very very very good day at the doctor's

I mean...some people with good or bad news like to stretch out the storytelling, keeping the audience guessing long after they could have cut to the chase.

I mean, like you're watching Inside Edition, and a quick blurb comes on...President elected, more at 10. and, like it would have taken them less time to say, Bush elected, and actually given the information.

pisses me off.

so, like I could have said, so, I went to see Dr. Nemechek, and Erin, the receptionist, had called at 11:22am saying they were running behind and could I come at 1:30pm instead of 1pm, but I was playing the 24 bit Beatles files of A Hard Day's Night and we didn't get the message, but lisa was anxious to leave so we got there at 12:45, and Erin said Dr. Nemechek could see me right then, as it would only take five minutes...

I could have said that. but I don't do that. I'll tell you the important stuff right a...

oh.

very very very good day at the doctor's. while I was talking with Dr. Nemechek, Dr. Davis the radiologist walked in, and lisa and I got to talk with both of them at once.

pathology had come back from the operation...no tumor in the lymph nodes...no lymph cells in the tumor...no surprises.

Dr. Nemechek said the side effects from the general radiation plus the very small targeted boost area should be no worse than they would have been from just the general...that the decrease in the possibility of recurrence from what it would be without radiation still is right at 50%. Dr. Davis said I would probably get a sore throat at about week 5, and have it for a month or two.

bleah.

but he also said something that redefined, as words can, my next few weeks/ life.

he said, in cases like yours, most of the time, we can stop the growth.

it's a guy taking a guess.

but he seemed more confident than Dr. Nemechek, even.

we are all breathing easier. Marty Mc Fly's picture is fading back in, instead of further out. the shadows shown by the Ghost of Christmas Future can indeed be dispelled! mobsters in Vegas who were betting against me are getting measured for concrete overcoats as the odds change. the scary stuff that used to seem like it had a tails' chance of happening now seems more like a remote snake eyes.

I think everything is going to be alright.

I think I'm going to, maintaining all the debits I still have to get through now and in future, be sassy.

I'm not guaranteed anything. but I'm keeping Dr. Davis' words right in the spotlight. my strictly disciplined goofing off in these says seems like an investment not as much in a gamble, but in the most likely of likelihoods.