made an appointment with someone who I hope will be more responsive."