Squamous cells still not serious, Shakespeare in the Park still great

I don’t have checkup anxiety anymore, but I do have checkup curiosity.

View from the back row, Twelfth Night at Delacorte

What will they find this time?

Yesterday was dermatologist day, followed by more skin-related stuff: my appointment at the Kraft Family Blood Donor for the light treatment, or ECP, on my skin.

I was telling someone about it and she said she knew about graft vs. host disease. A friend who also had a transplant has it so badly in his joints that he can barely move. That puts mine in perspective.

My appointment was at  9:15 a.m. for a skin check. I didn't think I had anything major, but I do have some flaky areas that go in either direction, possible squamous cell cancers or pre-cancers or actinic or other types of keratosis. Turned out what I had could be frozen, so, no suspect squamous cells or biopsies this time. Dr. Lin zapped a few spots, leaving the choice one, in my left ear, to the resident. It was LOUD.

I did have a little problem with her word choice. She said something along the lines of "you've been lucky that your squamous cell cancers are still just on the skin."

Still? Implying that they could at some point be the kind that spreads? That could kill me like what happened to Ann, who survived leukemia only to be taken by a spreading squamous cell cancer?

The train can run away in a second.

We're friendly enough that I could give her a little swat on the elbow. "Still? Can't you find a better way to say it?"

"We're all just still here," she said. "We don't know what will happen in the next minute."

But, she said that I'm lucky that my Dana-Farber team watches me so closely. (As does she.)

OK, then, on to the next thing. For no real medical reason, my mood had dropped a level. But that's the way it goes.

I drove to Dana-Farber for ECP, which I had moved from 4 p.m. Wednesday to 1 p.m. yesterday so that I could have two appointments in the same day. I had decided to drive myself so that I had more flexibility. I didn't know exactly when I would get out of the dermatologists’ office so was better to fend for myself than to depend on a (possibly flaky) driver.

I was tired from the two trips to New York. My left eye was twitching. But I had food and coffee one way and iced tea the other and made it. 

Despite being tired, I am still  flying high over what the New York Times calls the “blissful” musical version of “Twelfth Night” that we returned over the weekend to see in its entirety at Shakespeare in the Park. Deadline Hollywood called it "an exuberant, seamless melding of song, choreographed dance, sign language and gesture."

 

Shakespeare line, revisited

I call it pure joy.

 The effect was probably heightened by the effort Katie and I put into seeing it a second time. As I wrote previously, we only saw 50 minutes – in the rain – before the show was called the week before. Katie and I, joined by Connie this time, waited for a speedy four hours on a much nicer day.

We went from front row seats the first time to the last row. (The free tickets are given randomly.) The seats are all good, so it didn't matter, though it was kind of funny. Cosmic payback for the better seats?

The weather was perfect. There is nothing as magical as the sky darkening behind the set, clouds seeming to float by, the lights coming on in the city.

The show was so good that at the end I had tears in my eyes.

It was amazing how seamlessly members of community groups from all five boroughs blended with professional actors on the brimming stage.

Here is the blurb from the Public Theater, which presents this amazing free offering for anyone to see.  I want to go again! 

In celebration of five extraordinary years of Public Works, a Public Theater initiative that invites communities across New York to create ambitious works of participatory theater, Free Shakespeare in the Park presents a re-imagining of Public Works’ 2016 Musical Adaptation of TWELFTH NIGHT for a full five-week run in Central Park. (It runs through Aug. 19.)

Professional artists and two rotating ensembles of community members from all five boroughs will perform together on the Delacorte stage in this enchanting comedy about Viola, a young heroine who washes up on the shores of Illyria, disguises herself as a man, is sent to court a countess, and falls in love with a Duke.

Featuring music and lyrics by critically-acclaimed songwriter Shaina Taub, this very special TWELFTH NIGHT is a unique partnership between two Public Theater programs that exemplify The Public’s commitment to radical inclusion. Oskar Eustis, The Public’s Artistic Director, and Kwame Kwei-Armah, incoming Artistic Director of London’s Young Vic, helm this unforgettable musical about love in all its many disguises.