And now, this

 Enough of the cancer already.  Every once in awhile, I go back through my camera and find a bunch of interesting photos.  Things that interested me at some point.  A window into my brain, plus some cute animal pix.

OK, there has to be some pix related to cancer.  My colon cancer beard (now gone):

 

Contrasted with my brain tumor beard:

Elsie has taken up the treadmill.

But after a strenuous workout, she still needs a cuddle with Sigmund.

After Austin's storm-pocalypse, this tree seems to be a-peeling.

Kaileigh is still living her best life.  She is doing a project with bears (!) in the Everglades.

This comes after a project in South Carolina with Racoons and opossums
.

You may have noticed this is neither a raccoon nor an oppossum.  This kitty took advantage of the trap B&B one night.  I doubt she left a good yelp review.

My niece Hannah graduated last weekend from UT.  My mom and Tom came up from Magnolia and Abby was in from San Antonio.  Stacy, Holly, and nephew Ryan (pictured) as well as a good number of Hukes were there.  We are all vaccinated.  Doesn't this look a little like actual life?

And in case you were wondering about Leo, he is by the "Cat Mate" 24/7, waiting.  Tried to teach him about time, and even gave him a little kitty watch.  Didn't take.  "This thing feeds me.  Will it feed me now?  How about now?  If I wait here, certainly it will feed me soon.  How about now?"

As You Wish

 I am on the other side (the good side) of colon surgery, healing from robot surgery and learning to live without my sygmoid colon.  Without getting too specific, eleven days in, seems like the plumbing work was successful.  I needed some of the serious painkillers they gave me for the first few days, but now I have a bunch left over to add to the collection of cannabinoid products gifted to me during chemo.  I have almost enough inventory to start my own little pharmacy.  But I would never ever do that.  

My diet is heading back to normal, and the remaining discomfort is attributable to the incisions rubbing against clothing.  I'm back up at my office, and since there are days no one else is here, I may end up topless.  But I would never ever do that.

So, when you get two different types of cancer, you automatically qualify for a free genetic test.  I do love free things.  Certainly, I prefer the 2 for 1 cocktail specials (now illegal), free candy from strangers on Halloween (now impractical and likely creepy), and free beads from Mardi Gras floats (now forbidden till Alex graduates from Loyola).  But a free genetic test it is!  Partly to see if there are other fun surprises down the road for me, but mostly to see if there are things any of the Smith girls need to be on the lookout for.

As opposed to every other medical report from the past two years, this one was good news.  They check 59 genes (the ones they have identified to be possible causes of various bad things).  You get one of 3 results - positive, negative, or "variant of unknown significance."  I think negative is what you want here, and 57 were negative.  Meaning I have the genes, but no abnormalities.  Nothing was positive, but I did have two "Rodents of Unusual Size."  Meaning I have a couple of variations that can be associated with particular disorders but probably aren't.  I kinda wish I took more  Biology or Genetics.  But both variants may be possibly connected to things I don't have, things my kids don't have, and in one case something that sounds kinda awful but would have shown up at birth.  Again, a variant that could be connected to something I don't have and didn't pass on.  And apparently, 93% of these variants eventually get re-classified to negative anyway.  Don't have it, didn't pass it on, and it is meaningless anyway.  So, all good.

And at the risk of revealing too much medical information, and likely now starting to get Facebook ads related to this, one variant may possibly be related to an increased likelihood of schwannamatosis.  Yes, I did look this up.  And it is a real thing.  Apparently 1,000 to 1,200 people have it, mainly in Japan.  I don't.  And I am not passing it on to my kids.  I mention it because when my healthcare professional told me about this, both Jill and I laughed.  Not sure why Jill laughed, but I laughed because it is one of the funniest named disorders I've ever heard.  I have had my fill of "-inomas", so hearing that I have a variant that could possibly have some connection to "Onomatopeia-tosis" just made me giggle a bit.  And to be clear - I don't have Omomatopeia-tosis, nor or my kids at greater risk of getting DavidSchwimmer-tosis.

So, all in all, it was the best healthcare news of the past 48 hours, maybe longer.  Though I am still trying to get my head around the final finding - my brother and I are actually fifth cousins, thrice removed.  Not even sure how they got his blood to check.