May 10

Happy Mother’s Day

Mom and me, w-a-a-a-y back in sepia, black and white photo times…

 

mom-n-me

 

 

My mom was 102 years old at her last birthday October 29 2025!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom 🙂

May 09

Irony

 

20 years ago today, I had my left kidney and 10 pounds of cancer removed.  This anniversary is, of course, a big 

 

A few weeks before that surgery, I had returned to Johns Hopkins to be retested for Growth Hormone.

There’s a whole lot of info on my past experiences with HGH in my bio at https://cushingsbios.com/2013/04/29/maryo-pituitary-bio/  This excerpt is from that blog post:

 

Wow, what a nightmare my argenine retest started! I went back for that Thursday, April 27, 2006. Although the test was shorter, I got back to my hotel and just slept and slept. I was so glad that I hadn’t decided to go home after the test.

Friday I felt fine and drove back home, no problem. I picked up my husband for a biopsy and took him to an outpatient surgical center. While I was there waiting for the biopsy to be completed, I started noticing blood in my urine and major abdominal cramps. I left messages for several of my doctors on what I should do. I finally decided to see my PCP after I got my husband home.

When Tom was done with his testing, his doctor took one look at me and asked if I wanted an ambulance. I said no, that I thought I could make it to the emergency room ok – Tom couldn’t drive because of the anaesthetic they had given him. I barely made it to the ER and left the car with Tom to park. Tom’s doctor followed us to the ER and became my new doctor.

They took me in pretty fast since I was in so much pain, and had the blood in my urine. They thought it was a kidney stone. After a CT scan, my new doctor said that, yes, I had a kidney stone but it wasn’t the worst of my problems, that I had kidney cancer. Wow, what a surprise that was! I was admitted to that hospital, had more CT scans, MRIs, bone scans, they looked everywhere.

My open radical nephrectomy was May 9, 2006 in another hospital from the one where the initial diagnosis was made. My surgeon felt that he needed a specialist from that hospital because he believed preop that my tumor had invaded into the vena cava because of its appearance on the various scans. Luckily, that was not the case.

My entire left kidney and the encapsulated cancer (10 pounds worth!) were removed, along with my left adrenal gland and some lymph nodes. Although the cancer (renal cell carcinoma AKA RCC) was very close to hemorrhaging, the surgeon believes he got it all. He said I was so lucky. If the surgery had been delayed any longer, the outcome would have been much different. I will be repeating the CT scans every 3 months, just to be sure that there is no cancer hiding anywhere. As it turns out, I can never say I’m cured, just NED (no evidence of disease). This thing can recur at any time, anywhere in my body.

I credit the argenine re-test with somehow aggravating my kidneys and revealing this cancer. Before the test, I had no clue that there was any problem. The argenine test showed that my IGF is still low but due to the kidney cancer I cannot take my growth hormone for another 5 years – so the test was useless anyway, except to hasten this newest diagnosis.

 

So, how am I “celebrating” my cancer anniversary? Yes, I’m retesting to see if I can go back on growth hormone, the drug that either helped my cancer to grow or helped diagnose it.

 

 

May 08

See the Little Icon in Your Browser?

GNU Terry Pratchett

If you see it, you probably know what it is because you installed a browser extension called something like “X-Clacks-Overhead” in memory of Terry Pratchett.  If you click on it, it says “GNU Terry Pratchett”

 

What in the world?

The GNU Terry Pratchett plugin transmits an “X-Clacks-Overhead” header reading, “GNU Terry Pratchett” so that Terry’s name is whispered forevermore in the Internet’s “overhead”.

In Pratchett’s book “Going Postal”, workers who die in the line of duty have their names transmitted up and down the Discworld’s telegraph system as a tribute.

From Going Postal:

“We keep that name moving in the Overhead,” he said, and it seemed to Princess that the wind in the shutter arrays above her blew more forlornly, and the everlasting clicking of the shutters grew more urgent. “He’d never have wanted to go home. He was a real linesman. His name is in the code, in the wind in the rigging and the shutters. Haven’t you ever heard the saying: ‘A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken’?”

What does the GNU stand for?

In Going Postal, the G means that the message should be passed on, the N means “Not Logged”, and the U means that it should be turned around at the end of the line.

 

GNU Terry Pratchett

 

pratchett

May 05

Cinco de Mayo

cinco-de-mayo

 

May 05

A Shell of a Day

A memory from 2017, (They still haven’t called!)

 

 

I needed gas for my car last week.  I was on my way to bell rehearsal so I didn’t have time to go to my usual place.  Instead, I stopped by the station that was on my way.

I had stopped going to this particular gas station many years ago when I thought that they were adding water to the mix.  My engine had sputtered whenever I’d put in gas from there.

Anyway, I was in a rush, so I went there, to the first pump I came to.  The gas flowed into my car, no problem.  The hose clicked off as always.

When I removed it from my tank, gas sprayed everywhere.  On me, on the car.  I dropped the hose on the ground until I figured out how to turn it off manually.

I looked at the meter and I wasn’t charged for the extra gas.  Good thing!

I grabbed a lot of their paper towels and cleaned my car off as best I could.  Used a LOT of hand sanitizer on me and headed to rehearsal.

First rehearsal went fine.  At the beginning of the second, someone mentioned smelling gas and I said it was me – and related my tale.  Someone else said they could smell it on my car in the parking lot.  <sigh>

Got home, took a l-o-n-g shower and extra cortisone.

DH went up to the gas station to have a word with them.  The person on duty said this happens “a lot”.

Wednesday, DH called the station owner who suggested it was my fault.  Then he called the main company “Customer Service” who offered us back $.25 (yes, 25 cents)  for spraying myself with gas and becoming a possible fire hazard.

DH explained the concept of class action suit when I did a Google search and found over 2 million hits for “gas pump sprayed me”

 

That was over a week ago.  “Customer service” was supposed to call back.  Of course, they haven’t yet.

Stay tuned!

May 04

May the 4th Be With You! Happy Star Wars Day

may4th

 

 

May 01

Happy May Day!

mayday

May 01

Happy Beltane!

 

Summer in Edinburgh, Scotland, kicks off with an evening of whimsical revelry. Colorful characters parade atop a hill, dancing and marching to the beat of pounding drums. Fires blaze, warming the air with their bright, smoky flames.

Beltane or Beltain is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.

Also known as Cétshamhain (“first of summer”), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth.

Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around or between bonfires, and sometimes leap over the flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire.

These gatherings would be accompanied by a feast, and some of the food and drink would be offered. Doors, windows, byres and livestock would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire.

 

Apr 30

Really?? It’s National Bubble Tea Day

s

 

I love bubble tea (aka boba tea) and I’m so glad there’s a day for it.  At one point, I considered buying a machine to make my own.  Amazon now sells premade boba (of course!)

In the 1980s, the Taiwanese developed a beverage combining the refreshing goodness of tea, the wholesome creaminess of milk and the fun, delicious surprise of bubbles. The bubbles, also known as boba or pearls, are made from tapioca. The tea can be created with or without milk, ice, sugar, and toppings.

 

Apr 16

Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745.
On this date, 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, on Drummossie Moor near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.
1250 Jacobites died at the battle, and almost as many were wounded with 376 taken prisoner (those who were professional soldiers or who were worth a ransom). The government troops lost 50 men while around 300 were wounded.
I took the photos below when we visited Culloden in 2023.

Load more