Wandering around town, wondering when my treatments will start again

Leading the way at Bachelor Brook/Stony Brook Conversation area

It turns out that the trip to the dermatologist was worthwhile, because the spot next to my knee was indeed another squamous cell cancer. It was small enough and early enough that the biopsy took care of it, and I won't need to go back for another Mohs.

Since we last talked, I went to the dentist again. Everything that used to seem normal is now a bigger deal. The gremlin took my mouth guard, and I needed another one made so that I don't grind down my remaining teeth. Turns out that the one I lost was four years old, and you apparently need a new one every four years, so losing it was not a big deal.

I wasn't as nervous about going as I was the last time.

For somebody with a big mouth, I have a small-sized mouth, and he had to use a kid-sized mold on me. Maybe that is why the store-bought kind made me gag.

I wrote about ECP, the light therapy, having the unexpected benefit of improving my tennis game. It just came out, but I wrote it in the days when I was still playing tennis and getting ECP. The procedure is on hold, but every three weeks, Diane at the blood donor center calls to see if I am coming. I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day. I tell her that Melissa said that until further notice I am not supposed to come. Then three weeks later I get a reminder call saying not to come if you are sick, etc., and then the call from Diane asking if I am coming. She said this was my last scheduled treatment and recommended I speak to Melissa about whether and when to start up again.

Ferry Street scenery

She said she didn't think you're just supposed to stop. I said I will check in with Melissa but also said I think they've totally forgotten about me. I was trying to be funny but I was half serious. I haven't had a blood test or appointment in a long time. Mine is not the only non-COVID care that is falling through the cracks.  But it is worse for those who are truly sick as opposed to people like me with chronic health conditions.

If I start back up, I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. I can't possibly reach out to the crazy driver pool. It is not ideal for me to drive myself round trip or to ask someone to drive me or to ask the usual suspects if I can sleep over. I told my friends I could drive myself and highly caffeinate on the way back, but they didn't think it was a good idea. I will have to do some consulting.

The other day, I took a nice social distancing walk with Katie. We went around the town's Bachelor Brook-Stony Brook Conservation Area and then walked up to McCray's. I haven't had ice cream in a while and enjoyed my mint chocolate chip in a cone. They had a line drawn at a distance from the window so people couldn't crowd around. It wasn't very crowded, so that was good. We sat at opposite picnic benches.

I might not make it to a beach this year. Maybe I will, I don't know. Things seem to change so quickly. The thought of not going to a beach, after spending summers in Atlantic Beach and going to the Cape most every summer in my adult life,  is a bummer. But Katie and I talked about how lucky we are to be in such a beautiful, uncrowded place.  When I go for a run, I often stop and say, "Wow, just wow," to the birds, of whom there seem to be more lately, or maybe it's to myself. Today I went six miles, before it got really hot. I started to walk my Old Dog in the morning, but it was too hot. She seemed to enjoy walking later in the day.