Keeping my hand in

In the comments section of the most recent Thrilling Days of Yesteryear blog post, I gave Jacqueline of Another Old Movie Blogfame a heads-up that there would be more prize swag to be given away this week.  I fully intended to make good on this promise…and then I got THE PHONE CALL this past Friday from the doctor’s office.  They got the results back from my blood work, and…well, long story short—I’ll be going back in tomorrow to have more of my blood suctioned because my kidney levels didn’t look too promising.  It may be that I wasn’t properly hydrated when they took my precious bodily fluids…so they want to do retakes to make sure.  Then I have another appointment for Thursday, because they want a chinwag about why some of the other tests were hinky.  To say I’m a little stressed out by all of this would be an understatement because as a rule…doctors scare the piss out of me sometimes.  I’m pretty sure this stretches back to my childhood, when going to the pediatrician usually meant I’d be taking a shot in the arm of some sort.  (Oddly enough, drawing blood or getting an injection doesn’t bother me much anymore…but I still get a sinking pit feeling every time I’m seated in a waiting room.)

I’m sure everything will come out in the wash…so in the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed for longtime TDOY compadre Bill “Kids! Off! Lawn! Now!” Crider.  He’s been diagnosed with, in his words, “a very aggressive form of carcinoma” and the prognosis is not particularly rosy—next stop: the M.D. Anderson Center.  He’s been one of the most fervent champions of my behavior in this scrap of the blogosphere, and it’s just not right that something this evil should happen to the definition of a very swell guy.  If you’re friends with him on Facebook, let him know you’re in his corner…if not, stop by and leave him a comment at Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.