Preliminary events

So, today I saw the Gastro Guy, who is trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with my iron store.

You didn't know you had an iron store, did you? Well, you do. And if the iron in the store gets low, it's not available to your body for things like building nice, large, healthy red blood cells. Which is what happened to me last summer. Having been seen once by the Gastro Guy and twice by the Blood Guy, I am back with Gastro Guy for one last spin around the park before we all take our balls and go home.

Meaning, I'm having an endoscopy in the very near future, so that if there's an ulcer down there they can cauterize it and make it go away, putting me in much better shape to deal with breast surgery and chemo. Specially chemo, which tends to play merry hob with one's iron store. And if there's nothing there, I am clearly one of those anemic people who needs a bit of extra iron in my diet, and that's that.

And I wangled an appointment tomorrow with my PCP, to whom I will impart the names and numbers of the cancer docs, thus closing that loop.

Also today, I saw the priest of our church. He was fearing that I had more bad news, so he was actually quite relieved to talk about practical matters like the Sunday school.

And my funeral, which will be live-streamed. No, I am not joking. I don't expect to have one any time soon, mind you, but it's as well to be prepared.