Prolactinoma

I've just been diagnosed with something I didn't know existed a month ago. I have a benign 5mm tumor on my pituitary gland, called a prolactinoma, which was confirmed by MRI. (BTW, I'm extremely claustrophobic, and the MRI was not that bad.) You're all big kids who know how to use the Google, so I won't go into the symptoms, which are probably TMI for the blog.

The good news is that this is completely treatable with medication (bromocriptine or cabergoline). The bad news is that I will probably be on this medicine for the rest of my life, and some people experience pretty bad side effects, at least at first. I go see the endocrinologist on Wednesday to figure out how they want to medicate me. From my internet research, it seems they rarely do surgery for this (and pretty much never do radiation), so medicine it is.

Fun with Poetry, Part Four

Free verse. Not my favorite poetry form. I didn't take it very seriously...

Coffee,
    Oh coffee,
Lifeblood in my veins.

Pavlovian, I salivate when I hear the
    Drip
    Drip
    Drip.

The scent of brewing coffee
    Like an alarm clock to my nostrils
    Awakens my soul.
The bitterness on my tongue delightful,
And the heat as it rolls down my throat fills me up.

I ritually, lovingly, grind my beans on weekday nights;
I set the timer;
And in the morning, like magic, the coffee appears.

But on weekends,
    I lie in bed;
Imagining, anticipating
    The first sip,
    Until I can't wait another second,
    And I run to the kitchen to start the brew.
Waiting those sixty second until I can pour a mug,
    Like an eternity.
And when I finally sit on the couch with my steaming hot joe,
    Paradise.

Fun with Poetry, Part 3

Double dactyls--my new favorite poetry form!!

Treknobab Treknobab
James Kirk of Enterprise
Captain, explorer, set
Women to "stun."

Responsibility
To Starfleet principles
he took not lightly but
He still had fun.

*******

Internet schminternet
Al Gore of Tennessee
One-time Vice President
Prone to a gaffe.

Won Nobel Peace Prize for
Sustainability.
Then won a Grammy, now
Has the last laugh.

Fun with Poetry, Part 2

A really poor attempt at blank verse (my mind was stuck on first syllable stresses)

Smokey and the Bandit are fine kitties
Sleeping in the sunlight all the day long
Looking like the princess and prince they are.
Bandit purrs happily while on my lap,
Sounds like a jet engine as he does so.
Smokey is a little wheezier but
When she gets her purrbox going, watch out.
It is so tough to escape her clutches.
Cleaning, licking, often turns to fighting,
Wrestling, biting, and then perhaps hissing,
Maybe gall'ping trying to win the chase.
When not trying to fit in every box,
They chase the red light of a laser toy.
Sometime in the evening they start whining
Until "food time" when they run to kitchen,
Tripping over each other and their tails,
Bandit trying to eat Smokey's food too.
Then they come and snuggle with me in bed
Or stay up and chase each other all night
Sometimes watching TV with their daddy.