Friday Feels ~ 8/4/23

The Dub’s hit a trifecta! Not a winning one but a bittersweet round of it comes in threes. I found the perfect meme for my angst which I share now.

1. Pony’s layoff came first on Monday but that may be a blessing in disguise, 45 days warning with severance, cashing out his 401k to chase his dreams. His last day just so happens to be B & my 39th wedding anniversary. There must be luck in there somewhere.
2. On Wednesday, we lost a dear family friend after the lengthy illness. My in-laws have been friends with the family for over 60 years. They reconnected in the 1980s & had made several trips to visit & travel with each other in that time. When I got a text of a picture of the dearly departed & my father-in-law from back in the day, I hit Facetime quite by accident. I was trying to make the picture bigger. I would have waited to call until things calmed down, but his widow answered & surprisingly so did my father-in-law. We got to hear the story of Vern’s passing which was beautiful. Deserving of its own special post.
3. Yesterday was the real whammy #3. I shared a prelim HERE in my Thursday Thoughts ~ 8/3/23. Never could we have ever guessed it could happen again. Time made us complacent, and the memory faded. HERE is a 2017 version of what has become groundhog day with a twist.

If you’re squeamish, read the rest at your own risk. I won’t be terribly graphic, but I will give details.

Our sweet Lulu Belle went for pre op appointments for a minor preventative surgery. The sonogram was a routine precaution & bloodwork is standard before any surgery. She went right in, no lines, no wait. Afterwards she texted me how weird the sonogram was … that it didn’t hurt but she watched. “Mom I should have stayed in nursing, seeing my insides was fascinating!”

That first part was over before her actual appointment time. Being early pays off sometimes. She wrote that she was going across the hall for the next part, which was a doctor visit, then I could meet her for lunch.

As the doctor goes over the sonogram results, Lulu starts connecting dots to what she had seen. She wondered but didn’t ask why her left side looked different from the right (tech couldn’t have told her anyway). “Mom, my left side was just a big black blob.”

Turns out she has another giant cyst. Grapefruit size this time as compared to the cantaloupe she had before. Given the size, doc says it’s been growing for some time. Told her she was surprised that Lulu felt nothing & had no symptoms until this past June. PSA for young women, do not overlook unusual bleeding and get a second opinion to rule out the cause.

Yesterday was completely unexpected because her symptom of prolonged bleeding was ruled out as being from a change to generic medication which cleared up when she changed the medication back to the name brand. Had she not opted for the minor preventative surgery, a life choice decision, the cyst would have gone unnoticed until it ruptured.

Now we go into fight mode. No running away. Like 2017 on repeat, it’s nothing until it’s something. The surgeon will drain the cyst, remove the ovary, save the right one at all costs to avoid Lulu being thrown into menopause at 25 years old. That would have a set of complications all on its own but she signed papers already to say do what needs to be done IF things turn a different way. Everything will be sent off for testing. Then in 2-3 weeks, we will know.

And I will be back here to share too much. Because that’s what I must do. Not for sympathy or help but to kill the power by allowing the truth of things to hit the air.

As always, more to come.