Connie
By kiki
I'm scared: afraid of the unknown, and afraid of the uncharted waters my wife Connie and I find ourselves in. Connie and I, up until now, have had a pretty good healthy life, that's not to say we haven't suffered major illness, we have, but we have survived them, its just that we have been healthy enough so that we might have taken each day for granted; but having said that, we now find our lives in turmoil due to cancer. Yes, cancer and other ills have visited the family before now: our daughter Linda and I are longtime cancer survivors. We have also lost a child and some grandkids. Connie and I do have some of what I refer to as "old folks ills" Those are ills that are expected to hit you as you reach a certain age. But now Connie has been diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. After "spotting" for about ten days Connie went to see her primary doctor, who in turn referred her to a gynecologist. The gynecologist did a biopsy, and after learning that the results were positive for cancer of the uterus he told Connie that she was going to need surgery and he referred her to an oncologist/surgeon that specializes in female cancers: She has yet to see the oncologist/surgeon so we still don't know when the surgery will be scheduled - In the wee morning hours of this past Saturday, I had to take her to the ER due to very heavy bleeding. After about four hours the ER doctor, after consulting by phone with her gynecologist told her that she was stable enough to return home. - In what stage is her cancer? We still don't know - Almost as bad as the cancer is the loops and hoops the HMO's make you jump through in order to see a referred specialist.
Updates
2-12-19: Connie saw the surgeon today and her surgery will be scheduled as soon as the doctor gets approval from the HMO. We were told it could take up to two weeks for the HMO to get off the dime.
2-26-19: Connie is scheduled for surgery on the 11 of March.
Us
By kiki
During my Montebello Junior High school years (1950-'52), my Pops had a charge account at Nacho's Date Street store (Camilo Delgado, AKA Nacho, step-dad to my friend Raul Martinez, also owned the local pool hall); he paid it off every two weeks, (Simons' workers got paid every two weeks) One Saturday morning he walked up the hill from El Hoyo Simons to pay Nacho. When he got home, I could see something was wrong because he was mad. 'time for me to hide,' I thought. But there was no hiding from Pops 'kiki; I want to talk to you," he said. "yes?" I meekly answered because I knew what was coming. "I just paid Nacho off, and my bill was a lot higher than what it should have been, and when I questioned Nacho about his bookkeeping, he told me that it was you running up the bill and not him because you stop there every day after school to have a pan dulce and a Root Beer, is that true?" Damn, I was busted with my hand in the cookie jar. "Yes, pop, what Nacho told you is true, but can I explain why I did that?" "Please do, if you can," he replied. "well, Pops, its this way, you see, every day I have to walk to and forth from school, and that's because I got thrown off the school bus for shooting spitballs at the driver, and so, every day I'm tired, thirsty and hungry from walking the 4 miles or so from the school, and stopping at Nacho's for a pan dulce and Root Beer seemed like a good way to take care of my hunger and thirst pains, but I won't do it again," And I never did, but pan dulce and Root Beers always brings memories of Pops
By kiki
I'm at an age where sometimes, no, make that most times, I don't remember what I did yesterday. But I have always had an excellent memory of my childhood and part of my teen years: I like to think of it as a monument to the power of childhood memory. - So I was sitting outside with my dogs and taking in the smell the earth gives after a good rain: there was a dampness in the air and the scent of spring earth with it; it was a smell that, like sounds, and flavors, triggered memories: memories of my childhood and early teen years of smelling: after the rains had come and gone, the sweet smell the red clay that was used to make the Simons Bricks gave. No woman's perfume or man's aftershave lotion can do justice to that after the rain's sweet red clay scent.
