No Camille for me this spring.

I hadn't much wanted to talk about it here, my ongoing health issue. Today was the long-dreaded day when I went for the follow-up imaging, and prepared myself for bad news, as I've had in the past after the imaging, and then the scheduling of a biopsy, and then the torturous weeks of waiting for the biopsy day to arrive. And then the hellish days of waiting for the biopsy results.

Good news: there's no change from the imaging six months ago, which equals No Biopsy. I'm off the hook for one year, told to "keep on keeping on" with my normal healthy lifestyle. I have a separate, early June blood work retest to do, but was told that one was hardly abnormal and not to lose sleep over it. If the June blood tests come back okay, I'm off the hook on all accounts until summer of 2010. If you know me in real life and knew the scary thing I'd be enduring alone this afternoon, thank you for your thoughts and prayers and good energy today. It is always a little sad and frightening to go through this by myself, but you know I prefer to do it alone.

But tonight, I'm so relieved. I've felt since I returned from Italy in January as if I couldn't or shouldn't make any long-range plans until I had these medical test results. Now I know I have a year-long dance card, at least, to start filling in without fear of the issue for which I'm being poked and prodded. I could, of course, be hit at any moment by a Mack truck, crumple like a sheet of paper with a heart attack, etc. But I'm unlikely to be felled by this particular ailment. So I'll start working on the next book, make jewelry out of found bottle caps, make Joseph Cornell boxes, sew a nomad dress or whatever else appeals to my imagination now that I know I have some time.