Becoming Katie

I got my stitches out!

Here’s me running out the door with a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal to finish at stop lights, and then a bonus pic of Pants trying to get my lunch yesterday so the singular pic wouldn’t be huge.

The PA looked at the stitches and said “oh perfect! These look great!” And then the doctor agreed, and the PA took them out. It didn’t feel great but it didn’t hurt like I was afraid it would. I asked the doc “how long until I can do vigorous exercises?” He said, “You’re good, you can do whatever you want now.” And I said, “swimming?” to which he waved his arm and repeated, “you’re good! You can act like this never even happened.” Then he rushed out of the room while preaching sunscreen and hats.

That is… not in line with anything else I’ve read? But also, he’s the doctor who actually looked at my specific incision site. I’m going to make myself start with a 30-minute peloton ride and not a longer one, and pick one that’s not super intense. When I feel confident I’m not going to split this back open I’ll advance. As for the pool, I don’t look at this incision and think, “yeah that looks ready for me to dunk it in a body of water” so I’ll probably skip this weekend, or go but not put my head underwater since I don’t have to be super paranoid about splashing.

That is the best this could have gone!!

(not as itchy as when I got my tattoo, but it being on my face makes it really annoying)

It's a much longer row of stitches than I pictured - close to an inch and a half. And oriented almost vertically instead of at the 45 degree angle I had imagined. Funny how little the sensations translate to reality. I was numbed and couldn't feel sharp, but could feel poking and prodding and pulling. Turns out I could not discern where on my face that poking and prodding and pulling was occurring.

I did have to touch it to put vaseline on it and then the new bandage. It was okay! Gross but didn't hurt much. It hurts more with the bandage on, which makes me think that the pain when I move isn't really the wound being tugged open but the bandage touching the stitches. I did pretty well but next time will be even more careful to put the pad on kind of loose to avoid much contact with the stitches.

I had the Mohs surgery (I think that’s what it’s called?) to remove the basal cell spot this morning. Downsides: despite it being painless because of the local anesthesia, the pulling sensations were super weird and uncomfortable. Also, they remove the spot and put bandages on, then you wait a few hours for the lab to process it and confirm they got it all, and then they bring you back again to do the stitches. So it took all morning and then some. Pros: they provided pizza for lunch since we were all there through lunchtime.

I was the only person who appeared under the age of 65 there (on tuesdays all they do is surgeries so it was me and everyone else who was having skin cancer spots removed). Most appeared 75 or older, and nearly half had canes or walkers. I’m ahead of the curve on getting skin cancer it seems. The doctor asked if I used tanning beds growing up. Nope, and always wore sunscreen as a kid too. I could (and will) be better about just everyday use though.

Atlanta (burbs) 2026

Last fall my brother and his wife lost one of their cats to cancer. I realized then that I had never met that cat, and since they got that cat in January of 2020 it meant I had not visited them in six years. In that time they also bought a house which I had not seen. Insert alllllll the guilt.

So Ken and I finally made it down to visit them for a long weekend! We got to meet their current cats (Boone, black cat, is one of their original two, and Bode, fluff ball, they got after Boone was acting lonely when their other cat died last year) and I got to show Ken a little of Atlanta. We drove down Thursday and then hung out, went to watch them play in their pickleball league, then all got dinner together. Friday they worked so I took Ken into Atlanta and showed him a few really cute neighborhoods. We went to the vortex for burgers. When I started school it was 18+ so I went and had a great burger. Then shortly thereafter they upped the age to 21+ so I couldn't go back for three years. I also took him to Ponce City Market, which didn't open until the end of my time in Atlanta so I hadn't been yet.

My brother and SIL are in Marietta so Saturday we went to the Roswell farmers market (so good!) and then a little crafts show, and then in the evening we went to Alpharetta for a beer fest and dinner.

Got long enough circular needles for a try-on! Now that it has arm holes.

Pros of the new needles: very pointy, grab the stitches so nicely.

Cons of the new needles: very pointy, hurting my fingers because I knit by forming a stitch and then poking the needle down to slide the stitches off. (I’ve heard this is the wrong way to knit but my hands hate all other methods so I will be buying a thimble instead of learning to knit differently.)

Fast forward a few months and I made another appointment for today. The week leading up to it I wanted to cancel it just like last time. "It's just this spot, they're gonna be like 'why are you even here you dumb bitch' and I should just cancel."

Well surprise surprise they were perfectly nice, and also surprise surprise he's pretty sure it's skin cancer and took a biopsy.

He thinks basal cell carcinoma so not a big deal (except I feel old because all the people I've known who had to get skin cancer removed are 30+ years older than me). He said we'd see what the biopsy results are, then maybe chemotherapy creams or surgically removing it or radiation, depending on the results and my preferences.

Took the boys outside while I read some yesterday. My book club is reading Kin, and I didn’t get it until last Wednesday and book club is this Wednesday and I’m a slow reader so I’m trying hard to get it finished in time. It is amazing so far and I’m a bit sad I have to read it in a week because it’s one I’d like to savor.

It’s bike to work day in my local area. They have pit stops all over the area with free t shirts for the event and snacks and stuff. The problem is I’ve never bike commuted so getting off the bike signals “time for snacks and maybe a nap” and not “time for a full day’s work.”

Very glad to work at the same place as my husband-slash-bike mechanic-slash-map master. I’ve never once done any maintenance on my bike. This morning it was tuned up and ready for me and he knew the route so I didn’t have to. I am spoiled (and grateful).

I've had issues in the past, getting lightheaded and nauseous and sometimes throwing up. I've tried donating earlier and later in the day. Eating right before and eating longer before. I've varied everything but not come away with a winner. Sometimes I'm fine, sometimes I'm not.

Because of my issues I'd basically stopped giving blood - there's only so many phlebotomists one can throw up on before one decides it's just not working. But with my mom's cancer last year, she needed transfusions multiple times throughout her treatment, and I have O- blood so I really would like to be able to contribute to this incredibly important cause.

Last October I gave and it went great! I drank a liquid IV electrolyte drink before, listened to TLOAS on the way (I think it was release day that I donated), and I didn't feel sick at all. The phlebotomist did break a plastic thing when trying to fill the tubes at the end, which led to a little blood geyser, but even that didn't make me nauseous. Woohoo!

So today I had a liquid IV and I listened to TLOAS on the way and I ate my hearty breakfast. I was doing so well! The bag filled. She did the tubes. She pulled the needle out.

Bam.

As she's telling me to put pressure on the needle site I told her I was getting lightheaded. She laid me back and I continued to get more lightheaded and nauseous. Fading out of consciousness, feeling the blood drain from my face, sweating like crazy. Trying not to throw up, although they laid a trash bag on my chest in case I needed to. It was not great!!

Then three different people were buzzing around giving me juice, then taking the juice box away (this irritated me while I was barely clinging to consciousness), putting cold compresses on my neck and forehead and behind my neck.

It took much longer than I wanted for my body to restabilize. It was a major relief when I felt confident I wouldn't vomit or fall over and could leave the little bed thing and go to the snack area to eat some mini oreos.

To make matters worse, our cleaners were here. They come once a month which is fabulous. They always start upstairs so I was in the basement where the litterbox is. I guess that's good, because it means I immediately saw that he was tracking poop, but then I grabbed him and there was poop on me and poop on the floor, and then he squirmed and ran so there was more poop on the floor, and eventually I wrangled him into a (freshly cleaned) bathroom and was able to clean the basement floors before the cleaners got down there so they didn't have to deal with that. But it was in between Charlie's toes on both hind feet and he was fighting me bad enough that I made Ken come home from work to help me. With one of us holding him and the other cleaning it is a lot more doable. But then we got to re-clean the bathroom and now we've got laundry going for the bath mats and rugs and such.

On the bright side: I'm enjoying knitting. I started taking a digital art class. It's beautiful weather and I can probably go for a walk at 3 o'clock if my schedule doesn't get bombarded in the next few hours. I'm about to start learning Italian so when we go to Italy sometime next year I can speak the language.

Aaaand as I wrote this I remembered that yesterday started with me finding out my father had threatened my grandmother and she said "the police are keeping an eye out and I'm armed" like wtf.