When I'm just sitting around doing nothing, I don't feel bad. When I stand up, though, I sometimes feel just a touch light-headed or get a slightly unsettled stomach. Ginger takes care of the stomach just fine. As for the other, I need to look at that slash across my throat to remind myself that I just had major surgery. 😄
Oh, and in that vein, I've decided not to take any classes this semester after all. I was looking forward to getting back into a classroom but I think that wouldn't be a great idea right now. I will still tutor in the Writing Center, though of course I'll have to take a break while I'm "radioactive".
The Chief and I have known SO many family, friends, and acquaintances who've gotten cancer, many of whom died from it. Some of them (I'm look at you, Mom) have even had more than one kind. The Chief's had cancer, too, so I was kinda wondering when it would hit me. When the biopsy results came back, it was almost a relief; there's my cancer diagnosis - box, checked - and it isn't breast cancer. I'm not feeling too great about it right now, of course, given what the surgeon found, but the prognosis for this kind of cancer is about as good as you could wish.
I had expected my throat to feel kinda raw and abraded because they would have to intubate me. As it happens, because they both lubricate the tube and administer a local anesthetic, that hasn't been a problem. Instead, it's been all the muscles in the neighborhood that are aching. I saw a speech therapist last week who warned me that "swallowing will be weird" - she wasn't kidding! Yawning is a bit of a challenge, too - my throat doesn't want to stretch for a proper yawn, at least not yet.
Things have been shoved around, pushed, pulled, rearranged (because of course there's no more thyroid taking up space), poked, prodded, and scraped. My stomach is mostly settling down and I no longer have a headache (hangover?) in the wake of the chemical cocktail they pumped into me in the OR. I also slept better last night - not as uncomfortable, less coughing, but still had some very weird dreams.
I find that I don't want to turn my head independent of my torso yet, or at least not very much, and my lungs definitely need their PT. When I inhale through my mouth, e.g., prepping to cough, I wheeze in a way that the Chief admits he finds a bit scary.
The incision is wider than I thought it would be, maybe because of all the extra cancer the surgeon found? It's almost 4" wide, and purple, where the surgeon used a purple marker to indicate where he planned to make the initial incision. Imagine if he'd used a red marker! 😄
Mom used to joke, when she was particularly hungry, that "My stomach thinks my throat's been slit." That cracked up my pre-op nurses when I told them I was getting hungry.
I think I scored points with my anesthesiologist when I guessed, correctly, that her name was Lebanese: Arabic-sounding but with a French spelling. In fact, my care team was a regular mini-UN: countries represented included Ethiopia, Lebanon, Korea, Phillipines, Nepal, and Cameroon! Pretty cool!
The OR was kinda fancy - narrow operating table, but it felt like it had lots of places where they could attach wedges or something to make sure I didn't move while the surgeon was digging around in my throat. It also had 2 great big lights overhead - think an overgrown Ring light - that seemed to have a series of LEDs in them and were on moveable arms. The anesthesia kicked in almost immediately so I don't remember a thing until I woke up in Recovery.
Except they call it the PACU - Post-Anesthesia Care Unit - which doesn't begin to convey what you go through. Not just trying to come out of anesthesia, but dealing with the way my throat muscles feel after all the pushing, pulling and carving they were subjected to. I got a rather lame dinner - meat loaf with gravy (which I didn't touch), some sad mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, diced pears (the only thing I finished), and a tiny container of ice cream so bad I didn't bother after the first coupla bites. The Chief fed me some chocolate pudding once we got home, just to get some calories in me.
Two years ago I tore a meniscus (that HURT!!!) and started months of PT. Whether because of the PT or the way my gait changed, the arthritis in my R hip got so bad that last year I ended up getting a new R hip, just 3 days after the Chief had surgery to remedy crippling sciatica.
In November I had an MRI of my arthritic neck. It found a daisy chain of bone spurs, and oh by the way, you've got some thyroid nodules. I had to have them biopsied (not fun!), twice.
The 2nd biopsy was in January. For some reason, the sample didn't get sent for genetic testing, as it should have been, until my endocrinologist followed up in May. Came back as papillary thyroid cancer. Met with the surgeon, whose colleagues think very highly of him, in early June. Finally had my thyroidectomy the other day; that gets its own post.
1. I learned I'd won an award for the makeup I designed for a production of Blithe Spirit last fall.
2. I was in the ensemble of a production of Elixir of Love. As the housekeeper, my costume was all black, which made me just about invisible backstage. I joked that I was a walking curtain leg! I also bought myself a fancy chatelaine & a few accessories from Etsy, just because. And yes, I designed the hair and makeup, too.
3. I designed and was in the ensemble of a production of Patience, set in a 1950s coffee shop. That meant 50s hair for the ladies. I let mine grow out a little so I could approximate a period wave. Unfortunately, I had to sit out the 2nd weekend for a weird reason. I'd been battling recurring sinus infections since Elixir closed, so they had me on Bactrim, which elevated my temperature. Weird! I was able to come back for the final performance, but didn't have the energy to "suit up" and go onstage. However, at the MD's request, I did sing from the wings.
4. After I'd committed to Patience, I was asked to design Drowsy Chaperone. 1920s - fun period! However, their dates overlapped, and of course I had rehearsals and such for Patience. I told them that I'd love to design the show but had a prior commitment and gave them my lengthy list of conflicts. They still wanted me, and found someone to help. That worked out beautifully! Diana & I worked well together, we got to work on a fun show that looked great, and I was still able to meet my commitments to Patience. I wouldn't do overlapping shows again (I was home maybe 3 nights the entire month of May), but I'm glad I got the chance to do Chaperone.
5. I had so much fun with Blithe Spirit last year that when I found out that the Chaperone company was doing Blithe Spirit, I offered to design it. This time I get to put blacklight makeup on the ghosts, and do slightly different hairstyles; closer to mid-1930s than 1940. (Another fun period to design.)
6. October will bring Caroline, or Change. To my surprise & relief, the director has 2 of us doing hair & makeup: I'm doing the white folks and she's doing the Black folks. I'm looking forward to looking how to care for and style Black hair; there's always more to learn! Not to mention this will be my first show set in the 1960s; guess I'll be "forced" to research styles for a period I haven't designed before. 😊
And I got to spend a day in a country setting singing G&S with about 3 dozen like-minded folks. I haven't done that in ages - great fun!
I just joined the hair & makeup crew for Legally Blonde, working for someone whose work I've admired. As it happens, this one will be easy - although they loaded in today, they won't need me again until Wednesday, two days before we open. Only 4 wigs involved, as the cast are mostly wearing their own hair and the makeup is nothing out of the ordinary. Given all that, I'll probably end up doing more to help w/ costume changes than with hair or makeup. So far, all I've done was steam most of the curl out of a wig; that took all of about 10 or 15 minutes. Because I'm not the one in charge, I don't have to schlep wigs, wig heads, hairpins, or any of the other styling paraphernalia, just my purse, water bottle and hoodie. Yep, definitely light duty.
I designed a production of The Importance of Being Earnest back in October. Our Lady Bracknell is a big wig wearer, has an Instagram account where she models and discusses the many wigs in her collection. When she was cast as Lady B, she bought herself a gray wig for me to style and asked me to take pictures of the steps in the process. She used those photos to do a little video for her account, showing the before, during, and after. Here's the link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBwPRdQuifV/
Here are some pics of the bonnet, all trimmed and ready to go. I was pretty happy w/ how it turned out. I'd do the ribbon ties differently in future, but otherwise it looked perfect on the wearer and on stage.
I'm taking a Stage Makeup class this semester and this week's assignment, in preparation for our midterm, is "editorial makeup". Apparently that refers to the really out-there kind of looks you see during, say, Fashion Week or other avant garde settings. Here's what I came up with.
I decided to use my February show as an excuse to buy an undecorated bonnet, which I'm trimming and will lend to the production. The lace and ribbon are all from my stash. I wasn't too sure about this lace, but since I'm not worrying about historical accuracy (the bonnet shape is at least 10 years out of date for the production), I decided to use it, if only to save myself a trip. Sewing on the lace through this tightly woven straw is slow going, but I'm really liking how it looks so far.
I seem to be becoming more of a designer than a performer. Two years ago I designed 5 productions (3 of them adaptations of Pride & Prejudice) and garnered award nominations for 2 of them. Last year I designed 5 more shows: Die Fledermaus, Tosca, Arsenic & Old Lace, The Importance of Being Earnest, and DOT. Here it is barely February and I've already styled a wig for one show and am about to start styling 8 wigs (and possibly trimming a bonnet) for an operetta running in a couple of weeks.
As for getting on stage, there's been precious little being presented that a) I'm interested in, b) has at least one role for a woman older than 20 or 30, and c) fits my schedule. Since doing Pirates 5 (!) years ago, the only time I've been onstage was for the 2023 Christmas Revels. That wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped - we rehearsed in an unheated ballroom, we only ran one weekend, and the cast was HUGE - close to 80!
The design work is coming along nicely - I keep getting the occasional award nomination (though that's probably a factor of far fewer designers than performers), I've gotten to do some really fun, rewarding projects, and worked with some lovely people.
But I wanna go back to swanning around a stage in a costume and singing choruses in public. Not sure how to make that happen, with so few operettas and musicals having roles for older women.
