March 2023 Book Report

I will be traveling over the weekend, so I decided to do my book report early.  In March, I read eight books, three nonfiction and five fiction.

 Nonfiction first:  I am still working my way through Winston Churchill’s history of World War II.  This month, I finished volumes 4 (The Hinge of Fate) and 5 (Closing the Ring).  One volume left to go!  The end is in sight.  It’s kind of a slog.  The casual racism just wears me down.  For example, in volume 4, he says:  “The rigidity of the Japanese planning and the tendency to abandon the object when their plans did not go according to schedule is thought to have been largely due to the cumbersome and imprecise nature of their language…” (p. 253).  In the same book, he also describes Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee as “two of the noblest men ever born on the American continent” (p. 796). 

 

It’s not all terrible.  In Closing the Ring, I learned this about U-boats:   “At the beginning of 1944, a gigantic effort was being made in Germany to develop a new type of U-boat which could move more quickly underwater and travel much farther.  At the same time many of the older boats were withdrawn so that they could be fitted with the ‘Schnorkel’ and work in British coastal waters.  This new device enabled them to recharge their batteries while submerged with only a small tube for the intake of air remaining above the surface” (p. 15).  Subs with snorkels!  Hah!  I was also interested in Churchill’s design of the rebuilt House of Commons, which doesn’t have enough seats for all the members and no assigned seating.  Finally, the man can turn a phrase.  He notes:  “Thought arising from factual experience may be a bridle or a spur” (p. 582).

 

The other nonfiction book I finished this month is Heavy:  An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon.  Wow.  It is, indeed heavy.  Laymon is a big black man and his life experience is both uplifting and depressing.  Systemic racism really needs to end.  Like now.  The book is beautifully written and heartbreaking.  Highly recommend.

 

While traveling, I treated myself to three more of Gail Carriger’s books, Poison or Protect, Defy or Defend, and Ambush or Adore.  I loved them all, but especially the last one.  I needed to read some funny, light, and affirming books and these are them.  Go read them, now.

 

I learned about José Asunción Silva in the year of Don Quijote, but I don’t remember the connection.  Silva was a Colombian modernista and his novel After-Dinner Conversations is the most emo thing I have ever read in my entire life.  If Coleridge at his most opium-addled were crossed with a fourteen year old girl, Silva is pretty much what you would get.  The novel is full of velvet, lesbians, longing, drugs, stabbing, and premature death.  Also, for no particular reason, a diatribe on the benefits of dictatorship.  I was entertained, but can’t exactly say that I would recommend the book.

 

Finally, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.  It is amazing.  Like go read it, now.  The book is a retelling of David Copperfield in an Appalachian setting, but no knowledge of the Dickens is required to enjoy.  And there is so much to enjoy.  Demon is a great character with a compelling story.  Again:  go read it.

 

March total:  8

Spring total to date:  29

Year to date:  29

Janet Vs. Medical Industrial Complex, a Stressful Tale with a Less-Stressful Ending

Now that the whole thing is over, I want to talk about my recent encounter with the medical industrial complex.  Just to be clear:  I am fine, and I know that I am fine, but it has been a month.

Due to the pandemic, moving, and a small amount of general procrastination, it had been a while since I got a mammogram.  A month ago, I finally went in.  I’m pretty sure nobody loves mammograms, but it was not horrible and it was over quickly.  I thought:  well, that’s that for another year.

 

I was wrong.

 

I got a message from my doctor that there was a suspicious spot in my right breast.  She said that radiology would contact me shortly to schedule a follow-up mammogram and some ultrasound, but that I could also call radiology myself.

 

I called and left about twenty voicemails for the only person who could schedule the appointment.  I know that she was the only person who could do the scheduling because I tried calling multiple other numbers over the course of the next week.  Meanwhile, I got another message from my doctor saying that she’d seen my results and that it was important for me to schedule the follow-up.  She said in her message that I may have already completed the follow-up appointment by then.  Yeah, right.

 

Finally, I reached the all-important appointment person, who gave me the first available appointment three weeks in the future.  Obviously, I took it, but three more weeks?

 

I waited.  I alternated between thinking that of course my breast was fine and clearly I was about to die of cancer.  Occasionally, I had more rational thoughts involving some middle ground, but mostly it was all death all the time.  Maybe other people are calmer than I am and less inclined to catastrophize, but then again, maybe not.

 

Yesterday I had the follow-up appointment.  I had another squishy experience with the mammogram.  The radiologist immediately looked at the results.  I was sent on to ultrasound and again, someone immediately looked at the results.  I asked the technician and I looked at the ultrasound, too.  Totally normal breast tissue.  I was out of there in under half an hour.

 

Here's why I am grumpy:  why couldn’t someone have looked at the first mammogram right away?  Why did I have to wait a month to have my anxiety relieved?  Yes, I know the reasons.  Understaffing, expense, systems, blah blah blah.  And I am a person with plenty of privilege, white, educated, insured, with time to call and leave twenty voicemail messages.

 

The good news is that I’m not dying. But man, I could have used that information a month ago.