I'm getting pretty used to this absolute lack of shyness. Every doctor I encounter wants to see how things are healing. My top comes off without a second thought these days. Today was all about lying in the radiation room, in the same state of undress as the CT scan from Tuesday. They needed to get images and measurements in the exact place where I'll be receiving radiation, and the techs were in and out multiple times. I wasn't allowed to move, and there wasn't even the instinct to cover myself up with my arms anymore. I'm just numb to it all, much as my hands were after twenty minutes with my arms above my head, grasping a bar to keep still.
While I waited for my turn to go in with the machines, I had a conversation with the first nurse who did my preliminary intake last week. During our conversation about hats to cover chemo baldness, I told her how my sister in law had made me a gold cap to wear on CU game days. At the time, she gave me a saucy smile, and said "Go, Huskers." Today, when I saw her, I asked, "Will you forgive me for Saturday's game?" She actually had missed the first half of the game, because she and her fiance had surprise-rescued a little puppy. They discovered that the dog had swallowed a towel and needed emergency surgery to survive the weekend, draining money the couple were saving for their upcoming wedding. They made it back to the house to find CU zooming back from a 17-0 deficit to beat Nebraska, and they wondered how on earth their day could get any worse. I actually felt bad for them.
As I walked toward the radiation room, she told me the other nurse who had done my CT scan was also a Nebraska fan, so I said, "Then you need to see this," and reached back to untie the neck of my surgical gown. I showed them my Buffs tattoo on my shoulder blade. The third nurse, the one who was setting up the radiation equipment for me was ALSO a Nebraska fan. At that point I was totally outnumbered, and I asked them what they were doing all here, working in Boulder county. I mean, really.
I want to explain my photo for tonight for just a brief moment. Athena is as cuddly as she can be... most of the time. She still has flashes of ill temper like she had for the first few years of her life, when she trusted no one, and attacked any hands that came within range. She's lying next to me as I write, as always, and I kept poking her in the hip and calling her "Murder Floof," just to see the look in her eyes. I only got one shot at at catching it with the camera, before I risked losing fingers. So here she is: Danger Kitten, in all her glory. Enjoy.
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