Brain Tumor, Social Media, and WYGB
Brain Tumor: Today’s visit with my oncologist
“Did you see your results?!” That’s the first thing my oncologist said to me at my appointment this morning. It must be as fantastic to give good news as it is to receive it. Especially if your patient has a brain tumor.
I’m really glad the lymph node stuff isn’t cancer. It wasn’t the most stressful what-if situation I’ve ever faced, but it was up there. Because one of the side-effects of temozolomide (the chemo I’m on) is lymphoma. Cancer patients are always worrying about something, including more cancer.
For now, I’m going back into my holding pattern. Letting my body rest and hoping the Very Angry Lymph Node continues to decrease in size. As my doctor said, it can be removed if it becomes unbearably painful or whatever, but nobody wants another medical procedure for me. Least of all me.
We talked a little bit about my plans to move to be closer to family, and then she told me there really wasn’t any reason to suffer through an MRI right now unless I felt some change in symptoms. Then she’d put an order in for one right away. Though my BP and pulse were kind of high, I was feeling pretty good. My pain is more tolerable, my fatigue is less debilitating, and I’m not as depressed as I was during yet another long, pandemic winter.
Social Media: CounterSocial is better than Twitter
That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it. I realize that not everyone will feel the same way. I’m just saying that CounterSocial is my preferred social media site at the moment, offering me a way to atually customize my experience—not just pretend to the way Twitter did.
(I tried so hard to set filters and whatnot on Twitter, but the angry-making stuff still always found me. I just got so tired of being consumed by the algorithm or thrown back into the “Home” timeline without consent. Yes, I will miss people that only Tweet, but sometimes change is necessary. And it is so necessary for me.)
I’ve given myself until May 15 to wrap up loose ends on Twitter, but honestly, I don’t even want to look at it anymore. It’s been yucky there for a while, but the recent turmoil over Elon buying the site has made it an absolute cesspool of a social network. I don’t have energy for that kind of stuff anymore, but even if I did I wouldn’t choose it for myself. See also: Facebook.
Anyway, I’m not deleting my profile, I still think I might want to yell at a customer service account from time to time. I just don’t plan to go there for my microblogging and socializing needs.
CoSo, as it’s lovingly called by its users, has a very GenX vibe at the moment. I fit there so well that I’ve already created a Pro account in the hopes that it will help as the site goes through this awkward growth spurt. (There are no ads. It has to be funded by users, which I’ve found makes them take pride in it and improves the overall experience for everyone–even those who are content to use the free version.)
I am still on Mastadon as well, but don’t find myself logging on there as much as CoSo. If you’d like more details about either, though, let me know. I can probably answer some basic questions.
WYGB: Read it free through May 31
I’ve got my webserial memoir, Who You Gonna Believe, open to the public for the rest of this month if you need to catch up or want to get started. It’s usually a Patreon perk, but every once in a while I open it up for public consumption. This is one of those times. I am hoping to get back to posting new chapters soon. But I’ve said that before. Maybe this time, I can actually do it! If you want to jump straight to the Table of Contents, just dive right in.
