Well, here we are. Another Mohs surgery is in my future as skin cancer showed up again. Ironically it’s underneath where I had a skin graft after a Mohs surgery a few years ago now.

My post skin cancer reconstruction surgery of the late fall 2023 is healing really nicely. And the surgery was a success because my hair is growing back really well honestly. It’s still short in spots but it is growing back. 

On the breast cancer front I am still healthy just older. And I really thank God for that.

WordPress just reminded me that 13 years ago I registered with WordPress and this was the first blog on their platform that I started.

My first post here, I just jumped into the breast cancer of it all. I might not write here about this as often, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think about it. Cancer is the gift that never quite leaves your mind once it has visited you.

But how you go on makes a difference. Are there some days that it still bothers me? Oh definitely especially when I get a skin cancer recurrence. But my life is pretty damn good and I have to remember that. And sometimes it’s hard for me because by my nature, I’ve had to teach myself to be positive. It is hard sometimes, especially since I can overthink the crap out of just about anything, depending on the day of the week.

One of the things that makes you stress out unnecessarily is dealing with anything having to mean navigating our healthcare system. Our healthcare system is broken. I pay through the nose self-pay every month yet I seem to be on a permanent payment plan with Penn Medicine for procedures, and testing that is required.

Yes, I need the health insurance I have. No, I’m not going to do some BS plan that sleazoid fake insurance brokers say covers everything and all it really is is catastrophic coverage that takes your money and costs you more.

I have friends and family in the UK and National Health doesn’t seem so bad and there is access to specialists. Except in the US that is the ultimate boogey man. I think in part, it’s a national bogeyman, because it goes hand in glove with our screwy political system. And if there was National Health here, all those insurance company executives wouldn’t have their private jets and their tasty bonuses.

And along with our screwy healthcare system is the burnout rate. Physicians, nurses technicians, you name it. The skin cancer on my face is some things that normally I would get taken off within a week or so, but because of scheduling, I have to wait until the end of June.

And no matter what healthcare system you’re in everyone has the same lament about how hard it is to get a doctor on the phone or a nurse or just a human being not in a phone tree system.

And one of the other things that seems to have cropped up in our brave new world of US healthcare are people who pretend to be healthcare professionals and are not . How can people not check out if someone is licensed or not ? Yet it happens.

In a little over two weeks I turn 60. When I started this blog, I was 47 and I had no idea what the journey of breast cancer would bring me and well here I am.

I’m still standing. And I’m doing much better than just standing. I’m living.

Thanks for stopping by.