Under my umbrella

Well, that's where I've spent most of my time this week, anyway.

Since returning back to Oslo on Tuesday after spending the weekend and our National Day (Constitution Day) on May 17th at my sister's place in Southern Norway, the weather has been gorgeous and very warm. Perfect for outdoor activites (read: keeping cool in the shade of my parasol). To quote one of my favorite songs by Kid Rock: I've been sittin' here wasting time - drinkin', smokin', tryin' to free my mind....

 (Terrace slippers - great for lounging around)

These past few weeks since returning from New York have been quite the ordeal. It all started last summer, really. A tiny pea sized lump on my tummy caused me to worry enough to have the Cancer Centre change my scheduled routine check-up from October to August. Nothing wrong was found. It grew, and was taken out by a local surgeon in November. By January it was back, twice the size. It was removed once again by the same surgeon. At the February check-up the Cancer Centre found no reason to worry. Again, the tests showed nothing wrong. By the beginning of March the lump exploded in size. My GP thought it better to have the Cancer Centre take a closer look and asked them to give me a new appointment Almost two months later I finally got a response - from the head of the department of plastic surgery! He flat out refused giving me a new appointment to have the lump removed and examined. Like he thought I was a lunatic hypocondriac or something. In the meantime, the lump had grown even more.

That's when I decided to invest in getting a check-up at a private hospital. Unfortunately, they don't have a department for treating cancer, and since that's what they're thinking the lump might be, they sent a rather strongly worded referral back to the public hospital, asking to have it removed within one to two weeks. Even if it turns out to be benign, it must be removed shortly, they said, otherwise the surgeon won't be able to close the opening in the skin as it it will be too big to pull together. A week later I was called in for a consultation, which consisted of a surgeon taking a superficial look at it, and telling me he would waitlist me for a surgery. Then - nothing. No word from the hospital. When my GP called the surgery coordinator yesterday, he claimed my papers must have been misplaced as he had not received them, so no surgery was scheduled. I don't know what my GP said to him, but at least she could give me the good news that I'm going for a CT-scan on Tuesday and surgery next Friday.

The fight for being treated, the worry and the waiting has caused complete exhaustion on my part, thus no blogging. But for all that have been so kind and left encouraging and comforting comments here; Thank you!

For LouBoo and the challenge of a Grumpy Meme, I guess I'm so grumpy about the arrogance of some of the doctors at the public hospital I can think of little else at the moment to go grrrrr! about. When fighting for one's health and maybe even life against a couple of bastards in white coats, everything else turns pale in comparison. But otherwise, all kinds of injustice and cruelty towards humans and animals usually trigger my temperament to the extent of explosion.

For Soul Princess and the challenge of discussing one's blogging habits, blogging isn't really that big a part of my life. Originally I started blogging just to discuss clothes, shoes and make-up with a friend living in the US and anyone else possibly interested, but somehow my blog has turned into more of the "everything else" part than fashion and beauty, it seems. At least for the moment. What I really enjoy about it though, is the contact with other bloggers, all the inspiration I get from them and also the feedback, both from bloggers and my family and friends.

And for Holly Wolf and your comment to this post - yes, that is cousin Denise. And if she's your cousin too, it must mean we're somehow related - and I can't place you. Now, that has me really intrigued...or wait - do you happen to live in San Diego? :)

Well, that's it for now. I'm done with the "drinking and smoking" for today. Tomorrow I'll be doing more of the waisting time bit - in gardening centres. There's still a few more flowers needed by the "early morning sun/afternoon shade wall" here, I believe.

At least until the climbing Flammentanz rose in the corner (which were about 5 cm (2 inches) tall when I planted it a month ago) grows a bit further and becomes more like this:

 (Random photo from the net)