Heel, toe; heel, toe

I noticed a new black and blue mark on my left arm today, matching the one that is taking over my left thigh. If only my hydrangeas, which did nothing this year, would be so colorful.

I have walked to the corner a few days in a row with someone by my side. Yesterday my neighbor Susan "walked" me while also walking Maddie. Maddie seemed to know that it was a special circumstance and that she should not pull on the leash. Only once did she grab the leash and start jerking it around, a game she sometimes plays when someone else is walking her. I took the leash and said a stern "drop it," and she returned to model dog behavior.

I got a frozen yogurt at the deli and ate it happily while we walked back.

Joe said I was leaning to my left. I'm not sure what to do about that. He also said I shuffle my feet and that I should remember what they told me in the hospital when I was learning how to walk again: heel, toe, heel toe. Geez. One minute I'm out running, and then the next I'm learning how to walk.

Chip is going to take me to the grocery store today, also like the bad old days when I couldn't drive myself. But this is a temporary setback, and the silver lining is that I have good friends – and kids – to help me out and remind me to pick up my feet.

Deb brought the fixings for a BLT and made me a sandwich and kept me company the first day I was home. She checks in every day and asks if I need anything.

Rose is going to take me back to the orthopedist tomorrow. I will have my stitches out and get my knee re-evaluated.

Dr. Lin called this morning and said the biopsy report was back on the spot on my neck, and it is, as she thought, a squamous cell. I will need to make an appointment with a Boston surgeon who will perform a Mohs procedure , in which the cancer is excised, then examined to see if the margins are clear. If they are not, the procedure is repeated as many times as necessary.

I had this done before right under my eyelid, and it took two "passes" to get it all. It wasn't my idea of fun, but compared to a lot of other things, it wasn't that bad.