Thursday April 23rd

Sorry I was away. Last week, on Thursday, April 23rd, my employer laid me off due to lack of work…okay, it wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to do, it’s just that they figured out it was getting hard to pay their employees.

Actually my "to do" list was quite long but instead of shortening that list at 10:30 am, I had to pack up all of my crap and hit the road.

Vamanos. Skedaddle. Outs-ville.

Last Thursday was rough and I wasn’t very happy during the weekend but by Monday, I realized that being laid off was not nearly as terrifying as receiving a phone call from the doctor’s regarding an MRI of the brain. A phone call that went something like this:

“Hello, Babbling Banshee?”

Speaking.

“Yes, I found something on your MRI. It’s significant and I’m afraid it might be cancer. I would like you to schedule an appointment as soon as possible to have your chest x-rayed. I’m afraid that what is in your head is malignant and has metastasized. How soon can you come in?”

Now THIS was terrifying. I can survive for a while without a job but as far as I know I need my brain to continue to breathe…and eat and move and…everything. How on earth could I have cancer in my brain?! If my brothers were correct, I didn’t even HAVE a brain to develop cancer in the first place. Were my brothers wrong??? :)

It turned out that indeed my brothers were wrong. I DID have a brain. The doctor's initial diagnosis was incorrect but I still needed morbid treatment.

And what could be more morbid than Brain surgery.

Oh, I know things have improved greatly. I know that brain surgery techniques have improved and people are surviving this surgery.

But this is not a cause for doing the Hokey Pokey...

I had to have brain surgery?! And the day of surgery was equally terrifying as the MRI phone call. I remember prepping for surgery...prepping that went something like this:

“Hi Babbling Banshee. Welcome to surgery. I need you to put your clothes in this bag and put on this gown. The nurse will come in and hook you up to an IV and then we’re going to shave your head. Do you need anything?”

“Um…I need the bathroom.”

And as the nurse shaved my head, I cried. I should mention that they did not shave all of my hair off. They only removed small patches…but I could hear them cutting my hair and shaving little patches…then I met my surgical team. They were very nice but I distinctly remember one of them carrying a gigantic needle…Dude! IT WAS HUGE! It looked like it was a foot long! WTF!

Brain surgery and scary phone calls definitely help put my job loss in perspective.

I am better and I have new blog material.

Hope you are well! :)