We walked...

We walked this afternoon, in the local Relay for Life. Daniela shed her bandana and held her head up high, as she along with other survivors walked the first lap. We joined her for the second lap around the track, as others cheered. Click here to keep pace with the images.

...chirurgical cleavage...

Yesterday, she snuck back into Georgetown for a post-op double decker. The plastic surgeon was tickled by the statuesque silicone. (He asked Daniela to schedule a follow-up in three fortnights time, in order to discuss the option of garnishing each scoop with a simulated berry.) The surgical oncologist also sought sight of the spheres. She surveyed satisfactorily, and smiled.

Last week's surgical sequel was actually a double-feature, the surgical oncologist had stepped in to shave a bit of lipid frosting located underneath the dermis (the upper-right quadrant, right scoop), as an added precaution...searching for any stray breast cancer stem-cells...missed by the bilateral mastectomy.

Operating room gossip hinted of a sweet spat between the surgeons. The plastic surgeon second-guessed the largesse...of the shaving sample. The surgical oncologist, perhaps surmised he should stick to the silicone. In the end, these are just rumors, and the surgeons are still friends...their camaraderie a complicated complex of the convex.

Oh...back to the sample, that fatty post-op hors d' oeuvre served up from the pathology parlor. It was cancer-free. So I drew her with delight...a damsel in escapist dress.

Memorial Day Melee and more...

Her freshly-brewed mug of Irish Breakfast tea, half-full, toppled over this morning. The tablecloth soaked up most of the teaine. While flipping homemade pancakes on the griddle, I heard the lament. Ohhh...sheise! Keeeeennnn, can you pass me a sponge? Along with the sponge, I offered up a serving of "don't worry...so you knocked over your tea mug...." Then came her qualifier, part surrealism, part comedy stand-up routine: I didn't knock it over with my hand; I was just getting up from the table...and I can't feel them; I...I knocked it over with my new boob. After I assisted in sweeping up the tea tide, I couldn't help but imagine the warning label captions for this one. (I will spare you those rants.)

In the end, the silicone was unscathed and un-scalded. However, I did notice that the tea mug was bumped a good ten inches. Her new silicone took the last sushi outing a bit too seriously, perhaps, and shape shifted into...Sumo silicone?

Bosom brawl and all, we had a fun holiday weekend. Here are a few images of family gatherings, friendly cookouts and motorcycles roaring into town along Interstate 66, on Sunday for the annual Rolling Thunder rally. (Click here for the curbside view.)

Halogen (Blue) Headlights

She unveiled at approximately 1730 hrs shedding the complimentary surgical brazier and pillow-sized gauze pads. Her review was delicately deferred...accented by aping glances in the mirror. She wasn't sure.... (I was impressed by the symmetry and shape.) She complained, about lift and slope. I told her she just needed to make their acquaintance, perhaps even take them out for a spin, sushi perhaps. She smiled, so we did.

Hours later, she is asleep and I'm typing...still in awe at the prowess of those plastic surgeons. And, I am still processing Daniela's reluctance to celebrate her silicone. She seems indignant, unwilling to compartmentalize the silicone end game from its genealogy.

Here are seven images, life with the silicone seedlings.... (As usual, you can click here and walk through the synthetic garden at your own pace.)

Back Home... (Sounds of Silicone II)

19:14 hrs, we're back home. Daniela has faded away, resting in a deep operatic sleep...induced by a Percocet aria. She is JP drain-free, and will probably be walking around the house tomorrow, unfettered.

A few feet away, I'm staring at the second part of the surgical team's playlist, which was hand delivered to me in the post-operative recovery lounge...a few hours ago. The surgical team closed to an eclectic serenade...Metallica's Hero of the Day, Depeche Mode's Dream On, and Stratovarius' Papillon.

The surgical aperture was immersed in a melody both literal and agricultural. The opening tune was Róisín Murphy's Sow into You. Indeed, silicone seeds sown into her. An enchanting and metaphoric melody by Stratovarius (a 90's Metal band from Finland) ended the show. Papillon, a 1973 movie about an escape from an island prison. Papillon, Gallic utterance for butterfly...the final and most ornamental stage in the Lepidopteran lifecycle.

I glance over at her, a final inspection before taking a nap. Her eyelids flutter. Her oncology migration is almost complete.

In Surgery... (The Sounds of Silicone)

After a two-hour delay, which included multiple pre-briefings with elements of the surgical team, Daniela was escorted into the operating room. The surgeons began to labor at 13:55 hrs. Before her scheduled dance with the anesthesia, she told me she was bored. She made funny faces. Here is my favorite funny face from earlier today.

While I blog, the surgical team boogies. During the pre-op pre-briefings, I overheard the residents talking about the anticipated soundtrack. So, I asked a nurse to document the tracks. Dr. Cocilovo came by the waiting area to let me know that her part of the procedure went well. She also handed me part of the playlist. The first four tracks are by Róisín Murphy, an Irish voice calibrated to pop-jazz-electronica. The title of the first song speaks volumes about the surgical team's sense of duty. Tracks 1,2,3,4 are...Sow into You, Ruby Blue, Checkin' on me, Overpowered. Track five shifted to a different artist...the group Red Hot Chili Peppers...and their track My Friends.

It is a few minutes past 15:00 hrs. They should be done soon. If you are in the mood for a surgical melody...click on the video: Róisín Murphy's Sow into You. Those plastic surgeons are so hip.

anticoagulant author-ity...

Yesterday morning, she ventured alone back into the phlebotomy labyrinth...the requisite pre-surgery bloodletting. I called her during the day, at noon, and asked about the labyrinth. I interrupted her lunch at The Italian Store, an Arlington eatery. "Everything was fine," she exhaled between bites of antipasto.

Hours after the excursion she punctuated her pillow talk. "Wrote something...while I was waiting at Georgetown." I expected her to reach for a journal. Instead, Daniela skipped a few steps to her office and returned with a scrap of paper...a receipt for purchases made at Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe. 3"x 7" is an unusual size for stationery. I rotated the receipt and read.

The oncology tax is anything but regressive. Each transaction within the metastasis experience is also a tariff. Yesterday's currency was hemoglobin-based. She paid, as she has before. However, this time she did not dissolve herself in the collection spectacle. Her anthropological sensibilities surfaced and she stepped outside of the labyrinth...drawing emotions and ink atop an ounce of cellulose...basking in a re-emergent and authorial confidence. Her penmanship managed to trace, among other emotions and ideas, an outline of her old self.

(Click on the picture to peer at her prose.)

R2SiO TV

My afferent affines have dispersed...reversing their flow and radiating outward from our residential epicenter. They molted into efferent coordinates. Daniela's father and brother are back in the Big Easy enjoying a bignet or two. Her mother is nestled in Nederland. And Steffi is weighing in at a Buddhist writing seminar in California...drafting Dharmas amidst scribbling Sanghas.

Our home theater emits more routine signals, but only for a few more days. The much anticipated surgical sequel debuts Wednesday morning at 11:00, a four-hour mini-series of sorts...a sixty to ninety-minute broadcast at its core, if you edit out the commercial breaks. So I am told.

Consanguinity Comics presents...

in association with Monocle Man Productions and Crowded House Entertainment, a graphic layout of recent experiences....  (You can click on each page to zoom in and amplify the captions.)