Three days post-op

Things have gotten quite itchy around that slash.  I ended up getting a Rx for an ointment to apply around but not on the area.  It even woke me up at 4:30 this morning, itching so much it almost hurt.  Between that and the congested, wheezy inhale, I wondered if I'd have to make the Chief take me to urgent care.

It didn't come to that but I may yet call the advice nurse, again, to see if I should be worried or just need to be patient. 

The itch goes all the way up to my jawline and down past my collarbone and out toward my shoulders.  That's a lot of area to slime with this ointment.  I may end up with grease stains on the V-neck shirts I bought for my recovery,  but oh well.

 

I need to remember to cut myself some slack.

 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". 

It was sort of a relief.

 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.

Post-op throat

 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! 😄 

 Oh, it's starting to itch!  Unfortunately, I can't put anything on it to ease the itch until Sunday; for now, I just scratch around it and try to be content with that.

Getting my throat cut (aka thyroidectomy) and words you don't want to hear from your surgeon

 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.

Practically the first thing the surgeon said when he came back to check on me was, "Your surgery was (tiny pause) challenging."  As expected, the surgeon found cancer in the R lobe, where we thought the only cancerous nodule was. It was “tightly adherent to the trachea and I had to shave a little bit of the trachea to get it out.”  Unfortunately, there was also a surprise in the L lobe:  “a similar-appearing mass that had grown through the thyroid gland and was tightly adherent to the nerve to your voice box and also was trying to extend into your voice box.”  No wonder my throat muscles are so sore!

 

That first night was rough - my face and fingers started feeling tingly, so I took some calcium, then got so nauseated that the Chief had to go out to get a Zofran Rx for me.  (Throwing up didn't feel as bad as I feared, but not what you want to be doing immediately post-op.)  Turned out, the pharmacy gave him my calcitriol Rx, not the Zofran, so he had to go back for it yesterday morning. 

Now we wait for the pathology report to come back.  Not good when the mass has grown through the original organ, but it doesn't sound like they had to take any lymph nodes, which I hope is a good sign.

They have to wait at least 6 weeks for things to heal up before the radioactive iodine, which my endocrinologist will set up.  I have a phone appointment with her on Sept. 9.

 

The medical adventures continue; cancer

 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.

So far in my theater year...

 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! 

  

This will be an easy one.

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.

Lady Bracknell

 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/

That bonnet I was working on

 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.

 

 

"Editorial" makeup

 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.

Getting crafty

 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.

Getting caught up

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.

An afternoon in the life of a wig stylist

 So last year I worked on Iolanthe and had to touch up the Lord Chancellor's wig.  The company owns 3 or 4 but they all looked pretty sad and squashed after being crammed into a bin for storage.  Here are 2 of them (I don't have a "before" picture of the third):

 

 I picked the least uncurled of the 3 I pulled from storage and wet-set it to redo the rolls.  That process took 3 hours and 99 rollers.  (If I were to do it again, I'd stitch pairs of rollers together to avoid the gaps I got between rollers in each row.)

Here's what that wig looked like as it dried:

It was worth the work, though; it looked much better on stage than it would have if I'd done nothing to it.

The rolls still got messy on the ends but it looked good from the audience.

Making irreversible changes

OK, nothing so dramatic as the title might make it sound.  I'm designing hair and makeup for a stage adaptation of Pride & Prejudice and several of the actors will be wearing wigs.  We ended up ordering a wig for one of them; right texture but wrong shape.  Merely pinning it won't work because there's too much volume in the back & sides; trying to pin it smaller would merely leave it looking matted.  The challenge is to take this:

and trim it to approximate something like this:

Wish me luck!

Did anyone miss me?

I just realized I haven't touched this blog in 2 years!  I may take it in a new direction.  I've been doing a lot of hair & makeup design lately, so this might be a good place to record what I work on and track my progress.

I finished The New Moon about a month ago.  Set in 1790, so just about everyone wore a wig, and one utility ensemble member had three!  I had a few false starts with some of the wigs, so I ended up styling close to 40 of them.  No, I didn't have anyone to help, so although I was also supposed to be makeup designer, I was so busy doing wigs that makeup got very short shrift indeed.  

I was styling wigs right up to opening night, and ended up restyling one of them because I wasn't too happy with how the first attempt turned out.  Fortunately, the singer, the director & I were all happy with the 2nd attempt.

The men's wigs were largely queues and braids; easy.  It's just that there were about 12 or 15 of them.  The challenge was the women's wigs.  They were all variations of the Georgiana, Adele and Matilda styles from 18th Century Hair and Wig Styling.  They took a LONG time - about an hour just to do a wet set of each one (though by the end I think I got it down to 45 mins), using close to 30 rollers each.  Then the wig had to sit & dry, then I had to take it apart and style it; usually good for another 30 mins to an hour.  (For these styles I definitely recommend the (discontinued, sadly) Lioness style wig, by Mona Lisa, if you can find one.)  Multiply that by 17 or 18 and you get an idea of how very much time it all took.

I'm published! (sorta)

I stumbled onto Maria Grace's Jane Austen's Dragons series last year and really enjoyed them.  I get notices of her blog posts and all that; it's been fun.  A post back in February or March noted that one of the proofreaders for her newest book, Dragons Beyond the Pale, had had to drop out.  In a comment, I offered to pick up the slack, never expecting her to take me up on it.  But she did!  She sent me the book in 4 files, which I proofed and sent back to her.  The book came out last week "and I helped!" to quote the ancient Shake & Bake commercial.  As a thank you, she sent me an e-copy of the book and is also mailing me a paperback version.

It was little weird in that I didn't want to tell an author what to do, but the language geek in me just has to fix the punctuation, catch the repetitive phrases, etc.  And of course no one is immune to typos.  i went thru each file twice before returning it.  It was interesting to see what I missed on the first pass, usually because I was a little too engrossed in the story but sometimes because I think my brain just read what should have been there instead of what was actually there.  My notes reflected my ambivalence:  "Hmm; perhaps ..." or "consider using __ or __ instead" or "I don't think you need to use this; it doesn't really add anything."  I haven't checked the e-version yet to see how many of my suggestions she kept.  I may wait for the paperback to arrive.

This was fun!  I got to help an author I enjoy get her newest title into the hands of her eager fans - that was something of a rush.  This book leaves the door open for at least 2 or 3 more in the series; I sure hope she taps me for those books, too.

Last year was the plague year; this year it's surgery

 The Chief has been suffering from "frozen shoulder" for a few months.  The remedies of first and second resort haven't helped much at all, so now he's scheduled for surgery in early June.

I learned a coupla months ago that one hip is bone on bone, so now I'm "radiologically ready" for hip replacement!  That was quick - the last time my hip was x-rayed, 2 or 3 yrs ago, it showed only mild arthritis.  So surgery for me, too.  The trick will be timing it so that Ray's recovered enough to take care of me. 😵

Looks like we might be using our long-term care policy a LOT sooner than we'd anticipated!

I hope this doesn't become a trend :(

I just unfriended someone on FB whom I've known since he was a teenager (he's now the dad of 7).  He not only didn't get, and didn't seem to want to get, the reasons for the Black Lives Matter movement or why the confederate battle flag is offensive, but when he responded to other people on a post, he was dismissive and derogatory.  Sorry, kid, you're outta here.  I miss the teenager you were, and wonder what you're teaching your own kids. 😥

Unfortunately, someone who's a FB friend because she's an expert in historical clothing and, by extension, social history, is a conservative who has a tendency to edge toward snark.  I don't want to unfriend her too, but the way things are going, what with the pandemic, the protests, and the pending election, I'm not too sanguine.

The one other conservative on my F-list was the parish secretary for yoicks.  She once described Trump as "prayerful"!  I don't know where she got that idea, but she may be headed off my list too.

I don't want to work in a bubble but if all my conservative friends are drinking the pro-confederate flag, anti-BLM, "Trump can do no wrong" koolaid, I don't know how long I can turn a blind eye.

"I’m a liberal, but that doesn’t mean what a lot of you apparently think it does."

I’m a liberal, but that doesn’t mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let’s break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I’m getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. PERIOD.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that’s interpreted as “I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all.” This is not the case. I’m fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it’s impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes “let people die because they can’t afford healthcare” a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I’m not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I’m mystified as to why it can’t work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don’t believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don’t want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can’t afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don’t throw around “I’m willing to pay higher taxes” lightly. If I’m suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it’s because I’m fine with paying my share as long as it’s actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn’t have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is – and should be – illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I’m not “offended by Christianity” — I’m offended that you’re trying to force me to live by your religion’s rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That’s how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don’t force it on me or mine.

8. I don’t believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don’t believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN’T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they’re supposed to be abusing, and if they’re “stealing” your job it’s because your employer is hiring illegally). I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc.).

10. I don’t believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It’s not that I want the government’s hands in everything — I just don’t trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they’re harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I’ve spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege — white, straight, male, economic, etc. — need to start listening, even if you don’t like what you’re hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that’s causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you’re using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be? I think that about covers it.

Bottom line is that I’m a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn’t mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don’t believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

(c) 2018 Lori Gallagher Witt