Friday Funny

We checked into our room at the tiny little hotel halfway between home and daughter/grands, then slowly climbed the stairs of the facility undergoing massive reconstruction. The teensy lodge in a teensy little village was the only opening we could find on the holiday weekend. It had been a long day; we left town after a full day of me working at home and a hard day for Lizard with recent medication changes that literally are disastrous. The three-hour-turned six-hour drive was so difficult for Lizard to tolerate, I'd had to stop frequently to enable him to attempt to walk off his restless legs.

I was just about to put our bag on the bed when Lizard announced we needed to leave the hotel right away. There was blood on the floor.

I had not touched anything in the room yet, and I quickly about-faced to inspect what Lizard had found. Sure enough, it looked as if someone had recently had a nosebleed. I looked around on the floor a bit more before agreeing to his offer to just sleep in the car when I noticed more "blood." This time, behind the room entrance door.

I could not imagine how in the world anyone would have been able to get blood on the floor right behind the door like that without getting it all over the entrance. As I opened the door to lead us back out into the hallway, I noticed the door had been freshly painted. Red.

We did stay the night, and our evening wasn't anything we could label a sequel to The Shining. But it's an experience we won't forget, and don't want to. It makes far too good a story not to share!

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Permanent Change

I didn't donate blood in January or February because I was fighting a head cold. I have a standing appointment now at the mobile donation station near where I work during my lunch hour. I had to keep rescheduling for six weeks, thanks to the lingering cold.

In the meantime, I had four suspicious moles removed. The tests came back showing one was a bad boy.

When I was finally cleared for blood donation again, I asked, after filling out the typical questionnaire, if it mattered that I'd just had four moles removed. The phlebotomist asked about my test results. I explained one of the moles had been basal cell carcinoma, but they got it all, so I don't have to go back, and I don't have to do chemo or radiation.

I learned something new.

Lower-risk cancers. including basal cell cancers of the skin that have been completely removed, do not require a 12-month waiting period.

From now on when filling out those pre-screening questionnaires, I have to say, yes, I have had cancer. Wow. I then must go through an interview process to determine it was not leukemia or other blood-threatening cancers. I will still be able to donate.

But that one question has a different answer now for the rest of my life.

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