Why

It's interesting how different people are. We like to think were alike when it comes right down to it and concerning the big view I would say that is probably true but with the small things, or at least the smaller things, the private things we are all very different. Some of us are open books and others of us keep things close to the chest. I am some of both.
Recently I went through a rash of medical diagnostics. The more tests they ran the more unrelated things they would trip over. This is not a new and strange occurrence for me in the medical field. It's been happening all my life. It's one of the reasons I am so less than fond of Dr's visits. They almost always find something...and it's almost always a surprise. This time, while having an MRI for my painful hip [which they missed along with the painful lower spine] they discovered a tumor on my right kidney. A benign tumor. And not all that rare. However__this one was large...more than twice the size they usually are when they are discovered and removed. The problem with these things is that [they are called renal aml's] they can tear and cause catastrophic and fatal bleeding. I was taken in for surgery last Thursday.
The procedure was not pleasant. I was drugged but awake. They did what is called a cathatarization/embolization which amounts to them going through a vein in my leg to the kidney and severing all the places [veins and vessels] where the mass was attached and then filling in the ends of those v & v's with a substance to block any blood leakage. It lasted about 2 hrs. It was painful. I spent that night in the hospital and most of the next day and then came home. I couldn't stay longer as my insurance wouldn't cover the costs. If it had been up to the Dr. I think he would have kept me for at least a week. My instructions? As little movement as possible. No stairs. No straining, reaching, bending, squatting or lifting. No laughing, coughing, sneezing [seriously]. No yelling [Matt had to remind me of this during the football game] No riding in the car. It reminds of the old saying 'Don't pop a gut.' In this case it would be popping a kidney...and the possibility to have a bleed-out is now greater, I think, than it was before...at least in the short run.
So this is why, at least one of the reasons, I haven't been here. The pain meds interfere with what lucidity I still possess and I used to pride myself in my verbal acuity. LoL. Boy, does that me laugh now.
After all this is over, I get to go find out what it happening with my right ovary. Oh, and deal with the RA that I haven't been getting medicine for yet because no-one wanted to do anything until this mass was taken care of.

I thought a lot about explaining all of this. It is after all fairly grisly. But I wanted you all to know why I'm not here and not to take my absences in any personal way.