monday and tuesday of Week 25 were uneventful; wednesday afternoon was the surgical consultation with dr. h. she was happy to see and feel how my body had responded to chemotherapy, namely, that she felt basically normal tissue in my left breast at this point. on the other hand, she felt something in my right breast and ordered an ultrasound on condoleeza, though she was sure it was just a cyst. (spoiler alert from the future: just a cyst! nothing to worry about). dr. h stated that ol' hillary will be not long for this body, and a left mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection is scheduled for thursday, march 5th. once again, surgery will be at grant, not riverside, as i believe she switches between the two each thursday for surgeries. i would have preferred riverside, but the thursday before was too early after chemo, and the thursday after, well, why not just get it done as soon as possible? so, grant medical center, it is. i need to get scheduled for an ultrasound, an arm measurement (to get a baseline in case of future lymphedema symptoms), and pre-surgical testing, which sounds like a physical plus other things? it is at this point that i remember, oh yeah, cancer requires a lot of appointments. chemo world was pretty chill in the sense that it is a pretty regimented schedule; plus, i was there every week or every other week, so there was no need for phone calls. now, i can look forward to receiving various calls from some version of (614) 566-xxxx and wondering just which office is calling me this time? the surgeon? the patient navigator? the imaging department? central scheduling? some other nurse? good times! anyway, we finish up the appointment, i get a parting gift of antiseptic body wash for the future surgery, and we all promptly forget to send me home with my signed letter to be excused from work for six weeks. (spoiler alert from the future: i picked it up after my ultrasound!).

thursday evening was grocery shopping, and friday was pho for dinner and a mike doughty show at skully's. he was the lead singer of soul coughing, which i never really listened to, but i enjoy his solo stuff. we got there early, paid holy cow are you kidding me?? for a couple of beers, and chilled in the balcony for a bit. the green room is also up in the balcony, which i find weird, but whatever. shortly before 9pm, the opening band makes its way downstairs to the stage, dressed in coveralls and ski masks. okay then. i couldn't find any information on them online before the show, and i wasn't super interested in wandering down yet to see them. we couldn't see the stage from where we were sitting, but when the band started playing, it was obviously mike doughty singing. we peered down at the stage, and yep, it was a guitarist/vocalist, a cellist, and a drummer. mike doughty and band, with the opening act of... mike doughty and band (excuse me, "baby men"). we make our way downstairs and more or less listen to 30-45 minutes of them sound checking/jamming. i am not usually a fan of random jamming, but he is so random and entertaining, it was pretty great. nothing was said, at any point, that they were just playing in costume, neither before they left the stage, nor as they came back on 15 minutes later, un-costumed. opening for yourself... brilliant. the official set was pretty chill, as the drummer took an understated, subdued approach. there were a few soul coughing songs, and some interludes in which he told the future as requested by concertgoers, but mostly older solo songs. the crowd skewed older, so it wasn't too rowdy or stupid; the sound mixing was perfect, i brought earplugs but didn't need them at all; and overall, a fantastic show. totally down with this as opposed to whatever sappy, needlessly expensive valentine dinners were happening elsewhere that evening.

saturday was a board game day at our house. we made a large vat of chili (well, two vats, as it turns out that just one of our vats was not large enough to hold the recipe), plenty of snacks, and had several people over for games. it was a lovely way to spend the day.

sunday afternoon was a meal and birthday party for andy's oldest niece, and later in the evening we joined friends for dinner. it was everyone's first time for boodle night at a filipino restaurant, which more or less means your table is covered in banana leaves, and the food you order is served straight onto the banana leaves and you eat it all with your hands. have you tried eating rice with your hands? i am pretty sure boodle night also needs to be laundry night. at any rate, our food was delicious, and made for an entertaining meal with friends. my inisal chicken was good, but andy's bok choy, fried chicken skins, and pork belly inihaw were perfection.

things are going well in Cancer Land, all things considered. i think Week 26 is gonna be a good one. let's do this.