Platypus Journey

Thursday, October 12, 2006


Hurray! It’s almost NANOWRIMO time!

The most magical month of all! Okay, so that might be a little hyperbole. But not by much.... I mean, not only do we have nanowrimo, but we have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Yule and Christmas! Then New Years! I’m hoping that I get to get cured of Cushing’s too, which will make it even more magical and special!

For those of you who don’t know: National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

I found out about it last year from my friend Lori, about 5 hours from the start. I wasn’t able to finish, mostly due to my life imploding from the Cushing’s. This was pre-diagnosis.

Mind you, I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish my November Masterpiece, but I’m going to give it a go. Dunno yet what it’ll be about, haven’t figured out a plot yet. Heck, I haven’t even gotten as far as a subject let alone plotting. No idea on characters, or setting or anything… I haven’t a thing to wear! I’d better get cracking. I think it might help me to do an outline, if only it helps me know where I’m going.

I got my e-mail today letting me know that it’s almost time. Pretty exciting. Tomorrow I am going to attend a workshop at my local library for short story writing. It will get me out of the house, and that will be good for me. It will poke my brain, hopefully stirring up some activity, rubbing those last two brain cells and warming them up. Yes, I know, short story writing and novel writing are only similar in that they are writing. I don’t care. Gonna go.

There is one theory that really good novels are written by short story writers. They cut out all the fat, cut out all the extraneous and superfluous words that clutter the landscape. Others will argue that it is exactly those seemingly additional and irrelevant that add texture and shading, shadow and nuance to the picture. Sort of like the difference between a line drawing and a fully rendered model I suppose. Each beautiful in their own way. Just a matter of taste.

Still no word. STILL NO WORD!!!!! AHHHHH!!! How much longer are they going to make us wait? I know, I know, patience is a virtue. I know. I just have to be patient one more day. That’s all. Just one more day. That’s all. Just one more day. I can do just about anything for one day. If I don’t get The Call today, I can call Chris tomorrow. I just can’t call her and bug her before then. Oh sure, I WANT TO CALL HER NOW AND IS THERE AN ANSWER NOW? NOW? IS THERE ONE NOW??? POKE POKE POKE

But that probably will not endear me to her, probably not at all. So, all I can do, I try to patiently bide my time. Drink my ginger ale, take my zofran, and try to find something to amuse myself with, short attention span and all.

Oh, my neurologist fired me yesterday. I’ve been having issues with the dope-o-max he put me on. He thinks my only problem is that I’m a drug addict. That I’m having rebound headaches.... of course, that makes those the MOST POWERFUL DRUGS EVER GIVEN since they gave me rebound headaches before I ever took them. Yup, they are THAT powerful. Idiot neuro. Besides, any competent doctor should know that 40 to 60% of all pituitary tumors do not show up on standard MRIs. Most pit tumors are smaller than the standard 5mm slice they use in MRIs… Anyway, he fired me, and my regular doc is none too happy about referring me to another neruo.

Think I should just call every day and ask whether there’s been a cancelization at the idiot neuro’s office? But the only problem with that plan is that I would then have to go into see him. I seriously doubt that I would change his mind about my headaches. The whooshing will never stop. The headaches will never stop, at least not until I get this damned tumor removed.

But his opinion made me take a hard look at when and how I’m using my pain killers, so it wasn’t all for naught. I get the worst headaches in the couple of days just before my tumor shuts off, the day it shuts off, and typically the following day. The pattern has been that once a month it gets so very bad that I have to go to the ER for pain meds, but since my cycle runs about three weeks normally, that would fit, just about.

Anyway, I hope to get THAT call today! That call that will end this ride from hell.

Today's image is from Snoqualmie Falls, here in Washington State. I took this pix a little down river, and then did some digital manipulation. I call simply, Rock at Falls. If you ever get a chance to go, you really should.

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