_{Stars – “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” (2004)}

Well… how did I get here?

Picture it: December, 2025 (I can steal that catchphrase since Sophia from the Golden Girls is of Petrillo ancestry). I have a cold or a cough or SARS or whatever else my daughter(s) have brought home from preschool and/or daycare. But I keep feeling a lump along the left side of my neck, presumably a swollen lymph node. Let’s just go to an image depicting the timeline of events because I feel like this is already too many words for some of you:

A PowerPoint slide. Pasted into this blog. I hate PowerPoint but here it is, coming in handy when I need it. I’m like a junkie in an alley off Federal Street looking for my fix and there’s PPT with sunshine in a bag donning a Cheshire Cat smile.

Diagnosis: Tonsil cancer. Stage 1. Highly curable.

I’ve interpreted the lyric at the top of this post as a figure of speech with different meanings over the years. Mostly about growth & development. Friends. Loved ones. Career. These days, it means something different to me yet again. And it teeters on some literal aspect as well, given what radiation & chemotherapy does to my body. Blood & fire.

Next up: if you’re interested, I’ll share some details on the treatment plan in my next post.