A while back I found a lump in my breast. Checked it every day a couple of times a day...yep it was still there. So I had a mammogram and then a sonogram. The doctor said that from the sonogram it didn't look exactly like cancer and yet it didn't look exactly like a simple fibroadenoma. In fact, the doctor told me she really didn't know what it was as she had never seen anything like it before. Interesting. I like being unique.
Monday I had a biopsy and received the results today. I have a benign Phyllodes tumor. A Phyllodes tumor is a fast-growing rare form (less than 1%--no wonder the doctor has not seen one before) of breast cancer. It is considered a form of breast cancer because it can change from a benign tumor to a malignant one in a snap. As it is very fast-growing, the doctor will take into consideration the rate of cell building, the history of my family, and other things before he decides what is best for my treatment. This tumor does not respond to chemo nor radiation; the only treatment is to remove it. There are two possibilities for removal: if it is "small" it will be a lumpectomy. If it is "large" it will be a mastectomy. I have no idea what measures make it "small" or "large." Mine is currently the size of a golf ball or a bit larger.
Since it is benign, I am thinking the doctor will allow us to wait until classes are over before it is removed--that is about three weeks. It won't grow that much larger in a few weeks (although it wasn't there three months ago and now it is larger than a golf ball! Softball anyone? :) )
So it's kinda cool. I have this anomaly that isn't life threatening at this time! If you are going to have something it don't get much better than that.
.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Cell Block Tango (He Had it Comin')
He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same
*******************************************
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same
*******************************************
Read an article in the paper while at my mom's about a woman who was sentenced 50 years to life for murdering her husband. A tragic story. A person was dead and another life wasted. But as I read her story, I kept hearing music from Chicago...
The woman found out her husband had been cheating on her and was devastated. She bought a gun so she could kill herself. She wandered the house, trying to find the best place to do this. First she walked into the kitchen and looked around. She had just cleaned it and didn't want to get it all messy. She wandered into the living room. No didn't want to ruin the couch. She also bypassed the bathroom and guest room. This was a real dilemma. She was so miserable and angst ridden and had no where to kill herself.
She then wandered into the bedroom. She saw her husband sleeping in their bed and turned her grief-stricken gun hand on him. She then told the court, "He was lying there like he didn't have a care in the world and I shot him."
She then wandered into the bedroom. She saw her husband sleeping in their bed and turned her grief-stricken gun hand on him. She then told the court, "He was lying there like he didn't have a care in the world and I shot him."
********************************************
They had it comin', they had it comin'
They had it comin' all along
'Cause if they used us and they abused us
How could they tell us that we were wrong?
He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same
.
They had it comin', they had it comin'
They had it comin' all along
'Cause if they used us and they abused us
How could they tell us that we were wrong?
He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same
.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Some Notes From the Road
I recently took a roadtrip down to see my mom in southern Cali. I was tired as I started out--overwhelmed with getting through the last term, feeling rather battered from personal and professional mis-perceptions, and exhausted from the two online public speaking classes. I didn't want to drive the 1000 miles, couldn't afford to drive the 1000 miles, and wanted someone to just take care of me. The magic of the road took care of all that.
The weather was perfect. Sunshiny and clear. I left a bit later than I wanted--it was nearly 6:30 a.m. when I hit the road. I was mentally grousing all the way from Portland to Eugene, grumbling under my breath and forgetting to listen to the music blaring through the car. Indigo Girls fi
rst thing and random CDs after that. I kept counting the mileage and the time and how long it would take me to get to Stockton (not much else between Stockton and Bakersfield to stop for the night. As much as I want to keep going as long as there is light, Stockton it is. Sometimes I call it Stinkton :) ). So I was driving tense, checking mileage, checking timing, grousing that I was driving, not listening to the best music around. A real fun time.
At some point between Eugene and Roseburg I started laughing at myself. "Geeze gurl," I thought. "You have been needing to get away from the house and the job and people for a long time now. And here you sit grousing?!" Then I remembered one of my philosophies of life: It is the journey, not the destination. So I settled in and enjoyed the ride.
As I continued south along I-5 heading to the Siskiyou mountain range, I noticed that clouds hung low over the mountains. The sun was all around but the clouds were hanging over the mountains, with the peaks peeking through them. They looked like a ring of
white hair with a bald dome head. As I came closer and started passing the clouds, it was the strangest view of the clouds. Have you ever stared at one of those 3-D pictures that take a while but if you look at them right, they magically become a picture? You know how fake they look (because they are just computer 3-D drawings), being able to see around the items like they are hanging suspended in the sky? That's how these surrounding clouds looked. Like they had been created by a computer. (The clouds didn't look like this picture but I thought the picture was way cool. It is over Mt. Ashland, though.) And as I drove through the mountains, I would go in and out of these fake clouds--sunny then pea soup fog...sunny and then pea soup fog all the way up over the Siskiyou Pass and down again. Sunny as I hit California and stayed that way for the next week :)
As I passed the first weigh station in California I noticed how cool the CHP station looked--like a large Alpine Lodge.
Coming down through a pass in the Shasta National Forest moving in to Dunsmuir, the mountains were so large that the semi-trucks down the road a piece looked tiny. My little beetle was very tiny compared to the semis. Sure put my puny problems in perspective.
I spent the night in a Comfort Inn Motel in Stinkton. It was one of the worst motels I have stayed in through the years. The toilet wouldn't flush. I could never find the ice machine. I had no idea what channels I was watching as there was no information in the empty three-ring binder on the desk. Internet did work for me and I had a lovely chat with my cousin :) Although I must say that the Vagabond Inn in Redding coming home was even worse--toilet flushed but kept leaking and refilling all night, toilet seat kept coming off the toilet, could hear the flush from above cascading down next to my head, and it was pretty dirty. The Internet access didn't work either. BUT above all, the roach motel in Colinga where we stayed in 1980 tops everything!
Passing along I-5 corridor, I saw hundreds of small birds in formation. It was beautiful! They twisted and turned with the precision of a black and white psychedelic screen saver. Amazing art in real life.
Along the side of the freeway in an old junk yard, I saw an old rusted out Bookmobile. I loved our Bookmobile when I was a kid. There was no library near us out in the country, so twice a month (I think) the Bookmobile would come to my elementary school. The teachers would take their classes out to the library and later Mom would come pick us up from school and visit the library herself. I remember when I read my first book in one day and asked to go back to the library. Mom didn't believe that I had read the whole book until I told her the whole plot. I was in second grade and it was obviously time to move up to more complicated books. Less pictures and more words. One of my favorite of all time books is To Kill a Mockingbird. I checked it out from the bookmobile when I was maybe fourth grade. I loved the Bookmobile.
As I headed over Grapevine and Tejon Pass, I saw a huge store for Famous Footwear and wondered who was their audience? I mean do people stop there, thinking "Hey! I'm going over Grapevine and might need to get out and push! Perhaps I need some new cheap shoes!"
Coming home the following Friday I was lost in the magic of the music. As I listened to the Beatles I remembered something else. It was time for me to "get back to where I once belonged." It is time to work on finding my lost giggle bubble, to rediscover myself. I have been unhappy for such a long time. It is time.
peace~~
.
The weather was perfect. Sunshiny and clear. I left a bit later than I wanted--it was nearly 6:30 a.m. when I hit the road. I was mentally grousing all the way from Portland to Eugene, grumbling under my breath and forgetting to listen to the music blaring through the car. Indigo Girls fi
rst thing and random CDs after that. I kept counting the mileage and the time and how long it would take me to get to Stockton (not much else between Stockton and Bakersfield to stop for the night. As much as I want to keep going as long as there is light, Stockton it is. Sometimes I call it Stinkton :) ). So I was driving tense, checking mileage, checking timing, grousing that I was driving, not listening to the best music around. A real fun time.At some point between Eugene and Roseburg I started laughing at myself. "Geeze gurl," I thought. "You have been needing to get away from the house and the job and people for a long time now. And here you sit grousing?!" Then I remembered one of my philosophies of life: It is the journey, not the destination. So I settled in and enjoyed the ride.
As I continued south along I-5 heading to the Siskiyou mountain range, I noticed that clouds hung low over the mountains. The sun was all around but the clouds were hanging over the mountains, with the peaks peeking through them. They looked like a ring of
white hair with a bald dome head. As I came closer and started passing the clouds, it was the strangest view of the clouds. Have you ever stared at one of those 3-D pictures that take a while but if you look at them right, they magically become a picture? You know how fake they look (because they are just computer 3-D drawings), being able to see around the items like they are hanging suspended in the sky? That's how these surrounding clouds looked. Like they had been created by a computer. (The clouds didn't look like this picture but I thought the picture was way cool. It is over Mt. Ashland, though.) And as I drove through the mountains, I would go in and out of these fake clouds--sunny then pea soup fog...sunny and then pea soup fog all the way up over the Siskiyou Pass and down again. Sunny as I hit California and stayed that way for the next week :)As I passed the first weigh station in California I noticed how cool the CHP station looked--like a large Alpine Lodge.
Coming down through a pass in the Shasta National Forest moving in to Dunsmuir, the mountains were so large that the semi-trucks down the road a piece looked tiny. My little beetle was very tiny compared to the semis. Sure put my puny problems in perspective.I spent the night in a Comfort Inn Motel in Stinkton. It was one of the worst motels I have stayed in through the years. The toilet wouldn't flush. I could never find the ice machine. I had no idea what channels I was watching as there was no information in the empty three-ring binder on the desk. Internet did work for me and I had a lovely chat with my cousin :) Although I must say that the Vagabond Inn in Redding coming home was even worse--toilet flushed but kept leaking and refilling all night, toilet seat kept coming off the toilet, could hear the flush from above cascading down next to my head, and it was pretty dirty. The Internet access didn't work either. BUT above all, the roach motel in Colinga where we stayed in 1980 tops everything!
Passing along I-5 corridor, I saw hundreds of small birds in formation. It was beautiful! They twisted and turned with the precision of a black and white psychedelic screen saver. Amazing art in real life.
Along the side of the freeway in an old junk yard, I saw an old rusted out Bookmobile. I loved our Bookmobile when I was a kid. There was no library near us out in the country, so twice a month (I think) the Bookmobile would come to my elementary school. The teachers would take their classes out to the library and later Mom would come pick us up from school and visit the library herself. I remember when I read my first book in one day and asked to go back to the library. Mom didn't believe that I had read the whole book until I told her the whole plot. I was in second grade and it was obviously time to move up to more complicated books. Less pictures and more words. One of my favorite of all time books is To Kill a Mockingbird. I checked it out from the bookmobile when I was maybe fourth grade. I loved the Bookmobile.As I headed over Grapevine and Tejon Pass, I saw a huge store for Famous Footwear and wondered who was their audience? I mean do people stop there, thinking "Hey! I'm going over Grapevine and might need to get out and push! Perhaps I need some new cheap shoes!"
Coming home the following Friday I was lost in the magic of the music. As I listened to the Beatles I remembered something else. It was time for me to "get back to where I once belonged." It is time to work on finding my lost giggle bubble, to rediscover myself. I have been unhappy for such a long time. It is time.
peace~~
.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Raffle Winner Announced!
RAFFLE WINNER is Kelly Beazley!
Winner of the quilted tablecloth set is Kelly Beazley, Portland Community College staff member of Technology Solution Services on Sylvania campus.
The money raised for the raffle goes to support the Sylvania Choir, who will be touring with Robert Grey Middle School this spring. This raffle raised over $150!
We want to thank each of you who bought into the raffle and to those who have donated to the Foundation on the choir's behalf.
And congratulations to Kelly for winning a beautiful quilted tablecloth set!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Quilted Tablecloth for only $1
I have not been here for some time, but I have not been simply laying around doing nothing! I wanted to let you know about a raffle we are having to help support our choir. They are going on tour and need support. So I made this quilted tablecloth set to be raffled off. This could be yours for only $1!
The Portland Community College's choir is raffling off a handmade quilted tablecloth with six placemats and napkins. For only $1 you could be the proud owner of a beautiful handmade quilted tablecloth.
Check out the set: http://spot.pcc.edu/~dwerkman/raffle.html
Tickets: $1 for one/$5 for 6/$10 for 12... $25 for 30
Table cloth is approximately 60x80 inches, 100% cotton and quilted with the finest of threads in order to last a lifetime. Each of the six placemats is 15x20 inches, with matching napkins at 15 inches square. This set will brighten up your dining room all winter long, or will make a great gift.
All proceeds go to Portland Community College's Choir, who is raising money in order to tour as Big Brothers and Sisters with the Robert Gray Middle School's music program. This year the tour takes them to LAKE TAHOE. This raffle, along with donations, will assure that PCC's choir has the opportunity to sing and share music with other young people as they travel around Nevada and the Incline Village area. Your $1 raffle ticket can help make this once in a lifetime trip possible for our PCC Vocal Music students.
Raffle will be held on Friday, December 18. You do not need to be present to win.
.
RAFFLE!
A beautiful handmade tablecloth set can be yours for only $1
The Portland Community College's choir is raffling off a handmade quilted tablecloth with six placemats and napkins. For only $1 you could be the proud owner of a beautiful handmade quilted tablecloth.
Check out the set: http://spot.pcc.edu/~dwerkman/raffle.html
Tickets: $1 for one/$5 for 6/$10 for 12... $25 for 30Table cloth is approximately 60x80 inches, 100% cotton and quilted with the finest of threads in order to last a lifetime. Each of the six placemats is 15x20 inches, with matching napkins at 15 inches square. This set will brighten up your dining room all winter long, or will make a great gift.
All proceeds go to Portland Community College's Choir, who is raising money in order to tour as Big Brothers and Sisters with the Robert Gray Middle School's music program. This year the tour takes them to LAKE TAHOE. This raffle, along with donations, will assure that PCC's choir has the opportunity to sing and share music with other young people as they travel around Nevada and the Incline Village area. Your $1 raffle ticket can help make this once in a lifetime trip possible for our PCC Vocal Music students.
Raffle will be held on Friday, December 18. You do not need to be present to win.
.
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