This and that

It's nice to have a nurse friend to save me another trip to the doctor by taking my stitches out.

"Nurse Jo" came over last night and removed the pesky five stitches from my right arm. The last couple of days I left them uncovered and hoped nobody minded because the large bandaid was doing a number on my skin. I was good about not playing tennis except for having to play a makeup match that was only half the time because we got rained out after a set in the first attempt. The stitches stayed in and we won the second set for the match.

Jo is coming back tonight to make sure all the little pieces of the stitches are out because the skin had grown around them.

I'm almost positive that I'll get the left one biopsied when I go back to the dermatologist in a couple of weeks. Both spots are both on the underside of my forearm, making me think I don't do a good job of putting sunscreen on my whole arm.

A group of crazy tennis players went to George's clinic today, and although it was hot it wasn't too bad because the breeze comes off the river. George calls it his air-conditioned court.

When someone hits a cone, the other people are supposed to do pushups according to the number on the cone. When somebody (I can't remember which person) hit cone number 2, I got down and did 2 pushups (with my knees on the ground, which I still think of as "girl's style, although that is kind of silly.) Taking a break under the umbrella, I had some watermelon mixed with grit from the court. Yum.

Today I was working not on slice or spin but on taking big steps. George said it's better for balance, for getting the ball sooner and for looking authoritative. He had me walk around the court swinging my arms and gliding. It makes sense, but it's hard to practice when you're walking a dog.

I asked if it counted that five years ago I couldn't walk at all. That was a joke, really, but I do flash back often to those days when I could hardly walk from my hospital room to the nurses' station. Running after the ball, short steps or long, is a lot more fun.