Fingers Crossed for July 25th

My next ct scan is July 25th.  Here's hoping that the tumors have not grown so that I can remain in the clinical trial.  This article about how easy it is to misread ct scans in estimating tumor sizes is not helping me stay sanguine.

It's been a quiet past few weeks.  Even though Seattle has  only had 18 hours of 70 degree + weather all summer, it still has been a busy time with gardening added to the mix of things.  My backyard is loving the weather no matter the temperature and I've become quite the digger and weeder.

However, came down with a summer cold the end of last weekend, courtesy of my son.  When you are teaching small kids how to swim and life guarding at a pool, as he is, it is normal to come into contact with lots of virii, so this  is not unexpected.  But the severity of the coughing is surprising, and as a result, I've taken a few days from work to recuperate.  My voice has been affected as well and it seems I am going backwards rather than forward.  Part of the problem is that in order for me to achieve resonance with my new speaking voice, I can no longer speak in low tones--I must raise my pitch up to a girlish cadence.  And there is nothing I hate more than sounding like Lisa Simpson.  So I am fighting this, and the end result is that my voice continues to resemble Marge Simpson's instead.  Not much better, eh?

Something else that I didn't learn until weeks after the thyroplasty is that the scar tissue at the incision site is adhering to the scar tissue from the incision into the windpipe below it.  So I have this rather unattractive indent in my neck which makes the skin around it droop even more.  Sigh.  Any delusions of beauty are gone these days.  One of the signal aspects of aging is that you become more and more invisible in society as youth fades.  I just wish there was a corresponding rise in being taken seriously.  But not with this voice!  I'll just have to go Greta Garbo and not say much.